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diff --git a/24365.txt b/24365.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4297cf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/24365.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33722 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and +Europe, Volume I and Volume II, by A.E. Nordenskieold + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II + +Author: A.E. Nordenskieold + +Release Date: January 20, 2008 [EBook #24365] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOYAGE OF THE VEGA *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + + + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA ROUND ASIA AND EUROPE. VOL. I. + +[Illustration: OSCAR, II ] + +THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA ROUND ASIA AND EUROPE +WITH A HISTORICAL REVIEW +OF PREVIOUS JOURNEYS ALONG THE NORTH COAST OF THE OLD WORLD + + +BY A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD + +TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER LESLIE + +_WITH FIVE STEEL PORTRAITS, NUMEROUS MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I + +London +MACMILLAN AND CO. +1881 + + +TO HIS MAJESTY +KING OSCAR II. +THE HIGH PROTECTOR OF THE VEGA EXPEDITION +THIS SKETCH OF THE VOYAGE +HE SO MAGNANIMOUSLY AND GENEROUSLY PROMOTED +IS WITH THE DEEPEST GRATITUDE +MOST HUMBLY +DEDICATED + +BY A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD. + + + + +AUTHOR'S PREFACE. + + +In the work now published I have, along with the sketch of the +voyage of the _Vega_ round Asia and Europe, of the natural +conditions of the north coast of Siberia, of the animal and +vegetable life prevailing there, and of the peoples with whom we +came in contact in the course of our journey, endeavoured to give a +review, as complete as space permitted, of previous exploratory +voyages to the Asiatic Polar Sea. It would have been very ungrateful +on my part if I had not referred at some length to our predecessors, +who with indescribable struggles and difficulties--and generally +with the sacrifice of health and life--paved the way along which we +advanced, made possible the victory we achieved. In this way besides +the work itself has gained a much-needed variety, for nearly all the +narratives of the older North-East voyages contain in abundance what +a sketch of our adventures has not to offer; for many readers +perhaps expect to find in a book such as this accounts of dangers +and misfortunes of a thousand sorts by land and sea. May the +contrast which thus becomes apparent between the difficulties our +predecessors had to contend with and those which the _Vega_ met with +during her voyage incite to new exploratory expeditions to the sea, +which now, for the first time, has been ploughed by the keel of a +sea-going vessel, and conduce to dissipate a prejudice which for +centuries has kept the most extensive cultivable territory on the +globe shut out from the great Oceans of the World. + +The work is furnished with numerous maps and illustrations, and is +provided with accurate references to sources of geographical +information. For this I am indebted both to the liberal conception +which my publisher, Herr FRANS BEIJER, formed of the way in which +the work should be executed, and the assistance I have received +while it was passing through the press from Herr E.W. Dahlgren, +amanuensis at the Royal Library, for which it is a pleasant duty +publicly to offer them my hearty thanks. + +A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD. + +STOCKHOLM, _8th October_, 1881. + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. + + +Having been honoured by a request from Baron Nordenskioeld that I +would undertake the translation of the work in which he gives an +account of the voyage by which the North-East Passage was at last +achieved, and Asia and Europe circumnavigated for the first time, I +have done my best to reproduce in English the sense of the Swedish +original as faithfully as possible, and at the same time to preserve +the style of the author as far as the varying idioms of the two +languages permit. + +I have to thank two ladies for the help they kindly gave me in +reading proofs, and my friend Herr GUSTAF LINDSTROeM, for valuable +assistance rendered in various ways. + +Where not otherwise indicated, temperature is stated in degrees of +the Centigrade or Celsius thermometer. Longitude is invariably +reckoned from the meridian of Greenwich. + +Where distance is stated in miles without qualification, the miles +are Swedish (one of which is equal to 6.64 English miles), except at +page 372, Vol. I., where the geographical square miles are German, +each equal to sixteen English geographical square miles. + +ALEX. LESLIE. + +CHERRYVALE, ABERDEEN, +_24th November_, 1881. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +Typographical errors corrected, and alternative spellings noticed +during the preparation of this text has been placed at the end. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +INTRODUCTION + + +CHAPTER I. + +Departure--Tromsoe--Members of the Exhibition--Stay at +Maosoe--Limit of Trees--Climate--Scurvy and Antiscorbutics--The +first doubling of North Cape--Othere's account of his +Travels--Ideas concerning the Geography of Scandinavia current +during the first half of the sixteenth century--The oldest Maps +of the North--Herbertstein's account of Istoma's voyage--Gustaf +Vasa and the North-East Passage--Willoughby and Chancellor's +voyages. + + +CHAPTER II. + +Departure from Maosoe--Gooseland--State of the Ice--The Vessels of +the Expedition assemble at Chabarova--The Samoyed town there--The +Church--Russians and Samoyeds--Visit to Chabarova in 1875--Purchase +of Samoyed Idols--Dress and dwellings of the Samoyeds--Comparison of +the Polar Races--Sacrificial Places and Samoyed Grave on Waygats +Island visited--Former accounts of the Samoyeds--Their place in +Ethnography. + + +CHAPTER III. + +From the Animal World of Novaya Zemlya--The Fulmar Petrel--The +Rotge or Little Auk--Bruennich's Guillemot--The Black Guillemot--The +Arctic Puffin--The Gulls--Richardson's Skua--The Tern--Ducks and +Geese--The Swan--Waders--The Snow Bunting--The Ptarmigan--The Snowy +Owl--The Reindeer--The Polar Bear--The Arctic Fox--The +Lemming--Insects--The Walrus--The Seal--Whales. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The Origin of the names Yugor Schar and Kara Sea--Rules for +Sailing through Yugor Schar--The "Highest Mountain" on +Earth--Anchorages--Entering the Kara Sea--Its Surroundings--The +Inland-ice of Novaya Zemlya--True Icebergs rare in certain parts +of the Polar Sea--The Natural Conditions of the Kara Sea--Animals, +Plants, Bog-ore--Passage across the Kara Sea--The Influence of +the Ice on the Sea-bottom--Fresh-water Diatoms on Sea-ice--Arrival +at Port Dickson--Animal Life there--Settlers and Settlements at +the Mouth of the Yenisej--The Flora at Port +Dickson--Evertebrates--Excursion to White Island--Yalmal--Previous +Visits--Nummelin's Wintering on the Briochov Islands. + + +CHAPTER V. + +The history of the North-east Passage from 1556 to 1878--Burrough, +1556--Pet and Jackman, 1580--The first voyage of the Dutch, +1594--Oliver Brunel--The second voyage, 1595--The third voyage, +1596--Hudson, 1608--Gourdon, 1611--Bosman, 1625--De la Martiniere, +1653--Vlamingh, 1664--Snobberger, 1675--Roule reaches a land north of +Novaya Zemlya--Wood and Flawes, 1676--Discussion in England +concerning the state of the ice in the Polar Sea--Views of the +condition of the Polar Sea still divided--Payer and Weyprecht, 1872-74. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +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--Iuschkov, 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 Barent's +wintering--Tobiesen's wintering 1872-73--The Swedish Expeditions +1875 and 1876--Wiggins, 1876--Later voyages to and from the Yenisej. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Departure from Port Dickson--Landing on a rocky island east of the +Yenisej--Self-dead animals--Discovery of crystals on the surface of +the drift-ice--Cosmic dust--Stay in Actinia Bay--Johannesen's +discovery of the island Ensamheten--Arrival at Cape Chelyuskin--The +natural state of the land and sea there--Attempt to penetrate +right eastwards to the New Siberian Islands--The effect of the +mist--Abundant dredging-yield--Preobraschenie Island--Separation +from the _Lena_ at the mouth of the river Lena. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The voyage of the _Fraser_ and the _Express_ up the Yenisej and +their return to Norway--Contract for the piloting of the _Lena_ up +the Lena river--The voyage of the _Lena_ through the delta and up +the river to Yakutsk--The natural state of Siberia in general--The +river territories--The fitness of the land for cultivation and the +necessity for improved communications--The great rivers, the +future commercial highways of Siberia--Voyage up the Yenisej in +1875--Sibiriakoff's Island--The _tundra_--The primeval Siberian +forest--The inhabitants of Western Siberia: the Russians, the +Exiles, the "Asiatics"--Ways of travelling on the Yenisej, dog-boats, +floating trading stores propelled by steam--New prospects for Siberia. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +The new Siberian Islands--The Mammoth--Discovery of Mammoth +and Rhinoceros mummies--Fossil Rhinoceros horns--Stolbovoj +Island--Liachoff Island--First discovery of this island--Passage +through the sound between this island and the mainland--Animal life +there--Formation of ice in water above the freezing point--The +Bear Islands--The quantity and dimensions of the ice begin to +increase--Different kinds of sea-ice--Renewed attempt to leave the +open channel along the coast--Lighthouse Island--Voyage along the +coast to Cape Schelagskoj--Advance delayed by ice, shoals, and +fog--First meeting with the Chukches--Landing and visits to Chukch +villages--Discovery of abandoned encampments--Trade with the natives +rendered difficult by the want of means of exchange--Stay at +Irkaipij--Onkilon graves--Information regarding the Onkilon +race--Renewed contact with the Chukches--Kolyutschin Bay--American +statements regarding the state of the ice north of Behring's +Straits--The _Vega_ beset. + + +CHAPTER X. + +Wintering becomes necessary--The position of the _Vega_--The ice +round the vessel--American ship in the neighbourhood of the _Vega_ +when frozen in--The nature of the neighbouring country--The _Vega_ +is prepared for wintering--Provision-depot and observatories +established on land--The winter dress--Temperature on board--Health +and dietary--Cold, wind, and snow--The Chukches on board--Menka's +visit--Letters sent home--Nordquist and Hovgaard's excursion to +Menka's encampment--Another visit of Menka--The fate of the +letters--Nordquist's journey to Pidlin--_Find_ of a Chukch +grave--Hunting--Scientific work--Life on board--Christmas Eve. + + + + +PORTRAITS. + +Engraved on Steel by G.J. Stodart of London. + + +King Oscar II + +Oscar Dickson + +Alexander Sibiriakoff + + + + +LITHOGRAPHED MAPS. + + +1. Map of North Europe, from Nicholas Donis's edition of Ptolemy's + _Cosmographia_, Ulm, 1482 + +2. Map of the North, from Jakob Ziegler's _Schondia_, Strassburg, 1532 + +3. Map of North. Europe from _Olai Magni Historia de gentium + septentrionalium variis conditionibus_, Basil, 1567 + +4. Map of Port Dickson, by G. Bove. Map of Cape Bolvan on Vaygats + Island, by the author. The _Lena's_ cruise in Malygin Sound, by + A. Hovgaard. Map of Cape Chelyuskin, by G. Bove + +5. Map showing Barents' Third Voyage, from _J.L. Pontani Rerum et urbis + Amstelodamensium historia_, Amst., 1611 + +6. Russian Map of the North Polar Sea from the beginning of the 17th + century, published in Holland in 1612 by Isaac Massa + +7. Sketch-Map of Taimur Sound; Map of Actinia Bay, both by G. Bove + +8. Map of the River System of Siberia + + + + +LIST OF WOOD-CUTS IN VOL I. + + +_The wood-cuts, when not otherwise stated below, were engraved at +Herr Wilhelm Meyer's Xylographic Institute in Stockholm._ + +1. The _Vega_ under sail, drawn by Captain J. Hagg + +2. The _Vega_--Longitudinal section, drawn by Lieut. C.A.M. Hjulhammar + +3. ,, ,, Plan of arrangement under deck, drawn by ditto + +4. ,, ,, Plan of upper deck, drawn by ditto + +5. The _Lena_--Longitudinal section, drawn by Marine-engineer J. Pihlgren + +6. ,, ,, Plan of arrangement under deck, drawn by ditto + +7. ,, ,, Plan of upper deck, drawn by ditto + +8. Flag of the Swedish Yacht Club, drawn by V. Andren + +9. Tromsoe, drawn by R. Haglund + +10. Old World Polar dress, drawn by O. Soerling + +11. New World Polar Dress, drawn by Docent A. Kornrup, Copenhagen + +12. Limit of Trees in Norway, drawn by R. Haglund, engraved by J. Engberg + +13. Limit of Trees in Siberia, drawn by ditto + +14. The Cloudberry (_Rubus Chamaemorus_, L.), + drawn by Mrs. Professor A. Anderssen + +15. Norse Ship of the Tenth Century, drawn by Harald Schoeyen, Christiania + +16. Sebastian Cabot, engraved by Miss Ida Falander + +17. Sir Hugh Willoughby, engraved by J.D. Cooper, London + +18. Vardoe in 1594 + +19. Vardoe in our days, drawn by R. Haglund + +20. Coast Landscape from Matotschkin Schar, drawn by R. Haglund + +21. Church of Chabarova, drawn by V. Andren + +22. Samoyed Woman's Hood, drawn by O. Soerling + +23. Samoyed Sleigh, drawn by R. Haglund + +24. Lapp Akja, drawn by ditto; engraved by J. Engberg + +25. Samoyed Sleigh and Idols + +26. Samoyed Idols, drawn by O. Soerling + +27. Samoyed Hair Ornaments, drawn by ditto + +28. Samoyed Woman's Dress, drawn by R. Haglund + +29. Samoyed Belt with Knife, drawn by O. Soerling + +30. Sacrificial Eminence on Vaygat's Island, drawn by R. Haglund; + engraved by J. Engberg + +31. Idols from the Sacrificial Cairn, drawn by O. Soerling + +32. Sacrificial Cavity on Vaygat's Island, drawn by V. Andren + +33. Samoyed Grave on Vaygat's Island, drawn by R. Haglund; engraved + by O. Dahlbaeck + +34. Samoyed Archers + +35. Samoyeds from Schleissing's _Neu-entdektes Sieweria_ + +36. Breeding-place for Little Auks, drawn by H. Haglund + +37. The Little Auk, or Rotge (_Mergulus Alle_, L.), drawn by M. Westergren + +38. The Loom, or Bruennich's Guillemot (_Uria Bruennichii_, Sabine), drawn + by ditto + +39. The Arctic Puffin (_Mormon Arcticus_, L.), drawn by ditto + +40. The Black Guillemot (_Uria Grylle_, L.), drawn by ditto + +41. Breeding-place for Glaucous Gulls, drawn by R. Haglund + +42. The Kittiwake (_Larus tridactylus_, L.), and the Ivory Gull + (_Laruse burneus_, L.), drawn by M. Westergren + +43. Rare Northern Gulls--Sabine's Gull (_Larus Sabinii_, Sabine)--Ross's + Gull (_Larus Rossii_, Richards), drawn by ditto + +44. The Common Skua (_Lestris parasitica_, L.)--Buffon's Skua + (_Lestris Buffonii_, Boie)--the Pomarine Skua (_Lestris pomarina_, + Tem.) drawn by ditto + +45. Heads of the Eider, King Buck, Barnacle Goose, + and White-fronted Goose, drawn by ditto + +46. Bewick's Swan (_Cygnus Bewickii_, Yarr.), drawn by M. Westergren + +47. Breastbone of _Cygnus Bewickii_, showing the peculiar position of the + windpipe, drawn by ditto + +48. Ptarmigan Fell, drawn by R. Haglund + +49. The Snowy Owl (_Strix nyctea_, L.), drawn by M. Westergren + +50. Reindeer Pasture, drawn by R. Haglund + +51. Polar Bears, drawn by G. Muetzell, engraved by K. Jahrmargt, + both of Berlin + +52. Ditto + +53. Walruses, drawn by M. Westergren + +54. Walrus Tusks, drawn by ditto + +55. Hunting Implements, drawn by O. Soerling + +56. Walrus Hunting, after Olaus Magnus + +57. Walruses (female with young) + +58. Japanese Drawing of the Walrus + +59. Young of the Greenland Seal, drawn by M. Westergren + +60. The Bearded Seal (_Phoca barbata_, Fabr.), drawn by ditto + +61. The Rough Seal (_Phoca hispida_, Erxl.), drawn by ditto + +62. The White Whale (_Delphinapterus leucas_, Pallas), drawn by ditto + +63. Section of Inland-Ice + +64. View from the Inland-ice of Greenland, drawn by H. Haglund + +65. Greenland Ice-fjord, drawn by ditto + +66. Slowly advancing Glacier, drawn by ditto + +67. Glacier with Stationary Front, drawn by O. Soerling + +68. Umbellula from the Kara Sea, drawn by M. Westergren + +69. _Elpidia Glacialis_ (Theel.), from the Kara Sea, drawn by ditto + +70. Manganiferous Iron-ore Formations from the Kara Sea, + drawn by O. Soerling + +71. Section from the South Coast of Matotschkin Sound, + drawn by the geologist, E. Erdman + +72. Map of the Mouth of the Yenisej (zincograph) + +73. Ruins of a Simovie at Krestovskoj, drawn by O. Soerling + +74. _Sieversia Glacialis_, R. Br., from Port Dickson, + drawn by Mrs. Prof. Anderssen + +75. Evertebrates from Port Dickson, _Yoldia artica_, Gray, + and _Diastylis Rathkei_, Kr., drawn by M. Westergren + +76. Place of Sacrifice on Yalmal, drawn by R. Haglund + +77. "Jordgammor" on the Briochov Islands, drawn by ditto + +78. Russian "Lodja" + +79. Dutch Skipper + +80. Capture of a Polar Bear + +81. Jan Huyghen van Linschoten + +82. Kilduin, in Russian Lapland, in 1594 + +83. Map of Fietum Nassovicum or Yugor Schar + +84. Unsuccessful Fight with a Polar Bear + +85. Barents' and Rijp's Vessels + +86. Barents' House, outside + +87. Ditto inside + +88. Jacob van Heemskerk + +89. De la Martiniere's Map + +90. Ammonite with Gold Lustre (_Ammonites alternans_, v. Buch) + drawn by M. Westergren + +91. View from Matotschkin Schar, drawn by R. Haglund + +92. Friedrich Benjamin von Luetke, drawn and engraved by Miss Ida + Falander + +93. August Karlovitz Zivolka, drawn and engraved by ditto + +94. Paul von Krusenstern, Junior, drawn and engraved by ditto + +95. Michael Konstantinovitsch Sidoroff, drawn and engraved by ditto + +96. Norwegian Hunting Sloop, drawn by Captain J. Hagg + +97. Elling Carlson, engraved by J.D. Cooper, of London + +98. Edward Hohn Johannesen, engraved by ditto + +99. Sivert Kristian Tobiesen, engraved by ditto + +100. Tobiesen's Winter House on Bear Island, drawn by R. Haglund + +101. Joseph Wiggins, drawn by R. Haglund + +102. David Ivanovitsch Schwanenberg, drawn and engraved by Miss Ida + Falander + +103. Gustaf Adolf Nummelin, drawn and engraved by ditto + +104. The Sloop _Utrennaja Saria_, drawn by Captain J. Hagg + +105. The _Vega_, and _Lena_ anchored to an Ice-floe, drawn by R. Haglund + +106. Hairstar from the Taimur Coast (_Antedon Eschrictii_, J. Mueller) + drawn by M. Westergren + +107. Form of the Crystals found on the ice off the Taimur Coast + +108. Section of the upper part of the Snow on a Drift-ice Field in + 80 deg. N.L. + +109. Grass from Actinia Bay (_Pleuropogon Sabini_, R. Br.), + drawn by Mrs. Professor Andersson + +110. The _Vega_ and _Lena_ saluting Cape Chelyuskin, drawn by R. Haglund + +111. View at Cape Chelyuskin during the stay of the Expedition, + drawn by ditto + +112. _Draba Alpina_, L., from Cape Chelyuskin, drawn by M. Westergren + +113. The Beetle living farthest to the North + (_Micralymma Dicksoni_, Mackl.) drawn by ditto + +114. Ophiuroid from the Sea north of Cape Chelyuskin + (_Ophiacantha bidentata_ Retz.), drawn by ditto + +115. Sea Spider (_pycnogonid_) from the Sea east of Cape Chelyuskin, + drawn by ditto + +116. Preobraschenie Island, drawn by R. Haglund + +117. The steamer _Fraser_, drawn by ditto + +118. The Steamer _Lena_, drawn by ditto + +119. Hans Christian Johannesen, engraved by J.D. Cooper, London + +120. Yakutsk in the Seventeenth Century + +121. Yakutsk in our days, drawn by R. Haglund + +122. River View from the Yenisej, drawn by ditto + +123. Sub-fossil Marine Crustacea from the _tundra_, + drawn by M. Westergren + +124. Siberian River Boat, drawn by R. Haglund + +125. Ostyak Tent, drawn by ditto + +126. Towing with Dogs on the Yenisej, drawn by Professor R.D. Holm + +127. Fishing-boats on the Ob, drawn R. Haglund + +128. Graves in the Primeval Forest of Siberia, drawn by ditto + +129. Chukch Village on a Siberian River, drawn by ditto + +130. Mammoth Skeleton in the Imperial Museum of the Academy of Sciences + in St. Petersburg, drawn by M. Westergren + +131. Restored Form of the Mammoth + +132. Siberian Rhinoceros Horn, drawn by M. Westergren and V. Andren + +133. Stolbovoj Island, drawn by R. Haglund + +134. _Idothea Entomon_, Lin., drawn by M. Westergren + +135. _Idothea Sabinei_, Kroeyer, drawn by ditto + +136. Ljachoff's Island, drawn by E. Haglund + +137. Beaker Sponges from the Sea off the mouth of the Kolyma, + drawn by M. Westergren + +138. Lighthouse Island, drawn by R. Haglund + +139. Chukch Boats, drawn by O. Soerling + +140. A Chukch in Seal-gut Great-coat, drawn and engraved by + Miss Ida Falander + +141. Chukch Tent, drawn by R. Haglund + +142. Section of a Chukch Grave, drawn by O. Soerling + +143. Irkaipij, drawn by R. Haglund + +144. Ruins of an Onkilon House, drawn by O. Soerling + +145. Implements found in the Ruins of an Onkilon House, drawn by ditto + +146. Alga from Irkaipij (_Laminaria Solidungula_, J.G. Ag.), + drawn by M. Westergren + +147. Cormorant from Irkaipij (_Graculus bierustatus_, Pallas), + drawn by ditto + +148. Pieces of Ice from the Coast of the Chukch Peninsula, + drawn by O. Soerling + +149. Toross from the neighbourhood of the _Vega's_ Winter Quarters, + drawn by R. Haglund + +150. The _Vega_ in Winter Quarters, drawn by ditto + +151. The Winter Dress of the _Vega_ men, drawn by Jungstedt + +152. Cod from Pitlekaj (_Gadus navaga_, Kolreuter), drawn by M. Westergren + +153. Kautljkau, a Chukch Girl from Irgunnuk, drawn and engraved + by Miss Ida Falander + +154. Chukches Angling, drawn by O. Soerling + +155. Ice-Sieve, drawn