112 VON ANJOU'S JOURNEY— WRANGELL'S REMARKS. 



The expedition then crossed to the eastern island of the group, which 

 they reached on the 18th, and saw "to the north the open sea with 

 drift-ice." At Cape Raboi " the ice appeared unbroken." 



In 1822 M. Von Anjou left Svatoi Ness on April 10th, reached 

 Leakhow Island on the 12th, and Kotelnoi on the 18th ; following 

 the east coast, the north extremity was rounded, from whence they 

 attempted to go north, hut were stopped by thin ice ; proceeding 

 easterly along its edge, land was seen to the s.s.w., which proved 

 to be a low island to which the name of Figurin was given. On 

 its shores " were drift-wood of larch, traces of bears and grouse, and 

 old nests of geese were found." They afterwards went 15 miles n.w. 

 by n., across large hummocks, when their progress was again arrested 

 by thin ice ; here they had 10 fathoms sand ; at last they came to 

 open water, in which, " though the wind was westerly," the pieces 

 of ice were drifting from east to west. The sledge drivers were of 

 opinion "that this current was the ebb tide, the regular six- 

 hourly return of which they had noted." 



They then went 60 miles in a north-easterly direction from Cape 

 Kaimenoy, when the thinness of the ice stopped them, and they 

 had a depth of 15 fathoms mud. 



They reached Niznei Kolynisk on May 5th. 



Baron WrangelVs Bemarhs. — The fur-hunters, who visit North 

 Siberia and Kotelnoi Island every year and pass the summer there, 

 have observed that the space between these islands and the con- 

 tinent is never completely frozen over before the last days in 

 October. In the spring the coasts are quite free by the end of 

 June. Winter hummocks are frequently 100 feet high. The great 

 Polynia, or that part of the Polar Ocean which is always an open 

 sea, is met with about 4 leagues north of New Siberia, and from 

 thence, in a more or less direct line, to about the same distance 

 off the continent between Cape Chelagskoi and Cape North. 

 During the summer the current between Svatoi Ness and Koliutchen 

 Island is from east to west, and in autumn from west to east. North- 

 west winds prevail in the spring. The inhabitants of the north coast 

 of Siberia generally believe that the land is gaining on the sea, 

 and this belief is chiefly founded on the quantity of long withered 

 drift-wood which is now to be met with on the tundras and in the 

 valleys 20 miles from the present sea-line, and decidedly above its 

 level. 



The Burih, under the command of Lieutenant Von Kotzebue, 

 arrived off Behring Island on June 20th,- 1816. He landed on 



