turn voyage thus also occupied two years, and was
attended with much difficulty and danger.

Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel to the
Ob and back, which now can be accomplished without difficulty in a
single summer. By means of Malygin's and Skuratov's voyages, and of
a land journey which the land-measurer Selifontov undertook during
July and August 1736 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal
and then by boat to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this
large island were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.[319]

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 deg. 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 deg. 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 depot 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