Chapter VI (1)

The North-east Voyages of the Russians and Norwegians--
Rodivan Ivanov, 1690--The great Northern Expedition, 1734-37
--The supposed richness in metals of Novaya Zemlya--
Juschkov, 1757--Savva Loschkin, 1760--Rossmuislov, 1768--
Lasarev, 1819--Luetke, 1821-24--Ivanov, 1822-28--
Pachtussov, 1832-35--Von Baer, 1837--Zivolka and Moissejev,
1838-39--Von Krusenstern, 1860-62--The Origin and History
of the Polar Sea Hunting--Carlsen, 1868--Ed. Johannesen,
1869-70--Ulve, Mack, and Quale, 1870--Mack, 1871--
Discovery of the Relics of Barents' wintering--Tobiesen's
wintering, 1872-73--The Swedish Expeditions, 1875 and 1876
--Wiggins, 1876--Later Voyages to and from the Yenisej.

From what I have stated above it follows that the coast population of North Russia earned on an active navigation on the Polar Sea long before the English and the Dutch, and that commercial expeditions were often undertaken from the White Sea and the Petchora to the Ob and the Yenisej, sometimes wholly by sea round Yalmal, but most frequently partly by sea and partly by land transport over that peninsula. In the latter case the Russians went to work in the following way; they first sailed through Yugor Straits, and over the southern part of the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Mutnaja, a river debouching on Yalmal; they then rowed or towed the boats up the river and over two lakes to a ridge about 350 metres broad, which forms the watershed on Yalmal between the rivers running west and those running east; over this ridge the boats and the goods were dragged to another lake, Selennoe, from which they were finally carried down the River Selennaja to the Gulf of Obi.[159]

These and similar accounts were collected with great difficulty, and not without danger, by the Muscovy Company's envoys; but among the accounts that have been thus preserved we do not find a single sketch of any special voyage, on the ground of which we could place a Russian name beside that of Willoughby, Burrough, Pet and Barents in the older history of the North-East Passage. The historical sources of Russia too must be similarly incomplete in this respect, to judge from the otherwise instructive historical introduction to Luetke's voyage. Gallant seamen, but no Hakluyt, were born during the sixteenth and seventeenth century on the shores of the White Sea, and therefore the names of these seamen and the story of their voyages have long since fallen into complete obscurity, excepting some in comparatively recent times.

In the second edition of Witsen's great work we find, at page 913, an account of an unsuccessful hunting voyage to the Kara Sea, undertaken in 1690, that is to say, at a time when voyages between the White Sea and the Obi and Yenisej were on the point of ceasing completely. The account was drawn up by Witsen from an oral communication by one of the shipwrecked men, Rodivan Ivanov, who was for several years mate on a Russian vessel, employed in seal-fishing on the coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island.

On the 11th/1st September this Rodivan Ivanov suffered shipwreck with two vessels on Serapoa Koska (Serapov's Bank), probably situated in the Southern part of the Kara Sea. The ice was thrown up here in winter into lofty ice-casts with such a crashing noise that "the world was believed to be coming to an end," and at high water with a strong breeze the whole island was submerged with the exception of some knolls. On one of these the winter house was erected. It was built of clay, which was kneaded with the blood and hair of the seal and walrus. This mixture hardened to a solid mass, of which the walls were built with the help of boards from the vessel. The house thus afforded good protection not only from cold and bad weather, but also from bears. A furnace was also built inside the house and fired with driftwood collected on the beach. Train oil from the captured animals was used for lighting. There wintered here fifteen men in all, of whom eleven died of scurvy. Want of exercise perhaps mainly conduced to bring on this disease. For most of them did not leave the house during the winter night, five weeks long. Those were most healthy who had most exercise, as, for instance, the mate, who was the youngest among the crew, and therefore had to go round the island to collect wood. Another cause of the great mortality was the total want of provisions brought from home. For the first eight days their food consisted of seaweed dredged up from the bottom of the sea, with which some meal was mixed. Afterwards they ate the flesh of the seal and walrus, and of the Polar bear and the fox. The flesh of the bear and the walrus, however, was considered _unclean_[160] on which account it was eaten only in case of necessity, and the flesh of the fox had an unpleasant flavour. Sometimes the want of food was so great that they were compelled to eat the leather of their boots and furs. The number of the seals and walruses which they caught was so great, "that the killed animals, laid together, would have formed a heap ninety fathoms in length, of the same breadth, and six feet high."[161] They found, besides, on the island a stranded whale.

In spring Samoyeds came from the mainland, and plundered the Russians of part of their catch. Probably for fear of the Samoyeds, the surviving hunters did not go over the ice to the mainland, but remained on the desert island until by a fortunate accident they were rescued by some of their countrymen engaged in a hunting expedition. In connection with the account of this voyage Witsen states that the previous year a Russian hunting vessel stranded _east of the Ob_.

It is probable that towards the close of the sixteenth century the Russian hunting voyages to Novaya Zemlya had already fallen off considerably. The commercial voyages perhaps had long before altogether ceased. It appears as if after the complete conquest of Siberia the land route over the Ural mountains, formerly regarded with such superstitious feelings, was preferred to the unsafe sea route across the Kara Sea, and as if the Government even put obstacles in the way of the latter by setting watches at Matvejev Island and at Yugor Straits.[162] These were to receive payments from the hunters and merchants, and the regulations and exactions connected with this arrangement deprived the Polar Sea voyages of just that charm which had hitherto induced the bravest and hardiest of the population to devote themselves to the dangerous traffic to the Ob, and to the employment of hunting, in which they were exposed to so many dangers, and subject to so great privations.

