XIII.] 
MININ’S VOYAGES. 
187 
their room Minin got the command of the expedition which was 
to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards along the coast of 
the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and 1739, Minin 
could not get further than to the northernmost simovies on the 
Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears in pretty open 
water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur Peninsula the 
latitude of 75° 15'. Here he turned on the ^Yst^u^ account of 
“ impenetrable ” ice, but mainly in consequence of the late season 
of the year. The preceding winter Minin had sent his mate 
Sterlegov in sledges to examine the coast. On the |-|^h April 
he reached 75° 26' N.L., and there erected a stone cairn on a rock 
jutting out into the sea. Many open places appear to have been 
seen in the offing. Minin and his party returned on account of 
snow-blindness, and during the return voyage rested for a time 
at a simome on the river Pjasina, whose existence there shows 
how far the Kussian hunters had extended their journeys.^ 
4. Voyage, from the Lena Westiuard .—On the jmie ~ "*^^0 
expeditions started from Yakutsk, each with its double sloop, 
accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of 
these double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the 
command of Lieut. Lassinius. I shall give an account of his 
voyage farther on. The other was commanded by Lieut. 
bnrg to send away those whose presence was inconvenient to help Behring 
to make new discoveries.^’ It also went very ill with many of the gallant 
Russian Polar travellers, and many of them were repaid with ingratitude. 
Behring was received on his return from his first voyage, so rich in results, 
with unjustified mistrust. Steller was exposed to continual trouble, was 
long prevented from returning from Siberia, and finally perished during 
his journey home, broken down in body and soul. Prontschischev and 
Lassinius succumbed to hardships and sufferings during their voyages in 
the Polar Sea. Owzyn was degraded, among other things, because he used 
to be too intimate at Obdorsk with exiles formerly of distinction. A few 
years before the voyage of the Vega^ Chelyuskin’s trustworthiness was still 
doubted. All the accounts of discoveries of islands and land in the Polar 
Sea by persons connected with Siberia, have till the most recent times, been 
- considered more or less fictitious ; yet they are clearly in the main true. 
^ Wrangel, i. p. 46. 
