Forty kilometres east of the northern extremity of the Lena delta Johannesen encountered three sandbanks, which he sailed round. After passing these the water became deeper, so that he could advance at a distance of five kilometres from land. On the 1st September Johannesen anchored in a bay on the mainland in the neighbourhood of the Bychov mouth, whence on the 3rd September, at 2.30 a.m., he continued his course up the river, but by 10 o'clock the _Lena_ was aground. The water was falling, and did not begin to rise until an hour after midnight. It was not, therefore, until 8 a.m. the following day that the _Lena_ was got off, and that with great difficulty. The sailing through the delta was rendered difficult by the maps, which were made 140 years ago, being now useless. For the delta has undergone great alterations since then. Where at that time there were sandbanks, there are now large islands, overgrown with wood and grass. At other places again whole islands have been washed away by the river. While the vessel was aground nine Tunguses came on board. They rowed in small boats, which were made of a single tree stem, hollowed out, and could just carry a man each. Johannesen endeavoured in vain to induce some of the Tunguses to pilot the steamer; he did not succeed in explaining his wish to them, notwithstanding all the attempts of the Russian interpreter, a proof of the slight contact these Tunguses had had with the rulers of Siberia, and also of the difficulty and unwillingness with which the savage learns the language of the civilised nations. It was not until the 7th September that the delta was finally passed, and the _Lena_ steamed in the river proper, where the fairway became considerably better. Johannesen says in his account of the voyage that it is improbable that any of the western arms of the Lena are of importance, partly because the mass of water which flows in an easterly direction is very considerable in comparison with the whole quantity of water in the river, partly because the western and northern arms which Johannesen visited contained only salt water, while the water in the eastern arm was completely free from any salt taste. On the 8th, early in the morning, the first fixed dwelling-place on the Lena, Tas-Ary, was reached. Here the voyagers landed to get information about the fairway, but could not enter into communication with the natives, because they were Tunguses. In the afternoon of the same day they came to another river village, Bulun. Impatient to proceed, and supposing that it too was inhabited wholly by "Asiatics,"[206] Johannesen intended to pass it without stopping. But when the inhabitants saw the steamer they welcomed it with a salute from all the guns that could be got hold of in haste.[207] The _Lena_ then anchored. Two Crown officials and a priest came on board, and the latter performed a thanksgiving service.