5:^8 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. . [chap. 



plants growing in the region. The ice in the Kara river did not 

 break up until the ^ June, but so much ice still drifted about 

 in the sea that a start could not be made until the ^~ July. 

 On the .^i^ufy the vessels anchored in the sound which I have 

 named Malygin Sound. Here they were detained by head 

 winds 25 days. Then they sailed on round a cape, which the 

 Samoyeds call Yalmal, up the Gulf of Ob to the mouth of the 

 river, which was reached on the '^ September, 1737, and then 

 up the river to Soswa, where the vessels were laid up in winter 

 quarters. The crews were taken to Beresov. Malygin returned 

 to Petersburg, after having given Lieut. Skuratov and the second 

 mate Golovin a commission to carry the vessels back to the 

 Dwina the following year. They did not get back until August 

 1739. The return voyage thus also occupied two years, and was 

 attended with much difficulty and danger. 



Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel 

 to the Ob and back, which now can be accomplished without 

 difficulty in a single summer. By means of Malygin's and 

 Skuratov's voyages, and of a land journey which the land- 

 measurer Selifontov undertook during July and August 1736 

 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal and then by boat 

 to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this large island 

 were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.-^ 



2. An expedition to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej. — Yoy 

 this Behring ordered a double sloop, the Tohol, 70 feet long, 15 

 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel 

 had two masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was 

 manned with 53 men, among whom were a land-measurer and a 

 priest. The commander was Lieut. OwzYN. They sailed in 

 company with some small craft carrying provisions from Tobolsk 

 on the yfth May, 1734, and came to the Gulf of Ob through the 

 easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the yl^th June. There a 

 storm damaged the tender-vessels. Of the timber of those 

 which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was erected in 

 (j6° 36' N.L., in which the provisions landed from the unservice- 

 able craft were placed. When this was done they sailed on, but 

 slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow water, 

 so that it was not until the V th August that they reached 70° 4' 

 N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving there on the 

 yth September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was covered 

 with ice. 



The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the V^^h 

 June they came to the dejjot formed the preceding year. At 

 first ice formed an obstacle, but on the 't^^^ Jnly it broke up, and 

 the navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to 



1 Wraiigel, i. p. 36. 



