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was 69° 52'. About two wersts from hence the shore becomes very flat; and this point of junction of the high and the low coast is probably Lieutenant Laptew's Sand Cape, though there is no projecting point which can properly be called a cape; its longitude by our reckoning is 168°. Thence we proceeded sometimes over the ice of the sea and sometimes on the coast, which is so low that it is probably overflowed in summer: a range of sand hills ran parallel at a short distance. Driftwood had become scarce, but we found some boards which had apparently been left by the Tschuktschi, whose traces were numerous. We halted at the end of thirty-five wersts, and made a fourth depos ite of provisions. The last of the provision-sledges returned from this point, and our party now consisted only of M. Kosmin, myself, and three Cossack drivers, with three travelling-sledges. By a meridian altitude of the moon, the latitude was 69° 58'; and the longitude, by reckoning and angles, 1680 41.

We saw this evening an aurora of extraordinary beauty. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the stars sparkled in their fullest Arctic brilliancy. With a light breeze from the N.E. there rose in the E.N.E. a great column of light, from which rays extended over the sky in the direction of the wind, in broad luminous bands, which, as they seemed to approach us, constantly changed their form. From the rapidity with which the rays shot through the whole space from the horizon to the zenith, in less than two seconds, the aurora appeared to be nearer to us than the clouds at their ordinary height. We could perceive no effect on the compass-needle.

Our Cossacks had repeatedly urged the necessity of allowing the dogs a longer rest, and we halted for that purpose on the 3d of March, though we ourselves meanwhile suffered a good deal from cold, being on an unsheltered flat, with a temperature of from-25° to -33°, and a cutting wind from the N.E. : K

we were also most of the time without fire, as we had barely fuel enough to cook with. Nor were we without some degree of anxiety and uncertainty as to our future proceedings. We were ignorant of the true position of Cape Schelagskoj, of which we were in search; and the low state of our provisions would not admit of our taking the more certain but much less direct course by the coast, which here trended towards the south. While I was doubtful on what to decide, we saw at sunset two considerable hills in the eastern horizon, towards which we determined to direct our course.

Next morning the sky was obscured, and the temperature -2°, with a gentle breeze from the S.E. Our drivers envied the good fortune of the Tschuktschi in enjoying so mild a climate. We kept a direct course across the ice until we had gone sixtyone wersts, when the weariness of our dogs and the approach of night obliged us to halt among some ice-hummocks. We ascended one of these, and discovered from its summit that the land to the east formed a promontory, connected with a range of hills running in a southern direction. As we gazed we thought we saw the rocks and precipices of the promontory reflected on a smooth surface of open water; but in a few moments, what had appeared to be open water seemed changed to a smooth surface of ice, which presently became covered with numerous inequalities, varying their form every instant. At last, as the position of the sun was a little altered, the whole disappeared, and we saw clearly an almost impassable range of enormous hummocks extending in every direction. The strong refraction renders these optical illusions and transformations extremely frequent on the Polar Sea, and the traveller is often misled by them. We had exhausted our fuel, and were obliged to burn three of our tent-poles and a pair of spare sledge-runners to boil our soup: the rest of the time we had no

DOUBLING CAPE SCHELAGSKOJ NOSS. 111

fire; but, fortunately, the wind continued from the S.E., and the temperature was not below —8°.

On the 5th of March, thirty wersts of laborious travelling among hummocks of ice brought us to the N.W. point of the Schelagskoj Noss. The doubling this cape was a work of difficulty and danger. We had often to ascend steep icebergs ninety feet high, and then to descend at great hazard to the sledges, the dogs, and ourselves. At other times we were obliged to wade up to our waists through loose drifted snow, and if we came occasionally to smooth ice, it was covered with sharp crystallized salt, which destroyed the ice-runners, and made the draught so heavy that we were obliged to harness ourselves to the sledges, and it required our utmost efforts to drag them along. The cape was sometimes totally concealed from view by intervening masses of ice; but wherever we approached the shore, it appeared to consist of a black, dense, glistening rock, in regular vertical columns of 250 feet or more in height, with occasionally intervening dikes some fathoms in breadth, of a whitish, finegrained granite. Having accomplished about nine wersts in five hours with the greatest difficulty, both men and dogs were so completely exhausted that we were obliged to halt for the night in a little bay with a sandy beach, where, to our great joy, we found driftwood, and had the comfort of an excellent fire, by which our strength was so much recruited that we did not feel the cold next day (March 6th), when the temperature was -11°, with wind and driving snow. The mountains which form the promontory appeared to be above 3000 feet in height. In the bay where we slept we saw remains of fires and whalebones.

