544 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chai-. 



were not required were therefore sent in spring over the tundra 

 to the Yenisej and the rest divided into three parties under 

 Laptev himself, Chekin, and Chelyuskin, who were to survey 

 each his portion of the coast between the Chatanga and thr 

 Pjasina and then meet at the Yenisej. These journeys were 

 successfully accomplished ; the explorers travelled several times 

 without, it would appear, excessive difficulty, over the desolate 

 tmulra between the Chatanga and the Taimur rivers, discovered 

 Lake Taimur, and surveyed considerable stretches of the coast. 

 But when they were all again assembled at Dudino, it was found 

 that the north point of Asia had not yet been travelled round and 

 surveyed. This was done in 1742 by Chelyuskin in the 

 course of a new sledge journey, of which the particulars 

 are only incompletely known, evidently because Chelyuskin's 

 statement, that he had reached the northernmost point of 

 Asia, was doubted down to the most recent times. After the 

 voyage of the Vega, however, there can be no more doubt on 

 this point,^ 



5. Voyages from the Lena EaMwarel. — During these Lieutenant 

 Lassinius and after his death Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev had the 

 command. A double sloop was built at Yakutsk for the voyage 

 of Lassinius. As I have already mentioned, he left this town, 

 accompanied by several cargo-boats, at the same time as Pron- 

 tschischev, and both sailed together down the Lena to its mouth. 

 Lassinius was able to sail to the eastward as early as the '^-fih 

 August. Four days after he came upon so much drift-ice that 

 he was compelled to lie to at the mouth of the river, 120 versts 

 to the east of the easternmost mouth-arm of the Lena. Here 

 abundance of driftwood was met with, and the stock of pro- 

 visions appears also to have been large, but notwithstanding this, 

 scurvy broke out during the winter. Lassinius himself and most 

 of his men died. On being informed of tliis, Behring sent a 

 relieving party, consisting of Lieutenant Cheebinin and fourteen 

 men to Lassinius' winter quarters. On their arrival on the -^/th 

 June they found only the priest, the mate, and seven sailors 

 alive of the fifty-three men who had started with Lassinius the 

 foregoing year from Yakutsk. These too were so ill that some 

 of them died during the return journey to Yakutsk. Dmitri 

 Laptev and a sufficient number of men, were sent at the same 

 time to take possession of the ship and renew the attempt to sail 



1 Wrangel, i. pp. 48 and 72. Of tlie journey round the northernmost 

 point of Asia, Wrangel says : — "Von der Tajmur-Miindung bis an das Kap 

 des heih'gen Faddej konnte die Kiiste nicht beschifft werden, and die 

 Aufnahnie, die der Steuermanu Tschemokssin (Chelyuskin) auf dem Eise 

 in Narten vornahm, ist so oberflachlich und unbestimmt, dass die eigont- 

 liche Lage des nordostlichen oder Tajmur-Kaps, welches die nurdlichste 

 Spitse Asiens ausmacht, noch gar nicht auygemittelt ist." 