by ditto + +156. Smelt from the Chukch Peninsula (_Osmerus eperlanus_, Lin.), + drawn by M. Westergren + +157. Wassili Menka, drawn by O. Soerling, engraved by Miss Ida Falander + +158. Chukch Dog-Sleigh, drawn by ditto + +159. Chukch Bone-carvings, drawn by O. Soerling + +160. Hares from Chukch Land, drawn by M. Westergren + +161. The Observatory at Pitlekaj, drawn by R. Haglund + +162. An Evening in the Gun-room of the _Vega_ during the Wintering, + drawn by ditto, engraved by R. Lindgren + +163. Refraction Halo, drawn by ditto + +164. Reflection Halo, drawn by ditto + +165. Section of the Beach Strata at Pitlekaj + +166. Christmas Eve on the _Vega_, drawn by V. Andren + +ERRATA [ Transcriber's note: these have been applied to the text ] + +Page 44, under Wood-cut _for_ "chammmorus" _read_ "chamaemorus." + +Page 58, lines 21, 24, end 28 _for_ "pearls" _read_ "beads." + +Page 140, line 13 from top, _for_ "swallow" _read_ "roll away." + +Page 184, last line, _for_ "one-third" _read_ "one-and-a-half times." + +Page 377, note, _for_ "It is the general rule" _read_ +"For the northern hemisphere it is a general rule." + +Page 476, line 12 from top, _for_ "leggins" _read_ +"leggings." + +Page 481, under wood-cut, _for_ "half the natural size" +_read_ "one-third of the natural size." + +Page 494, under wood-cut, _for_ "half the natural size" + _read_ "one-third of the natural size." + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +The voyage, which it is my purpose to sketch in this book, owed its +origin to two preceding expeditions from Sweden to the western part +of the Siberian Polar Sea, in the course of which I reached the +mouth of the Yenisej, the first time in 1875 in a walrus-hunting +sloop, the _Procven_, and the second time in 1876 in a steamer, the +_Ymer_. + +After my return from the latter voyage, I came to the conclusion, +that, on the ground of the experience thereby gained, and of the +knowledge which, under the light of that experience, it was possible +to obtain from old, especially from Russian, explorations of the +north coast of Asia, I was warranted in asserting that the open +navigable water, which two years in succession had carried me across +the Kara Sea, formerly of so bad repute, to the mouth of the +Yenisej, extended in all probability as far as Behring's Straits, +and that a circumnavigation of the old world was thus within the +bounds of possibility. + +It was natural that I should endeavour to take advantage of the +opportunity for making new and important discoveries which thus +presented itself. An opportunity had arisen for solving a +geographical problem--the forcing a north-east passage to China and +Japan--which for more than three hundred years had been a subject of +competition between the world's foremost commercial states and most +daring navigators, and which, if we view it in the light of a +circumnavigation of the old world, had, for thousands of years back, +been an object of desire for geographers. I determined, therefore, +at first to make use, for this purpose, of the funds which Mr. A. +SIBIRIAKOFF, after my return from the expedition of 1876, placed at +my disposal for the continuation of researches in the Siberian Polar +Sea. For a voyage of the extent now contemplated, this sum, however, +was quite insufficient. On this account I turned to His Majesty the +King of Sweden and Norway, with the inquiry whether any assistance +in making preparations for the projected expedition might be +reckoned upon from the public funds. King OSCAR, who, already as +Crown Prince, had given a large contribution to the Torell +expedition of 1861, immediately received my proposal with special +warmth, and promised within a short time to invite the Swedish +members of the Yenisej expeditions and others interested in our +voyages of exploration in the north, to meet him for the purpose of +consultation, asking me at the same time to be prepared against the +meeting with a complete exposition of the reasons on which I +grounded my views--differing so widely from the ideas commonly +entertained--of the state of the ice in the sea off the north coast +of Siberia. + +This assembly took place at the palace in Stockholm, on the 26th +January, 1877, which may be considered the birthday of the _Vega_ +Expedition, and was ushered in by a dinner, to which a large number +of persons were invited, among whom were the members of the Swedish +royal house that happened to be then in Stockholm; Prince JOHN OF +GLUeCKSBURG; Dr. OSCAR DICKSON, the Gothenburg merchant; Baron F.W. +VON OTTER, Councillor of State and Minister of Marine, well known +for his voyages in the Arctic waters in 1868 and 1871; Docent F.K. +KJELLMAN, Dr. A. STUTXBERG, the former a member of the expedition +which wintered at Mussel Bay in 1872-73, and of that which reached +the Yenisej in 1875, the latter, of the Yenisej Expeditions of 1875 +and 1876; and Docents HJALMAR THEEL and A.N. LUNDSTROeM, both members +of the Yenisej Expedition of 1875. + +[Illustration: Oscar Dickson ] + +After dinner the programme of the contemplated voyage was laid +before the meeting, almost in the form in which it afterwards +appeared in print in several languages. There then arose a lively +discussion, in the course of which reasons were advanced for, and +against the practicability of the plan. In particular the question +concerning the state of the ice and the marine currents at Cape +Chelyuskin gave occasion to an exhaustive discussion. It ended by +His Majesty first of all declaring himself convinced of the +practicability of the plan of the voyage, and prepared not only as +king, but also as a private individual, to give substantial support +to the enterprise. Dr. Oscar Dickson shared His Majesty's views, and +promised to contribute to the not inconsiderable expenditure, which +the new voyage of exploration would render necessary. This is the +sixth expedition to the high north, the expenses of which have been +defrayed to a greater or less extent by Dr. O. Dickson.[1] He became +the banker of the _Vega_ Expedition, inasmuch as to a considerable +extent he advanced the necessary funds, but after our return the +expenses were equally divided between His Majesty the King of Sweden +and Norway, Dr. Dickson, and Mr. Sibiriakoff. + +I very soon had the satisfaction of appointing, as superintendents +of the botanical and zoological work of the expedition in this new +Polar voyage, my old and tried friends from previous expeditions, +Docents Dr. Kjellman and Dr. Stuxberg, observers so well known in +Arctic literature. At a later period, another member of the +expedition that wintered on Spitzbergen in 1872-73, Lieutenant (now +Captain in the Swedish Navy) L. PALANDER, offered to accompany the +new expedition as commander of the vessel--an offer which I gladly +accepted, well knowing, as I did from previous voyages, Captain +Palander's distinguished ability both as a seaman and an Arctic +explorer. Further there joined the expedition Lieutenant GIACOMO +BOVE, of the Italian Navy; Lieutenant A. HOVGAARD, of the Danish +Navy; Medical candidate E. ALMQUIST, as medical officer; Lieutenant +O. NORDQUIST, of the Russian Guards; Lieutenant E. BRUSEWITZ, of the +Swedish Navy; together with twenty-one men--petty officers and crew, +according to a list which will be found further on. + +An expedition of such extent as that now projected, intended +possibly to last two years, with a vessel of its own, a numerous +well-paid _personnel_, and a considerable scientific staff, must of +course be very costly. In order somewhat to diminish the expenses, I +gave in, on the 25th August, 1877, a memorial to the Swedish +Government with the prayer that the steamer _Vega_, which in the +meantime had been purchased for the expedition, should be thoroughly +overhauled and made completely seaworthy at the naval dockyard at +Karlskrona; and that, as had been done in the case of the Arctic +Expeditions of 1868 and 1872-73, certain grants of public money +should be given to the officers and men of the Royal Swedish Navy, +who might take part as volunteers in the projected expedition. With +reference to this petition the Swedish Government was pleased, in +terms of a letter of the Minister of Marine, dated the 31st +December, 1877, both to grant sea-pay, &c., to the officer and +eighteen men of the Royal Navy, who might take part in the +expedition in question, and at the same time to resolve on making a +proposal to the Diet in which additional grants were to be asked for +it. + +The proposal to the Diet of 1878 was agreed to with that liberality +which has always distinguished the representatives of the Swedish +people when grants for scientific purposes have been asked for; +which was also the case with a private motion made in the same Diet +by the President, C.F. WAERN, member of the Academy of Sciences, +whereby it was proposed to confer some further privileges on the +undertaking. + +It is impossible here to give at length the decision of the Diet, +and the correspondence which was exchanged with the authorities with +reference to it. But I am under an obligation of gratitude to refer +to the exceedingly pleasant reception I met with everywhere, in the +course of these negotiations, from officials of all ranks, and to +give a brief account of the privileges which the expedition finally +came to enjoy, mainly owing to the letter of the Government to the +Marine Department, dated the 14th June, 1878. + +Two officers and seventeen men of the Royal Swedish Navy having +obtained permission to take part in the expedition as volunteers, I +was authorised to receive on account of the expedition from the +treasury of the Navy, at Karlskrona--with the obligation of +returning that portion of the funds which might not be required, and +on giving approved security--full sea pay for two years for the +officers, petty officers, and men taking part in the expedition; pay +for the medical officer, at the rate of 3,500 Swedish crowns a year, +for the same time; and subsistence money for the men belonging to +the Navy, at the rate of one and a half Swedish crowns per man per +day. The sum, by which the cost of provisions exceeded the amount +calculated at this rate, was defrayed by the expedition, which +likewise gave a considerable addition to the pay of the sailors +belonging to the Navy. I further obtained permission to receive, on +account of the expedition, from the Navy stores at Karlskrona, +provisions, medicines, coal, oil, and other necessary equipment, +under obligation to pay for any excess of value over 10,000 Swedish +crowns (about 550_l_.); and finally the vessel of the expedition was +permitted to be equipped and made completely seaworthy at the naval +dockyard at Karlskrona, on condition, however, that the excess of +expenditure on repairs over 25,000 crowns (about 1,375_l_.) should +be defrayed by the expedition. + +[Illustration: _THE VEGA._ Longitudinal section. ] + +Plan of arrangement under deck. + + 1. Powder magazine. + 2. Instrument room. + 3. Sofa in gunroom. + 4. Cabin for Lieut. Brusewitz + 5. Cabin fur Lieuts. Bove and Hovgaard. + 6. Pantry during winter. + 7. Corridor. + 8. Cabin for Dr. Stuxberg and Lieut. Nordquist. + 9. Gunroom. + 10. Table in gunroom. + 11. Cabin for Dr. Almquist. + 12. Cabin for Dr. Kjellman. + 13. Stove. + 14. Cabin for Capt. Palander. + 15. Cabin for Prof. Nordenskioeld. + 16. Corridor (descent to gunroom). + 17. Coal bankers. + 18. Boiler. + 19. Storeroom 'tween decks. + 20. Pilot's cabin. + 21. Cabin for Lieut. Bove built in Japan. + 22. Cabin for two petty officers. + 23. Petty officers' mess. + 24. Cabin for carpenter's effects ) built + 25. Cabin for collections. ) in Japan + 26. Cabin for library. + 27. Gunroom pantry. + 28. Hatch to provision room. + 29. Hatch to the cable-tier. + 30. Hatch to room set apart for scientific purposes. + 31. Galley. + 32. Bunks for the crew--double rows. + 33. Cable-tier and provision store. + 34. Hatch to store-room. + 35. Hatch to room for daily giving out of provisions. + 36. Hatch to rope-room. + 37. Sail-room. + 38. Storeroom for water and coal. + 39. Engine-room. + 40. Cellar. + + +Plan of upper deck + + _a._ Thermometer case. + _b._ The rudder. + _c._ Binnacle with compass. + _d._ ) Skylights to the gunroom. + _e._ ) + _f._ Mizenmast. + _g._ Descent to the gunroom ) companion common + _h._ Descent to the engine ) to both. + _i._ Bridge. + _k._ Funnel. + _l._ Boats lying on gallows. + _m._ Mainmast. + _n._ Booms (for reserve masts, yards, &c.). + _o._ Main hatch. + _p._ Steam launch. + _q._ Fore hatch. + _r._ Hencoops. + _s._ Water closet. + _t._ Foremast. + _u._ Smoke-cowl. + _v._ Descent to lower deck (companion). + _x._ Windlass. + _y._ Capstan on the forecastle. + _z._ Catheads. + + +[Illustration: _THE VEGA._ Longitudinal section. ] + +Plan of arrangement under deck. + +Plan of upper deck. + + A. Engine-room. + B. B. Hold. + C. Cable. + D. Water ballast tank. + E. Forecastle. + F. F. Coal bunkers. + G. Fireman's cabin. + H. Engineer's cabin. + K. Provision-room. + L. Captain's cabin. + M. Mate's cabin. + N. Kitchen. + O. Pantry. + P. Saloon. + Q. Q. Presses. + R. Engine-room companion. + S. Bridge. + T. Hatch to hold. + U. Descent to provision-room. + V. Winch. + X. Descent to engine-room. + Y. Descent to forecastle and engineer's cabin. + Z. Descent to captain's cabin, saloon, &c. + +On the other hand my request that the _Vega_, the steamer purchased +for the voyage, might be permitted to carry the man-of-war flag, was +refused by the Minister of Marine in a letter of the 2nd February +1878. The _Vega_ was therefore inscribed in the following month of +March in the Swedish Yacht Club. It was thus under its flag, _the +Swedish man-of-war flag with a crowned O in the middle_, that the +first circumnavigation of Asia and Europe was carried into effect. + +The _Vega_, as will be seen from the description quoted farther on, +is a pretty large vessel, which during the first part of the voyage +was to be heavily laden with provisions and coal. It would therefore +be a work of some difficulty to get it afloat, if, in sailing +forward along the coast in new, unsurveyed waters, it should run +upon a bank of clay or sand. I therefore gladly availed myself of +Mr. Sibiriakoff's offer to provide for the greater safety of the +expedition, by placing at my disposal funds for building another +steamer of a smaller size, the _Lena_, which should have the river +Lena as its main destination, but, during the first part of the +expedition, should act as tender to the _Vega_, being sent before to +examine the state of the ice and the navigable waters, when such +service might be useful. I had the _Lena_ built at Motala, of +Swedish Bessemer steel, mainly after a drawing of Engineer R. +Runeberg of Finland. The steamer answered the purpose for which it +was intended particularly well. + +An unexpected opportunity of providing the steamers with coal during +the course of the voyage besides arose by my receiving a commission, +while preparations were making for the expedition of the _Vega_, to +fit out, also on Mr. Sibiriakoff's account, two other vessels, the +steamer _Fraser_, and the sailing vessel _Express_, in order to +bring to Europe from the mouth of the Yenisej a cargo of grain, and +to carry thither a quantity of European goods. This was so much the +more advantageous, as, according to the plan of the expedition, the +_Vega_ and the _Lena_ were first to separate from the _Fraser_ and +the _Express_ at the mouth of the Yenisej. The first-named vessels +had thus an opportunity of taking on board at that place as much +coal as there was room for. + +[Illustration: Alexander Sibiriakoff ] + +I intend further on to give an account of the voyages of the +other three vessels, each of which deserves a place in the +history of navigation. To avoid details I shall only mention +here that, at the beginning of the voyage which is to be +described here, the following four vessels were at my disposal:-- + +1. The _Vega_, commanded by Lieutenant L. Palander, of the Swedish +Navy; circumnavigated Asia and Europe. + +2. The _Lena_, commanded by the walrus-hunting captain, Christian +Johannesen; the first vessel that reached the river Lena from the +Atlantic. + +3. The _Fraser_, commanded by the merchant captain, Emil Nilsson. + +4. The _Express_, commanded by the merchant captain, Gundersen; the +first which brought cargoes of grain from the Yenisej to Europe.[2] + +When the _Vega_ was bought for the expedition it was described by +the sellers as follows:-- + +"The steamer _Vega_ was built at Bremerhaven in 1872-73, of the best +oak, for the share-company 'Ishafvet,' and under special inspection. +It has twelve years' first class 3/3 I.I. Veritas, measures 357 +register tons gross, or 299 net. It was built and used for +whale-fishing in the North Polar Sea, and strengthened in every way +necessary and commonly used for that purpose. Besides the usual +timbering of oak, the vessel has an ice-skin of greenheart, wherever +the ice may be expected to come at the vessel. The ice-skin extends +from the neighbourhood of the under chain bolts to within from 1.2 +to 1.5 metres of the keel The dimensions are:-- + + Length of keel ... ... ... 37.6 metres. + Do. over deck ... ... ... 43.4 metres. + Beam extreme ... ... ... 8.4 metres. + Depth of hold ... ... ... 4.6 metres. + +"The engine, of sixty horse-power, is on Wolff's plan, with +excellent surface condensers. It requires about ten cubic feet of +coal per hour. The vessel is fully rigged as a barque, and has pitch +pine masts, iron wire rigging, and patent reefing topsails. It sails +and manoeuvres uncommonly well, and under sail alone attains a speed +of nine to ten knots. During the trial trip the steamer made seven +and a half knots, but six to seven knots per hour may be considered +the speed under steam. Further, there are on the vessel a powerful +steam-winch, a reserve rudder, and a reserve propeller. The vessel +is besides provided in the whole of the under hold with iron tanks, +so built that they lie close to the vessel's bottom and sides, the +tanks thus being capable of offering a powerful resistance in case +of ice pressure. They are also serviceable for holding provisions, +water, and coal."[3] + + +We had no reason to take exception to this description,[4] but, in +any case, it was necessary for an Arctic campaign, such as that now +in question, to make a further inspection of the vessel, to assure +ourselves that all its parts were in complete order, to make the +alterations in rig, &c., which the altered requirements would render +necessary, and finally to arrange the vessel, so that it might house +a scientific staff, which, together with the officers, numbered nine +persons. This work was done at the Karlskrona naval dockyard, under +the direction of Captain Palander. At the same time attention was +given to the scientific equipment, principally in Stockholm, where a +large number of instruments for physical, astronomical, and +geological researches was obtained from the Royal Academy of +Sciences. + +The dietary during the expedition was fixed upon, partly on the +ground of our experience from the wintering of 1872-73, partly under +the guidance of a special opinion given with reference to the +subject by the distinguished physician who took part in that +expedition, Dr. A. Envall. Preserved provisions,[5] butter, flour, +&c., were purchased, part at Karlskrona, part in Stockholm and +Copenhagen; a portion of pemmican was prepared in Stockholm by Z. +Wikstroem; another portion was purchased in England; fresh ripe +potatoes[6] were procured from the Mediterranean, a large quantity +of cranberry juice from Finland; preserved cloudberries and clothes +of reindeer skins, &c., from Norway, through our agent Ebeltoft, and +so on--in a word, nothing was neglected to make the vessel as well +equipped as possible for the attainment of the great object in view. + +What this was may be seen from the following + +PLAN OF THE EXPEDITION, + +PRESENTED TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SWEDEN AND NORWAY, _July_ 1877. + +The exploring expeditions, which, during the recent decades, have +gone out from Sweden towards the north, have long ago acquired a +truly national importance, through the lively interest that has been +taken in them everywhere, beyond, as well as within, the fatherland; +through the considerable sums of money that have been spent on them +by the State, and above all by private persons; through the +practical school they have formed for more than thirty Swedish +naturalists; through the important scientific and geographical +results they have yielded; and through the material for scientific +research, which by them has been collected for the Swedish +Riks-Museum, and which has made it, in respect of Arctic natural +objects, the richest in the world. To this there come to be added +discoveries and investigations which already are, or promise in the +future to become, of practical importance; for example, the +meteorological and hydrographical work of the expeditions; their +comprehensive inquiries regarding the Seal and Whale Fisheries in +the Polar Seas; the pointing out of the previously unsuspected +richness in fish, of the coasts of Spitzbergen; the discoveries, on +Bear Island and Spitzbergen, of considerable strata of coal and +phosphatic minerals which are likely to be of great economic +importance to neighbouring countries; and, above all, the success of +the two last expeditions in reaching the mouths of the