INTRODUCTION, 
21 
With this ended the voyages west of the Lena. The northern¬ 
most point of Asia, which was reached from land in 1742 by 
Chelyuskin, one of the most energetic members of most of the 
expeditions which we have enumerated, could not be reached 
by sea, and still less had any one succeeded in forcing his way 
with a vessel from the Lena to the Yenisej. Prontschischev had, 
however, turned on the 1st September, 1736, only some few 
minutes, and Laptev on the 2nd September, 1739, only about 50' 
from the point named, after voyages in vessels, which clearly 
were altogether unsuitable for the purpose in view. Among 
the difficulties and obstacles which were met with during 
these voyages, not only ice, but also unfavourable and stormy 
winds played a prominent part. From fear of not being able to 
reach any winter station visited by natives, the explorers often 
turned at that season of the year when the Polar Sea is most 
open. With proper allowance for these circumstances, we may 
safely affirm that no serious obstacles to sailing round Cape 
Chelyuskin would probably have been met with in the years 
named, by any steamer properly fitted out for sailing among ice. 
From the sea between the Lena and Behring’s Straits there 
are much more numerous and complete observations than from 
that further west. The hope of obtaining tribute and commercial 
profit from the wild races living along the coast tempted the 
adventurous Russian hunters, even before the middle of the I7th 
century, to undertake a number of voyages along the coast. On 
a map which is annexed to the previously quoted work of Muller, 
founded mainly on researches in the Siberian archives, there 
is to be found a sea route pricked out with the inscription, “ Route 
anciennement fort frSquenUe. Voyage fait par mer en 1648 jpar 
trois vaisseaux russes, dont im estparvenu jusqii'd la Kamschatka!' ^ 
Unfortunately the details of most of these voyages have been 
completely forgotten; and, that we have obtained some scanty 
accounts of one or other of them, has nearly always depended 
on some remarkable catastrophe, on lawsuits or other circum¬ 
stances which led to the interference of the authorities. This 
is even the case with the most famous of these voyages, that 
of the Cossack, Deschnev, of which several accounts have been 
preserved, only through a dispute which arose between him and 
^ The map bears the title, Nouvelle carte des decouvertes faites par des 
vaisseaux Russiens, etc., dress4e sur des memoires authentiques de ceux 
qui ont assiste a ces decouvertes, et sur d’autres connaissances dont on rend 
raison dans un memoire separe. St. Petersbourg a I’Acadeniie Imperiale 
des Sciences, 1758.” 
