CHAPTER VI 

 THE LENA DELTA 



Discovery of the Siberian Islands Hedenstrom Anjou and Wrangell 

 Migration of reindeer Animals and plants of the tundra The north- 

 ward migration of the native tribes The voyage of the Jeannette Her 

 drift in the pack Jeannette Island Henrietta Island The ship crushed 

 and sunk Landing on Bennett Island The boat voyage The boats 

 separate in a storm De Long lands on the Lena Delta Nindemann 

 and Noros in search of assistance Safety of the whale-boat Fate of 

 De Long and his companions Baron Toll's discoveries. 



r I A HE Siberian Islands, lying north of the delta of 

 -L the Lena, answer to the Parry Islands on the 

 American side, the two groups being separated by that 

 wide stretch of the Arctic Ocean communicating with 

 the Pacific through Bering Strait. At first the Asiatic 

 group was officially named after Liakhoff, then it was 

 called after the unwisely named New Siberia, but, 

 under any designation, it took half a century to find 

 the different islands, and considerably more to land 

 on them. 



When Liakhoff discovered the one named after him 

 by the Empress Catherine, he also went north to 

 Moloi, and he seems to have visited Kotelnoi to the 

 north-west. In 1775 Chvoinof was sent to survey 

 these three, but he devoted most of his attention to 

 Liakhoff Island fifty miles across which he found 

 to consist, as reported, of hills of granite rising from 

 a mass of mammoth bones, sand, and ice, some of the 



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