large +Siberian rivers, navigable to the confines of China--the Obi and +Yenisej--whereby a problem in navigation, many centuries old, has +at last been solved. + +But the very results that have been obtained incite to a +continuation, especially as the two last expeditions have opened a +new field of inquiry, exceedingly promising in a scientific, and I +venture also to say in a practical, point of view, namely, the part +of the Polar Sea lying east of the mouth of the Yenisej. Still, even +in our days, in the era of steam and the telegraph, there meets us +here a territory to be explored, which is new to science, and +hitherto untouched. Indeed, the whole of the immense expanse of +ocean which stretches over 90 degrees of longitude from the mouth of +the Yenisej past Cape Chelyuskin--the Promontorium Tabin of the old +geographers--has, if we except voyages in large or small boats along +the coast, never yet been ploughed by the keel of any vessel, and +never seen the funnel of a steamer. + +It was this state of things which led me to attempt to procure funds +for an expedition, equipped as completely as possible, both in a +scientific and a nautical respect, with a view to investigate the +geography, hydrography, and natural history of the North Polar Sea +beyond the mouth of the Yenisej, if possible as far as Behring's +Straits. It may be affirmed without any danger of exaggeration, that +since Cook's famous voyages in the Pacific Ocean, no more promising +field of research has lain before any exploring expedition, if only +the state of the ice permit a suitable steamer to force a passage in +that sea. In order to form a judgment on this point, it may perhaps +be necessary to cast a brief glance backwards over the attempts +which have been made to penetrate in the direction which the +projected expedition is intended to take. + +The Swedish port from which the expedition is to start will probably +be Gothenburg. The time of departure is fixed for the beginning of +July, 1878. The course will be shaped at first along the west coast +of Norway, past North Cape and the entrance to the White Sea, to +Matotschkin Sound in Novaya Zemlya. + +The opening of a communication by sea between the rest of Europe and +these regions, by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancelor in 1553, +was the fruit of the first exploring expedition sent out from +England by sea. Their voyage also forms the first attempt to +discover a north-east passage to China. The object aimed at was not +indeed accomplished; but on the other hand, there was opened by the +voyage in question the sea communication between England and the +White Sea; the voyage thus forming a turning-point not only in the +navigation of England and Russia, but also in the commerce of the +world. It also demanded its sacrifice, Sir Hugh Willoughby himself, +with all the men in the vessels under his command, having perished +while wintering on the Kola peninsula. In our days thousands of +vessels sail safely along this route. + +With the knowledge we now possess of the state of the ice in the +Murman Sea--so the sea between Kola and Novaya Zemlya is called on +the old maps--it is possible to sail during the latter part of +summer from the White Sea to Matotschkin without needing to fear the +least hindrance from ice. For several decades back, however, in +consequence of want of knowledge of the proper season and the proper +course, the case has been quite different--as is sufficiently +evident from the account of the difficulties and dangers which the +renowned Russian navigator, Count Luetke, met with during his +repeated voyages four summers in succession (1821-1824) along the +west coast of Novaya Zemlya. A skilful walrus-hunter can now, with a +common walrus-hunting vessel, in a single summer, sail further in +this sea than formerly could an expedition, fitted out with all the +resources of a naval yard, in four times as long time. + +There are four ways of passing from the Murman Sea to the Kara Sea, +viz:-- + +_a._ Yugor Sound--the Fretum Nassovicum of the old Dutchmen--between +Vaygats Island and the mainland. + +_b._ The Kara Port, between Vaygats Island and Novaya Zemlya. + +_c._ Matotschkin Sound, which between 73 deg. and 74 deg. N. Lat. +divides Novaya Zemlya into two parts, and, finally, + +_d._ The course north of the double island. The course past the +northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is not commonly clear of ice +till the beginning of the month of September, and perhaps ought, +therefore, not to be chosen for an expedition having for its object +to penetrate far to the eastward in this sea. Yugor Sound and the +Kara Port are early free of fast ice, but instead, are long rendered +difficult to navigate by considerable masses of drift ice, which are +carried backwards and forwards in the bays on both sides of the +sound by the currents which here alternate with the ebb and flow of +the tide. Besides, at least in Yugor Sound, there are no good +harbours, in consequence of which the drifting masses of ice may +greatly inconvenience the vessels, which by these routes attempt to +enter the Kara Sea. Matotschkin Sound, again, forms a channel nearly +100 kilometres long, deep and clear, with the exception of a couple +of shoals, the position of which is known, which indeed is not +usually free from fast ice until the latter half of July, but, on +the other hand, in consequence of the configuration of the coast, is +less subject to be obstructed by drift ice than the southern +straits. There are good harbours at the eastern mouth of the sound. +In 1875 and 1876 both the sound and the sea lying off it were +completely open in the end of August, but the ice was much earlier +broken up also on the eastern side, so that a vessel could without +danger make its way among the scattered pieces of drift ice. +The part of Novaya Zemlya which is first visited by the +walrus-hunters in spring is usually just the west coast off +Matotschkin. + +In case unusual weather does not prevail in the regions in question +during the course of early and mid-summer, 1878--for instance, very +steady southerly winds, which would early drive the drift ice away +from the coast of the mainland--I consider, on the grounds which I +have stated above, that it will be safest for the expedition to +choose the course by Matotschkin Sound. + +We cannot, however, reckon on having, so early as the beginning of +August, open water _direct_ to Port Dickson at the mouth of the +Yenisej, but must be prepared to make a considerable detour towards +the south in order to avoid the masses of drift ice, which are to be +met with in the Kara Sea up to the beginning of September. The few +days' delay which may be caused by the state of the ice here, will +afford, besides, to the expedition an opportunity for valuable work +in examining the natural history and hydrography of the channel, +about 200 fathoms deep, which runs along the east coast of Novaya +Zemlya. The Kara Sea is, in the other parts of it, not deep, but +evenly shallow (ten to thirty fathoms), yet without being fouled by +shoals or rocks. The most abundant animal life is found in the +before-mentioned deep channel along the east coast, and it was from +it that our two foregoing expeditions brought home several animal +types, very peculiar and interesting in a systematic point of view. +Near the coast the algae, too, are rich and luxuriant. The coming +expedition ought, therefore, to endeavour to reach Matotschkin Sound +so early that at least seven days' scientific work may be done in +those regions. + +The voyage from the Kara Sea to Port Dickson is not attended, +according to recent experience, with any difficulty. Yet we cannot +reckon on arriving at Port Dickson sooner than from the 10th to the +15th August. In 1875 I reached this harbour with a sailing-vessel on +the 15th August, after having been much delayed by calms in the Kara +Sea. With a steamer it would have been possible to have reached the +harbour, that year, in the beginning of the month. In 1876 the state +of the ice was less favourable, in consequence of a cold summer and +a prevalence of north-east winds, but even then I arrived at the +mouth of the Yenisej on the 15th August. + +It is my intention to lie to at Port Dickson, at least for some +hours, in order to deposit letters on one of the neighbouring +islands in case, as is probable, I have no opportunity of meeting +there some vessel sent out from Yeniseisk, by which accounts of the +expedition may be sent home. + +Actual observations regarding the hydrography of the coast between +the mouth of the Yenisej and Cape Chelyuskin are for the present +nearly wholly wanting, seeing that, as I have already stated, no +large vessel has ever sailed from this neighbourhood. Even about the +boat voyages of the Russians along the coast we know exceedingly +little, and from their unsuccessful attempts to force a passage here +we may by no means draw any unfavourable conclusion as to the +navigability of the sea during certain seasons of the year. If, with +a knowledge of the resources for the equipment of naval expeditions +which Siberia now possesses, we seek to form an idea of the +equipment of the Russian expeditions[7] sent out with extraordinary +perseverance during the years 1734-1743 by different routes to the +north coast of Siberia, the correctness of this assertion ought to +be easily perceived. There is good reason to expect that a +well-equipped steamer will be able to penetrate far beyond the point +where they were compelled to return with their small but numerously +manned craft, too fragile to encounter ice, and unsuitable for the +open sea, being generally held together with willows. + +There are, besides these, only three sea voyages, or perhaps more +correctly coast journeys, known in this part of the Kara Sea, all +under the leadership of the mates Minin and Sterlegoff. The first +attempt was made in 1738 in a "double sloop," 70 feet long, 17 +broad, and 7-1/2 deep, built at Tobolsk and transported thence to +the Yenisej by Lieutenant Owzyn. With this vessel Minin penetrated +off the Yenisej to 72 deg.s 53' N.L. Hence a jolly boat was sent +farther towards the north, but it too was compelled, by want of +provisions, to return before the point named by me, Port Dickson, +was reached. The following year a new attempt was made, without a +greater distance being traversed than the summer before. Finally in +the year 1740 the Russians succeeded in reaching, with the double +sloop already mentioned, 75 deg. 15' N.L., after having survived +great dangers from a heavy sea at the river mouth. On the 2nd +September, just as the most advantageous season for navigation in +these waters had begun, they returned, principally on account of the +lateness of the season. + +There are, besides, two statements founded on actual observations +regarding the state of the ice on this coast. For Middendorff, the +Academician, during his famous journey of exploration in North +Siberia, reached from land the sea coast at Tajmur Bay (75 deg. +40' N.L.), and _found the sea on the 25th August_, 1843, _free of +ice as far as the eye could reach from the chain of heights along +the coast_.[8] Middendorff, besides, states that the Yakoot Fomin, +the only person who had passed a winter at Tajmur Bay, declared that +the ice loosens in the sea lying off it in the first half of August, +and that it is driven away from the beach by southerly winds, yet +not further than that the edge of the ice can be seen from the +heights along the coast. + +The land between the Tajmur and Cape Chelyuskin was mapped by means +of _sledge_ journeys along the coast by mate Chelyuskin in the year +1742. It is now completely established that the northernmost +promontory of Asia was discovered by him in the month of May in the +year already mentioned, and at that time the sea in its +neighbourhood was of course covered with ice. We have no observation +as to the state of the ice during summer or autumn in the sea lying +immediately to the west of Cape Chelyuskin; but, as the question +relates to the possibility of navigating this sea, this is the place +to draw attention to the fact that Prontschischev, on the 1st +September, 1736, in an open sea, with coasting craft _from the +east_, very nearly reached the north point of Asia, which is +supposed to be situated in 77 deg. 34' N. Lat. and 105 deg. E. Long., and +that the Norwegian walrus-hunters during late autumn have repeatedly +sailed far to the eastward from the north point of Novaya Zemlya +(77 deg. N. Lat., and 68 deg. E. Long.), _without meeting with any ice_. + +From what has been already stated, it is evident that for the +present we do not possess any complete knowledge, founded on actual +observations, of the hydrography of the stretch of coast between the +Yenisej and Cape Chelyuskin. I, however, consider that during +September, and possibly the latter half of August, we ought to be +able to reckon with complete certainty on having here ice-free +water, or at least a broad, open channel along the coast, from the +enormous masses of warm water, which the rivers Obi, Irtisch, and +Yenisej, running up through the steppes of High Asia, here pour into +the ocean, after having received water from a river territory, +everywhere strongly heated during the month of August, and more +extensive than that of all the rivers put together, which fall into +the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. + +Between Port Dickson and White Island, there runs therefore a strong +fresh-water current, at first in a northerly direction. The +influence which the rotation of the earth exercises, in these high +latitudes, on streams which run approximately in the direction of +the meridian, is, however, very considerable, and gives to those +coming from the south an easterly bend. In consequence of this, the +river water of the Ohi and Yenisej must be confined as in a proper +river channel, at first along the coast of the Tajmur country, until +the current is allowed beyond Cape Chelyuskin to flow unhindered +towards the north-east or east. Near the mouths of the large rivers +I have, during calm weather in this current, in about 74 deg. +N.L., observed the temperature rising off the Yenisej to +9.4 deg. +C. (17th August, 1875), and off the Obi to +8 deg. C. (10th August +of the same year). As is usually the case, this current coming from +the south produces both a cold undercurrent, which in stormy weather +readily mixes with the surface water and cools it, and on the +surface a northerly cold ice-bestrewn counter-current, which, in +consequence of the earth's rotation, takes a bend to the west, and +which evidently runs from the opening between Cape Chelyuskin and +the northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya, towards the east side of +this island, and perhaps may be the cause why the large masses of +drift ice are pressed during summer against the east coast of Novaya +Zemlya. According to my own experience and the uniform testimony of +the walrus-hunters, _this ice melts away almost completely during +autumn_. + +In order to judge of the distance at which the current coming from +the Obi and the Yenisej can drive away the drift ice, we ought to +remember that even a very weak current exerts an influence on the +position of the ice, and that, for instance, the current from the +Plata River, whose volume of water, however, is not perhaps so great +as that of the Obi and Yenisej, is still clearly perceptible at a +distance of 1,500 kilometres from the river mouth, that is to say, +about three times as far as from Port Dickson to Cape Chelyuskin. +The only bay which can be compared to the Kara Sea in respect of the +area, which is intersected by the rivers running into it, is the +Gulf of Mexico.[9] The river currents from this bay appear to +contribute greatly to the Gulf Stream. + +The winds which, during the autumn months, often blow in these +regions from the north-east, perhaps also, in some degree, +contribute to keep a broad channel, along the coast in question, +nearly ice-free. + +The knowledge we possess regarding the navigable water to the east +of Cape Chelyuskin towards the Lena, is mainly founded on the +observations of the expeditions which were sent out by the Russian +Government, before the middle of last century, to survey the +northern part of Asia. In order to form a correct judgment of the +results obtained, we must, while fully recognising the great +courage, the extraordinary perseverance, and the power of bearing +sufferings and overcoming difficulties of all kinds, which have +always distinguished the Russian Polar explorers, always keep in +mind that the voyages were carried out with small sailing-vessels of +a build, which, according to modern requirements, is quite +unsuitable for vessels intended for the open sea, and altogether too +weak to stand collision with ice. They wanted, besides, not only the +powerful auxiliary of our time, steam, but also a proper sail rig, +fitted for actual manoeuvring, and were for the most part manned +with crews from the banks of the Siberian rivers, who never before +had seen the water of the ocean, experienced a high sea, or tried +sailing among sea ice. When the requisite attention is given to +these circumstances, it appears to me that the voyages referred to +below show positively that even here we ought to be able during +autumn to reckon upon a navigable sea. + +The expeditions along the coast, east of Cape Chelyuskin, started +from the town Yakoutsk, on the bank of the Lena, in 62 deg. N.L., +upwards of 900 miles from the mouth of the river. Here also were +built the vessels which were used for these voyages. + +The first started in 1735, under the command of Marine-Lieutenant +Prontschischev. After having sailed down the river, and passed, on +the 14th August, the eastern mouth-arm of the Lena, he sailed round +the large delta of the river. On the 7th September he had not got +farther than to the mouth of the Olonek. Three weeks had thus been +spent in sailing a distance which an ordinary steamer ought now to +be able to traverse in one day. Ice was seen, but not encountered. +On the other hand, the voyage was delayed by contrary winds, +probably blowing on land, whereby Prontschischev's vessel, if it had +incautiously ventured out, would probably have been cast on the +beach. The late season of the year induced Prontschischev to lay up +his vessel for the winter here, at some summer yourts built by +fur-hunters in 72 deg. 54' N.L. The winter passed happily, and the +following year (1736) Prontschischev again broke up, as soon as the +state of the ice in Olonek Bay permitted, which, however, was not +until the 15th August. The course was shaped along the coast toward +the north-west. Here drift ice was met with, but he nevertheless +made rapid progress, so that on the 1st September he reached 77 deg. +29' N.L., as we now know, in the neighbourhood of Cape Chelyuskin. +Compact masses of ice compelled him to turn here, and the Russians +sailed back to the mouth of the Olonek, which was reached on the +15th September. The distinguished commander of the vessel had died +shortly before of scurvy, and, some days after, his young wife, +who had accompanied him on his difficult voyage, also died. As +these attacks of scurvy did not happen during winter, but immediately +after the close of summer, they form very remarkable contributions +to a judgment of the way in which the Arctic expeditions of that +period were fitted out. + +A new expedition, under Marine-Lieutenant Chariton Laptev, sailed +along the same coast in 1739. The Lena was left on the 1st August, +and Cape Thaddeus (76 deg. 47' N.L.) reached on the 2nd September, +the navigation having been obstructed by drift ice only off Chatanga +Bay. Cape Thaddeus is situated only fifty or sixty English miles +from Cape Chelyuskin. They turned here, partly on account of the +masses of drift ice which barred the way, partly on account of the +late season of the year, and wintered at the head of Chatanga Bay, +which was reached on the 8th September. Next year Laptev attempted +to return along the coast to the Lena, but his vessel was nipped by +drift ice off the mouth of the Olonek. After many difficulties and +dangers, all the men succeeded in reaching safely the winter +quarters of the former year. Both from this point and from the +Yenisej, Laptev himself and his second in command, Chelyuskin, and +the surveyor, Tschekin, the following year made a number of sledge +journeys, in order to survey the peninsula which projects farthest +to the north-west from the mainland of Asia. + +With this ended the voyages west of the Lena. The northernmost point +of Asia, which was reached from land in 1742 by Chelyuskin, one of +the most energetic members of most of the expeditions which we have +enumerated, could not be reached by sea, and still less had any one +succeeded in forcing his way with a vessel from the Lena to the +Yenisej. Prontschischev had, however, turned on the 1st September, +1736, only some few minutes, and Laptev on the 2nd September, 1739, +only about 50' from the point named, after voyages in vessels, which +clearly were altogether unsuitable for the purpose in view. Among +the difficulties and obstacles which were met with during these +voyages, not only ice, but also unfavourable and stormy winds played +a prominent part. From fear of not being able to reach any winter +station visited by natives, the explorers often turned at that +season of the year when the Polar Sea is most open. With proper +allowance for these circumstances, we may safely affirm that no +serious obstacles to sailing round Cape Chelyuskin would probably +have been met with in the years named, by any steamer properly +fitted out for sailing among ice. + +From the sea between the Lena and Behring's Straits there are much +more numerous and complete observations than from that further west. +The hope of obtaining tribute and commercial profit from the wild +races living along the coast tempted the adventurous Russian +hunters, even before the middle of the 17th century, to undertake a +number of voyages along the coast. On a map which is annexed to the +previously quoted work of Mueller, founded mainly on researches in +the Siberian archives, there is to be found a sea route pricked out +with the inscription, "_Route anciennement fort frequentee. Voyage +fait par mer en_ 1648 _par trois vaisseaux russes, dont un est +parvenu jusqu'a la Kamschatka_."