INTRODUCTION. 17 



The first started in 1735, under the command of Marine- 

 Lieutenant Prontschischev. After having sailed down tlie river, 

 and passed, on the 14th August, the eastern mouth-arm of the 

 Lena, he sailed round the large delta of the river. On the 7tli 

 September he had not got farther than to the mouth of the 

 Olonek. Three weeks had thus been spent in sailing a distance 

 which an ordinary steamer ought now to be able to traverse in 

 one day. Ice was seen, but not encountered. On the other 

 hand, the voyage was delayed by contrary winds, probably blow- 

 ing on land, whereby Prontschischev's vessel, if it had in- 

 cautiously ventured out, would probably have been cast on 

 the beach. The late season of the year induced Pjontschischev 

 to lay up his vessel for the winter here, at some summer yourts 

 built by fur-hunters in 72° 54' N. L. The winter passed 

 happily, and the following year (1736) Prontschischev again 

 broke up, as soon as the state of the ice in Olonek Bay per- 

 mitted, which, however, was not until the 15th August. The 

 course was shaped along the coast toward the north-west. Here 

 drift ice was met with, but he nevertheless made rapid pro- 

 gress, so that on the 1st September he reached 77° 29' N. L., 

 as we now know, in the neighbourhood of Cape Chelyuskin. 

 Compact masses of ice compelled him to turn here, and the 

 Russians sailed back to the mouth of the Olonek, w^hich was 

 reached on the 15th September. The distinguished commander 

 of the vessel had died shortly before of scurvy, and, some days 

 after, his young wife, who had accompanied him on his difficult 

 voyage, also died. As these attacks of scurvy did not happen 

 during winter, but immediately after the close of summer, they 

 form very remarkable contributions to a judgment of the way in 

 which the Arctic expeditions of that period were fitted out. 



A new expedition, under Marine-Lieutenant Chariton Laptev, 

 sailed along the same coast in 1739. The Lena was left on the 

 1st August, and Cape Thaddeus (76° -47' N. L.) reached on the 

 2nd September, the navigation having been obstructed by drift 

 ice only off Chatanga Bay. Cape Thaddeus is situated only 

 fifty or sixty English miles from Cape Chelyuskin. They turned 

 here, partly on account of the masses of drift ice which barred 

 the way, partly on account of the late season of the year, and 

 wintered at the head of Chatanga Bay, which was reached on the 

 8th September, Next year Laptev attempted to return along 

 the coast to the Lena, but his vessel was nipped by drift ice 

 off the mouth of the Olonek. After many difficulties and 

 dangers, all the men succeeded in reaching safely the winter 

 quarters of the former year. Both from this point and from 

 the Yenisej, Laptev himself and his second in command, Chel- 

 yuskin, and the surveyor, Tschekin, the following year made a 

 number of sledge journeys, in order to survey the peniusuia whicli 

 projects farthest to the north-west from the mainland of Asia. 



