540 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



their room Minin got the command of the expedition which was 

 to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards along the coast of 

 the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and 1739, Minin 

 could not get further than to the northernmost simovies on the 

 Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears in pretty open 

 water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur Peninsula the 

 latitude of 75° 15'. Here he turned on the ]^\^7-- on account of 



21st Aug. 



" impenetrable " ice, but mainly in consequence of the late season 

 of the year. The preceding winter Minin had sent his mate 

 Sterlegov in sledges to examine the coast. On the f fth April 

 he reached 75° 26' N.L., and there erected a stone cairn on a rock 

 j utting out into the sea. Many open places appear to have been 

 seen in the offing. Minin and his party returned on account of 

 snow-blindness, and during the return voyage rested for a time 

 at a simovie on the river Pjiisina, whose existence there shows 

 how far the Russian hunters had extended their journeys.^ 



4. Voyage from the Lena Westward. — On the ^"("'j"^^' 1735, two 

 expeditions started from Yakutsk, each wdth its double sloop, 

 accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of 

 these double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the 

 command of Lieut. Lassinius. I shall give an account of his 

 voyage farther on. The other was commanded by Lieut. 

 Prontschischev, whose object was to go from the Lena west- 

 wards, if possible, to the Yenisej. The voyage down the river 

 was successful and pleasant. The river was from four to nine 

 fathoms deep, and on its banks, overgrown with bu'ch and pine, 

 there were numerous tents and dwelling-houses whose in- 

 habitants were engaged in fishing, which gave the neighbour- 

 liood of the river a lively and pleasant apjjearance.^ On the 

 ^^^ August the explorers came to the mouth of the river, which 

 here divides into five arms, of which the easternmost was chosen 

 for sailing down to the Polar Sea. Here the two seafarers 

 were to part. Prontschischev staid at the river-mouth till 

 the f fth August. He then sailed in 1|- to 2|^ fathoms water 

 along the shore of the islands which are formed by the mouth- 

 arms of the Lena. On the ^^'' ^f* ' he anchored in the mouth 



to be too intimate at Obdorsk with exiles formerly of distinction. A few 

 years before tlie voyage of the Vega, Chelyuskin's trustworthiness was still 

 doubted. All the accounts of discoveries of islands and laud in the Polar 

 Sea by persons connected with Siberia, have till the most recent times, been 

 considered more or less fictitious ; yet they are clearly in the main true. 



^ Wrangel, i. p. 46. 



^ According to Wrangel (i., note at p. 38 and 48), probably after a quota- 

 tion from Proutschischev's journal. The Lena must be a splendid river, for 

 it has since made the same powerful impression, as on the seamen of the 

 Great Northern Expedition, on all others who have traversed its forest- 

 crowned river channel. 