[10] + +Unfortunately the details of most of these voyages have been +completely forgotten; and, that we have obtained some scanty +accounts of one or other of them, has nearly always depended on some +remarkable catastrophe, on lawsuits or other circumstances which led +to the interference of the authorities. This is even the case with +the most famous of these voyages, that of the Cossack, Deschnev, of +which several accounts have been preserved, only through a dispute +which arose between him and one of his companions, concerning the +right of discovery to a walrus bank on the east coast of Kamschatka. +This voyage, however, was a veritable exploring expedition +undertaken with the approval of the Government, partly for the +discovery of some large islands in the Polar Sea, about which a +number of reports were current among the hunters and natives, partly +for extending the territory yielding tribute to the Russians, over +the yet unknown regions in the north-east. + +Deschnev started on the 1st July, 1648, from the Kolyma in command +of one of the seven vessels (_Kotscher_),[11] manned with thirty +men, of which the expedition consisted. Concerning the fate of four +of these vessels we have no information. It is probable that they +turned back, and were not lost, as several writers have supposed; +three, under the command of the Cossacks, Deschnev and Ankudinov, +and the fur-hunter, Kolmogorsov, succeeding in reaching Chutskojnos +through what appears to have been open water. Here Ankudinov's +vessel was shipwrecked; the men, however, were saved and divided +among the other two, which were speedily separated. Deschnev +continued his voyage along the east coast of Kamschatka to the +Anadir, which was reached in October. Ankudinov is also supposed to +have reached the mouth of the Kamschatka River, where he settled +among the natives and finally died of scurvy. + +The year following (1649) Staduchin sailed again, for seven days, +eastward from the Kolyma to the neighbourhood of Chutskojnos, in an +open sea, so far as we can gather from the defective account. +Deschnev's own opinion of the possibility of navigating this sea may +be seen from the fact, that, after his own vessel was lost, he had +timber collected at the Anadir for the purpose of building new ones. +With these he intended to send to Yakoutsk the tribute of furs which +he had received from the natives. He was, however, obliged to desist +from his project by an easily understood want of materials for the +building of the new vessels; he remarks also in connection with this +that the sea round Chutskojnos is not free of ice every year. + +A number of voyages from the Siberian rivers northward, were also +made after the founding of Nischni Kolymsk, by Michael Staduchin in +1644 in consequence of the reports which were current among the +natives at the coast, of the existence of large inhabited islands, +rich in walrus tusks and mammoth bones, in the Siberian Polar Sea. +Often disputed, but persistently taken up by the hunting races, +these reports have finally been verified by the discovery of the +islands of New Siberia, of Wrangel's Land, and of the part of North +America east of Behring's Straits, whose natural state gave occasion +to the golden glamour of tradition with which the belief of the +common people incorrectly adorned the bleak, treeless islands in the +Polar Sea. + +All these attempts to force a passage in the open sea from the +Siberian coasts northwards, failed, for the single reason, that an +open sea with a fresh breeze was as destructive to the craft which +were at the disposal of the adventurous, but ill-equipped Siberian +polar explorer as an ice-filled sea; indeed, more dangerous, for in +the latter case the crew, if the vessel was nipped, generally saved +themselves on the ice, and had only to contend with hunger, snow, +cold, and other difficulties to which the most of them had been +accustomed from their childhood; but in the open sea the ill-built, +weak vessel, caulked with moss mixed with clay, and held together +with willows, leaked already with a moderate sea, and with a +heavier, was helplessly lost, if a harbour could not be reached in +time of need. + +The explorers soon preferred to reach the islands by sledge journeys +on the ice, and thus at last discovered the whole of the large group +of islands which is named New Siberia. The islands were often +visited by hunters for the purpose of collecting mammoth tusks, of +which great masses, together with the bones of the mammoth, +rhinoceros, sheep, ox, horse, etc., are found imbedded in the beds +of clay and sand here. Afterwards they were completely surveyed +during Hedenstroem's expeditions, fitted out by Count Rumanzov, +Chancellor of the Russian Empire, in the years 1809-1811, and during +Lieutenant Anjou's in 1823. Hedenstroem's expeditions were carried +out by travelling with dog-sledges on the ice, before it broke, to +the islands, passing the summer there, and returning in autumn, when +the sea was again covered with ice. As the question relates to the +possibility of navigating this sea, these expeditions, carried out +in a very praiseworthy way, might be expected to have great +interest, especially through observations from land, concerning the +state of the ice in autumn; but in the short account of Hedenstroem's +expeditions which is inserted in Wrangel's _Travels_, pp. 99-119, +the only source accessible to me in this respect, there is not a +single word on this point.[12] Information on this subject, so +important for our expedition, has, however, by Mr. Sibiriakoff's +care, been received from inhabitants of North Siberia, who earn +their living by collecting mammoths' tusks on the group of islands +in question. By these accounts the sea between the north coast of +Asia and the islands of New Siberia, is every year pretty free of +ice. + +A very remarkable discovery was made in 1811 by a member of +Hedenstroem's expedition, the Yakoutsk townsman Sannikov; for he +found, on the west coast of the island Katelnoj, remains of a +roughly-timbered winter habitation, in the neighbourhood of the +wreck of a vessel, differing completely in build from those which +are common in Siberia. Partly from this, partly from a number of +tools which lay scattered on the beach, Sannikov drew the +conclusion, that a hunter from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya had been +driven thither by the wind, and had lived there for a season with +his crew. Unfortunately the inscription on a monumental cross in the +neighbourhood of the hut was not translated. + +During the great northern expeditions,[13] several attempts were +also made to force a passage eastwards from the Lena. The first was +under the command of Lieutenant Lassinius in 1735. He left the most +easterly mouth-arm of the Lena on the 21st of August, and sailed 120 +versts eastward, and there encountered drift ice which compelled him +to seek a harbour at the coast. Here the winter was passed, with the +unfortunate result, that the chief himself, and most of the +fifty-two men belonging to the expedition, perished of scurvy. + +The following year, 1736, there was sent out, in the same direction, +a new expedition under Lieutenant Dmitri Laptev. With the vessel of +Lassinius he attempted, in the middle of August, to sail eastward, +but he soon fell in with a great deal of drift ice. So soon as the +end of the month--the time when navigation ought properly to +begin--he turned towards the Lena on account of ice. + +In 1739 Laptev undertook his third voyage. He penetrated to the +mouth of the Indigirka, which was frozen over on the 21st September, +and wintered there. The following year the voyage was continued +somewhat beyond the mouth of the Kolyma to Cape Great Baranov, where +further advance was prevented by drift ice on the 26th September. +After having returned to the Kolyma, and wintered at Nischni +Kolymsk, he attempted, the following year, again to make his way +eastwards in some large boats built during winter, but, on account +of fog, contrary winds, and ice, without success. In judging of the +results these voyages yielded, we must take into consideration the +utterly unsuitable vessels in which they were undertaken--at first +in a double sloop, built at Yakoutsk, in 1735, afterwards in two +large boats built at Nischni Kolymsk. If we may judge of the nature +of these craft from those now used on the Siberian rivers, we ought +rather to be surprised that any of them could venture out on a real +sea, than consider the unsuccessful voyages just described as proofs +that there is no probability of being able to force a passage here +with a vessel of modern build, and provided with steam power. + +It remains, finally, for me to give an account of the attempts that +have been made to penetrate westward from Behring's Straits. + +Deschnev's voyage, from the Lena, through Behring's Straits to the +mouth of the Anadir, in 1648, became completely forgotten in the +course of about a century, until Muller, by searches in the Siberian +archives, recovered the details of these and various other voyages +along the north coast of Siberia. That the memory of these +remarkable voyages has been preserved to after-times, however, +depends, as has been already stated, upon accidental circumstances, +lawsuits, and such like, which led to correspondence with the +authorities. Of other similar undertakings we have certainly no +knowledge, although now and then we find it noted that the Polar Sea +had in former times often been traversed. In accounts of the +expeditions fitted out by the authorities, it, for instance, often +happens that mention is made of meeting with hunters and traders, +who were sailing along the coast in the prosecution of private +enterprise. Little attention was, however, given to these voyages, +and, eighty-one years after Deschnev's voyage, the existence of +straits between the north-eastern extremity of Asia and the +north-western extremity of America was quite unknown, or at least +doubted. Finally, in 1729, Behring anew sailed through the Sound, +and attached his name to it. He did not sail, however, very far (to +172 deg. W. Long.) along the north coast of Asia, although he does +not appear to have met with any obstacle from ice. Nearly fifty +years afterwards Cook concluded in these waters the series of +splendid discoveries with which he enriched geographical science. +After having, in 1778, sailed a good way eastwards along the north +coast of America, he turned towards the west, and reached the 180th +degree of longitude on the 29th August: the fear of meeting with ice +deterred him from sailing further westward, and his vessel appears +to have scarcely been equipped or fitted for sailing among ice. + +After Cook's time we know of only three expeditions which have +sailed westwards from Behring's Straits. The first was an American +expedition, under Captain Rodgers, in 1855. He reached, through what +appears to have been open water, the longitude of Cape Yakan +(176 deg. E. from Greenwich). The second was that of the English +steam-whaler Long, who, in 1867, in search of a new profitable +whale-fishing ground, sailed further west than any before him. By +the 10th August he had reached the longitude of Tschaun Bay (170 deg. +E. from Greenwich). He was engaged in whale-fishing, not in +an exploring expedition, and turned here; but, in the short account +he has given of his voyage, he expresses the decided conviction that +a voyage from Behring's Straits to the Atlantic belongs to the +region of possibilities, and adds that, even if this sea-route does +not come to be of any commercial importance, that between the Lena +and Behring's Straits ought to be useful for turning to account the +products of Northern Siberia.[14] Finally, last year a Russian +expedition was sent out to endeavour to reach Wrangel's Land from +Behring's Straits. According to communications in the newspapers, it +was prevented by ice from sailing thence, as well as from sailing +far to the west. + +Information has been obtained through Mr. Sibiriakoff, from North +Siberia, regarding the state of the ice in the neighbouring sea. The +hunting in these regions appears to have now fallen off so +seriously, that only few persons were found who could give any +answers to the questions put. + +Thus in Yakoutsk there was only one man (a priest) who had been at +the coast of the Polar Sea. He states that when the wind blows off +the land the sea becomes free of ice, but that the ice comes back +when the wind blows on to the land, and thereby exposes the vessels +which cannot reach a safe harbour to great danger. + +Another correspondent states, on the ground of observations made during +Tschikanovski's expedition, that in 1875 the sea off the Olonek was +_completely_ free of ice, but adds at the same time that the year in +this respect was an exceptional one. The Arctic Ocean, not only in +summer, but also during winter, is _occasionally_ free of ice, and at a +distance of 200 versts from the coast, the sea is open even in winter, +in what direction, however, is uncertain. The latter fact is also +confirmed by Wrangel's journeys with dog-sledges on the ice in +1821-1823. + +A third person says, "According to the information which I have +received, the north coast, from the mouth of the Lena to that of the +Indigirka, is free from ice from July to September. The north wind +drives the ice towards the coast, but not in large masses. According +to the observations of the men who search for mammoth tusks, the sea +is open as far as the southern part of the New Siberia Islands. It +is probable that these islands form a protection against the ice in +the Werchnojan region. It is otherwise on the Kolyma coast; and if +the Kolyma can be reached from Behring's Straits, so certainly can +the Lena." + +The circumstance that the ice during summer is driven from the coast +by southerly winds, yet not so far but that it returns, in larger or +smaller quantity, with northerly winds, is further confirmed by +other correspondents, and appears to me to show that the New +Siberian Islands and Wrangel's Land only form links in an extensive +group of islands, running parallel with the north coast of Siberia, +which, on the one hand, keeps the ice from the intermediate sea from +drifting away altogether, and favours the formation of ice during +winter, but, on the other hand, protects the coast from the Polar +ice proper, formed to the north of the islands. The information I +have received besides, refers principally to the summer months. As +in the Kara Sea, which formerly had a yet worse reputation, the ice +here, too, perhaps, melts away for the most part during autumn, so +that at this season we may reckon on a pretty open sea. + +Most of the correspondents, who have given information about the +state of the ice in the Siberian Polar Sea, concern themselves +further with the reports current in Siberia, that American whalers +have been seen from the coast far to the westward. The correctness +of these reports was always denied in the most decided way: yet they +rest, at least to some extent, on a basis of fact. For I have myself +met with a whaler, who for three years in a steamer carried on trade +with the inhabitants of the coast from Cape Yakan to Behring's +Straits. He was quite convinced that some years at least it would be +possible to sail from Behring's Straits to the Atlantic. On one +occasion he had returned through Behring's Straits as late as the +17th October. + +From what I have thus stated, it follows,-- + +That the ocean lying north of the north coast of Siberia, between +the mouth of the Yenisej and Tschaun Bay, has never been ploughed by +the keel of any proper sea-going vessel, still less been traversed +by any steamer specially fitted out for navigation among ice: + +That the small vessels with which it has been attempted to traverse +this part of the ocean never ventured very far from the coast: + +That an open sea, with a fresh breeze, was as destructive for them, +indeed more destructive, than a sea covered with drift ice: + +That they almost always sought some convenient winter harbour, just +at that season of the year when the sea is freest of ice, namely, +late summer or autumn: + +That, notwithstanding the sea from Cape Chelyuskin to Bearing's +Straits has been repeatedly traversed, no one has yet succeeded in +sailing over the whole extent at once: + +That the covering of ice formed during winter along the coast, but +probably not in the open sea, is every summer broken up, giving +origin to extensive fields of drift ice, which are driven, now by a +northerly wind towards the coast, now by a south wind out to sea, +yet not so far but that it comes back to the coast after some days' +northerly wind; whence it appears probable that the Siberian Sea is, +so to say, shut off from the Polar Sea proper, by a series of +islands, of which, for the present, we know only Wrangel's Land and +the islands which form New Siberia. + +In this connection it seems to me probable that a well-equipped +steamer would be able without meeting too many difficulties, at +least obstacles from ice, to force a passage this way during autumn +in a few days, and thus not only solve a geographical problem of +several centuries' standing, but also, with all the means that are +now at the disposal of the man of science in researches in +geography, hydrography, geology, and natural history, survey a +hitherto almost unknown sea of enormous extent. + +The sea north of Behring's Straits is now visited by hundreds of +whaling steamers, and the way thence to American and European +harbours therefore forms a much-frequented route. Some few decades +back, this was, however, by no means the case. The voyages of +Behring, Cook, Kotzebue, Beechey, and others were then considered as +adventurous, fortunate exploring expeditions of great value and +importance in respect of science, but without any direct practical +utility. For nearly a hundred and fifty years the same was the case +with Spangberg's voyage from Kamschatka to Japan in the year 1739, +by which the exploring expeditions of the Russians, in the +northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean, were connected with those of +the Dutch and the Portuguese to India, and Japan; and in case our +expedition succeeds in reaching the Suez Canal, after having +circumnavigated Asia, there will meet us there a splendid work, +which, more than any other, reminds us, that what to-day is declared +by experts to be impossible, is often carried into execution +to-morrow. + +I am also fully convinced that it is not only possible to sail along +the north coast of Asia, provided circumstances are not too +unfavourable, but that such an enterprise will be of incalculable +practical importance, by no means directly, as opening a new +commercial route, but indirectly, by the impression which would +thereby be communicated of the practical utility of a communication +by sea between the ports of North Scandinavia and the Obi and +Yenisej, on the one hand, and between the Pacific Ocean and the Lena +on the other. + +Should the expedition, contrary to expectation, not succeed in +carrying out the programme which has been arranged in its entirety, +it ought not to be looked upon as having failed. In such a case the +expedition will remain for a considerable time at places on the +north coast of Siberia, suitable for scientific research. Every mile +beyond the mouth of the Yenisej is a step forward to a complete +knowledge of our globe--an object which sometime or other must be +attained, and towards which it is a point of honour for every +civilised nation to contribute in its proportion. + +Men of science will have an opportunity, in these hitherto unvisited +waters, of answering a number of questions regarding the former and +present state of the Polar countries, of which more than one is of +sufficient weight and importance to lead to such an expedition as +the present. I may be permitted here to refer to only a few of +these. + +If we except that part of the Kara Sea which has been surveyed by +the two last Swedish expeditions, we have for the present no +knowledge of the vegetable and animal life in the sea which washes +the north coast of Siberia. Quite certainly we shall here, in +opposition to what has been hitherto supposed, meet with the same +abundance of animals and plants as in the sea round Spitzbergen. In +the Siberian Polar sea, the animal and vegetable types, so far as we +can judge beforehand, exclusively