The circumstance to which we have referred may also be the reason why we do not know of a single voyage in this part of the Polar Sea during the period which elapsed from the voyage of Rodivan Ivanov to "the great Northern Expedition." It examined, among other parts of the widely extended north coast of the Russian empire, the southern portion also of the navigable waters here in question, in the years 1734, 35, under Muravjev and Paulov, and in 1736, 37 under Malygin, Skuratov, and Suchotin. Their main working field however did not lie here, but in Siberia itself; and I shall give an account of their voyages in the Kara Sea further on, when I come to treat of the development of our knowledge of the north coast of Asia. Here I will only state that they actually succeeded, after untold exertions, in penetrating from the White Sea to the Ob, and that the maps of the land between that river and the Petchora, which are still in use, are mainly grounded on the work of the great northern expedition, but that the bad repute of the Kara Sea also arose from the difficulties to which these explorers were exposed, difficulties owing in no small degree to the defective nature of the vessels, and a number of mistakes which were made in connection with their equipment, the choice of the time of sailing, &c.

Like all distant unknown regions, Novaya Zemlya was of old renowned for its richness in the noble metals. The report indeed has never been confirmed, and probably was occasioned only by the occurrence of traces of ore, and the beautiful gold-glancing film of pyrites with which a number of the fossils found here are covered; but it has, notwithstanding, given occasion to a number of voyages to Novaya Zemlya, of which the first known is that of the mate JUSCHKOV, in 1757. As the mate of a hunting-vessel he had observed the stones glittering with gold and silver, and he succeeded in convincing an Archangel tallow-merchant that they indicated great riches in the interior of the earth. In order to get possession of these treasures the tallow-merchant fitted out a vessel, promising Juschkov at the same time a reward of 250 roubles for the discovery. The whole undertaking, however, led to no result, because the discoverer of these treasures died during the passage to Novaya Zemlya (Luetke, p. 70).

Three years after, in 1760,[163] a hunting mate, SAVVA LOSCHKIN, a native of Olonets, hit on the idea, which was certainly a correct one, that the east coast of Novaya Zemlya, which was never visited by hunters, ought to be richer in game than other parts of the island. Induced by this idea, and probably also by the wish to do something extraordinary, he undertook a hunting expedition thither. Of this expedition we know only that he actually succeeded in travelling round the whole island, thanks to the resolution which led him to spend on this self-imposed task two winters and three summers. It was proved by this journey that Novaya Zemlya is actually an island, a fact which in the middle of last century was still doubted by many geographers.[164]

Even after the failure of Juschkov's expedition the report of the richness of Novaya Zemlya in metals still maintained itself, and accordingly Lieutenant[165] ROSSMUISLOV was sent out with second mate GUBIN, the Polar Sea pilot TSCHIRAKIN, and eleven men, to search for the supposed treasures, and at the same time to survey the unknown portions of the island. The vessel that was used in this Polar Sea voyage must have been a very remarkable one. For shortly before the start, leaks, which had to be stopped, were discovered at many different places in it, and of its power of sailing Rossmuislov himself says: "So long as the wind came from the stern the large sail helped us exceedingly well, but, as soon as it turned and became a head wind, we were compelled to hoist another smaller sail, in consequence of which we were driven back to the point from which we came." Rossmuislov appears to have been a very skilful man in his profession. Without meeting with any obstacle from ice, but at all events with difficulty enough in consequence of the unsuitableness of the vessel, he arrived at Matotschkin Sound, which he carefully surveyed and took soundings in. From a high mountain at its eastern mouth he saw on the 10th Sept./30th Aug. the Kara Sea completely free of ice--and the way to the Yenisej thus open; but his vessel was useless for further sailing. He therefore determined to winter at a bay named Tjulnaja Guba, near the eastern entrance to Matotschkin Sound. To this place he removed a house which some hunters had built on the sound farther to the west, and erected another house, the materials of which he had brought from home, on a headland jutting out into the sound a little more to the east. The latter I visited in 1876. The walls were then still standing, but the flat roof, loaded with earth and stones, had fallen in, as is often the case with deserted wooden houses in the Polar regions. The house was small, and had consisted of a lobby and a room with an immense fireplace, and sleeping places fixed to the walls.

On the 1st Oct./20th Sept., Matotschkin Sound was frozen over, and some days after the Kara Sea was covered with ice as far as the eye could reach. Storms from the north-east, west, and north-west, with drifting snow of such violence prevailed during the course of the winter that one could scarcely go ten fathoms from the house. In its neighbourhood a man was overtaken by such a storm of drifting snow while hunting a reindeer. When he did not return after two days' absence it was determined to note him in the journal as having "perished without burial."

On the 28/17th April, 1769, there was a storm from the south-west, with mist, rain, and hail as large as half a bullet. On the 2nd June/22nd May a dreadful wind raged from the north-west, bringing from the high mountains a "sharp smoke-like air,"--it was certainly a _foehn_ wind. The painful, depressing effect of this wind is generally known from Switzerland and from north-western Greenland. At the latter place it rushes right down with excessive violence from the ice-desert of the interior. But far from on that account bringing cold with it, the temperature suddenly rises above the freezing-point, the snow disappears as if by magic through melting and evaporation, and men and animals feel themselves suffering from the sudden change in the weather. Such winds besides occur everywhere in the Polar regions in the neighbourhood of high mountains, and it is probably on their account that a stay in the hill-enclosed kettle-valleys is in Greenland considered to be very unhealthy and to lead to attacks of scurvy among the inhabitants.

