RIVER LENA, COAST OF THE ICY SEA. 
fartheft north of.all thisregion into the Icy Sea, nearly into lat. 78. To the eaft of it the 
Chatunga, Anabara, and Olenek, rivers little known, fall into the fea, and have before 
the mouth of each a confiderable bay. Remarks have been-made on'the tide which 
flows into the Katanga, that at the full and new moon it rifes two feet ; at other times 
is much lefs*, We may conclude, that if it hows no higher in this contraéted place, 
and that of the gulph of Kara, its encreafe muft be very finall on the open fhores 
of the Jcy Sea. The coafts are in general fhallow, which has proved a fafety ‘to 
the few fmall veffels which have navigated this fea; for the fhoalnefs of the water 
preferves them from the montanous ice, which grounds before it can reach them. 
Beyonp the Olenes, the vaft Lena, which rifes near lake Barkal, after a gentle 
and free courfe over a fandy or gravelly bottom, difcharges itfelf by five great mouths, 
the eaftern and weftern moft remote from each other. The middle, or moft northerly, 
is in lat. 73. 20. To form an idea of the fize of this river, I muft remark, that at 
Jakut/e, in lat. 61, twelve degrees from its difcharge, the breadth is near three 
leagues t+. Beyond this river the land contraéts itfelf, and is bounded to the fouth 
by the gulph of Ochotz. ‘The rivers Fana, Jndigirjka, and Kalyma or Kowyma, have 
a comparatively fhort courfe. The laft is the moft eafterly of the great rivers 
which fall into the Jey Sea. Beyond it is a woodlefs tract, which cuts off the Bea- 
ver, the Squirrels, and many other animals to whom trees are effential in their ceco- 
nomy. No forefts can exift farther north than lat. 68; and at 70, brufh-wood 
will fearcely grow, All within lat. 68, form the 4rétic Flats, the f{ummer haunts 
of water-fowl; a bare heath or moor, mixed with rocky mountains: and beyond 
the river Anadyr, which in lat. 65. falls into the Kamt/chatkan Sea, the remainder of 
the tract between it and the Jcy Sea has not a fingle tree f. 
I fhall now take areview of the vaft extent of fhore which borders on the Jey Sea. 
The Fouratzkaine coaft, which lies between the Od and the Fenefei, is high but not 
mountanous, and almoft entirely compofed of gravel or fand ; but in many places 
there are low tras. Not only on thefe, but on more elevated fituations, are 
found great fragments of wood, and often entire trees, all of the fame fpecies ; Fir, 
Larch, and Pine, green and frefh ; in other places, elevated beyond the reach of the 
fea, are alfo great quantities of floated wood, antient, dried, and rotting §. This: 
is not the only praof of the lofs of water in the /cyas well as other feas ; for in thefe 
places is feen a fpecies of clay, called by the Ruffians, I/, which is exa@ly like the 
kinds ufually depofited by the water : and of this there is, in thefe parts, a bed about 
eight inches thick, which univerfally forms the upper ftratum ||. Still farther to 
* Voy. en Siberie, ii. 30. t Potibly Verfts. See Voy. en Siberie, i. 407. t Doétor Patras, 
§ Voy. en Siberie, tis 37, 286 } Same, ii, 362. 
a2 the 
KCI" 
River Lewa: 
ArcTic Friars 
WOODLESS. 
