160 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
was at one time very productive and occasioned the founding of 
a town, Mangasej, which however was soon abandoned. In 1610 
the Kussian fur-hunters went from the river territory of the 
Tas to the Yenisej, where the town Turuchansk was soon after 
founded on the Turuchan, a tributary of the Yenisej. The 
attempt to row down in boats from this point to the Polar Sea, 
with the view of penetrating farther along the sea coast, failed 
in consequence of ice obstacles, but led to the discovery of the 
river Pjasina and to the levying of tribute from the Samoyeds 
living there. To get farther eastward the tributaries of 
the Yenisej were made use of instead of the sea route. 
Following these the Eussians on the upper course of the 
Tunguska met with the mountain ridge which separates the 
river territory of the Yenisej from that of the Lena. This ridge 
was crossed, and on the other side of it a new stream was met 
with, which in the year 1627 led the adventurers to the Lena, 
over whose river territory the Cossacks and fur-hunters, faithful to 
their customs, immediately spread themselves in order to hunt, 
purchase furs, and above all to impose “jassak” upon the tribes 
living thereabouts. But they were not satisfied with this. 
Already in 1636 the Cossack Elisej Busa was sent out with an 
express commission to explore the rivers beyond, falling into the 
Polar Sea, and to render tributary the natives living on their 
banks. He was accompanied by ten Cossacks, to whose 
company forty fur-hunters afterwards attached themselves. In 
1637 he came to the western mouth-arm of the Lena, from 
which he went along the coast to the river Olenek, where he 
passed the winter. Next year he returned by land to the Lena, 
and built there two '' kotsches,” ^ in which he descended the 
^ Flat-bottomed, half-decked boats, twelve fathoms in length. The 
planks were fastened by wooden pins, the anchors were pieces of wood 
with large stones bound to them, the rigging of thongs, and the sails often 
of tanned reindeer hides (J. E. Fischer, Sihirische Geschichte, St. Peters¬ 
burg, 1768, i. p. 517). 
