92 VITUS BERIKG. 



exorbitant demands for convenience and luxury. Since 

 Bering would not and could not take upon himself to 

 transport them to Kamchatka as comfortably as he had 

 thus far conveyed them, especially not from Okhotsk, in 

 private and conveniently equipped vessels, and since the 

 Voivode likewise gave them but little hope of support, 

 both Gmelin and Mliller made application for a release 

 from the expedition, and left to Krasheninnikoff and 

 Steller their principal task — the description of Kam- 

 chatka. 



In the year 1736, moreover, very discouraging news was 

 received from the Arctic seas. PronchisheH had been 

 obliged to go into winter quarters at Olenek, and Lassen- 

 ius, who, August 2, had reached the rocky islet Stolb, in 

 the Lena delta, and on the 7th stood out of the mouth of 

 the Bykolf eastward, was driven by storm and ice into the 

 river Khariulakh, east of the Borkhaya Bay, where he 

 wintered, in a latitude of 71° 28'. The place was uninhab- 

 ited, and he built from driftwood a winter-house 66 feet 

 long, making four apartments, with three fireplaces, and 

 a separate kitchen and bath-room. As Lassenius hoped 

 to be able to continue the expedition during the two 

 succeeding summers, the rations were made considerably 

 smaller. 



November 6, the polar night began, and shortly after- 

 wards nearly the whole crew were attacked by a deadly 

 scurvy, so violent that perhaps only Jens Munk* and his 

 fellow-sufferers on the Churchill Eiver have experienced 

 anything worse. On the 19th of December Lassenius 

 died, and in the few succeeding months nearly all of his 



* Munk was sent out by the Danish government in 1619 to search for a 

 Northwest passage. — Tr. 



