CHAP. VII.] ABUNDANT MAKINE LIFE, 2G1 



tions, a more abundant animal life, and a vegetable world, in 

 summer, as rich in flowers as that which we meet with in the 

 valleys of Ice Fjord or the " Nameless Bay" (Besimannaja Bay). 

 We saw no trace of man here. The accounts, which were 

 current as early as the sixteenth century, relating to the nature 

 of the north point of Asia, however, make it probable that the 

 Siberian nomads at one time drove their reindeer herds up 

 hither. It is even not impossible that Russian hunters from 

 Chatanga may have prosecuted the chase here, and that Chelyus- 

 kin actually was here, of which we have evidence in the very 

 correct way in which the Cape, that now rightly bears his name, 

 is laid down on the Russian maps.^ 



The rocks consist of a clay-slate, with crystals resembling 

 chiastolite and crystals of sulphide of iron interspersed. At the 

 Cape itself tlie clay-slate is crossed by a thick vein of pure white 

 quartz. Here, according to an old custom of Polar travellers, a 

 stately cairn was erected. 



In order to get a good astronomical determination of the 

 position of this important point I remained there until the 

 20th August at noon. The Leiia was ordered to steam out 

 to dredge during this time. Eight minutes north of the 

 bay, where we lay at anchor, heavy and very close ice was 

 met with. There the depth of the sea increased rapidly. 

 Animal life at the sea-bottom was ver}^ abundant, among other 

 things ia large asterids and ophiurids. 



According to the plan of the voyage I now wished to steam 

 from this point right eastw-^a'ds towards the New Siberian 

 Islands, in order to see if we should fall in with land on the 

 way. On the 20th and 21st we went forward in this direc- 

 tion among scattered driftice, which was heavier and less 

 broken up than that which we had met with on the 



1 This has been doubted by Russian geograiiliers. Von Baer for instance 

 says : — 



"Dariiber ist gar kein Zweifel, dass dieses Vorgebirge nie umsegelt 

 ist, und dass es auf einera Irrthum beruhte, wenn Laptew auf einer Seefahrt 

 die Bucht, in welche der Taimur sich miindet, erreicht zu haben glaubte. 

 Seine eigenen spjiteren Fahrten erwiesen diesen Irrthum. Die Vergleichung 

 der Berichte und Verlialtnisse lasst mich aber auch glauben, dass selbst zu 

 Lande man das Ende dieses Vorgebirges nie erreicht habe ; sondern 

 Tscheljuskin, um dieser, man kann wohl sagen, grasslichen Versuche 

 endlich iiberhoben zu seyn, sich zu der ungegriindeten Behauptung ent- 

 schloss, er habe das Ende gesehen, und sich iiberzeugt, Sibirien sei nach 

 Norden iiberall vom Meere umgranzt,'' [statement by von Baer in Neueste 

 Nachrichten iiber die n'drdlichste Gegend von Siherien ; von Baer and von 

 Helmersen, Beitrage zur Kenntniss des KussiscJien Reiches. IV. St. Petersburg, 

 1841, p. 275]. In the following page in the same paper von Baer indeed 

 says that he will not lay any special weight on Strahlenberg's statement that 

 Siberia and Novaya Zemlya hang together, but he appears to believe that 

 they are connected by a bridge of perpetual ice. 



