chain of iflands. At firft he found the fea more free
to the North o f the iflands, while he obferved much ice
lying between them. He came at length to the laft ifland,.
Ctuated in lat. 77° 25'. Between this ifland and the
lhore, as well as on the other fide of the ifland which lay.
moft to the North, the ice was firm and immovable. He-
attempted however to fleer ftill more to the North ; and
having advanced about fix miles, he was prevented by
a thick fog from proceeding : this fog being difperfed,,
he faw on each fide, and before him, nothing but ice
ch>bnofJby a that towards the fea was not fixed; but the accumulated.
iiafrom°gc?e maffles were all fb clofe, that the fmalleft veflel could not:
ting to the . . ■ Yenisei. have worked its way through. Still attempting however
to pafs to the North he was' forced by the ice1 N. E„
Apprehenfive of being hemmed in, he returned to the
Taimura and from thence got,, with much difficulty
and danger, to the Olenek, on the 29th of. Auguft..
This narrative of ProntffiiftffiefPs expedition is-
extracted from the account of profeflbr * Gmelin : according
to- Mr. Muller t, who has given a curfory relation
of the fame voyage, Prontffiiftffieff did not quite reach the:
mouth of the Taimura; for he there found the chain of
iflands. ftretching from the continent far into the fea.
The channels between the iflands were fo choaked up
* Gmelin Reife, vol. II. p. 427 to p. 434,
•f- S. R. G. III. p. 149, 150.
with
with ice, that it was impoffible to force a paffage : after
fleering as high as lat. 7 70 2,5V ^ie found fuch a plain
of fixed ice before him, that he had no profpeft of
getting any farther. Accordingly he returned to the
Olenek.
Another attempt was made to pafs from the Lena to
the Yenifei in 1739, by Chariton Laptieff, with equal
bad fuccefs ; and he relates, that between the rivers.
Piafida and Taimura, a promontory ftretches into the-
fea which he could not double, the fea being, entirely
frozen up before he could pafs round.*. f l l
From all thefe circumftances we muft collect, that the *cR;b7e™ten
Chatanga and
whole fpace between Archangel and the Lena has^ never p»f«i a never
r 0 yet doubled.
yet been navigated for in going, Eaft from the Yenifei
the Ruffians could get no farther than the mouth of the
Piafida and,, in coming Weft from the Lena, they were
flopped, according to Gmelin,, North of the Piafida
and, according, to Muller, Eaft. of the Taimura..
The ■ Ruffiansj who fail almoft annually from Archangel,
and other towns, to Nova Zemla, for the pur-
uofe of catching fea-horfes, feals, and white bears, make
* Gmelin Reife, p.440. Mr. Muller fays only, that Laptieff met:
with the fame obftacles which forced Prontihiftlheff to return. S. R. G.
III. p. 150.
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