The crew remained during the winter whole days, indeed whole weeks in succession, in their confined dwellings, carefully made tight, without taking any regular exercise in the open air. We can easily understand from this that they could not escape scurvy, by which most of them appear to have been attacked, and of which seven died, among them Tschirakin. It is surprising that any one of them could survive with such a mode of life during the dark Polar night. The brewing of _quass_, the daily baking of bread, and perhaps even the vapour-baths, mainly contributed to this.

On the 29/18th July the ice on Matotschkin Schar broke up, and on the 13th/2nd August the sound was completely free of ice. An attempt was now made to continue the voyage across the Kara Sea, and an endeavour was made for this purpose to put the vessel, defective from the first, and now still further damaged by ice, in repair, by stopping the leaks, as far as possible, with a mixture of clay and decayed seaweed. "Floating coffins" have often been used in Arctic voyages, and many times with greater success than the stateliest man-of-war. This time, however, Rossmuislov, after having sailed some few miles eastward from Matotschkin Sound, in order to avoid certain loss, had to return to his winter quarters, where he fortunately fell in with a Russian hunter, with whom he commenced his return to Archangel. No precious metals were found, nor "any pearl-mussels," but Tschirakin confided to Rossmuislov the secret that at a certain place on the south coast he had found a block of stone of such extraordinary beauty that in the light of day it shone with the most splendid fire. After Tschirakin's death Rossmuislov sought for the stone, but without success, and he therefore broke out in violent reproaches of his deceased comrade. I can, however, free him from the blame of deception; for, during my voyage in 1875, I found in several of the blocks of schist in the region small veins of quartz, crossing the mass of stone. The walls of these veins were covered with hundreds of sharply-developed rock crystals with mirror-bright faces. Tschirakin's precious stone was doubtless nothing else than a druse of this shining but valueless mineral.

Once more, nearly fifty years after Rossmuislov's voyage, in the year 1807, a miner, LUDLOW, was sent out to investigate more thoroughly the supposed richness of the island in metals. He returned without having found any ore, but with the first accounts of the geological formation of the country; and we have his companion POSPJELOV to thank for some careful surveys on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya.

The next expedition to the island was equipped and sent out from the naval dockyard at Archangel in 1819 under Lieutenant LASAREV, and had, in comparison with its predecessors, very abundant resources. But Lasarev was clearly unfit for the task he had undertaken, of commanding an Arctic exploratory expedition. In the middle of summer many of his crew were attacked by scurvy. Some few weeks after his departure from Archangel, at a time when pools of excellent drinking-water are to be found on nearly every large piece of drift-ice, and rapid torrents of melted snow empty themselves everywhere along the coast into the sea, he complains of the difficulty of procuring fresh water, &c. The expedition accordingly was altogether fruitless.

Of much greater importance were Captain-lieutenant (afterwards Admiral Count) LUeTKE's voyages to Novaya Zemlya in the summers of 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824, voyages conducted with special skill and scientific insight. The narrative of them form one of the richest sources of our knowledge of this part of the Polar Sea. But as he did not penetrate in any direction farther than his predecessors, an account of these voyages does not enter into the plan of the historical part of this work.

Among Russian journeys the following may be noticed:--

Those of the mate IVANOV in 1822-28, during which he surveyed the coast between the Kara river and the Petchora by overland travelling in Samoyed sleighs.

PACHTUSSOV'S voyages in 1832-35.[166] W. BRANDT, merchant, and KLOKOV, chief of the civil service, at Archangel, sent out in 1832 an expedition with very comprehensive aims from that town, for the purpose of re-establishing the sea-route to the Yenisej, of surveying the east coast of Novaya Zemlya, and of walrus-hunting there. Three vessels were employed, viz., a "carbasse" manned by ten men, including the Commander-lieutenant in the corps of mates Pachtussov, who in previous voyages with Ivanov had become well acquainted with land and people along the coasts of the Polar Sea;[167] the schooner _Yenisej_ under Lieutenat KROTOV with ten men; and a hunting _lodja_ commanded by the hunting mate GWOSDAREV. Pachtussov was to undertake the east coast of Novaya Zemlya, Krotov to sail through Matotschkin Sound and across the Kara Sea to the Yenisej, and Gwosdarev to carry on hunting in order to cover part of the costs of the expedition.

Pachtussov could not penetrate into the Kara Sea, but wintered the first time on South Novaya Zemlya in 70 deg. 36' N.L. and 59 deg.32' E.L. (Greenwich), in an old house which lie found there, and which according to an inscription on a cross in its neighbourhood had been built in 1759. This ruinous house was repaired with driftwood, which was found in great abundance in that region. A separate bath-house was built, and was connected with the dwelling-house by a passage formed of empty barrels and covered with canvas. Eleven days were spent in putting the old house into such repair that it could be occupied. It was afterwards kept so warm that the inmates could stay there in their shirt-sleeves without freezing. The Commander, clear-headed and specially fit for his post as he was, did not permit his crew to fall into habits of idleness, dirt, and laziness, but kept them to regular work, bathing and change of linen twice a week. Every second hour meteorological observations were taken. During the whole winter the crew remained in good health, but in spring (March) scurvy broke out, notwithstanding the precautions that were taken, and two men died of it in May. Many times during winter the ice broke up, and at a short distance from the land the Kara Sea was open as far as the eye could reach. A herd of reindeer numbering about 500 head were seen in the end of September; a number of foxes were taken in traps, and two Polar hears were killed. Geese were seen for the first time in spring on the 27th/15th of May.