As we had now only three days' provisions remaining, it appeared very doubtful whether we could safely venture farther. I decided, however, on going sufficiently far to judge of the general trending

of this part of the coast, which was supposed, ac-` cording to Burney's well-known views, to form an isthmus connecting Asia with America. I proceeded, therefore, with the best of the dogs and two unloaded sledges, leaving the third under the charge of one of the Cossacks. Luckily we found a narrow strip of smooth ice, which enabled us to get on rapidly. The direction of the coast, apart from unimportant indentations, trends S. 80° E. It consists chiefly of projecting points formed of the black slaterock above-mentioned, with occasional intervening sandy beaches. The observed latitude at noon was 70° 3′ seventeen wersts from our sleeping-place. About twelve wersts farther on the rocks are replaced by a sandy shore, and the hills retire inland. We saw at a distance of twenty-four miles S. 48° E. (true), a promontory, which I named Cape Kosmin, after my zealous fellow-traveller. To judge by the immense blocks of ice close to the shore, the depth of water must be very considerable, and the absence of bays must render navigation dangerous, as vessels would be exposed to the pressure of the ice, without any place of refuge.

The want of provisions now obliged us to return; and I was forced to content myself for the present with having ascertained that for forty miles to the east of Cape Schelagskoj the coast trended in a S.E. direction. We marked the termination of our journey by the erection of a pyramid of large stones on a remarkable hill not far from a stream, which I named Poworotnoj (The Return). This pyramid is in 70° 1' latitude, and 171° 47′ longitude, and is 418 wersts from our starting-point at Sucharnoje.

Late at night we reached our tent on the east side of Cape Schelagskoj, where we found the Cossack engaged in erecting a large wooden cross as a memorial. We assisted him to place it in a conspicuous situation, and engraved on it the date of our visit. On the morning of the 7th of March we began

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our homeward journey with a temperature of -31°, a piercing wind, and driving snow. To avoid the hummocks we took our way inland over some low hills, and, to our great joy, after we had gone five wersts we saw the smooth sea-ice. This is probably the Wolok or portage over which Staduchin passed in 1700, when, in proceeding by water from the Kolyma, he found himself unable to get round the cape which he called the Great Tschuktschi Cape, and which subsequently received the name of Cape Schelagskoj. We followed the coast in a southerly direction, and pitched our tent for the night in a bay 25 wersts from the Wolok. Here we found a quantity of drift larchwood. We had a light breeze from the west, a temperature of --35° in the morning and 29° in the evening. The latitude, by observation at noon, was 69° 45', and the variation 18° E. by the midday shadow. We saw a cape 4 wersts off, in a S.S.W. W. direction, to which I gave the name of Cape Matiuschkin. It is in 69° 44' latitude, and 170° 47' longitude. A flat island here lying between W.N.W. and S. W., and only separated from the main by a narrow arm of the sea, is called by the Tschuktschi Arautan. Turning round the southern point of this island, we took our course to the westward, across Tschaun Bay; and, after travelling 25 wersts, we came to the low island of Sabadej.

On the 9th of March we arrived late in the even ing at the place where we had made our fourth deposite of provisions. Happily we found it undisturbed, for we had consumed the day before the remains of those which we had taken with us. Subsequently, however, we were less fortunate. At the three other deposites, in spite of the precautions we had taken, we found nothing but fishbones, and numerous traces of stone-foxes and wolverines. Notwithstanding the utmost frugality, both ourselves and the dogs had to go the last two days without food. I encouraged my companions by the assų,