INTKODUCTION. 21 



number of tools vvliicli lay scattered on the beach, Sanuikov drew 

 the conclusion, that a hunter from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya 

 had been driven thither by the wind, and had lived there for a 

 season with his crew. Unfortunately the inscription on a monu- 

 mental cross in the neighbourhood of the hut was not translated. 



During the great northern expeditions,^ several attempts were 

 also made to force a passage eastwards from the Lena. The first 

 was under the command of Lieutenant Lassinius in 1735. He 

 left the most easterly mouth-arm of the Lena on the 21st of 

 August, and sailed 120 versts eastward, and there encountered 

 drift ice which compelled him to seek a harbour at the coast. 

 Here the winter was passed, with the unfortunate result, that 

 the chief himself, and most of the fifty-two men belonging 

 to the expedition, perished of scurvy. 



The following year, 1736, there was sent out, in the same 

 direction, a new expedition under Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev. 

 With the vessel of Lassinius he attempted, in the middle of 

 August, to sail eastward, but he soon fell in with a great deal of 

 drift ice. So soon as the end of the month — the time when navi- 

 gation ought properly to begin — he turned towards the Lena on 

 account of ice. 



In 1739 Laptev undertook his third voyage. He penetrated 

 to the mouth of the Indigirka, which was frozen over on 

 the 21st September, and wintered there. The following year 

 the voyage was continued somewhat beyond the mouth of the 

 Kolyma to Cape Great Baranov, where further advance was pre- 

 vented by drift ice on the 26th September. After having 

 returned to the Kolyma, and wintered at Nischni Kolymsk, he 

 attempted, the following year, again to make his way eastwards 

 in some large boats built during winter, but, on account of 

 fog, contrary winds, and ice, without success. In judging of the 

 results these voyages yielded, we must take into consideration 

 the utterly unsuitable vessels in whicli they were undertaken — 

 at first in a double sloop, built at Yakoutsk, in 1735, afterwards 

 in two large boats built at ]\isclmi Kolymsk. If we may judge 

 of the nature of these craft from those now used on the Siberian 

 rivers, we ought rather to be surprised that any of them could 

 venture out on a real sea, than consider the unsuccessful 

 voyages just described as proofs that there is no probability of 

 being able to force a passage here with a vessel of modern build, 

 and provided with steam power. 



It remains, finally, for me to give an account of the at- 

 tempts that have been made to penetrate westward from 

 Beh ring's Straits. 



1 This i.s a common name for the many Kussian expeditions whid), 

 during the years 1734-174H, were sent into the North Polar Sea from the 

 Dwina, Obi, Yenisej, Lena, and Kamschatka. 