consist of survivals from the +glacial period, which next preceded the present, which is not the +case in the Polar Sea, where the Gulf Stream distributes its waters, +and whither it thus carries types from more southerly regions. But a +complete and exact knowledge of which animal types are of glacial, +and which of Atlantic origin, is of the greatest importance, not +only for zoology and the geography of animals, but also for the +geology of Scandinavia, and especially for the knowledge of our +loose earthy layers. + +Few scientific discoveries have so powerfully captivated the +interest, both of the learned and unlearned, as that of the colossal +remains of elephants, sometimes well preserved, with flesh and hair, +in the frozen soil of Siberia. Such discoveries have more than once +formed the object of scientific expeditions, and careful researches +by eminent men; but there is still much that is enigmatical with +respect to a number of circumstances connected with the mammoth +period of Siberia, which _perhaps_ was contemporaneous with our +glacial period. Specially is our knowledge of the animal and +vegetable types, which lived contemporaneously with the mammoth, +exceedingly incomplete, although we know that in the northernmost +parts of Siberia, which are also most inaccessible from land, there +are small hills covered with the bones of the mammoth and other +contemporaneous animals, and that there is found everywhere in that +region so-called Noah's wood, that is to say, half-petrified or +carbonised vegetable remains from several different geological +periods. + +Taking a general view of the subject, we see that an investigation, +as complete as possibly, of the geology of the Polar countries, so +difficult of access, is a condition indispensable to a knowledge of +the former history of our globe. In order to prove this I need only +point to the epoch-making influence which has been exerted on +geological theories by the discovery, in the rocks and earthy layers +of the Polar countries, of beautiful fossil plants from widely +separated geological periods. In this field too our expedition to +the north coast of Siberia ought to expect to reap abundant +harvests. There are besides to be found in Siberia, strata which +have been deposited almost contemporaneously with the coal-bearing +formations of South Sweden, and which therefore contain animal and +vegetable petrifications which just now are of very special interest +for geological science in our own country, with reference to the +discoveries of splendid fossil plants which of late years have been +made at several places among us, and give us so lively an idea of +the sub-tropical vegetation which in former times covered the +Scandinavian peninsula. + +Few sciences perhaps will yield so important practical results as +meteorology is likely to do at some future date--a fact, or rather +an already partly realised expectation, which has won general +recognition, as is shown by the large sums which in all civilised +countries have been set apart for establishing meteorological +offices and for encouraging meteorological research. But the state +of the weather in a country is so dependent on the temperature, +wind, pressure of the air, etc., in very remote regions that the +laws of the meteorology of a country can only be ascertained by +comparing observations from the most distant regions. Several +international meteorological enterprises have already been started, +and we may almost consider the meteorological institutions of the +different countries as separate departments of one and the same +office, distributed over the whole world, through whose harmonious +co-operation the object in view shall one day be reached. But, +beyond the places for which daily series of observations may be +obtained, there are regions hundreds of square miles in extent from +which no observations, or only scattered ones, are yet to be had, +and here notwithstanding we have just the key to many meteorological +phenomena, otherwise difficult of explanation, within the civilised +countries of Europe. Such a meteorological territory, unknown, but +of the greatest importance, is formed by the Polar Sea lying to the +north of Siberia, and the land and islands there situated. It is of +great importance for the meteorology of Europe and of Sweden to +obtain trustworthy accounts of the distribution of the land, of the +state of the ice, the pressure of the air, and the temperature in +that in these respects little-known part of the globe, and the +Swedish expedition will here have a subject for investigation of +direct importance for our own country. + +To a certain extent the same may be said of the contributions which +may be obtained from those regions to our knowledge of terrestrial +magnetism, of the aurora, etc. There are, besides, the examination +of the flora and fauna in those countries, hitherto unknown in this +respect, ethnographical researches, hydrographical work, etc. + +I have of course only been able to notice shortly the scientific +questions which will meet the expedition during a stay of some +length on the north coast of Siberia, but what has been said may +perhaps be sufficient to show that the expedition, even if its +geographical objects were not attained, ought to be a worthy +continuation of similar enterprises which have been set on foot in +this country, and which have brought gain to science and honour to +Sweden. + +Should the expedition again, as I hope, be able to reach Behring's +Straits with little hindrance, and thus in a comparatively short +time--in that case indeed the time, which on the way can be devoted +to researches in natural history, will be quite too short for +solving many of the scientific questions I have mentioned. But +without reckoning the world-historical navigation problem which will +then be solved, extensive contributions of immense importance ought +also to be obtainable regarding the geography, hydrography, zoology, +and botany of the Siberian Polar Sea, and, beyond Behring's Straits, +the expedition will meet with other countries having a more +luxuriant and varied nature, where other questions which perhaps +concern us less, but are not on that account of less importance for +science as a whole, will claim the attention of the observer and +yield him a rich reward for his labour and pains. These are the +considerations which formed the grounds for the arrangement of the +plan of the expedition which is now in question. + +It is my intention to leave Sweden in the beginning of July, 1878, +in a steamer, specially built for navigation among ice, which will +be provisioned for two years at most, and which, besides a +scientific staff of four or five persons, will have on board a naval +officer, a physician, and at most eighteen men--petty officers and +crew, preferably volunteers, from your Royal Majesty's navy. Four +walrus-hunters will also be hired in Norway. The course will be +shaped at first to Matotschkin Sound, in Novaya Zemlya, where a +favourable opportunity will be awaited for the passage of the Kara +Sea. Afterwards the voyage will be continued to Port Dickson, at the +mouth of the Yenisej, which I hope to be able to reach in the first +half of August. As soon as circumstances permit, the expedition will +continue its voyage from this point in the open channel which the +river-water of the Obi and the Yenisej must indisputably form along +the coast to Cape Chelyuskin, possibly with some short excursions +towards the north-west in order to see whether any large island is +to be found between the northern part of Novaya Zemlya and New +Siberia. + +At Cape Chelyuskin the expedition will reach the only part of the +proposed route which has not been traversed by some small vessel, +and this place is perhaps rightly considered as that which it will +be most difficult for a vessel to double during the whole north-east +passage. As Prontschischev, in 1736, in small river craft built with +insufficient means reached within a few minutes of this +north-westernmost promontory of our vessel, equipped with all modern +appliances, ought not to find insuperable difficulties in doubling +this point, and if that be accomplished, we will probably have +pretty open water towards Behring's Straits, which ought to be +reached before the end of September. + +If time, and the state of the ice permit, it would be desirable that +the expedition during this voyage should make some excursions +towards the north, in order to ascertain whether land is not to be +found between Cape Chelyuskin and the New Siberian group of islands, +and between it and Wrangel's Land. From Behring's Straits the course +will be shaped, with such stoppages as circumstances give rise to, +for some Asiatic port, from which accounts may be sent home, and +then onwards round Asia to Suez. Should the expedition be prevented +from forcing a passage east of Cape Chelyuskin, it will depend on +circumstances which it is difficult to foresee, whether it will +immediately return to Europe, in which case the vessel with its +equipment and crew may be immediately available for some other +purpose, or whether it ought not to winter in some suitable harbour +in the bays at the mouths of the Tajmur, Pjaesina, or Yenisej. Again, +in case obstacles from ice occur east of Cape Chelyuskin, a harbour +ought to be sought for at some convenient place on the north coast +of Siberia, from which, during the following summer, opportunities +would be found for important surveys in the Polar Sea, and during +the course of the summer some favourable opening will also certainly +occur, when southerly winds have driven the ice from the coast, for +reaching Behring's Straits. Probably also, if it be necessary to +winter, there will be opportunities of sending home letters from the +winter station. + +[Illustration] + +[Footnote 1: The expeditions to Spitzbergen in 1868, to Greenland in +1870, to Spitzbergen in 1872-73, and to the Yenisej in 1875 and 1876. ] + +[Footnote 2: The first cargo of goods from Europe to the Yenisej was +taken thither by me in the _Ymer_ in 1876. The first vessel that +sailed from the Yenisej to the Atlantic was a sloop, _The Dawn_, +built at Yeniseisk, commanded by the Russian merchant captain, +Schwanenberg, in 1877. ] + +[Footnote 3: In order to obtain sufficient room for coal and +provisions most of these tanks were taken out at Karlskrona. ] + +[Footnote 4: The consumption of coal, however, was reckoned by +Captain Palander at twelve cubic feet or 0.3 cubic metre an hour, +with a speed of seven knots. ] + +[Footnote 5: The preserved provisions were purchased part from Z. +Wikstroem of Stockholm, part from J.D. Beauvois of Copenhagen. ] + +[Footnote 6: The potatoes were to be delivered at Gothenburg on the +1st July. In order to keep, they had to be newly taken up and yet +_ripe_. They were therefore procured from the south through Mr. Carl +W. Boman of Stockholm. Of these, certainly one of the best of all +anti-scorbutics, we had still some remaining on our arrival at +Japan. ] + +[Footnote 7: A carefully written account of these voyages will be +found in _Reise des Kaiserlich-russischen Flotten-Lieutenants +Ferdinand von Wrangel laengs der Nordkueste von Siberien und auf dem +Eismeere_, 1820-1824, bearbeitet von G. Engelhardt, Berlin, 1839; +and G.P. Mueller, _Voyages et Decouvertes faites par les Russes le +long des Cotes de la Mer Glaciale_, &c. Amsterdam: 1766. ] + +[Footnote 8: Th. von Middendorff, _Reise in dem aeussersten Norden +und Osten Siberiens_, vol. iv. I., pages 21 and 508 (1867). ] + +[Footnote 9: Compare von Middendorff, _Reise im Norden u. Osten +Siberiens_ (1848), part i., page 59, and a paper by von Baer, _Ueber +das Klima des Tajmurlandes_. ] + +[Footnote 10: The map bears the title, "Nouvelle carte des decouvertes +faites par des vaisseaux Russiens, etc., dressee sur des memoires +authentiques de ceux qui ont assiste a ces decouvertes, et sur d'autres +connaissances dont on rend raison dans un memoire separe. St. +Petersbourg a l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1758." ] + +[Footnote 11: Pretty broad, flat-bottomed, keelless vessels, 12 +fathoms long, generally moved forward by rowing; sail only used with +fair wind (_Wrangels Reise_, p. 4). ] + +[Footnote 12: Wrangel's own journeys were carried out during winter, +with dog sledges on the ice, and, however interesting in many other +respects, do not yield any other direct contribution to our +knowledge of the state of the ice in summer and autumn. ] + +[Footnote 13: This is a common name for the many Russian expeditions +which, during the years 1734-1743, were sent into the North Polar +Sea from the Dwina, Obi, Yenisej, Lena, and Kamschatka. ] + +[Footnote 14: _Petermann's Mittheilungen_, 1868, p. 1, and 1869, p. 32. ] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + Departure--Tromsoe--Members of the Expedition--Stay at + Maosoe--Limit of Trees--Climate--Scurvy and Antiscorbutics-- + The first doubling of North Cape--Othere's account of his + Travels--Ideas concerning the Geography of Scandinavia + current during the first half of the sixteenth century-- + The oldest Maps of the North--Herbertstein's account of + Istoma's voyage--Gustaf Vasa and the North-east Passage-- + Willoughby and Chancelor's voyages. + + +The _Vega_ left the harbour of Karlskrona on the 22nd June, 1878. +Including Lieutenants Palander and Brusewitz, there were then on +board nineteen men belonging to the Swedish navy, and two foreign +naval officers, who were to take part in the expedition--Lieutenants +Hovgaard and Bove. The two latter had lived some time at Karlskrona +in order to be present at the fitting out and repairing of the +vessel. + +On the 24th June the _Vega_ called at Copenhagen in order to take on +board the large quantity of provisions which had been purchased +there. On the 26th June the voyage was resumed to Gothenburg, where +the _Vega_ anchored on the 27th. During the passage there was on +board the famous Italian geographer, Commendatore CHRISTOFORO NEGRI, +who, for several years back, had followed with special interest all +Arctic voyages, and now had received a commission from the +Government of his native country to be present at the departure of +the _Vega_ from Sweden, and to make himself acquainted with its +equipment, &c. At Gothenburg there embarked Docent Kjellman, Dr. +Almquist, Dr. Stuxberg, Lieutenant Nordquist, and an assistant to +the naturalists, who had been hired in Stockholm; and here were +taken on board the greater part of the scientific equipment of the +expedition, and various stocks of provisions, clothes, &c., that had +been purchased in Sweden. + +[Illustration: TROMSOE. After a photograph by Glaus Knudsen, +Christiania. ] + +On the 4th July the _Vega_ left the harbour of Gothenburg. While +sailing along the west coast of Norway there blew a fresh head wind, +by which the arrival of the vessel at Tromsoe was delayed till the +17th July. Here I went on board. Coal, water, reindeer furs[15] for +all our men, and a large quantity of other stores, bought in Finmark +for the expedition, were taken in here; and three walrus-hunters, +hired for the voyage, embarked. + +On the 21st July the whole equipment of the _Vega_ was on board, the +number of its crew complete, all clear for departure, and the same +day at 2.15 P.M. we weighed anchor, with lively hurrahs from a +numerous crowd assembled at the beach, to enter in earnest on our +Arctic voyage. + +The members of the expedition on board the _Vega_ were-- + + +A.E. Nordenskioeld, Professor, in command +of the expedition........................ born 18th Nov. 1832 + +A.A.L. Palander, Lieutenant, now Captain +in the Royal Swedish Navy, chief +of the steamer _Vega_..................... ,, 2nd Oct. 1840 + +F.R. Kjellman, Ph.D., Docent in Botany +in the University of Upsala, superintendent +of the botanical work of the +expedition.............................. ,, 4th Nov. 1846 + +A.J. Stuxberg, Ph.D., superintendent +of the zoological work................... ,, 18th April 1849 + +E. Almquist, Candidate of Medicine, +medical officer of the expedition, +lichenologist........................... ,, 8th Aug. 1852 + +E.O. Brusewitz, Lieutenant in the Royal +Swedish Navy, second in command of +the vessel.............................. ,, 1st Dec. 1844 + +G. Bove, Lieutenant in the Royal Italian +Navy, superintendent of the hydrographical +work of the expedition ................. ,, 23rd Oct. 1853 + +A. Hovgaard, Lieutenant in the Royal +Danish Navy, superintendent of the +magnetical and meteorological work +of the expedition....................... ,, 1st Nov. 1853 + +O. Nordquist, Lieutenant in the Imperial +Russian Regiment of Guards, +interpreter, assistant zoologist........ ,, 20th May 1858 + +R. Nilsson, sailing-master ............. ,, 5th Jan. 1837 + +F.A. Pettersson, first engineer......... ,, 3rd July 1835 + +O. Nordstroem, second engineer........... ,, 24th Feb. 1855 + +C. Carlstroem, fireman .................. ,, 14th Dec. 1845 + +O. Ingelsson, fireman................... ,, 2nd Feb. 1849 + +O. Oeman, seaman........................ ,, 23rd April 1843 + +G. Carlsson, seaman..................... ,, 22nd Sep. 1843 + +C. Lundgren, seaman..................... ,, 5th July 1851 + +O. Hansson, seaman...................... ,, 6th April 1856 + +D. Asplund, boatswain, cook............. ,, 28th Jan. 1827 + +C.J. Smaolaenning, boatswain........... ,, 27th Sep. 1839 + +C. Levin, boatswain, steward............ ,, 24th Jan. 1844 + +P.M. Lustig, boatswain.................. ,, 22nd April 1845 + +C. Ljungstrom, boatswain................ ,, 12th Oct. 1845 + +P. Lind, boatswain...................... ,, 15th Sep. 1856 + +P.O. Faeste, boatswain.................. born 23rd Sep. 1856 + +S. Andersson, carpenter................. ,, 3rd Sep. 1847 + +J. Haugan, walrus-hunter[16]............ ,, 23rd Jan. 1825 + +P. Johnsen, walrus-hunter............... ,, 15th May 1845 + +P. Sivertsen, walrus-hunter............. ,, 2nd Jan. 1853 + +Th. A. Bostrom, assistant to the scientific +men..................................... ,, 21st Sep. 1857 + + +There was also on board the _Vega_ during the voyage from Tromsoe to +Port Dickson, as commissioner for Mr. Sibiriakoff, Mr. S.J. +Serebrenikoff, who had it in charge to oversee the taking on board +and the landing of the goods that were to be carried to and from +Siberia in the _Fraser_ and _Express_. These vessels had sailed +several days before from Vardoe to Chabarova in Yugor Schar, where +they had orders to wait for the _Vega_. The _Lena_, again, the +fourth vessel that was placed at my disposal, had, in obedience to +orders, awaited the _Vega_ in the harbour of Tromsoe, from which +port these two steamers were now to proceed eastwards in company. + +After leaving Tromsoe, the course was shaped at first within the +archipelago to Maosoe, in whose harbour the _Vega_ was to make some +hours' stay, for the purpose of posting letters in the post-office +there, probably the most northerly in the world. But during this +time so violent a north-west wind began to blow, that we were +detained there three days. + +Maosoe is a little rocky island situated in 71 deg. N.L., +thirty-two kilometres south-west from North Cape, in a region +abounding in fish, about halfway between Bred Sound and Mageroe +Sound. The eastern coast of the island is indented by a bay, which +forms a well-protected harbour. Here, only a few kilometres south of +the northernmost promontory of Europe, are to be found, besides a +large number of fishermen's huts, a church, shop, post-office, +hospital, &c.; and I need scarcely add, at least for the benefit of +those who have travelled in the north of Norway, several friendly, +hospitable families in whose society we talked away many hours of +our involuntary stay in the neighbourhood. The inhabitants of course +live on fish. All agriculture is impossible here. Potatoes have +indeed sometimes yielded an abundant crop on the neighbouring Ingoe +(71 deg. 5' N.L.), but their cultivation commonly fails, in +consequence of the shortness of the summer; on the other hand, +radishes and a number of other vegetables are grown with success in +the garden-beds. Of wild berries there is found here the red +whortleberry, yet in so small quantity that one can seldom collect a +quart or two: the bilberry is somewhat more plentiful; but the +grapes of the north, the cloudberry (_multer_), grow in profuse +abundance. From an area of several square fathoms one can often +gather a couple of quarts. There is no wood here--only bushes. + +[Illustration: OLD-WORLD POLAR DRESS. Lapp, after original in the +Northern Museum, Stockholm. ] + +[Illustration: NEW WORLD POLAR DRESS. Greenlanders, after an old +painting in the Ethnographical Museum, Copenhagen.[17] ] + +[Illustration: LIMIT OF TREES IN NORWAY. At Praestevandet, on +Tromsoen, after a photograph. ] + +In the neighbourhood of North Cape, the wood, for the present, does +not go quite to the coast of the Polar Sea, but at sheltered places, +situated at a little distance from the beach, birches,[18] three to +four metres high, are already to be met with. In former times, +however, the outer archipelago itself was covered with trees, which +is proved by the tree-stems, found imbedded in the mosses on the +outer islands on the coast of Finmark, for instance, upon Renoe. In +Siberia the limit of trees runs to the beginning of the estuary +delta, _i.e._, to about 72 deg. N.L.