Next summer Pachtussov rowed up along the east coast to 71 deg. 38' N.L. On the west bank of a river, called Savina, he found a very good harbour. He found there the remains of a hut, with a cross erected beside it, on which was the inscription "Savva Th----anov 9th June 1742," which he considered to belong to the time of Savva Loschkin's voyage. After his return from this boat journey Pachtussov went on board his vessel and sailed along the east coast north of Matotschkin Sound from the 23rd/11th July to the 25th/13th August without meeting with any obstacle from ice. During this voyage he passed a very good harbour in 72 deg. 26' N.L., in a bay, called Luetke's Bay. Pachtussov then returned through Matotschkin Sound to the Petchora. Even along the east coast of North Novaya Zemlya the sea was open, but the stock of provisions, intended at their departure from Archangel for fourteen months, was now so low, that the gallant Polar explorer could not avail himself of this opportunity of perhaps circumnavigating the whole of Novaya Zemlya.

Of the two other vessels that sailed from Archangel at the same time as Pachtussov's, the _lodja_ returned heavily laden with the spoils of the chase, but on the other hand nothing was ever heard of the _Yenisej_. A concern, not without justification, for its fate, and the desire to acquire as good knowledge of the east coast of the North Island as had been obtained of that of the South, gave occasion to Pachtussov's second voyage.

For this the Government fitted out two vessels, a schooner and a "carbasse," which were named after the two officers of the _Yenisej_, Krotov and Kasakov. The command of the former was undertaken by Pachtussov, and of the latter by the mate ZIVOLKA. This time they wintered in 1834-35 on the south side of Matotschkin Sound at the mouth of the river Tschirakina, in a house built for the purpose, for which they used, besides materials brought with them, the remains of three old huts, found in the neighbourhood, and the wreck of Rossmuislov's vessel which still lay on the beach. The house was a palace in comparison with that in which Pachtussov wintered before. It consisted of two rooms, one 21 feet by 16 feet, intended for the crew (fourteen men), the other 12 feet by 10 feet, for the officers and surgeon, with a bath-house in addition. Matotschkin Sound was frozen over for the first time on the 28/16th November. The thermometer never sank below the freezing-point of mercury, and the cold of winter could be easily borne, because the crew wore the Samoyed dress. But the snowstorms were so severe, that sometimes it was impossible for eight days at a time to leave the house, which was so snowed up that the opening in the roof for smoke had several times to be used as a door. The house had no true chimney, but was built like a Lapp hut. Eleven of the bears, who came in large numbers to the hut, were killed, one of them on the roof and another in the porch. During winter the crew were kept in constant employment in killing foxes and at other work. Their state of health was also very good for the circumstances of the time. Only two men died. In spring Matotschkin Sound and part of the east coast of the North Island were surveyed by means of sledge journeys, after which an attempt was made during summer to circumnavigate the North Island, but without success. Lightning accompanied by heavy rain was observed on the 24/12th June. On the 15th/3rd September they sailed back to Archangel. Unfortunately soon after his arrival there Pachtussov fell ill of nervous fever and died on the 19/7th November, 1835. It was a great loss, for by his devotion to the task he had undertaken, by judgment, courage, and endurance, he takes one of the foremost places among the Polar explorers of all countries. Besides, few of the older Arctic expeditions have brought home such a series of valuable astronomical determinations of position, geodetical measurements, meteorological and tidal observations, &c., as Pachtussov.[168]

In 1837 the famous naturalist K.E. VON BAER undertook a voyage to Novaya Zemlya, accompanied by Lieutenant ZIVOLKA, LEHMANN the geologist, ROeDER the draughtsman, and PHILIPPOV the conservator.[169] They visited Matotschkin Schar, penetrated by boat to its eastern end and found the Kara Sea open, landing afterwards at Besimannaja Bay, Nechvatova, and on an island in Kostin Schar. The expedition thus nowhere penetrated so far as its predecessors, but it is of importance as the first examination of the natural history of the Polar Sea surrounding Novaya Zemlya carried out by actual men of science. With all the respect we must entertain for von Baer's great name as a scientific man, it cannot be denied that, through his papers on the natural history of the island, grounded on a cursory inspection, a number of erroneous ideas regarding the natural conditions of the eastern Polar Sea obtained a footing in scientific literature.

In order to complete the survey of the island the Russian Government sent out in 1838 a new expedition under Lieutenants Zivolka and MOISSEJEV. They wintered in 1838-39 in Melkaja Guba on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in 73 deg. 57' N.L.; but on this occasion Pachtussov's judgment and insight were wanting, and the wintering was very unfortunate. Of the twenty-five men belonging to the expedition most were attacked during winter by scurvy; nine died, among them Zivolka himself. During spring, excursions for the purpose of surveying the neighbouring coasts had to be broken off because they had not brought snow-glasses with them--a thing that Pachtussov did not neglect, being accustomed besides to blacken the under eyelid as a protection against the blinding brightness of the snow. By the expedition, however, considerable stretches of the west coast of Novaya Zemlya were surveyed, and valuable contributions to a knowledge of the climatic conditions of this region obtained. These turned out to be less severe than had been expected. During winter the thermometer never sank below -33 deg.; in July there were only two nights of frost, and on two occasions + 18 deg. was observed in the shade; in August there were only three hours of frost. All this depends of course on the neighbourhood of warm marine currents and of a sea open all the year round at a short distance from the coast.

