5-20 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



as far north-east^ as the river Tas, where the sable-hunting 

 was at one time very productive and occasioned the founding of 

 a town, Mangasej, which however was soon abandoned. In 1610 

 the Russian fur-hunters went from the river territory of the 

 Tas to the Yenisej, where the town Turuchansk was soon after 

 founded on the Turuchan, a tributary of the Yenisej. The 

 attempt to row down in boats from this point to the Polar Sea, 

 with the view of penetrating farther along the sea coast, failed 

 in consequence of ice obstacles, but led to the discovery of the 

 river Pjasina and to the levying of tribute from the Samoyeds 

 living there. To get farther eastward the tributaries of 

 the Yenisej were niade use of instead of the sea route. 

 Following these the Eussians on the upper course of the 

 Tunguska met with the mountain ridge which separates the 

 river territory of the Yenisej from that of the Lena. This ridge 

 was crossed, and on the other side of it a new stream was met 

 with, which in the year 1627 led the adventurers to the Lena, 

 over whose river territory the Cossacks and fur-hunters, faithful to 

 their customs, immediately spread themselves in order to hunt, 

 purchase furs, and above all to impose "jassak" upon the tribes 

 living thereabouts. But they were not satisfied with this. 

 Already in 1636 the Cossack Elisej Busa was sent out with an 

 express commission to explore the rivers beyond, falling into the 

 Polar Sea, and to render tributary the natives living on their 

 banks. He was accomiDanied by ten Cossacks, to whose 

 company forty fur-hunters afterwards attached themselves. In 

 1637 he came to the western mouth-arm of the Lena, from 

 which he went along the coast to the river Olenek, where he 

 passed the winter. Next year he returned by land to the Lena, 

 and built there two " kotsches," '^ in which he descended the 

 river to the Polar Sea. After five days' successful rowing along 

 the coast to the eastward he discovered the mouth of the Yana. 

 After three days' march up the river he fell in with a Yakut 

 tribe, from whom he got a rich booty of sable and other furs. 

 Here he jjassed the winter of 1638-39, here too he built 

 himself a new craft, and again starting for the Polar Sea, he 



^ Tt is a peculiar circumstance that the vanguard of the Russian stream 

 of emigration which spread over Siberia, advanced along the northernmost 

 part of the country by the Tas, Turuchansk, Yakutsk, Kolyma, and Ana- 

 dyrsk. This depended in the first place upon the races living there 

 having less power of resistance against the invaders, who were often very 

 few in number, than the tribes in the south, but also on the fact that the most 

 precious and most transportable treasures of Siberia — sable, beaver, and fox- 

 skins-^were obtained in greatest quantity from these northern regions. 



'^ Flat-bottomed, half-decked boats, twelve fathoms in length. The 

 planks were fastened by wooden pins, the anchors Avere pieces of wood 

 with large stones bound to them, the rigging of thongs, and the sails often 

 of tanned reindeer hides (J. E. Fischer, tSibirische Geschichfe, St. Peters- 

 burg, 1768, i. p. 517). 