[19] As the latitude of North +Cape is 71 deg. 10', the wood in Siberia at several places, viz, +along the great rivers, goes considerably farther north than in +Europe. This depends partly on the large quantity of warm water +which these rivers, in summer, carry down from the south, partly on +the transport of seeds with the river water, and on the more +favourable soil, which consists of a rich mould, yearly renewed by +inundations, but in Norway again for the most part of rocks of +granite and gneiss or of barren beds of sand. Besides, the limit of +trees has a quite dissimilar appearance in Siberia and Scandinavia: +in the latter country, the farthest outposts of the forests towards +the north consist of scraggy birches, which, notwithstanding +their stunted stems, clothe the mountain sides with a very +lively and close green; while in Siberia the outermost trees are +gnarled and half-withered larches (_Larix daliurica_, Turez), +which stick up over the tops of the hills like a thin grey +brush.[20] North of this limit there are to be seen on the Yenisej +luxuriant bushes of willow and alder. That in Siberia too, the +large wood, some hundreds or thousands of years ago, went +farther north than now, is shown by colossal tree-stumps found +still standing in the _tundra_, nor is it necessary now to go far +south of the extreme limit, before the river banks are to be +seen crowned with high, flourishing, luxuriant trees. + +[Illustration: LIMIT OF TREES IN SIBERIA. At Boganida, after +Middendorff. ] + +[Illustration: THE CLOUDBERRY (RUBUS CHAMAEMORUS, L.) Fruit of the +natural size. Flowering stalks diminished. ] + +The climate at Maosoe is not distinguished by any severe winter +cold,[21] but the air is moist and raw nearly all the year round. +The region would however be very healthy, did not scurvy, especially +in humid winters, attack the population, educated and uneducated, +rich and poor, old and young. According to a statement made by a +lady resident on the spot, very severe attacks of scurvy are cured +without fail by preserved cloudberries and rum. Several spoonfuls +are given to the patient daily, and a couple of quarts of the +medicine is said to be sufficient for the complete cure of children +severely attacked by the disease. I mention this new method of using +the cloudberry, the old well-known antidote to scurvy, because I am +convinced that future Polar expeditions, if they will avail +themselves of the knowledge of this cure, will find that it conduces +to the health and comfort of all on board, and that the medicine is +seldom refused, unless it be by too obstinate abstainers from +spirituous liquors. + + +It enters into the plan of this work, as the _Vega_ sails along, to +give a brief account of the voyages of the men who first opened the +route along which she advances, and who thus, each in his measure, +contributed to prepare the way for the voyage whereby the passage +round Asia and Europe has now at last been accomplished. On this +account it is incumbent on me to begin by giving a narrative of the +voyage of discovery during which the northernmost point of Europe +was first doubled, the rather because this narrative has besides +great interest for us, as containing much remarkable information +regarding the condition of the former population in the north of +Scandinavia. + +This voyage was accomplished about a thousand years ago by a Norwegian, +OTHERE, from Halogaland or Helgeland, that part of the Norwegian coast +which lies between 65 deg. and 66 deg. N.L. Othere, who appears to have +travelled far and wide, came in one of his excursions to the court of +the famous English king, Alfred the Great. In presence of this king he +gave, in a simple, graphic style, a sketch of a voyage which he had +undertaken from his home in Norway towards the north and east. The +narrative has been preserved by its having been incorporated, along with +an account of the travels of another Norseman, Wulfstan, to the southern +part of the Baltic, in the first chapter of Alfred's Anglo-Saxon +reproduction of the history of PAULUS OROSIUS: _De Miseria Mundi_.[22] +This work has since been the subject of translation and exposition by a +great number of learned men, among whom may be named here the +Scandinavians, H.G. PORTHAN of Abo, RASMUS RASK and C-CHR. RAFN of +Copenhagen. + +Regarding Othere's relations to King Alfred statements differ. Some +inquirers suppose that he was only on a visit at the court of the +king, others that he had been sent out by King Alfred on voyages of +discovery, and finally, others say that he was a prisoner of war, +who incidentally narrated his experience of foreign lands. Othere's +account of his travels runs as follows:-- + + "Othere told his lord, King Alfred, that he dwelt + northmost of all the Northmen. He said that he dwelt in + the land to the northward, along the West-Sea; he said, + however, that that land is very long north from thence, + but it is all waste, except in a few places where the Fins + at times dwell, hunting in the winter, and in the summer + fishing in that sea. He said that he was desirous to try, + once on a time, how far that country extended due north, + or whether any one lived to the north of the waste. He + then went due north along the country, leaving all the way + the waste land on the right, and the wide sea on the left. + After three days he was as far north as the whale-hunters + go at the farthest. Then he proceeded in his course due + north, as far as he could sail within another three days; + then the land there inclined due east, or the sea into the + land, he knew not which; but he knew that he waited there + for a west wind or a little north, and sailed thence + eastward along that land as far as he could sail in four + days. Then he had to wait for a due north wind because the + land inclined there due south, or the sea in on that land, + he knew not which. He then sailed along the coast due + south, as far as he could sail in five days. There lay a + great river up in that land; they then turned in that + river, because they durst not sail on up the river on + account of hostility; because all that country was + inhabited on the other side of the river. He had not + before met with any land that was inhabited since he left + his own home; but all the way he had waste land on his + right, except some fishermen, fowlers, and hunters, all of + whom were Fins: and he had constantly a wide sea to the + left. The Beormas had well cultivated their country, but + they (Othere and his companions) did not dare to enter it. + And the Terfinna[23] land was all waste, except where + hunters, fishers, or fowlers had taken up their quarters. + + "The Beormas told him many particulars both of their own + land and of other lands lying around them; but he knew not + what was true because he did not see it himself. It seemed + to him that the Fins and the Beormas spoke nearly the same + language. He went thither chiefly, in addition to seeing + the country, on account of the walruses,[24] because they + have very noble bones in their teeth, of which the + travellers brought some to the king; and their hides are + very good for ship-ropes. These whales are much less than + other whales, not being longer than seven ells. But in his + own country is the best whale-hunting. There they are + eight-and-forty ells long, and the largest are fifty ells + long. Of these he said he and five others had killed sixty + in two days.[25] He was a very wealthy man in those + possessions in which their wealth consists, that is, in + wild deer. He had at the time he came to the king, six + hundred unsold tame deer. These deer they call rein-deer, + of which there were six decoy rein-deer, which are very + valuable among the Fins, because they catch the wild + rein-deer with them. + + "He was one of the first men in that country, yet he had + not more than twenty horned cattle, twenty sheep and + twenty swine, and the little that he ploughed he ploughed + with horses. But their wealth consists mostly in the rent + paid them by the Fins. That rent is in skins of animals + and birds' feathers, and whalebone, and in ship-ropes made + of whales'[26] hides, and of seals'. Every one pays + according to his birth; the best-born, it is said, pay the + skins of fifteen martens, and five rein-deers, and one + bear's skin, ten ambers of feathers, a bear's or otter's + skin kyrtle, and two ship-ropes, each sixty ells long, + made either of whale or of seal hide." + +The continuation of Othere's narrative consists of a sketch of the +Scandinavian peninsula, and of a journey which he undertook from his +home towards the south. King Alfred then gives an account of the +Dane, Wulfstan's voyage in the Baltic. This part of the introduction +to Orosius, however, has too remote a connection with my subject to +be quoted in this historical sketch. + +[Illustration: NORSE SHIP OF THE TENTH CENTURY. Drawn with reference +to the vessel found at Sandefjord in 1880, under the superintendence +of Ingvald Undset, Assistant at the Christiania University's +collection of Northern antiquities. ] + +It appears from Othere's simple and very clear narrative that he +undertook a veritable voyage of discovery in order to explore the +unknown lands and sea lying to the north-east. This voyage was also +very rich in results, as in the course of it the northernmost part +of Europe was circumnavigated. Nor perhaps is there any doubt that +during this voyage Othere penetrated as far as to the mouth of the +Dwina or at least of the Mesen in the land of the Beormas.[27] We +learn from the narrative besides, that the northernmost part of +Scandinavia was already, though sparsely, peopled by Lapps, whose +mode of life did not differ much from that followed by their +descendants, who live on the coast at the present day. + +[Illustration: Map of North Europe, from Nicholas Donis's edition +of Ptolemy's _Cosmographia_, Ulm, 1482. ] + +[Illustration: Map of the North, from Jakob Ziegler's _Schondia_, +Strassburg, 1532. ] + +[Illustration: Map of North Europe from _Olai Magni Historia de gentium +septentrionalium variis conditionibus_, Basil, 1567. ] + +The Scandinavian race first migrated to Finmark and settled there in +the 13th century, and from that period there was naturally spread +abroad in the northern countries a greater knowledge of those +regions, which, however, was for a long time exceedingly incomplete, +and even in certain respects less correct than Othere's. The idea of +the northernmost parts of Europe, which was current during the first +half of the 16th century, is shown by lithographed copies of two +maps of the north, one dated 1482, the other 1532,[28] which are +appended to this work. On the latter of these Greenland is still +delineated as connected with Norway in the neighbourhood of +Vardoehus. This map, however, is grounded, according to the +statement of the author in the introduction, among other sources, on +the statements of two archbishops of the diocese of Nidaro,[29] to +which Greenland and Finmark belonged, and from whose inhabited parts +expeditions were often undertaken both for trade and plunder, by +land and sea, as far away as to the land of the Beormas. It is +difficult to understand how with such maps of the distribution of +land in the north the thought of the north-east passage could arise, +if voices were not even then raised for an altogether opposite view, +grounded partly on a survival of the old idea, we may say the old +popular belief, that Asia, Europe and Africa were surrounded by +water, partly on stories of Indians having been driven by wind to +Europe, along the north coast of Asia.[30] To these was added in +1539 the map of the north by the Swedish bishop OLAUS MAGNUS,[31] +which for the first time gave to Scandinavia an approximately +correct boundary towards the north. Six hundred years,[32] in any +case, had run their course before Othere found a successor in Sir +Hugh Willoughby; and it is usual to pass by the former, and to +ascribe to the latter the honour of being the first in that long +succession of men who endeavoured to force a passage by the +north-east from the Atlantic Ocean to China. + +Here however it ought to be remarked that while such maps as those +of Ziegler were published in western Europe, other and better +knowledge of the regions in question prevailed in the north. For it +may be considered certain that Norwegians, Russians and Karelians +often travelled in boats on peaceful or warlike errands, during the +fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, from the west +coast of Norway to the White Sea, and in the opposite direction, +although we find nothing on record regarding such journeys except +the account that SIGISMUND VON HERBERSTEIN[33] gives, in his famous +book on Russia, of the voyage of GREGORY ISTOMA and the envoy DAVID +from the White Sea to Trondhjem in the year 1496. + +The voyage is inserted under the distinctive title _Navigatio per +Mare Glaciale_[34] and the narrative begins with an explanation that +Herbertstein got it from Istoma himself, who, when a youth, had +learned Latin in Denmark. As the reasons for choosing the unusual, +long, "but safe" circuitous route over the North Sea in preference +to the shorter way that was usually taken, Istoma gives the disputes +between Sweden and Russia, and the revolt of Sweden against Denmark, +at the time when the voyage was undertaken (1496). After giving an +account of his journey from Moscow to the mouth of the Dwina, he +continues thus:-- + + "After having gone on board of four boats, they kept first + along the right bank of the ocean, where they saw very + high mountain, peaks;[35] and after having in this way + travelled sixteen miles, and crossed an arm of the sea, + they followed the western strand, leaving on their right + the open sea, which like the neighbouring mountains has + its name from the river Petzora. They came here to a + people called Fin-Lapps, who, though they dwell in low + wretched huts by the sea, and live almost like wild + beasts, in any case are said to be much more peaceable + than the people who are called wild Lapps. Then, after + they had passed the land of the Lapps and sailed forward + eighty miles, they came to the land, Nortpoden, which is + part of the dominions of the King of Sweden. This region + the Rutheni call Kayenska Selma, and the people they call + Kayeni. After sailing thence along a very indented coast + which jutted out to the right, they came to a peninsula, + called the Holy Nose,[36] consisting of a great rock, + which like a nose projects into the sea. But in this there + is a grotto or hollow which for six hours at a time + swallows up water, and then with great noise and din casts + out again in whirls the water which it had swallowed. Some + call it the navel of the sea, others Charybdis. It is said + that this whirlpool has such power, that it draws to + itself ships and other things in its neighbourhood and + swallows them. Istoma said that he had never been in such + danger as at that place, because the whirlpool drew the + ship in which he travelled with such force, that it was + only by extreme exertion at the oars that they could + escape. After passing this _Holy Nose_ they came to a + rocky promontory, which they had to sail round. After + having waited here some days on account of head winds, the + skipper said: 'This rock, which ye see, is called Semes, + and we shall not get so easily past it if it be not + propitiated by some offering.' Istoma said that he + reproved the skipper for his foolish superstition, on + which the reprimanded skipper said nothing more. They + waited thus the fourth day at the place on account of the + stormy state of the sea, but after that the storm ceased, + and the anchor was weighed. When the voyage was now + continued with a favourable wind, the skipper said: 'You + laughed at my advice to propitiate the Semes rock, and + considered it a foolish superstition, but it certainly + would have been impossible for us to get past it, if I had + not secretly by night ascended the rock and sacrificed.' + To the inquiry what he had offered, the skipper replied: + 'I scattered oatmeal mixed with butter on the projecting + rock which we saw.' As they sailed further they came to + another great promontory, called Motka, resembling a + peninsula. At the end of this there was a castle, Barthus, + which means _vakthus_, watch-house, for there the King of + Norway keeps a guard to protect his frontiers. The + interpreter said that this promontory was so long that it + could scarcely be sailed round in eight days, on which + account, in order not to be delayed in this way, they + carried their boats and baggage with great labour on their + shoulders over land for the distance of about half a mile. + They then sailed on along the land of the Dikilopps or + wild Lapps to a place which is called Dront (Trondhjem) + and lies 200 miles north of[37] the Dwina. And they said + that the prince of Moscow used to receive tribute as far + as to this place." + +The narrative is of interest, because it gives us an idea of the way +in which men travelled along the north coast of Norway, four hundred +years ago. It may possibly have had an indirect influence on the +sending of Sir Hugh Willoughby's expedition, as the edition of +Herbertstein's work printed at Venice in 1550 probably soon became +known to the Venetian, Cabot, who, at that time, as Grand Pilot of +England, superintended with great care the fitting out of the first +English expedition to the north-east. + +There is still greater probability that the map of Scandinavia by +Olaus Magnus, already mentioned, was known in England before 1553. +This map is an expression of a view which before that time had taken +root in the north, which, in opposition to the maps of the +South-European cosmographers, assumed the existence of an open +sea-communication in the north, between the Chinese Sea and the +Atlantic, and which even induced GUSTAF VASA to attempt to bring +about a north-east expedition. This unfortunately did not come to +completion, and all that we know of it is contained in a letter to +the Elector August of Saxony, from the Frenchman HUBERT LANGUET, who +visited Sweden in 1554. In this letter, dated 1st April 1576, +Languet says:--"When I was in Sweden twenty-two years ago, King +Gustaf often talked with me about this sea route. At last he urged +me to undertake a voyage in this direction, and promised to fit out +two vessels with all that was necessary for a protracted voyage, and +to man them with the most skilful seamen, who should do what I +ordered. But I replied that I preferred journeys in inhabitated +regions to the search for new unsettled lands."[38] If Gustaf Vasa +had found a man fit to carry out his great plans, it might readily +have happened that Sweden would have contended with England for the +honour of opening the long series of expeditions to the +north-east.[39] + +England's navigation is at present greater beyond comparison than +that of any other country, but it is not of old date. In the middle +of the sixteenth century it was still very inconsiderable, and +mainly confined to coast voyages in Europe, and a few fishing +expeditions to Iceland and Newfoundland.[40] The great power of +Spain and Portugal by sea, and their jealousy of other countries +rendered it impossible at that period for foreign seafarers to carry +on traffic in the East-Asiatic countries, which had been sketched by +Marco Polo with so attractive accounts of unheard-of richness in +gold and jewels, in costly stuffs, in spices and perfumes. In order +that the merchants of northern Europe might obtain a share of the +profit, it appeared to be necessary to discover new routes, +inaccessible to the armadas of the Pyrenean peninsula. Here lies the +explanation of the zeal with which the English and the Dutch, time +after time, sent out vessels, equipped at great expense, in search +of a new way to India and China, either by the Pole, by the +north-west, along the north coast of the new world, or by the +north-east, along the north coast of the old. The voyages first +ceased when the maritime supremacy of Spain and Portugal was broken. +By none of them was the intended object gained, but it is remarkable +that in any case they gave the first start to the development of +England's ocean navigation. + +[Illustration: SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. (After a portrait in the +Great Picture Hall, Greenwich.) ] + +Sir HUGH WILLOUOUGHBY's in 1553 was thus the first maritime +expedition undertaken on a large scale, which was sent from England +to far distant seas. The equipment of the vessels was carried out +with great care under the superintendence of the famous navigator, +Sebastian Cabot, then an old man, who also gave the commander +precise instructions how he should behave in the different incidents +of the voyage. Some of these instructions now indeed appear rather +childish,[41] but others might still be used as rules for every +well-ordered exploratory expedition. Sir Hugh besides obtained from +Edward VI. an open letter written, in Latin, Greek, and several +other languages, in which it was stated that discoveries and the +making of commercial treaties were the sole objects of the +expedition; and the people, with whom the expedition might come in +contact, were requested to treat Sir Hugh Willoughby as they +themselves would wish to be treated in case they should come to +England. So sanguine were the promoters of the voyage of its success +in reaching the Indian seas by this route, that they caused the +ships that were placed at Sir Hugh Willoughby's disposal to be +sheathed with lead in order to protect them from the attacks of the +teredo and other worms.