e
desolate shore of the Polar Sea.

On the 9th Oct./28th Sept. 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 Admiralty, however, did not favour Chelyuskin's views, but
considered that another attempt ought to be made by land, but if
this, too, was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by
land journeys. Lieut. CHARITON LAPTEV was appointed to carry out
this last attempt to reach the Yenisej by sea from the Lena.

Laptev, accompanied by a number of small craft carrying provisions,
left Yakutsk on the 20th/9th July, 1739, and on the 31st/20th of the
same month reached the mouth-arm of the Lena called Krestovskoj, on
which he built, on a point jutting out into the sea, a high signal
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 31st/20th August
reached Cape Thaddeus, where the vessel was anchored the following
day in 76 deg. 47' N.L. A signal tower was built on the extremity
of the cape, and the land-measurer CHEKIN was sent to examine the
neighbouring territory, and Chelyuskin to search for the mouth of
the river Taimur. Chekin could carry out no geodetic work on account
of mist. Chelyuskin again reported that the whole bay and the sea in
the offing were, as far as the eye could reach, covered with
unbroken ice This induced Laptev to turn. After many difficulties
among the ice, he came, on the 7th Sept./27th Aug. to the confluence
of the river Bludnaya with the Chatanga. Here the winter was passed
among a tribe of Tunguses Irving on the spot, who owned no reindeer,
and were therefore settled. They used dogs as draught animals, and
appear to have carried on a mode of life resembling that of the
coast Chukches.

In spring Chekin was sent to map the coast between the Taimur and
the P