168 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
companions, the Russians had by degrees become acquainted 
with the course of the Anadyr and with the tribes living on 
its banks. But it still remained for them to acquire a more 
complete knowledge of the islands which were said to be situated 
in the Polar Sea, and one must be surprised at the extreme 
difficulties which were encountered in attempting the solution 
of this apparently very simple geographical problem. The 
reason indeed was that the Siberian seamen never ventured 
to leave the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, a precaution 
which besides is very easily explained when the bad construction 
of their craft is considered. Along the shore of the Polar Sea 
on the other hand, a very active communication appears to have 
taken place between the Lena and the Kolyma, though of those 
voyages we only know such as in one way or another gave rise 
to actions before the courts or were characterised by specially 
remarkable dangers or losses. 
In 1650 Andrej Goreloj was sent by sea from Yakutsk 
to impose tribute on the tribes that lived at the sources of 
the Indigirka, and on the Moma, a tributary of the Indigirka. 
He passed Svjatoinos successfully, and reached the mouth of 
the Kroma, but was there beset by ice, with which he drifted 
out to sea. After drifting about ten days he was compelled 
to abandon the vessel, which was soon after nipped, and 
go on foot over the ice to land. On the November he 
came to the simovie Ujandino, where famine prevailed during 
the winter, because the vessels, that should have brought 'pro- 
visions to the place, had either been lost or been compelled to 
turn; a statement which proves that at that time a regular 
navigation took place between certain parts of the coast of the 
Polar Sea. 
The same year, the Cossack, Timofej Buldakov travelled 
by sea from the Lena to the Kolyma to take over the command 
of the neighbouring region. He reached the Kroma success¬ 
fully, but was beset there and drifted out to sea. He then 