[43] These vessels were:-- + +[Illustration: SEBASTIAN CABOT. After a portrait in E. Vale +Blake's Arctic Experiences, London. 1874.[42] ] + +1. The _Bona Esperanza_, admiral of the fleet, of 120 tons burden, +on board of which was Sir Hugh Willoughby, himself, as captain +general of the fleet. The number of persons in this ship, including +Willoughby, the master of the vessel, William Gefferson, and six +merchants, was thirty-five. + +2. The _Edward Bonaventure_, of 160 tons burden, the command of +which was given to Richard Chancelor, captain and pilot major of the +fleet. There were on board this vessel fifty men, including two +merchants. Among the crew whose names are given in Hakluyt we find +the name of Stephen Burrough, afterwards renowned in the history of +the north-east passage, and that of Arthur Pet. + +3. The _Bona Confidentia_, of ninety tons, under command of +Cornelius Durfoorth, with twenty-eight men, including three +merchants. + +The expense of fitting out the vessels amounted to a sum of 6,000 +pounds, divided into shares of 25 pounds. Sir Hugh Willoughby was +chosen commander "both by reason of his goodly personage (for he was +of tall stature) as also for his singular skill in the services of +warre."[44] In order to ascertain the nature of the lands of the +east, two "Tartars" who were employed at the royal stables were +consulted, but without any information being obtained from them. The +ships left Ratcliffe the 20/10th May 1553.[45] They were towed down +by the boats, "the mariners being apparelled in watchet or skie +coloured cloth," with a favourable wind to Greenwich, where the +court then was. The King being unwell could not be present, but "the +courtiers came running out, and the common people flockt together, +standing very thicke upon the shoare; the Privie Consel, they lookt +out at the windowes of the court, and the rest ran up to the toppes +of the towers; the shippes hereupon discharge their ordinance, and +shoot off their pieces after the maner of warre, and of the sea, +insomuch that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith, the valleys +and the waters gave an echo, and the mariners they shouted in such +sort, that the skie rang again with the noise thereof."[46] All was +joy and triumph; it seemed as if men foresaw that the greatest +maritime power, the history of the world can show, was that day +born. + +The voyage itself was, however, very disastrous for Sir Hugh and +many of his companions. After sailing along the east coast of +England and Scotland the three vessels crossed in company to Norway, +the coast of which came in sight the 24/14th July in 66 deg. N.L. +A landing was effected and thirty small houses were found, whose +inhabitants had fled, probably from fear of the foreigners. The +region was called, as was afterwards ascertained, "Halgeland," and +was just that part of Norway from which Othere began his voyage to +the White Sea. Hence they sailed on along the coast. On the 6th +Aug/27th July they anchored in a harbour, "Stanfew" (perhaps +Steenfjord on the west coast of Lofoten), where they found a +numerous and friendly population, with no articles of commerce, +however, but dried fish and train oil. In the middle of September +the _Edward Bonaventure_, at Senjen during a storm, parted company +with the two other vessels. These now endeavoured to reach +Vardoehus, and therefore sailed backwards and forwards in different +directions, during which they came among others to an uninhabited, +ice-encompassed land, along whose coast the sea was so shallow that +it was impossible for a boat to land. It was said to be situated +480' east by north from Senjen, in 72 deg. N.L.[47] Hence they +sailed first to the north, then to the south-east. Thus they reached +the coast of Russian Lapland, where, on the 28/18th September they +found a good harbour, in which Sir Hugh determined to pass the +winter. The harbour was situated at the mouth of the river Arzina +"near Kegor." Of the further fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his +sixty-two companions, we know only that during the course of the +winter they all perished, doubtless of scurvy. The journal of the +commander ends with the statement that immediately after the arrival +of the vessels three men were sent south-south west, three west, and +three south-east to search if they could find people, but that they +all returned "without finding of people or any similitude of +habitation." The following year Russian fishermen found at the +wintering station the ships and dead bodies of those who had thus +perished, together with the journal from which the extract given +above is taken, and a will witnessed by Willoughby,[48] from which +it appeared that he himself and most of the company of the two ships +were alive in January, 1554.[49] The two vessels, together with +Willoughby's corpse, were sent to England in 1555 by the merchant +George Killingworth.[50] + +With regard to the position of Arzina it appears from a statement in +Anthony Jenkinson's first voyage (_Hakluyt_, p. 335) that it took +seven days to go from Vardoehus to Swjatoinos, and that on the sixth +he passed the mouth of the river where Sir Hugh Willoughby wintered. +At a distance from Vardoehus of about six-sevenths of the way +between that town and Swjatoinos, there debouches into the Arctic +Ocean, in 68 deg. 20' N.L. and 38 deg. 30' E.L. from Greenwich, a +river, which in recent maps is called the Varzina. It was doubtless +at the mouth of this river that two vessels of the first North-east +Passage Expedition wintered with so unfortunate an issue for the +officers and men. + +The third vessel, the _Edward Bonaventure_, commanded by Chancelor, +had on the contrary a successful voyage, and one of great importance +for the commerce of the world. As has been already stated, Chancelor +was separated from his companions during a storm in August. He now +sailed alone to Vardoehus. After waiting there seven days for Sir +Hugh Willoughby, he set out again, resolutely determined "either to +bring that to passe which was intended, or else to die the death;" +and though "certaine Scottishmen" earnestly attempted to persuade +him to return, "he held on his course towards that unknown part of +the world, and sailed so farre that hee came at last to the place +where hee found no night at all, but a continuall light and +brightnesse of the sunne shining clearly upon the huge and mighty +sea."[51] In this way he finally reached the mouth of the river +Dwina in the White Sea, where a small monastery was then standing at +the place where Archangel is now situated. By friendly treatment he +soon won the confidence of the inhabitants, who received him with +great hospitality. They, however, immediately sent off a courier to +inform Czar Ivan Vasilievitsch of the remarkable occurrence. The +result was that Chancelor was invited to the court at Moscow, where +he and his companions passed a part of the winter, well entertained +by the Czar. The following summer he returned with his vessel to +England. Thus a commercial connection was brought about, which soon +became of immense importance to both nations, and within a few years +gave rise to a number of voyages, of which I cannot here give any +account, as they have no connection with the history of the +North-east Passage.[52] + +[Illustration: VARDOE IN 1594. After Linschoten. ] + +[Illustration: VARDOE IN OUR DAYS. After a photograph. ] + +Great geographer or seaman Sir Hugh Willoughby clearly was not, but +his and his followers' voluntary self-sacrifice and undaunted +courage have a strong claim on our admiration. Incalculable also was +the influence which the voyages of Willoughby and Chancelor had upon +English commerce, and on the development of the whole of Russia, and +of the north of Norway. From the monastery at the mouth of the Dwina +a flourishing commercial town has arisen, and a numerous population +has settled on the coast of the Polar Sea, formerly so desolate. +Already there is regular steam and telegraphic communication to the +confines of Russia. The people of Vardoe can thus in a few hours get +accounts of what has happened not only in Paris or London, but also +in New York, the Indies, the Cape, Australia, Brazil, &c., while a +hundred years ago the post came thither only once a year. It was +then that a journal-loving commandant took the step, giving evidence +of strong self-command, of not "devouring" the post at once, but +reading the newspapers day by day a year after they were published. +All this is now different, and yet men are not satisfied. The +interests of commerce and the fisheries require railway +communication with the rest of Europe. That will certainly come in a +few years, nor will it be long before the telegraph has spun its +net, and regular steam communication has commenced along the coast +of the Arctic Ocean far beyond the sea which was opened by Chancelor +to the commerce of the world. + +[Illustration: COAST LANDSCAPE FROM MATOTSCHKIN SCHAR. After Svenske. ] + + +[Footnote 15: In many Polar expeditions, sealskin has been used as +clothing instead of reindeer skin. The reindeer skin, however, is +lighter and warmer, and ought therefore to have an unconditional +preference as a means of protection against severe cold. In mild +weather, clothing made of reindeer skin in the common way has indeed +the defect that it is drenched through with water, and thereby +becomes useless, but in such weather it is in general unnecessary to +use furs. The coast Chukchis, who catch great numbers of seals, but +can only obtain reindeer skins by purchase, yet consider clothing +made of the latter material indispensable in winter. During this +season they wear an overcoat of the same form as the Lapps' _pesk_, +the suitableness of whose cut thus appears to be well proved. On +this account I prefer the old-world Polar dress to that of the new, +which consists of more closely fitting clothes. The Lapp shoes of +reindeer skin (_renskallar, komager_) are, on the other hand, if one +has not opportunity to change them frequently, nor time to take +sufficient care of them, quite unserviceable for Arctic journeys. ] + +[Footnote 16: Haugan had formerly for a long series of years carried +his own vessel to Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and was known as +one of the most fortunate walrus-hunters of the Norwegian Polar Sea +fleet. ] + +[Footnote 17: The original of this drawing, for which I am indebted +to Councillor of Justice H. Rink, of Copenhagen, was painted by a +German painter at Beigen, in 1654. The painting has the following +inscription:-- + +Mit Ledern Schifflein auff dem Meer De groenleinder fein bein undt +her Boen Thieren undt Bogelen haben see Ire tracht Das falte lands +bon winter nacht ] + +[Footnote 18: The birch which grows here is the sweet-scented birch +(_Betula odorata_, Bechst.), not the dwarf birch (_Betula nana_, +L.), which is found as far north as Ice Fjord in Spitzbergen (78 +degree 7' N.L.), though there it only rises a few inches above +ground. ] + +[Footnote 19: According to Latkin, _Die Lena und ihr Flussgebiet_ +(_Petermann's Mittheilungen_, 1879, p. 91). On the map which +accompanies Engehardt's reproduction of Wrangel's _Journey_ (Berlin, +1839), the limit of trees at the Lena is placed at 71 deg. N.L. ] + +[Footnote 20: On the Kola Peninsula, and in the neighbourhood of the +White Sea, as far as to Ural, the limit of trees consists of a +species of pine (_Picea obovata_, Ledeb.), but farther east in +Kamschatka again of birch.--Th. von Middendorff, _Reise in dem +aeussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens_, vol. iv. p. 582. ] + +[Footnote 21: An idea of the influence exerted by the immediate +neighbourhood of a warm ocean-current in making the climate milder +may be obtained from the following table of the mean temperatures of +the different months at + + 1. Tromsoe (69 deg. 30' N.L.); + 2. Fruholm, near North Cape (71 deg. 6' N.L.); + 3. Vardoe (70 deg. 22' N.L.); + 4. Enontekis and Karesuando, on the river Muonio, in the interior + of Lapland (68 deg. 26' N.L.). + Tromsoe Fruholm Vardoe Enontekis + January........... -4.2 deg. -2.7 deg. -6.0 deg. -13.7 deg. + February.......... -4.0 -4.7 -6.4 -17.1 + March............. -3.8 -3.2 -5.1 -11.4 + April............. -0.1 -0.9 -1.7 -6.0 + May............... +3.2 +2.7 +1.8 +0.9 + June.............. +8.7 +7.5 +5.9 +8.0 + July.............. +11.5 +9.3 +8.8 +11.6 + August........... +10.4 +9.9 +9.8 +12.0 + September......... +7.0 +5.8 +6.4 +4.5 + October........... +2.0 +2.5 +1.3 -4.0 + November.......... -1.7 -1.1 -2.1 -9.9 + December.......... -3.2 -1.9 -4.0 -11.3 + +The figures are taken from H. Mohn's _Norges Klima_ (reprinted from +O.F. Schubeler's _Voextlivet i Norge_, Christiania, 1879), and A. +J. Angstroem, _Om lufttemperaturen i Enontekis_ (Oefvers. af Vet. Akad. +Foerhandl, 1860). ] + +[Footnote 22: Orosius was born in Spain in the fourth century after +Christ, and died in the beginning of the fifth. He was a Christian, +and wrote his work to show that the world, in opposition to the +statements of several heathen writers, had been visited during the +heathen period by quite as great calamities as during the Christian. +This is probably the reason why his monotonous sketch of all the +misfortunes and calamities which befell the heathen world was long +so highly valued, was spread in many copies and printed in +innumerable editions, the oldest at Vienna in 1471. In the +Anglo-Saxon translation now in question, Othere's account of his +journey is inserted in the first chapter, which properly forms a +geographical introduction to the work written by King Alfred. This +old Anglo-Saxon work is preserved in England in two beautiful +manuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries. Orosius' history +itself is now forgotten, but King Alfred's introduction, and +especially his account of Othere's and Wulfstan's travels, have +attracted much attention from inquirers, as appears from the list of +translations of this part of King Alfred's Orosius, given by Joseph +Bosworth in his _King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the +Compendious History of the World by Orosius_. London, 1859. ] + +[Footnote 23: By Fins are here meant Lapps; by Terfins the +inhabitants of the Tersk coast of Russian Lapland. ] + +[Footnote 24: Walruses are still captured yearly on the ice at the +mouth of the White Sea, not very far from the shore (cf. A.E. +Nordenskioeld, _Redogoerelse foer en expedition till mynningen af +Jenisej och Sibirien ar_ 1875, p. 23; _Bihang till Vetenskaps-A kad. +Handl_. B. iv. No. 1). Now they occur there indeed only in small +numbers, and, it appears, not in the immediate neighbourhood of +land; but there is scarcely any doubt that in former days they were +common on the most northerly coasts of Norway. They have evidently +been driven away thence in the same way as they are now being driven +away from Spitzbergen. With what rapidity their numbers at the +latter place are yearly diminished, may be seen from the fact that +during my many Arctic journeys, beginning in 1858, I never saw +walruses on Bear Island or the west coast of Spitzbergen, but have +conversed with hunters who ten years before had seen them in herds +of hundreds and thousands. I have myself seen such herds in +Hinloopen Strait in July 1861, but when during my journeys in 1868 +and 1872-3 I again visited the same regions, I saw there not a +single walrus. ] + +[Footnote 25: As it appears to be impossible for six men to kill +sixty great whales in two days, this passage has caused the editors +of Othere's narrative much perplexity, which is not wonderful if +great whales, as the _Balaena mysticetus_ are here meant. But if the +narrative relates to the smaller species of the whale, a similar +catch may still, at the present day, be made on the coasts of the +Polar countries. For various small species go together in great +shoals; and, as they occasionally come into water so shallow that +they are left aground at ebb, they can be killed with ease. +Sometimes, too, a successful attempt is made to drive them into +shallow water. That whales visit the coast of Norway in spring in +large shoals dangerous to the navigator is also stated by Jacob +Ziegler, in his work, _Quae intus continentur Syria, Palestina, +Arabia, AEgyptus, Schondia, &c._ Argentorati, 1532, p. 97. ] + +[Footnote 26: In this case is meant by "whale" evidently the walrus, +whose skin is still used for lines by the Norwegian walrus-hunters, +by the Eskimo, and the Chukchis. The skin of the true whale might +probably be used for the same purpose, although, on account of its +thickness, perhaps scarcely with advantage without the use of +special tools for cutting it up. ] + +[Footnote 27: It ought to be remarked here that the distances which +Othere in that case traversed every day, give a speed of sailing +approximating to that which a common sailing vessel of the present +day attains _on an average_. This circumstance, which on a cursory +examination may appear somewhat strange, finds its explanation when +we consider that Othere sailed only with a favourable wind, and, +when the wind was unfavourable, lay still. It appears that he +usually sailed 70' to 80' in twenty-four hours, or perhaps rather +_per diem._ ] + +[Footnote 28: The maps are taken from _Ptolemaei Cosmographia latine +reddita a Jac. Angelo, curam mapparum gerente Nicolao Donis Germano, +Ulmoe_ 1482, and from the above-quoted work of Jacobus Ziegler, +printed in 1532. That portion of the latter which concerns the +geography of Scandinavia is reprinted in _Geografiska Sektionens +Tidskrift_, B.I. Stockholm, 1878. ] + +[Footnote 29: These were the Dane, Erik Valkendorff, and the +Norwegian, Olof Engelbrektsson. The Swedes, Johannes Magnus, +Archbishop of Upsala, and Peder Maonsson, Bishop of Vesteraos, also +gave Ziegler important information regarding the northern countries. ] + +[Footnote 30: Of these much-discussed narratives concerning +_Indians_--probably men from North Scandinavia, Russia, or North +America, certainly not Japanese, Chinese, or Indians--who were +driven by storms to the coasts of Germany, the first comes down to +us from the time before the birth of Christ. For B.C. 62 Quintus +Metellus Celer, "when as proconsul he governed Gaul, received as a +present from the King of the Baeti [Pliny says of the Suevi] some +Indians, and when he inquired how they came to those countries, he +was informed that they had been driven by storm from the Indian +Ocean to the coasts of Germany" (Pomponius Mela, lib. iii. cap. 5, +after a lost work of Cornelius Nepos. Plinius, _Hist. Nat._, lib. +ii. cap. 67). + +Of a similar occurrence in the middle ages, the learned AEneas +Sylvius, afterwards Pope under the name of Pius II., gives the +following account of his cosmography:--"I have myself read in Otto +[Bishop Otto, of Freising], that in the time of the German Emperor +an Indian vessel and Indian merchants were driven by storm to the +German coast. Certain it was that, driven about by contrary winds, +they came from the east, which had been by no means possible, if, as +many suppose, the North Sea were unnavigable and frozen" (Pius II., +_Cosmographia in Asiae et Europae eleganti descriptione, etc._, +Parisiis, 1509, leaf 2). Probably it is the same occurrence which is +mentioned by the Spanish historian Gomara (_Historia general de las +Indias_, Saragoca, 1552-53), with the addition, that the Indians +stranded at Luebeck in the time of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa +(1152-1190). Gomara also states that he met with the exiled Swedish +Bishop Olaus Magnus, who positively assured him that it was possible +to sail from Norway by the north along the coasts to China (French +translation of the above-quoted work, Paris, 1587, leaf 12). An +exceedingly instructive treatise on this subject is to be found in +_Aarboeger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie_, Kjoebenhavn, 1880. +It is written by F. Schiern, and entitled _Om en etnologisk Gaade +fra Oldtiden_. ] + +[Footnote 31: Olaus Magnus, _Auslegung und Verklerung der neuen +Mappen von den alten Goettewreich_, Venedig, 1539. Now perhaps +(according to a communication from the Librarian-in-chief, G.E. +Klemming) there is scarcely any copy of this edition of the map +still in existence, but it is given unaltered in the 1567 Basel +edition of Olaus Magnus, "_De gentium septentrionalium rariis +conditionibus_," &c. The edition of the same work printed at Rome in +1555, on the other hand, has a map, which differs a little from the +original map of 1539. ] + +[Footnote 32: To interpret Nicolo and Antonio Zeno's travels towards +the end of the fourteenth century, which have given rise to so much +discussion, as Mr. Fr. Krarup has done, in such a way as if they had +visited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea, appears to +me to be a very unfortunate guess, opposed to innumerable +particulars in the narrative of the Zenos, and to the accompanying +map, remarkable in more respects than one, which was first published +at Venice in 1558, unfortunately in a somewhat "improved" form by +one of Zeno's descendants. On the map there is the date MCCCLXXX. +(Cf. _Zeniernes Reise til Norden, et Tolknings Forsoeg_, af Fr. +Krarup, Kjoebenhavn, 1878; R.H. Major, _The