With this unfortunate and to all appearance ill-arranged expedition the Russian Novaya Zemlya voyages ceased for a long time. For before the beginning of the Norwegian hunting we have only two other Russian voyages to notice in our sketch of the history of the North East passage.

The first of these owed its origin to the desire of the captain of a Russian man-of-war, PAUL VON KRUSENSTERN, to undertake a voyage in the Polar Sea in a schooner, the _Yermak_, which belonged to him and which was for the time lying at the Petchora, in order to survey the coasts lying to the eastward. He intended himself to undertake the command, and to take with him as second in command his son PAUL VON KRUSENSTERN. lieutenant in the Russian marine. The latter was sent before to equip the _Yermak_, which he did with wonderful judgment and skill, in the best way possible, in a region where at that time nearly every requisite for the equipment of a vessel was wanting. The elder Krusenstern was unable to reach the place of sailing in time, on which account the command was given to the son.

He left the mouth of the Petchora on the 10th Sept/29th Aug, 1860. Three days after he reached the Kara port, which was completely free of ice, as was the sea to the eastward. But the late season of the year, the defective equipment of the _Yermak_, and, it would appear, the wording of the orders he had received, compelled him to turn after he had penetrated some distance into the Kara Sea. On the 19/7th September accordingly he was again at the Petchora, without having reached his goal. The attempt to penetrate eastwards from this river was resumed at the instance of MICHAEL SIDOROFF, afterwards so well known as the restless promoter of sea-communication between Siberia and Europe. The _Yermak_ was repaired, along with a decked Norwegian pilot-boat, which was named the _Embrio_. The command was undertaken by P. von Krusenstern, junior. He left the anchorage Kuya on the Petchora on the 13th/1st August. On the 26th/14th August, the two small vessels sailed into Yugor Schar, after having been long detained during their course by storms and head-winds. Some huts erected by hunters were seen on the right shore of the sound, and on both sides of it Samoyed "chums" (tents of reindeer skin) and reindeer. The inhabitants had climbed up on the roofs and indicated their astonishment by gesticulations. Both vessels anchored in the neighbourhood of Vaygats Island. But a couple of hours afterwards large masses of ice drove with an altered current into the harbour, forced the _Yermak_ from its anchor and carried the vessel into the Kara Sea. It was only with great trouble that it was released from the ice and anchored in the eastern mouth of Yugor Schar.

On the 27/15th von Krusenstern again weighed anchor, either to sail to the eastward or to search for a more secure anchorage than that which he had been compelled for the time to make use of. But the wind was so light that he could not hold a course independent of the currents. It was, therefore, necessary to moor the vessel to a large ice-field, and with this the _Yermak_ during the following days drifted farther and farther. Soon the vessel was completely enclosed by the ice, and thus rendered unmanageable. The weather was often fine, the thermometer showed +4 deg., a strong aerial reflection elevated images of the pieces of ice at the horizon, and gave them the most wonderful and beautiful forms. Everywhere there were upon the ice fresh-water pools, some of which were of great extent and of no inconsiderable depth. Thus, on the ice-field lying nearest the vessel there were different "lakes," one of which was used for drinking, another for filling the water-casks, a third to supply washing-water to the crew, and a fourth for washing their clothes.

