XIII.] 
LASSINIUS’ VOYAGE. 
193 
surveyed. This was done in 1742 by Chelyuskin in the 
course of a new sledge journey, of which the particulars 
are only incompletely known, evidently because Chelyuskin’s 
statement, that he had reached the northernmost point of 
Asia, was doubted down to the most recent times. After the 
voyage of the Vega, however, there can be no more doubt on 
this point."^ 
5. Voyages from the Lena Eastward .—During these Lieutenant 
Lassinius and after his death Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev had the 
command. A double sloop was built at Yakutsk for the voyage 
of Lassinius. As I have already mentioned, he left this town, 
accompanied by several cargo-boats, at the same time as Pron- 
tschischev, and both sailed together down the Lena to its mouth. 
Lassinius was able to sail to the eastward as early as the ^^®th 
August. Four days after he came upon so much drift-ice that 
he was compelled to lie to at the mouth of the river, 120 versts 
to the east of the easternmost mouth-arm of the Lena. Here 
abundance of driftwood was met with, and the stock of pro¬ 
visions appears also to have been large, but notwithstanding this, 
scurvy broke out during the winter. • Lassinius himself and most 
of his men died. On being informed of this, Behring sent a 
relieving party, consisting of Lieutenant Cherbinin and fourteen 
men to Lassinius’ winter quarters. On their arrival on the ^^®th 
June they found only the priest, the mate, and seven sailors 
alive of the fifty-three men who had started with Lassinius the 
foregoing year from Yakutsk. These too were so ill that some 
of them died during the return journey to Yakutsk. Dmitri 
.Laptev and a sufficient number of men, were sent at the same 
^ Wrangel, i. pp. 48 and 72. Of the journey round the northernmost 
point of Asia, Wrangel says :—^Won der Tajmur-Miindung bis an das Kap 
des heiligen Faddej konnte die Ktiste nicht beschifft werden, iind die 
Aufnahme, die der Steuermann Tschemokssin (Chelyuskin) auf dem Else 
in Narten vornahm, ist so oberflachlich und imbestimmt, dass die eigent- 
liche Lage des nordostlichen oder Tajmnr-Kaps, welches die nordlichste 
Spitse Asiens ausmacht, noch gar nicht ausgemittelt ist.” 
VOL. 11. 
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