190 
TFIE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA, 
[chap. 
the Sept, he succeeded in carrying his vessel into the river 
Olenek. On its bank Prontschischev was buried with all the 
solemnities which circumstances permitted. To Prontschisnev’s 
melancholy fate there attaches an interest which is quite unique 
in the history of the Arctic exploratory voyages. He was 
newly ma,rried when he started. His young wife accompanied 
him on his journey, took part in his dangers and sufferings, 
survived him only two days, and now rests by his side in the 
grave on the desolate shore of the Polar Sea. 
On the the Olenek was frozen over and the winter 
became very severe for Chelyuskin and his companions. The 
following summer they returned to Yakutsk convinced of the 
impossibility of sailing round the north point of Asia, and as 
Behring was no longer to be found in that town, Chelyuskin 
started for St. Petersburg in order to give an oral account of 
Prontschischev’s voyages. The Board of AdmircGty, however, 
did not favour Chelyuskin’s views, but considered that another 
attempt ought to be made by land, but if this, too, was un¬ 
successful, that the coast should be surveyed by land journeys. 
Lieut. Chariton Laptev was appointed to carry out this last 
attempt to reach the A^enisej by sea from the Lena. 
Laptev, accompanied by a number of small craft carrying pro¬ 
visions, left Yakutsk on the "/th July, 1739, and on the ^ of the 
same month reached the mouth-arm of the Lena called Kres- 
tovskoj, on which he built, on a point jutting out into the sea, a 
hmh sio^nal tower, one of the few monuments that are to be 
found on the north coast of Asia, and which is on that account 
mentioned by succeeding travellers in those regions. He sailed 
hence along the coast past the mouth of the Olenek and past a 
large bay to which, for what reason I know not, he gave the 
purely Swedish name of Nordvik. This bay was still covered 
with unbroken ice. After having been beset for several days in 
Chatanga Bay, the voyagers on the August reached Cape 
Thaddeus, where the vessel was anchored the following day in 
