This narrative of Prontshistsheff's expedition is extracted from the account of professor[166] Gmelin: according to Mr. Muller[167], who has given a cursory relation of the same voyage, Prontshistsheff did not quite reach the mouth of the Taimura; for he there found the chain of islands stretching from the continent far into the sea. The channels between the islands were so choaked up with ice, that it was impossible to force a passage: after steering as high as lat. 77° 25´, he found such a plain of fixed ice before him, that he had no prospect of getting any farther. Accordingly he returned to the Olenek.
[Footnote 166: Gmelin Reise, vol. II. p. 427 to p. 434.]
[Footnote 167: S. R. G. III. p. 149, 150.]
Another attempt was made to pass from the Lena to the Yenisèi in 1739, by Chariton Laptieff, with equal bad success; and he relates, that between the rivers Piasida and Taimura, a promontory stretches into the sea which he could not double, the sea being entirely frozen up before he could pass round[168].
[Footnote 168: Gmelin Reise, p. 440. Mr. Muller says only, that Laptieff met with the same obstacles which forced Prontshistsheff to return. S. R. G. III. p. 150.]
[Sidenote: Cape between the Rivers Chatanga and Piasida never yet doubled.] From all these circumstances we must collect, that the whole space between Archangel and the Lena has never yet been navigated; for in going East from the Yenisèi the Russians could get no farther than the mouth of the Piasida; and, in coming West from the Lena, they were stopped, according to Gmelin, North of the Piasida; and, according to Muller, East of the Taimura.
The Russians, who sail almost annually from Archangel, and other towns, to Nova Zemla, for the purpose of catching sea-horses, seals, and white bears, make to the Western Coast; and no Russian vessel has ever passed round its North Eastern extremity[169].
[Footnote 169: Although this work is confined to the Russian Discoveries, yet as the N. E. passage is a subject of such interesting curiosity, it might seem an omission in not mentioning, that several English and Dutch vessels have passed through the Straits of Weygatz into the sea of Kara; they all met with great obstructions from the ice, and had much difficulty in getting through. See Histoire Gen. Des Voyages, tome XV. passim.