2.An expedition to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej—For this Behring ordered a double sloop, the Tobol, 70 feet long, 15 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel had two masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was manned with 53 men, among whom were a land-measurer and a priest. The commander was Lieut. OWZYN. They sailed in company with some small craft carrying provisions from Tobolsk on the 26th/15th May, 1734, and came to the Gulf of Ob through the easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the 30th/19th June. There a storm damaged the tender-vessels. Of the timber of those which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was erected in 66° 36' N.L., in which the provisions landed from the unserviceable craft were placed. When this was done they sailed on, but slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow water, so that it was not until the 17th/6th August that they reached 70° 4' N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving there on the 15th/4th September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was covered with ice.
The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the 17th/6th June they came to the depôt formed the preceding year. At first ice formed an obstacle, but on the 31st/20th July it broke up, and the navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to suffer so severely from scurvy, that of 53 only 17 were in good health; Owzyn therefore turned, that he might bring his sick men to Tobolsk. He reached this town on the 17th/6th October, and the river froze over soon after. Owzyn now travelled to St. Petersburg in order to give in, in person, reports of his unsuccessful voyages and to make suggestions as to the measures that ought to be taken to ensure better success to next year's undertaking. His proposals on this point were mainly in the direction of building at Tobolsk a new vessel, which should accompany the Tobol during the dangerous voyage, and confer upon it greater safety. This was approved by the Board of Admiralty, but the vessel could not be got ready till the summer of 1736, on which account that year's voyage was undertaken in the same way as that of the preceding year, and with the same success. The new vessel was not ready until 1737. It came with the shipbuilder KOSCHELEV and the mate MININ on the 16th/5th June to Obdorsk, where Owzyn took command of it, handing over the old one to Koschelev, and beginning his fourth voyage down the Gulf of Ob. This time he had better success. After sailing past Gyda Bay, he came, without meeting with any serious obstacles from ice, on the 27th/16th August to Cape Mattesol, and on the 12th/1st September to a storehouse erected for the expedition by the care of the authorities on the bank of the Yenisej in 71° 33' N.L. The Yenisej froze over on the 21st/10th October.
Four years had thus gone to the accomplishment of Owzyn's purpose, but it can scarcely be doubted that if he had not turned so early in the season, and if he had had steam, or a sailing vessel of the present day at his disposal he would have been able to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej in a few weeks. It is at all events Owzyn's perseverance to which we are in great measure indebted for the mapping of the Gulf of Ob, and the Bays of Tas and Gyda[320].
3. Voyages from the Yenisej towards Cape Taimur.—In the winter of 1738 Owzyn and Koschelev were called to St. Petersburg to answer for themselves with reference to a complaint lodged against them by the men under their command[321]. In their room Minin got the command of the expedition which was to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards along the coast of the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and 1739, Minin could not get further than to the northernmost sumovies on the Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears in pretty open water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur Peninsula the latitude of 75° 15'. Here he turned on the 1st Sept./21st Aug. on account of "impenetrable" ice, but mainly in consequence of the late season of the year. The preceding winter Minin had sent his mate STERLEGOV in sledges to examine the coast. On the 25th/14th April he reached 75° 26' N. L., and there erected a stone cairn on a rock jutting out into the sea. Many open places appear to have been seen in the offing. Minin and his party returned on account of snow-blindness, and during the return voyage rested for a time at a sumovie on the river Pjäsina, whose existence there shows how far the Russian hunters had extended their journeys[322].
4. Voyage from the Lena Westward—On the 30th July/11th June 1735, two expeditions started from Yakutsk, each with its double sloop, accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of these double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the command of Lieut. LASSINIUS. I shall give an account of his voyage farther on. The other was commanded by Lieut. PRONTSCHISCHEV, whose object was to go from the Lena westwards, if possible, to the Yenisej. The voyage down the river was successful and pleasant. The river was from four to nine fathoms deep, and on its banks, overgrown with birch and pine, there were numerous tents and dwelling-houses whose inhabitants were engaged in fishing, which gave the neighbourhood of the river a lively and pleasant appearance[323]. On the 13th/2nd August the explorers came to the mouth of the river, which here divides into five arms, of which the easternmost was chosen for sailing down to the Polar Sea. Here the two seafarers were to part. Prontschischev staid at the river-mouth till the 25th/14th August. He then sailed in 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 fathoms water along the shore of the islands which are formed by the mouth-arms of the Lena. On the 6th Sept./26th Aug. he anchored in the mouth of the Olenek. A little way up the river some dwelling-houses were met with, which hunters had built for use during summer. These were put in order for winter, which passed happily. On the 2nd July/21st June the ice broke up at the winter quarters, but in the sea it lay still until the 14th/3rd August, and it was only then that Prontschischev could go to sea. The course was shaped for the north-east. The Chatanga was reached on the 24th/13th August. On the beach, in 74° 48' N. L., a hut was met with in which were found newly baked bread and some dogs, and which therefore appeared to belong to some Russian hunters absent at the time. While sailing on along the coast the explorers, after having passed two bays projecting into the land, came to an inlet which they erroneously took for the mouth of the Taimur river. Among the reasons for this supposition is mentioned the immense number of gulls which swarmed round the vessel in that region. The bay was covered with fast ice, "which probably never breaks up," and broad ice-fields stretched out to sea from the coast, on which Polar bears were seen.
