ourney of exploration in North
Siberia, reached from land the sea coast at Tajmur Bay (75 deg.
40' N.L.), and _found the sea on the 25th August_, 1843, _free of
ice as far as the eye could reach from the chain of heights along
the coast_.[8] Middendorff, besides, states that the Yakoot Fomin,
the only person who had passed a winter at Tajmur Bay, declared that
the ice loosens in the sea lying off it in the first half of August,
and that it is driven away from the beach by southerly winds, yet
not further than that the edge of the ice can be seen from the
heights along the coast.

The land between the Tajmur and Cape Chelyuskin was mapped by means
of _sledge_ journeys along the coast by mate Chelyuskin in the year
1742. It is now completely established that the northernmost
promontory of Asia was discovered by him in the month of May in the
year already mentioned, and at that time the sea in its
neighbourhood was of course covered with ice. We have no observation
as to the state of the ice during summer or autumn in the sea lying
immediately to the west of Cape Chelyuskin; but, as the question
relates to the possibility of navigating this sea, this is the place
to draw attention to the fact that Prontschischev, on the 1st
September, 1736, in an open sea, with coasting craft _from the
east_, very nearly reached the north point of Asia, which is
supposed to be situated in 77 deg. 34' N. Lat. and 105 deg. E. Long., and
that the Norwegian walrus-hunters during late autumn have repeatedly
sailed far to the eastward from the north point of Novaya Zemlya
(77 deg. N. Lat., and 68 deg. E. Long.), _without meeting with any ice_.

From what has been already stated, it is evident that for the
present we do not possess any complete knowledge, founded on actual
observations, of the hydrography of the stretch of coast between the
Yenisej and Cape Chelyuskin. I, however, consider that during
September, and possibly the latter half of August, we ought to be
able to reckon with complete certainty on having here ice-free
water, or at least a broad, open channel along the coast, from the
enormous masses of warm water, which the rivers Obi, Irtisch, and
Yenisej, running up through the steppes of High Asia, here pour into
the ocean, after having received water from a river territory,
everywhere strongly heated during the month of August, and more
extensive than that of all the rivers put together, which fall into
the Mediterranean and the