XIII.] 
OWZYN’S VOYAGES ON THE OB. 
185 
difficulty in a single summer. By means of Malygin’s and 
Skuratov’s voyages, and of a land journey which the land- 
measurer Selifontov undertook during July and August 1736 
with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal and then by boat 
to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this large island 
were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.^ 
2. An expedition to sail from the Oh to the Yenisej .—For 
this Behring ordered a double sloop, the Tohol, 70 feet long, 15 
feet broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel 
had two masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was 
manned with 53 men, among whom were a land-measurer and a 
priest. The commander was Lieut. Owzyn. They sailed in 
company with some small craft carrying provisions from Tobolsk 
on the yfth May, 1731, and came to the Glulf of Ob through the 
easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the fjth June. There a 
storm damaged . the tender-vessels. Of the timber of those 
which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was erected in 
66° 36' Y.L., in which the provisions landed from the unservice¬ 
able craft were placed. When this was done they sailed on, but 
slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow water, 
so that it was not until the Vth August that they reached 70° 4' 
N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving there on the 
^/th September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was covered 
with ice. 
The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the V th 
June they came to the depot formed the preceding year. At 
first ice formed an obstacle, but on the July it broke up, and 
the navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to 
suffer so severely from scurvy, that of 53 only 17 were in good 
health; Owzyn therefore turned, that he might bring his sick 
men to Tobolsk. He reached this town on the AJth October, and 
the river froze over soon after. Owzyn now travelled to St. 
Petersburg in order to give in, in person, reports of his imsuc- 
^ Wrai]gel, i. p, 3&. 