On the 3rd Sept./22nd Aug. the ice began to be pressed together by a light W.S.W. wind. Convinced that the vessel would soon be nipped, the men on board began to save the stock of provisions and the boats, by placing them on the ice, but the pressure soon ceased. There fell a heavy rain, which afterwards, when the wind changed to north-west, passed into snow. On the 7th Sept./26th Aug. the coast of Yalmal was sighted. A fathom-thick ice-floe shot under the vessel and caused it to heel over to starboard. The following day there was a storm from the S.S.W. with snow. The ice forcing itself forward shook the vessel several times so violently that the crew rushed up to save the provisions, &c., on the ice. They were now in the neighbourhood of 70 deg. N.L. and 65 deg. E.L. (Greenwich), almost right off the mouth of the Kara river. The crew worked the whole day with axes and iron bars hewing off the sharp projecting corners of the ice-blocks that were pressed against the vessel. On the 11th Sept./20 Aug. there was warm weather with rain. The ice was in so violent motion that it was impossible to walk upon it. On the afternoon of the same day the _Yermak_ sustained several violent concussions, and the hull was lifted one foot. On the 13th/1st September, a violent storm broke out, which drove the vessel to the north-east. It was expected every moment that the vessel would be nipped, and a tent was accordingly pitched on the ice, in order that part of the provisions from the hold might be placed in it. Wood even was carried to it. It was Russia's thousand-years' day, and it was celebrated with a festive ball and merry songs, although they every instant expected their vessel to be crushed by the masses of ice that were pressed together by the fearful storm. On the 14th/2nd September, the stem of the vessel was forced five feet above the water-line, and the whole night a continual cracking of timbers was heard in the hull. The water rose rapidly to a depth of two feet. Every man left the vessel and removed to the ice, but soon after the immense ice-field on which the tent was pitched went in pieces, while the leak in the vessel closed, and the crew in consequence went on board again. On the 15th/3rd September, the vessel was again pressed so, that the deck at times was bent to the form of a vault. On the 19th/7th September, von Krusenstern called the crew together that they might choose from their number three persons to advise with the commander on the best means of making their escape, and two days after the vessel was abandoned, after a meal at which the crew were literally offered all the house afforded. They then broke up for a journey to land, which was exceedingly difficult on account of the unevenness of the ice. They were soon obliged to leave the boat, which they had at first endeavoured to drag along with them over the ice, and take the most indispensable of the provisions on their own backs. On leaving the ship a sailor had secretly got possession of so much brandy, that during the first day's march he had the opportunity of drinking himself dead drunk. To carry him along was not possible, to wait was not advisable. He was left therefore to sleep off the drink; and in order that he might do so as soon as possible they took off his clothes and left him lying upon the ice with only his shirt on. Next day, however, he got up with his comrades after following their track in the darkness the whole night. Open places were often met with, which the travellers had to cross on pieces of drift-ice rowed forward by boat-hooks. Once when the shipwrecked men were ferrying themselves over upon a piece of ice which was already fully loaded, six walruses were seen in the neighbourhood. They showed a disposition to accompany the seafarers on the piece of ice, which in that case would certainly have sunk, and it was only after a ball had been sent through the leader's head that the animals gave up their plan for resting, which gave evidence of a gregariousness as great as their want of acquaintance with mankind. After Krusenstern and his companions had for several days in succession drifted backwards and forwards on a piece of ice in the neighbourhood of land, and traversed long stretches by jumping from one piece of ice to another, they at last reached the shore on the 28/16th September. In the immediate neighbourhood they found an encampment, whose inhabitants (Samoyeds) gave the shipwrecked men a friendly reception, and entertained them with the luxuries of the reindeer herd--raw and cooked reindeer flesh, reindeer tongues, reindeer marrow--raw fish and goose-fat. After the meal was finished the exhausted wanderers lay down to sleep in the Samoyed tents on the soft reindeer skins; "all sorrows and difficulties were forgotten; we felt a boundless enjoyment, as if we had come to paradise." Thence they travelled in reindeer sledges to Obdorsk, everywhere received in a friendly and hospitable manner by the wild tribes on the way, although the hospitality sometimes became troublesome; as for instance when an Ostyak compelled von Krusenstern to drink tea six times a day, and six cups each time, and offered him as a special luxury an extract of tobacco in brandy.[170]

Krusenstern's adventurous journey across the Kara Sea is one of the many proofs that a Polar navigator ought above everything to avoid being beset. The very circumstance that the ice-field, in which he became fixed in the neighbourhood of Yugor Schar, could drift across to the east coast of the Kara Sea, shows that it was for the most part open, and that a steamer or a good sailing-vessel that year, and probably also the preceding, might very readily have reached the mouth of the Ob or the Yenisej. The narrative of von Krusenstern's journey is besides the first complete sketch we have of a passage from west to east over the Kara Sea. Little idea could any one then have that within a single decade a number of vessels should sail free and unhindered along this route.

Soon after the two voyages I have described above, and before they became generally known in the geographical literature of Western Europe, a new era began in the navigation of the Kara Sea, which was brought about by the Norwegian hunters being compelled to seek for new fields of sport on and beyond Novaya Zemlya.

The history of the Spitzbergen hunting has not yet been written in a satisfactory way, and is in many respects very obscure. It is supposed that after the discovery of Spitzbergen in 1596 by Barents, the hunting in the Polar Seas began during BENNET'S first voyage in 1603, and that the whale-fishing was introduced by JONAS POOLE in 1610. But already in the following year Poole, whose vessel was then wrecked on the west coast of Spitzbergen, found in Horn Sound a ship from Hull, to which he gave charge of saving his cargo, and two years after the English were compelled, in order to keep foreigners from the fishing field they wished to monopolise, to send out six men-of-war, which found there eight Spanish, and a number of Dutch and French vessels (_Purchas_, iii. pp. 462, 716, &c.). Even in our days the accounts of new sources of wealth do not spread so speedily as in this case, unless, along with the history of the discovery which was written by Hakluyt, Purchas, De Veer, &c., there had been an unknown history of discovery and the whale-fishing, of which it may still be possible to collect some particulars from the archives of San Sebastian, Dunkirk, Hull, and other ports.

However this may be, it is certain that the English and Dutch North-east voyages gave origin to a whale-fishery in the sea round Spitzbergen, which increased by many millions the national wealth of these rich commercial states. The fishing went on at first immediately along the coasts, from which, however, the whales were soon driven, so that the whale-fishers had to seek new fishing-grounds, first farther out to sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland, then in Davis' Strait, and finally in the South Polar Sea, or in the sea on both sides of Behring's Straits.

Spitzbergen, when the whale-fishing ceased in its neighbourhood, was mostly abandoned, until the Russians began to settle there, principally for the hunting of the mountain fox and the reindeer. Of their hunting voyages we know very little, but that they had been widely prosecuted is shown by the remains of their dwellings or huts on nearly all the fjords of Spitzbergen.

