It was to this Samoyed country that the Russian government used to send her criminals, and there are many exiles living there now; but the natives treat them very kindly and never inquire into the cause of their banishment. As Nordenskjöld and his companions traveled on, they saw large masses of driftwood lying along the shores of the river. This driftwood is carried by the current out into the Arctic ocean, and is often picked up by explorers on the North American and Greenland shores, a fact which seems to prove that the ocean currents carry it across the polar sea. At length the travelers entered the region from which this driftwood comes. This is the great forest belt of Siberia, the largest in the world, extending, with but little interruption, from the Ural mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk. It consists mainly of enormous pines, growing thickly, and untouched by the ax of the lumberman. Many trees are withered with age; others are fallen, and their decayed trunks are covered with mosses and lichens. The wilderness is so vast that a man might wander hundreds of miles without meeting a human being. Beyond the forest belt lie the fertile plains, which are partly cultivated and which supply Europe with wheat. Nordenskjöld visited these plains, or steppes, and then proceeded homeward overland, by way of St. Petersburg. The next year, 1876, Nordenskjöld made a second voyage from Sweden to the mouth of the Yenisei river, proving beyond a doubt that there is a sea route from the Atlantic to the mouth of the great Siberian river. For this achievement he was regarded by Russia as a national benefactor and publicly thanked. Nordenskjöld hoped that the rich produce of central Asia, the gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal, the ivory, timber, wheat, and furs, might now be shipped through the rivers to the Arctic ocean and thence to Europe. The dangers of navigation through the ice, however, are so great that it is doubtful whether this route can ever become an important one for purposes of commerce. Nordenskjöld was not yet satisfied with the work he had accomplished in the Arctic regions. He longed to do what Arctic explorers had been trying to do for three hundred years; namely, to find a northeast passage to the Pacific. Supported by King Oscar of Sweden and by Mr. Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, Nordenskjöld sailed from Tromsö in his ship, the _Vega_, July 21, 1878, accompanied by three other vessels. Two of the vessels left him at the mouth of the Yenisei and proceeded up that river, while the other, the _Lena_, accompanied the _Vega_ eastward. The fog caused the sailors more trouble than the ice, but one day the mist rose, showing a dark ice-free cape. Then Nordenskjöld knew that he had succeeded in reaching the northernmost point of the Old World, Cape Tcheliuskin (Chelyuskin).