CHAPTER II. 
Departure from Maosoe—Gooseland—State of the Ice—The Vessels of 
the Expedition assemble at Chabarova—The Samoyed town there— 
The Church—Kussians and Samoyeds—Visit to Chabarova in 1875— 
Purchase of Samoyed Idols—Dress and Dwellings of the Samoyeds 
—Comparison of the Polar Races—Sacrificial Places and Samoyed 
Grave on Vaygats Island visited—Former accounts of the Samojmds 
—Their place in Ethnography. 
The Vega was detained at Maosoe by a steady head wind, 
rain, fog, and a very heavy sea till the evening of the 25th July. 
Though the weather was still very unfavourable, we then 
weighed anchor, impatient to proceed on our voyage, and 
steamed out to sea through Mageroe Sound. The Lena also 
started at the same time, having received orders to accompany 
the Vega as far as possible, and, in case separation could not be 
avoided, to steer her course to the point, Chabarova in Yugor 
Schar, which I had fixed on as the rendezvous of the four 
vessels of the expedition. The first night, during the fog that 
then prevailed, we lost sight of the Ijena, and did not see her 
again until we had reached the meeting place. 
The course of the Vega was shaped for South Goose Cape. 
Although, while at Tromsoe, I had resolved to enter the Kara 
Sea through Yugor Schar, the most southerly of the sounds 
which lead to it—'SO northerly a course was taken, because 
experience has shown that in the beginning of summer so 
much ice often drives backwards and forwards in the bay 
between the west coast of Vaygats Island and the mainland, 
