254 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE 



entered the Kara Sea on the ist of August. On the 5th 

 they passed the mouth of the Yenesel, and held a clear 

 course until the 12th, when they encountered drift-ice 

 and fogs, but succeeded in reaching the North-east Cape 

 in lat. 77|^° on the 19th. On the 27th they passed the 

 mouth of the Lena, but with September their troubles 

 began. On the 3rd the thermometer for the first time 

 fell below zero, and they were compelled to hug the 

 coast. On the 6th the nights became too dark to 

 permit of safe navigation, and the ice thickened so rapidly 

 that on the 12th, at Cape Severni, they were delayed for 

 six days. On the 19th they made fifty miles, but during 

 the next six days their progress was very slow, the ship 

 having continually to battle with thick ice, and on the 

 28th they were finally frozen up in winter quarters in lat. 

 '67° 70', having failed to accomplish the 4000 rtiiles from 

 Tromso to Bering Strait by only 120 miles. The 

 greatest cold they had during the winter was in January, 

 when the thermometer fell to 74° below zero. On May 

 15th the ice was 5^^ feet thick. The Vega got away on 

 July 1 8th, having been frozen in nine months and 

 twenty days, and on the 20th she sailed through Bering 

 Strait, returning to Gothenburg by the Suez Canal, after 

 having circumnavigated Europe and Asia for the first 

 time in the history of the human race. 



SAMOYEDE PIPE 



