200 THE POLAR WORLD. 



Nor couM the Government prevent the accumulation of usurious debts, nor 

 the leasing of the best jiaslurages or fishing-stations for a trilling sum quite out 

 of proportion to their value; so that the natives no longer had the means of 

 feeding their herds, and sank deeper and deeper into poverty. 



And if wo consider, finally, of what elements Yermak's band was originally 

 composed, we can easily conceive that, under such masters, the lot of the Sibe- 

 lian natives was by no means to be envied. 



Tlie year 1704 opens a new epoch in the history of Siberian discoveries, 

 tjntil then tlu'V had been iiurrly umlertaken for purposes of traffic; bold Cos- 

 sacks and I'romyschlenniki (or fur-liunters) had gradually extended their ex- 

 cursions to the Sea of Bering ; but now, for the first time, scientific expeditions 

 were sent out, for the more accurate investigation of the northern coasts of 

 Siberia. 



Prontschischtschew, who sailed westward from the Lena to circumnavigate 

 the icy capes of Taimurland, was accomj)anied by his youthful wife, who win- 

 tered with him at the Olenek, in 72° 54' of latitude, and in the following sum- 

 mer took part ill liis fruitless endeavors to double those most northerly points 

 of Asia. lie <liid in consequence of the fatigues he had to undergo, and a few 

 days after she followed him to the grave. A similar example of female devo- 

 tion is not to be met with in the annals of Arctic discoveiy. 



After Prontschischtschew's death. Lieutenant Chariton Laptew Avas aj>- 

 pointed to carry out the project in which the former had failed. ILaving been 

 repulsed by the drift-ice, he was obliged to winter on the Chatanga (1739-40) ; 

 but renewed the attempt in the following summer, which however exposed him 

 to still severer trials. The vessel was wrecked in the ice ; the crew reached 

 the shore with difticulty, and many of them perished from fatigue and famine 

 before the rivers were sufficiently frozen to enable the feeble survivors to return 

 to their former winter-station at Chatanga. Notwithstanding the hardships 

 Avhich he and his ])ai'ty had endured, Lai^tew prosecuted the survey of the 

 promontory in the following spring. 



Setting out with a sledge-party across the Tundra on April 24, 1741, he 

 reached Taimur Lake on the 30th ; and following the Taimur llivcr, as it fiows 

 from the lake, ascertained its mouth to be situated in lat. 75° 30' N. On Au- 

 gust 29 he safely returned to Jeniscisk, after one of the most difiicult vovages 

 ever performed by man. The resolution with which he overcame difficulties, 

 and his perseverance amid the severest distresses, entitle him to a high rank 

 among Arctic discoverers. 



While Chariton Laptew was thus gaining distinction in the wilds of Tai- 

 murland, his brother, Dimitrl Laptew, was busy extending geographical knowl- 

 edge to the east of the Lena. lie doubled the Sviatoi-noss, Avintered on the 

 banks of the Tiidigiika, surveyed the Bear Islands, passed a second winter on 

 the borders of the Kolyma, and in a fourth season extended his survey of the 

 coast to the Baranow Kock, which he vainly endeavored to doubk; during two 

 successive summers. After having passed seven years on the coasts of the 

 Polar Ocean, he returned to Jakutsk in 1743. 



