CHAPTER XXIV.

_THE LENA._

History of Russian invasion.--Former travellers to Okhotsk.--Cochrane, Erman, and Hill.--Down the Lena to Yakutsk.--Prevalence of goitre.--The Upper Lena and its tributaries.--The Lower Lena.--Discoveries of mammoths.--New Siberian islands.--Nordenskiöld’s passage 281