THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. 25 



shore. On the 29th we had such exceedingly hard 

 work among close drift-ice that it was only with the 

 utmost difficulty we could go forward at all. Ulti- 

 mately we succeeded in forcing our way through, and 

 passed to the north of Stolbovoi Island, on the eastern 

 side of which we found completely clear water for 

 about ten miles. Here the log was heaved, and it was 

 found that the Vega, using her sails alone, and with 

 a favourable wind, was going at the rate of eleven 

 knots an hour. This was the greatest speed attained 

 during our voyage along the Siberian coast. 



The following morning we stood in towards Liakov 

 Island, to which, in consequence of the shallows, 

 we could make no nearer approach than at four to five 

 miles distance ; and these shallows, in conjunction 

 with an impending fog, made it impossible to go 

 ashore. We therefore steered southward for Cape 

 Sviatoi, the point of which we doubled, after much 

 trouble with the ice, in the night between 30th and 

 31st August. From thence we had two days of 

 exceedingly good weather, during which we sailed 

 along by the coast in water all but quite free from 

 ice. We required, however, to keep some little 

 distance out, as the water was shallow. The coast 

 here was very flat, and was almost invisible to us on 

 account of fog. 



On the night between the 2d and 3d of September 

 the drift-ice closed up ; the temperature, which had 

 hitherto in general kept above zero, now fell below, 