They seem to have often wintered, probably because the defective build of their vessels only permitted them to sail to and from Spitzbergen during the height of summer, and they could not thus take part without wintering in the autumn hunting, during which the fattest reindeer are got; nor could the thick and valuable fur of the winter-fox be obtained without wintering.[171] But the hunting voyages of the Russians to Spitzbergen have also long ceased. The last voyage thither took place in 1851-52, and had a very unfortunate issue for most of those who took part in it, twelve men dying out of twenty. On the other hand, the Norwegian voyages to Spitzbergen for the seal and walrus-hunting, begun in the end of last century, still go on. Their history, too, is, even here in the North, very incompletely known, at least to 1858, when the Swedish scientific expeditions began regularly to visit those regions, and to include in the narratives of their voyages more or less complete accounts of the Norwegian hunting, an example that has since been followed, though by no means very completely or systematically, by the editors of Norwegian and foreign journals, in the first place by Petermann's _Mittheilungen_.[172]

Between 1860 and 1870 the game (walrus, seal, bear, and reindeer) began to diminish in such a degree that the hunters were compelled to seek for themselves new hunting-grounds. They turned to the north and east, the less accessible parts of Spitzbergen, afterwards still farther eastwards towards Novaya Zemlya, and beyond this island to the Kara Sea, and they penetrated farther than all their predecessors. In the history of the North-east Passage therefore some pages must always be devoted to the bold voyages to Novaya Zemlya of these small hunting sloops, provisioned only for the summer.

The Norwegian hunter who first visited Novaya Zemlya was ELLING CARLSEN, afterwards known as a member of the Austrian Polar expedition. In 1868 he sailed in a sloop from Hammerfest on a hunting voyage eastward, forced his way into the Kara Sea through the Kara Port, but soon returned through Yugor Schar, and then sailed northwards as far as Cape Nassau. Induced by the abundance of game, he returned next year to the same regions, and then succeeded in penetrating the Kara Sea as far as the neighbourhood of Beli Ostrov, whence he returned to Norway through Matotschkin Schar. Carlsen's lead was immediately followed by several Norwegian hunters, one of whom, EDWARD JOHANNESEN, made a very remarkable voyage, of which I will here give a brief account.

Johannesen anchored on the 31st May, 1869, at Meschduschar Island, without having seen any drift-ice in the course of his voyage. He then sailed up along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in nearly open water past Matotschkin Sound to Cape Nassau, which was reached on the 19th June. Hence he returned, following the coast toward the south, until, on the 29th June, he sailed through the Kara Port into the Kara Sea. This was passed in very open water, and after coming to its eastern side he followed the coast of Yalmal towards the north to Beli Ostrov. This island was reached on the 7th August, and from it he steered south along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya to the Kara Port, through which he returned to Norway.[173]

The same year, the English sportsman, Mr. JOHN PALLISER[174] sailed across the Kara Sea, through Matotschkin Schar to Beli Ostrov. He returned through Yugor Schar with abundance of booty[175] from the hunting grounds where formerly the walruses tumbled undisturbed among the drift-ice, and where the white bear has not yet met his superior.[176]

These voyages are amongst the most remarkable that the history of Arctic navigation can show. They at once overturned all the theories which, on the ground of an often superficial study of preceding unsuccessful voyages, had been set up regarding the state of the ice east of Novaya Zemlya, and they thus form the starting-point of a new era in the history of the North-east Passage.

After his return to Norway Johannesen sent to the Academy of Sciences in Stockholm a paper on his voyage in 1869, and on his hydrographical observations in the Kara Sea, for which he received a silver medal. This I was commissioned to send him, and in the correspondence which took place regarding it I on one occasion said in jest that a circumnavigation of Novaya Zemlya would certainly entitle him to a gold medal from the same famous scientific institution that had given him the silver medal. I myself travelled the following summer, in 1870, to Greenland, and returned thence late in autumn. I then had the pleasure of receiving from Captain Johannesen a new paper, afterwards inserted in the _Oefcersigt_, of the transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences for the year 1871, p. 157, "Hydro-grafiske Iakttagelser under en Fangsttour 1870 rundt om Novaja Zemlja." Johannesen now as on the first occasion sailed backwards and forwards along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, then through the Kara Port, which was passed on the 12th July. He then followed the east coast of Vaygats to Mestni Island, where he came in contact with Samoyeds, in connection with which he makes the remark, certainly quite unexpected by philologists, that in the language of the Samoyeds "certain Norwegian words were recognised." Their exterior was not at all attractive. They had flat noses, their eyes were dreadfully oblique, and many had also oblique mouths. The men received the foreigners drawn up in a row, with the women in the second rank. All were very friendly. On the 11th August he was on the coast of Yalmal in 71 deg. 48' N.L., whence he sailed over to Novaya Zemlya in order to take on board wood and water. He anchored in the neighbourhood of Udde Bay in 73 deg. 48' N.L., and saw there twenty wild reindeer. Then he sailed again over the Kara Sea to Yalmal.

During these cruisings in the Kara Sea the summer had passed. Johannesen's vessel was now full, but notwithstanding this he determined, at a season of the year when the walrus-hunters commonly return to Norway, to see whether the offered prize could not be won into the bargain. The course was shaped first to the north-east, then westward to the north coast of Novaya Zemlya, which was reached on the 3rd September. The whole sea here was open, which Johannesen, on the ground of finding Norwegian fishing-net floats among the driftwood, attributed to the action of the Gulf Stream. Hence he returned to Norway, after having completed a voyage which some years before all geographical authorities would have considered an impossibility. I need scarcely mention that the Academy in Stockholm redeemed the promise which one of its members had given without the necessary authority. Johannesen was then twenty-six years old. Son of a skilful hunter, he had from his childhood taken part in Arctic voyages, and thus grown up in the employment to which he had devoted himself.

