276 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



12. Of this sum agreed upon Herr Kolesoff shall pay me in 

 advance on the conclusion of this contract 300 roubles, in the 

 month of May at my departure 150 roubles, and at the villag'e 

 Bulun 250 roubles, for my payment to my companions and pilot 

 and other expenses. The balance shall be -^ paid to me after 

 my return to Yakutsk. 



13. In the month of May, at the time for starting, if I be pre- 

 vented by illness from betaking myself to Tumat Island, I shall 

 repay to Herr Kole.'^otf the simi paid to me at the conclusion of 

 this contract, with the e.Kception of the money I have paid to 

 the interpreter as pocket-money and for the boats. Should I 

 not be able to repay the sum, I, Winokuroft", shall work out tlie 

 amount not repaid at Herr Sibiriakoff's gold mines. 



14. All this are we, the two contracting parties, bound to 

 observe in full and without infringement. 



A note to the copy further informs us that to this contract 

 the Yakut Afonasii FeodorofF Winokuroff had, in place of his 

 signature, attached his own seal, which the Yakut Alexii 

 Zassimoff Mironoff had engraved, and that the conditions had 

 been approved by the merchant Ivan KolesofF, and the whole 

 registered at the police-office of the Yakutsk circle. 



The contract had been entered into with the friendly co-ope- 

 ration of the Governor and Bishop of Yakutsk, who were much 

 interested in the proposed voyage. The latter knew the coast 

 of the Polar Sea from his own experience. But notwithstanding 

 all this, the affair was attended with no better success than that 

 the pilot celebrated the receipt of the large sum of money by 

 getting thoroughly intoxicated, and while in that state he broke 

 one of the bones of the fore-arm. He was thus unable ever to 

 reach the appointed rendezvous, and Johannesen was allowed to 

 manage by his own hand, as best he could, his little steamer. 



After the Lena had parted with the l^ega during the night 

 between the 27th and 28th August, she steamed towards land, 

 and came the same day to the northernmost cape of the Lena 

 delta, situated in 73° 47' N.L.^ It was here that the pilot's " 

 landmark Avas to have been erected, but there was no pilot liere, 

 and no flagstaff was visible. In order to fall in with tins land- 

 mark Johannesen sailed forty kilometres westward along the 

 shore, but as his search in this direction was not attended with 

 success, he turned back to the first-mentioned place and landed 

 there. On the shore stood a very old hut, already completely 

 filled with earth. It probably dated from some of the expe- 

 ditions which visited the region in the beginning of the century. 



^ According to Johannesen's determination. On Wrangel's map the 

 latitude of this cape is given as 73"^ 30'. Johannesen found the longitude 

 to be 125° 31' instead of 127°. 



