Note XXXIV-7 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

Nordenskiöld, a Swedish professor and experienced navigator, with the steamer Vega, commanded by Lieut Palander, on the 19th of August, 1878, reached Cape Severo or Tchelyusken, the most northern point of Siberia and of the Old World in 77° 41' N., and steered a south-easterly course, the sea free from ice and quite shallow. Aug. 27th the mouth of the Lena River was passed, the Vega parting company with her tender, the Lena, and continuing her course eastward; she almost accomplished the passage that first season; but toward the end of Sept. the Vega was frozen in off the shore of a low plain in 67° 7' N. and 173° 20' W. near the settlement of the Chugaches. After an imprisonment of 294 days, the Vega on the 18th of July, 1879, continued her voyage, and on the 20th passed Bering Strait. Nordenskiöld, without loss of life or damage to his ship, arrived at Yokohama Sept. 2, 1879. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), xix. 337.