24 TRAVEL, ADVENTUKE, AND SPOKT. 



own devices to prosecute her journey to her place 

 of destination. We spread our canvas, and making 

 good speed, proceeded eastward to work out our way 

 alone through the remaining portion of the North- 

 east Passage. Our lesser companion had proved 

 most useful to us, as whenever the water became 

 shallow she preceded us and took soundings. 



On the 28th August we were again among close 

 but nevertheless navigable drift-ice. At mid-day we 

 sighted Wasilieffski Island on our starboard bow, 

 which we ought to have had on our other side far to 

 the north. We had then not taken observations since 

 the 26th. 



During that interval of forty-eight hours the current 

 from the rivers Lena and Yana had carried us 70 

 miles to the north. We went on the south side of 

 Wasilieffski Island, from which there stretched out in 

 a southerly direction a sandbank so low that it was 

 only at a distance of eight miles from the island that 

 we managed to pass it in a depth of eighteen feet. 

 This proves the validity of the general rule that all 

 islands north of Siberia are extremely flat on the 

 southern side, but contrariwise, precipitous and deep 

 on the northern, on which side they can usually be 

 passed at a distance of a few hundred feet. 



As Professor Nordenskiold wished to land on 

 Liakov Island, the most southerly of the New 

 Siberian group, to collect mammoth and other fossil 

 remains, the course was set for that island's western 



