ty free of
ice.

A very remarkable discovery was made in 1811 by a member of
Hedenstroem's expedition, the Yakoutsk townsman Sannikov; for he
found, on the west coast of the island Katelnoj, remains of a
roughly-timbered winter habitation, in the neighbourhood of the
wreck of a vessel, differing completely in build from those which
are common in Siberia. Partly from this, partly from a number of
tools which lay scattered on the beach, Sannikov drew the
conclusion, that a hunter from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya had been
driven thither by the wind, and had lived there for a season with
his crew. Unfortunately the inscription on a monumental cross in the
neighbourhood of the hut was not translated.

During the great northern expeditions,[13] several attempts were
also made to force a passage eastwards from the Lena. The first was
under the command of Lieutenant Lassinius in 1735. He left the most
easterly mouth-arm of the Lena on the 21st of August, and sailed 120
versts eastward, and there encountered drift ice which compelled him
to seek a harbour at the coast. Here the winter was passed, with the
unfortunate result, that the chief himself, and most of the
fifty-two men belonging to the expedition, perished of scurvy.

The following year, 1736, there was sent out, in the same direction,
a new expedition under Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev. With the vessel of
Lassinius he attempted, in the middle of August, to sail eastward,
but he soon fell in with a great deal of drift ice. So soon as the
end of the month--the time when navigation ought properly to
begin--he turned towards the Lena on account of ice.

In 1739 Laptev undertook his third voyage. He penetrated to the
mouth of the Indigirka, which was frozen over on the 21st September,
and wintered there. The following year the voyage was continued
somewhat beyond the mouth of the Kolyma to Cape Great Baranov, where
further advance was prevented by drift ice on the 26th September.
After having returned to the Kolyma, and wintered at Nischni
Kolymsk, he attempted, the following year, again to make his way
eastwards in some large boats built during winter, but, on account
of fog, contrary winds, and ice, without success. In judging of the
results these voyages yielded, we must take into consideration the
utterly unsuitable vessels in which they were undertaken--at first
in a double sloop, built at Yakoutsk, in 1735, afterwards in two
large boats built at Nischni Kolymsk. If