After that, it bends westward, flowing alongside the Kharaulakh Range, part of the Verkhoyansk Range, and then making its way nearly due north to the Laptev Sea, a division of the Arctic Ocean, emptying south-west of the New Siberian Islands by the Lena Delta – 30000 sqkm in area, and traversed by seven principal branches, the most important being the Bykovsky channel, farthest east.