On the 31st/20th August, in 77° 29' N. L., the vessel was suddenly surrounded with so large masses of ice that it could make no further progress, and was every instant in danger of being nipped. Prontschischev therefore determined to turn, but this at first was rendered impossible by a complete calm, a crust of ice being formed at the same time in open places between the pieces of drift-ice. If the latitude stated is correct, the turning point lay quite close to the northernmost promontory of Asia. With a better vessel, and above all with the help of steam, Prontschischev would certainly have rounded it. The unbroken ice which he mentioned several times in his narrative, ought probably to be interpreted as belts of pretty closely packed drift-ice. Many times during my Arctic voyages have I sailed through belts of ice which, when observed from a boat some hundred yards from their borders, have been reported as immense unbroken ice-fields. On the 5th Sept./25th Aug. a high north wind began to blow which drove the vessel, with the surrounding ice-fields, towards the south. The voyagers had doubts as to then being saved, but the gusts of wind broke up the ice so that the vessel got free and could sail to the mouth of the Chatanga, which, however, was already frozen over. The explorers were therefore compelled to continue their voyage towards the Olenek, whose mouth was reached on the 8th Sept./28th Aug. In the neighbourhood of the haven which they intended to make, they were driven about by contrary winds and drift-ice about six days more, exposed to cold and wet, and worn out by exertions and privations of every description. Prontschischev, who before had been sick, died of his illness on the 10th Sept./30th Aug. to the great sorrow of his men, by whom he was held in great regard. The mate, CHELYUSKIN, now took the command. On the 14th/3rd Sept. he succeeded in carrying his vessel into the river Olenek. On its bank Prontschischev was buried with all the solemnities which circumstances permitted. To Prontschischev's melancholy fate there attaches an interest which is quite unique in the history of the Arctic exploratory voyages. He was newly married when he started. His young wife accompanied him on his journey, took part in his dangers and sufferings, survived him only two days, and now rests by his side in the grave on the 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° 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 Pjäsina. With thirty dog-sledges and accompanied by a nomad Tunguse with eighteen reindeer,[324] he travelled over land to the Taimur river, followed its course to the sea, and then the coast towards the west of a distance of 100 versts. Scarcity of provisions and food for his dogs compelled him to turn. Laptev himself, convinced as he was of the impossibility of rounding the north point of Asia, now wished to carry back his vessel and the most of his stores to the Lena. After having with great danger and difficulty sailed down the river to the Polar Sea, reaching it on the 10th Aug./30th July, the vessel on the 24th/13th was beset and nipped between pieces of ice, according to a statement on a Russian map published in 1876 by the Hydrographical Department in St. Petersburg, on the east coast of the Taimur Peninsula in 75° 30' N.L. Six days after there was a strong frost, so that thin ice was formed between the blocks of drift-ice. Some foolhardy fellows went over the weakly frozen together pieces of ice to land. Three days after Laptev himself and the rest of the men could leave the vessel. Several streams, still unfrozen, lying between them and their old winter station, however, prevented them from going further. They endeavoured to get protection from the cold by digging pits in the frozen earth and lying down in them by turns one after the other. The men were sent daily to the vessel to fetch as much as possible of the provisions left behind, but on the 10th Sept./29th Aug. the ice again broke up, and carried the abandoned vessel out to sea.
By the 2nd Oct./21st Sept. the streams at last had frozen so much that the return journey could be begun to the former year's winter station distant more than 500 kilometres. The journey through the desolate tundra, perhaps never before trodden by the foot of man, was attended with extreme difficulties, and it was twenty-five days before Laptev and his men could again rest in a warmed hut and get hot food. Twelve men perished of cold and exhaustion. Laptev now determined to remain here during the winter and to go the following spring over the tundra to the Yenisej, where he hoped to find depôts with provisions and ammunition. Nor did he now remain inactive. For he did not wish to return until the surveys were complete. For want of vessels these were to be made by land. Such of the men as were not required were therefore sent in spring over the tundra to the Yenisej and the rest divided into three parties under Laptev himself, Chekin, and Chelyuskin, who were to survey each his portion of the coast between the Chatanga and the Pjäsina and then meet at the Yenisej. These journeys were successfully accomplished, the explorers travelled several times without, it would appear, excessive difficulty, over the desolate tundra between the Chatanga and the Taimur rivers, discovered Lake Taimur, and surveyed considerable stretches of the coast. But when they were all again assembled at Dudino, it was found that the north point of Asia had not yet been travelled round and 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.[325]