The same year several other walrus-hunters also made remarkable voyages in the Kara Sea. Captain E.A. ULVE first sailed along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya to 76 deg. 47' N.L., then back to Matotschkin Schar, through which he passed on the 7th and 8th August into the Kara Sea, which was completely free of ice, with the exception of some few very scattered pieces. After sailing backwards and forwards in different directions in the Kara Sea, he returned through the Kara Port on the 24th August. Captain F.E. MACK made a similar voyage. He sailed from the 28th June to the 8th July northwards along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, which was free of ice between the Petchora and the Admiralty peninsula, where fast ice was found, and fourteen sailing vessels and two steamers were now assembled. On the 8th and 9th June thunder was heard here. From the Admiralty peninsula Mack sailed again, first to the south, and then, on the 18th July, through Matotschkin Sound into the Kara Sea, which was nearly free of ice. Captain P. QUALE, again, and A.O. NEDREVAAG, sailing master, penetrated through Yugor Sound into the Kara Sea, and sailed there to 75 deg. 22' N.L., and 74 deg. 35' E.L. (Greenwich).[177]

Also in 1871 a number of walrus-hunters made remarkable voyages in the Kara Sea. Of these, however, only one, Mack, in the schooner _Pole Star_, penetrated eastwards farther than all his predecessors. On the 14th June he sailed into the Kara Sea through the Kara Port, but found the sea still covered with continuous fast ice, from 1.8 to 2 metres in thickness. He therefore turned and sailed northwards along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya to the Gulf Stream Islands (76 deg. 10' N.L.), where he remained till the 3rd of August. The temperature of the air rose here to +10.5 deg.. The name, which the Norwegian walrus-hunters have given these islands, owes its origin to the large number of objects from southern seas which the Gulf Stream carries with it thither, as floats from the Norwegian fisheries, with their owner's marks frequently recognisable by the walrus-hunters--beans of _Entada gigalobium_ from the West Indies, pumice-stone from Iceland, fragments of wrecked vessels, &c. On the 3rd of August Mack passed the northernmost promontory of Novaya Zemlya. Hence he sailed into the Kara Sea, where at first he fell in with ice. Farther on, however, the ice disappeared completely, and Mack on the 12th of September reached 75 deg. 25' N.L. and 82 deg. 30' E.L. (Greenwich) according to Petermann, but 81 deg. 11' Long, according to the _Tromsoe Stiftstidende_. He returned through Yugor Schar, which was passed on the 26th September.[178] The same year E. Johannesen, after long endeavouring without success to make his way into the Kara Sea through the southern strait, sailed northwards along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and did not leave Cape Nassau until the 15th October.

From the same year too Petermann also publishes very remarkable journals of the Norwegian walrus-hunting captains, S. TOBIESEN, H. CH. JOHANNESEN, J.N. ISAKSEN, SOeREN JOHANNESEN, DOERMA, SIMONSEN, and E. CARLSEN; but as none of these gallant seamen that year penetrated to the north or east beyond the points which their predecessors had reached, I may be allowed with regard to their voyages to refer to _Mittheilungen_ for 1872 (pp. 386-391 and 395), also to the maps which are inserted in the same volume of that journal (pl. 19 and 20), and which are grounded on the working out by Prof. H. MOHN, of Christiania, of his countrymen's observations. With respect to Captain E. Carlsen's voyage, however, it may be stated, that in the course of it a discovery was made, which has been represented as that of an Arctic Pompeii, remarkably well protected against the depredation of the tooth of Time, not indeed by lava and volcanic ashes, but by ice and snow. For when Carlsen on the 9th September landed on the north-east coast of Novaya Zemlya in 76 deg. 7' N.L., he found there a house, 10 metres long and 6 metres wide, with the roof fallen in, long since abandoned and filled with gravel and ice. From this frozen gravel were dug up a large number of household articles, books, boxes, &c., which showed that they were relics of Barents' winter dwelling, which now, almost three hundred years after the place had been abandoned, came to the light of day, so well preserved that they gave a lively idea of the way in which the European passed his first winter in the true Polar regions. When Carlsen had erected a cairn in which he placed a tin canister containing an account of the discovery, he took on board the most important of the articles which he had found and returned to Norway. There he sold them at first for 10,800 crowns to an Englishman, Mr. Ellis C. Lister Kay, who afterwards made them over for the price he had paid for them to the Dutch Government. They are now to be found arranged at the Marine Department at the Hague in a model room, which is an exact reproduction of the interior of Barents' house on Novaya Zemlya.[179]

After Carlsen, Barents' winter haven was visited in the year 1875 by the Norwegian walrus-hunter, M. GUNDERSEN, who among other things found there a broken chest containing two maps and a Dutch translation of the narrative of Pet's and Jackman's voyages, and in the year 1876 by Mr. CHARLES GARDINER, who through more systematic excavations succeeded in collecting a considerable additional number of remarkable things, among which were the ink-horn and the pens which the Polar travellers had used nearly three centuries ago, and a powder-horn, containing a short account, signed by Heemskerk and Barents, of the most important incidents of the expedition. Gundersen's _find_ is still, as far as I know, at Hammerfest; Gardiner's has been handed over to the Dutch Government to be preserved along with the other Barents relics at the Hague.