XIII.] 
LAPTEV’S SECOND AND THIRD VOYAGES. 
195 
By order of the Board of Admiralty Dmitri Laptev at all 
events began his second voyage, and now falsified his own 
prediction, by rounding the two capes which he believed to be 
always surrounded by unbroken ice. After he had passed them 
his vessel was frozen in on the Vfh September. Laptev had no 
idea at what point of the coast he was, or how far he was from 
land. He remained in this unpleasant state for eleven days, at 
the close of which one of the mates who had been sent out from 
the vessel in a boat on the returned on foot over the ice 
and reported that they were not far from the mouth of the 
Indigirka. Several Yakuts had settled on the neighbouring 
coast, where was also a Russian simovie. Laptev and his men 
wintered there, and examined the surrounding country. The 
surveyor Kindakov was sent out to map the coast to the Kolyma. 
Among other things he observed that the sea here was very 
shallow near the shore, and that driftwood was wanting at the 
mouth of the Indigirka, but was found in large masses in the 
interior, 30 versts from the coast. 
The following year, 1740, Laptev repaired as well as he could 
his vessel, v/hich had been injured during the voyage of the 
preceding year, and then went again to sea on the On 
the August he passed one of the Bear Islands, fixing its 
latitude at 71° O'. On the f|th August, when Great Gape 
Baranov was reached, the progress of the vessel was arrested by 
masses of ice that extended as far as the eye could reach. 
Laptev now turned and sought for winter quarters on the 
Kolyma. On the yth July, 1741, this river became open, and 
Laptev went to sea to continue his voyage eastwards, but did 
not now succeed in rounding Great Cape Baranov. He was now 
fully convinced of the impossibility of reaching the Anadyr by 
sea, on which account he determined to penetraJe to that river 
by land in order to survey it. This he did in the years 1741 
and 1742. Thus ended the voyages of Dmitri Laptev, giving evi¬ 
dence if not of distinguished seamanship, of great perseverance. 