Voyages of the Venetian +Brothers Nicolo and Antonio Zeno_, London, 1873, and other works +concerning these much-bewritten travels). ] + +[Footnote 33: The first edition, entitled _Rerum Moscoviticarum +Commentarii, &c._, Vienna, 1549, has three plates, and a map of +great value for the former geography of Russia. It is, however, to +judge by the copy in the Royal Library at Stockholm, partly drawn by +hand, and much inferior to the map in the Italian edition of the +following year (_Comentari della Moscovia et parimente della Russia, +&c., per il Signor Sigismondo libero Barone in Herbetstain, Neiperg +and Guetnbag, tradotti nuaomente di Latino in lingua nostra volgare +Italiana_, Venetia, 1550, with two plates and a map, with the +inscription "per Giacomo Gastaldo cosmographo in Venetia, MDL"). Von +Herbertstein visited Russia as ambassador from the Roman Emperor on +two occasions, the first time in 1517, the second in 1525, and on +the ground of these two journeys published a sketch of the country, +by which it first became known to West-Europeans, and even for +Russians themselves it forms an important original source of +information regarding the state of civilisation of the empire of the +Czar in former times. Von Adelung enumerates in _Kritisch-literaerische +Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland bis 1700_, St. Petersburg and +Leipzig, 1846, eleven Latin, two Italian, nine German, and one +Bohemian translation of this work. An English translation has since +been published by the Hakluyt Society. ] + +[Footnote 34: _Von Herbertstein_, first edition, leaf xxviii., in +the second of the three separately-paged portions of the work. ] + +[Footnote 35: An erroneous transposition of mountains seen in +Norway, the northeastern shore of the White Sea being low land. ] + +[Footnote 36: An unfortunate translation, which often occurs in old +works, of Swjatoinos, "the holy headland." ] + +[Footnote 37: Instead of "north of," the true reading probably is +"beyond" the Dwina. ] + +[Footnote 38: Huberti Langueti _Epistoloe Secretoe_, Halae, 1699, i. +171. Compare also a paper by A.G. Ahlquist, in _Ny Illustrerad +Tidning_ for 1875, p. 270. ] + +[Footnote 39: The first to incite to voyages of discovery in the +polar regions was an Englishman, Robert Thorne, who long lived at +Seville. Seeing all other countries were already discovered by +Spaniards and Portuguese, he urged Henry VIII. in 1527 to undertake +discoveries in the north. After reaching the Pole (going +sufficiently far north) one could turn to the east, and, first +passing the land of the Tartars, get to China and so to Malacca, the +East Indies, and the Cape of Good Hope, and thus circumnavigate the +"whole world." One could also turn to the west, sail along the back +of Newfoundland, and return by the Straits of Magellan (Richard +Hakluyt, _The Principael Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of +the English Nation, &c._, London, 1589, p. 250). Two years before, +Paulus Jovius, on the ground of communications from an ambassador +from the Russian Czar to Pope Clement VII., states that Russia is +surrounded on the north by an immense ocean, by which it is +possible, if one keeps to the right shore, and if no land comes +between, to sail to China. (Pauli Jovii _Opera, Omnia_, Basel, 1578, +third part, p. 88; the description of Russia, inserted there under +the title "Libellus de legatione Basilii ad Clementem VII.," was +printed for the first time at Rome in 1525.) ] + +[Footnote 40: In the year 1540, London, exclusive of the Royal Navy, +had no more than four vessels, whose draught exceeded 120 tons +(Anderson, _Origin of Commerce_, London, 1787, vol. ii. p. 67). Most +of the coast towns of Scandinavia have thus in our days a greater +sea-going fleet than London had at that time. ] + +[Footnote 41: For instance Article 30: "Item, if you shall see them +[the foreigners met with during the voyage] weare Lyons or Bears +skinnes, hauing long bowes, and arrowes, be not afraid of that +sight: for such be worne oftentimes more to feare strangers, then +for any other cause." (_Hakluyt_, 1st edition, p. 262.) ] + +[Footnote 42: The endeavour to procure for this work a copy of an +original portrait of Cabot, stated to be in existence in England, +has unfortunately not been crowned with success. ] + +[Footnote 43: According to Clement Adams' account of the voyage. +(_Hakluyt_, 1st edition, p. 271.) ] + +[Footnote 44: "Cum ob corporis formam (erat enim procerae staturae) +tum ob singularem in re bellica industriam." Clement Adams' +account--_Hakluyt_, p. 271. ] + +[Footnote 45: Ten days earlier or later are of very great importance +with respect to the state of the ice in summer in the Polar seas. I +have, therefore, in quoting from the travels of my predecessors, +reduced the old style to the new. ] + +[Footnote 46: "Vibrantur bombardarum fulmina, Tartariae volvuntur +nubes, Martem sonant crepitacula, reboant summa montium juga, +reboant valles, reboant undae, claraque Nautarum percellit sydara +clamor." Clement Adams' account.--_Hakluyt_, p. 272. ] + +[Footnote 47: At the time when the whale-fishing at Spitzbergen +commenced, Thomas Edge, a captain of one of the Muscovy Company's +vessels, endeavoured to show that the land which Willoughby +discovered while sailing about after parting company with Chancelor +was Spitzbergen (_Purchas_, iii. p. 462). The statement, which was +evidently called forth by the wish to monopolise the Spitzbergen +whale-fishing for England, can be shown to be incorrect. It has also +for a long time back been looked upon as groundless. Later inquirers +have instead supposed that the land which Willoughby saw was +Gooseland, on Novaya Zemlya. For reasons which want of space +prevents me from stating here, this also does not appear to me to be +possible. On the other hand, I consider it highly probable that +"Willoughby's Land" was Kolgujev Island, which is surrounded by +shallow sand-banks. Its latitude has indeed in that case been stated +2 deg. too high, but such errors are not impossible in the determinations +of the oldest explorers. ] + +[Footnote 48: The testator was Gabriel Willoughby, who, as merchant, +sailed in the commander's vessel. ] + +[Footnote 49: _Hakluyt_, p. 500; _Purchas_, iii. p. 249, and in the +margin of p. 463. ] + +[Footnote 50: It is of him that it is narrated in a letter written +from Moscow by Henrie Lane, that the Czar at an entertainment +"called them to his table, to receave each one a cuppe from his hand +to drinke, and tooke into his hand Master George Killingworths +beard, which reached over the table, and pleasantly delivered it the +Metropolitane, who seeming to bless it, sad in Russe, 'this is Gods +gift.'"--_Hakluyt_, p. 500. ] + +[Footnote 51: As the Dwina lies to the south of Vardoehus, these +remarks probably relate to an earlier part of the voyage than that +which is referred to in the narrative. ] + +[Footnote 52: Writings on these voyages are exceedingly numerous. +An account of them was published for the first time in Hakluyt, +_The principael Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English +Nation, &c._, London, 1589; _Ordinances, King Edward's Past, &c._, +p. 259; _Copy of Sir Hugh Willoughby's Journal, with a List of all +the Members of the Expedition_, p. 265; _Clement Adams' Account of +Chancelor's Voyage_, p. 270, &c. The same documents were afterwards +printed in Purchas' _Pilgrimage_, iii. p. 211. For those who wish to +study the literature of this subject further, I may refer to Fr. von +Adelung, _Kritisch-literaerische Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland_, +St. Petersburg and Leipzig, 1846, p. 200; and L. Hamel, +_Tradesrunt der Aeltere 1618 in Russland_, St. Petersburg and +Leipzig, 1847. ] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Departure from Maosoe--Gooseland--State of the Ice-- + The Vessels of the Expedition assemble at Chabarova-- + The Samoyed town there--The Church--Russians and Samoyeds-- + Visit to Ohabarova in 1875--Purchase of Samoyed Idols-- + Dress and Dwellings of the Samoyeds--Comparison of the + Polar Races--Sacrificial Places and Samoyed Grave on + Vaygats Island visited--Former accounts of the Samoyeds-- + Their place in Ethnography. + + +The _Vega_ was detained at Maosoe by a steady head wind, rain, fog, +and a very heavy sea till the evening of the 25th July. Though the +weather was still very unfavourable, we then weighed anchor, +impatient to proceed on our voyage, and steamed out to sea through +Mageroe Sound. The _Lena_ also started at the same time, having +received orders to accompany the _Vega_ as far as possible, and, +in case separation could not be avoided, to steer her course to the +point, Ohabarova in Yugor Schar, which I had fixed on as the +rendezvous of the four vessels of the expedition. The first night, +during the fog that then prevailed, we lost sight of the _Lena_, +and did not see her again until we had reached the meeting place. + +The course of the _Vega_ was shaped for South Goose Cape. Although, +while at Tromsoe, I had resolved to enter the Kara Sea through Yugor +Schar, the most southerly of the sounds which lead to it--so +northerly a course was taken, because experience has shown that in +the beginning of summer so much ice often drives backwards and +forwards in the bay between the west coast of Vaygats Island and the +mainland, that navigation in these waters is rendered rather +difficult. This is avoided by touching Novaya Zemlya first at +Gooseland, and thence following the western shore of this island and +Vaygats to Yugor Schar. Now this precaution was unnecessary; for the +state of the ice was singularly favourable, and Yugor Schar was +readied without seeing a trace of it. + +During our passage from Norway to Gooseland we were, favoured at +first with a fresh breeze, which, however, fell as we approached +Novaya Zemlya; this notwithstanding, we made rapid progress under +steam, and without incident, except that the excessive rolling of +the vessel caused the overturn of some boxes containing instruments +and books, fortunately without any serious damage ensuing. + +Land was sighted on the 28th July at 10.30 P.M. It was the headland +which juts out from the south of Gooseland in 70 deg. 33' N.L. and 51 deg. 54' +E.L. (Greenwich). Gooseland is a low stretch of coast, occupied by +grassy flats and innumerable small lakes, which projects from the +mainland of Novaya Zemlya between 72 deg. 10' and 71 deg. 30' N.L. The name is a +translation of the Russian Gusinnaja Semlja, and arises from the large +number of geese and swans (_Cygnus Bewickii_, Yarr.) which breed in that +region. The geese commonly place their exceedingly inconsiderable nests +on little hillocks near the small lakes which are scattered over the +whole of Gooseland; the powerful swans, which are very difficult of +approach by the hunter, on the other hand breed on the open plain. The +swans' nests are so large that they may be seen at a great distance. The +building material is moss, which is plucked from the ground within a +distance of two metres from the nest, which by the excavation which is +thus produced, is surrounded by a sort of moat. The nest itself forms a +truncated cone, 0.6 metre high and 2.4 metres in diameter at the bottom. +In its upper part there is a cavity, 0.2 metre deep and 0.6 metre broad, +in which the four large grayish-white eggs of the bird are laid. The +female hatches the eggs, but the male also remains in the neighbourhood +of the nest. Along with the swans and geese, a large number of waders, +a couple of species of Lestris, an owl and other birds breed on the +plains of Gooseland, and a few guillemots or gulls upon the summits of +the strand cliffs. The avifauna along the coast here is besides rather +poor. At least there are none of the rich fowl-fells, which, with their +millions of inhabitants and the conflicts and quarrels which rage +amongst them, commonly give so peculiar a character to the coast cliffs +of the high north. I first met with true loom and kittiwake fells +farther north on the southern shore of Besimannaja Bay. + +Although Gooseland, seen from a distance, appears quite level and +low, it yet rises gradually, with an undulating surface, from the +coast towards the interior, to a grassy plain about sixty metres +above the sea-level, with innumerable small lakes scattered over it. +The plain sinks towards the sea nearly everywhere with a steep +escarpment, three to fifteen metres high, below which there is +formed during the course of the winter an immense snowdrift or +so-called "snow-foot," which does not melt until late in the season. +_There are no true glaciers here, nor any erratic blocks, to show +that circumstances were different in former times._ Nor are any +snow-covered mountain-tops visible from the sea. It is therefore +possible at a certain season of the year (during the whole of the +month of August) to sail from Norway to Novaya Zemlya, make sporting +exclusions there, and return without having seen a trace of ice or +snow. This holds good indeed only of the low-lying part of the south +island, but in any case it shows how erroneous the prevailing idea +of the natural state of Novaya Zemlya is. By the end of June or +beginning of July the greater part of Gooseland is nearly free of +snow, and soon after the Arctic flower-world develops during a few +weeks all its splendour of colour. Dry, favourably situated spots +are now covered by a low, but exceedingly rich flower bed, concealed +by no high grass or bushes. On moister places true grassy turf is to +be met with, which, at least when seen from a distance, resembles +smiling meadows. + +In consequence of the loss of time which had been caused by the +delay in sailing along the coast of Norway, and our stay at Maosoe, +we were unable to land on this occasion, but immediately continued +our course along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya towards Yugor +Schar, the weather being for the most part glorious and calm. +The sea was completely free of ice, and the land bare, with the +exception of some small snow-fields concealed in the valleys. Here +and there too along the steep strand escarpments were to be seen, +remains of the winter's snow-foot, which often, when the lower +stratum of air was strongly heated by the sun, were magnified by a +strong mirage, so that, when seen from a distance, they resembled +immense glaciers terminating perpendicularly towards the sea. Coming +farther south the clear weather gave us a good view of Vaygats +Island. It appears, when seen from the sea off the west coast, +to form a level grassy plain, but when we approached Yugor Schar, +low ridges were seen to run along the east side of the island, which +are probably the last ramifications of the north spur of Ural, known by +the name of Paj-koi. + +When we were off the entrance to Yugor Schar, a steamer was sighted. +After much guessing, the _Fraser_ was recognised. I was at first +very uneasy, and feared that an accident had occurred, as the course +of the vessel was exactly the opposite of that which had been fixed +beforehand, but found, when Captain Nilsson soon after came on +board, that he had only come out to look for us. The _Express_ and +the _Fraser_ had been waiting for us at the appointed rendezvous +since the 20th. They had left Vardoe on the 13th, and during the +passage had met with as little ice as ourselves. The _Vega_ and +_Fraser_ now made for the harbour at Chabarova, where they anchored +on the evening of the 30th July with a depth of fourteen metres and +a clay bottom. The _Lena_ was still wanting. We feared that the +little steamer had had some difficulty in keeping afloat in the sea +which had been encountered on the other side of North Cape. +A breaker had even dashed over the side of the larger _Vega_ and +broken in pieces one of the boxes which were fastened to the deck. +Our fears were unwarranted. The _Lena_ had done honour to her +builders at Motala works, and behaved well in the heavy sea. The +delay had been caused by a compass deviation, which, on account of +the slight horizontal intensity of the magnetism of the earth in +these northern latitudes, was greater than that obtained during the +examination made before the departure of the vessel from Gothenburg. +On the 31st the _Lena_ anchored alongside the other vessels, and +thus the whole of our little Polar Sea squadron was collected at the +appointed rendezvous. + +Chabarova is a little village, situated on the mainland, south of +Yugor Schar, west of the mouth of a small river in which at certain +seasons fish are exceedingly abundant. During summer the place is +inhabited by a number of Samoyeds, who pasture their herds of +reindeer on Vaygats Island and the surrounding _tundra_, and by some +Russians and Russianised Fins, who come hither from Pustosersk to +carry on barter with the Samoyeds, and with their help to fish and +hunt in the neighbouring sea. During winter the Samoyeds drive their +herds to more southern regions, and the merchants carry their wares +to Pustosersk, Mesen, Archangel, and other places. Thus it has +probably gone on for centuries back, but it is only in comparatively +recent times that fixed dwellings have been erected, for they are +not mentioned in the accounts of the voyages of the Dutch in these +regions. + +The village, or "Samoyed town" as the walrus-hunters grandiosely +call it, consists, like other great towns, of two portions, the town +of the rich--some cabins built of wood, with flat turf-covered +roofs--and the quarter of the common people, a collection of dirty +Samoyed tents. There is, besides, a little church, where, as at +several places along the shore, votive crosses have been erected. +The church is a wooden building, divided by a partition wall into +two parts, of which the inner, the church proper, is little more +than two and a half metres in height and about five metres square. +On the eastern wall during the time the region is inhabited, there +is a large number of sacred pictures placed there for the occasion +by the hunters. One of them, which represented St. Nicholas, was +very valuable, the material being embossed silver gilt. Before the +lamps hung large dinted old copper lamps or rather light-holders, +resembling inverted Byzantine cupolas, suspended by three chains. + +[Illustration: CHURCH OF CHABAROVA. After a photograph by L. Palander. ] + +They were set full of numerous small, and some few thick wax lights +which were lighted on the occasion of our visit. Right above our +landing-place there were lying a number of sledges laden with goods +which the Russian merchants had procured by barter, and which were +to be conveyed to Pustosersk the following autumn. The goods +consisted mainly of train oil and the skins of the mountain fox, +common fox, Polar bear, glutton, reindeer, and seal. The bears' +skins had often a very close, white winter coat, but they were +spoiled by the head and paws having been cut off. Some of the wolf +skins which they showed us were very close and fine. The merchants +had besides collected a considerable stock of goose quills, +feathers, down, and ptarmigans' wings. For what purpose these last +are used I could not learn. I was merely informed that they would be +sold in Archangel. Perhaps they go thence to the dealers in fashions +in Western Europe, to be afterwards used as ornaments on our ladies' +hats. Ptarmigans' wings were bought as long ago as 1611 at +Pustosersk by Englishmen.[53] + +At the same time I saw, among the stocks of the merchants, walrus +tusks and lines of walrus hide. It is noteworthy that these wares +are already mentioned in Othere's narrative. + +As I was not myself sufficiently master of the Russian language, +I requested Mr. Serebrenikoff to make inquiries on the spot, regarding +the mode of life and domestic economy of the Russians in the +neighbourhood, and I have received from him the following +communication on the subject:-- + + "The village consists of several cabins and tents. In the + cabins nine Russian householders live with their servants, + who are Samoyeds.[54] The Russians bring hither neither + their wives nor children. In the tents the Samoyeds live + with their families. The Russians are from the village + Pustosersk on the Petchora river, from which they set out + immediately after Easter, arriving at Chabarova about the + end of May, after having traversed a distance of between + 600 and 700 versts. During their stay at Chabarova they + employ themselves in the management of reindeer, in + catching whales, and in carrying on barter with the + Samoyeds. They bring with them from home all their + household articles and commercial wares on sledges drawn + by reindeer, and as there is a poor ruinous chapel there, + they bring also pictures of St. Nicholas and other saints. + The holy Nicholas also figures as a shareholder in a + company for the capture of whales. Part of their reindeer + is left during summer on Vaygats, and after their arrival + at Chabarova they still pass over on the ice to that + island. Towards the close of August, when the cold + commences, the reindeer are driven across Yugor Schar from + Vaygats to the mainland. About the 1st October, old style, + the Russians return with their reindeer to Pustosersk. + Vaygats Island is considered by them to afford exceedingly + good pasturage for reindeer; they therefore allow a number + of them to winter on the island under the care of some + Samoyed families, and this is considered the more + advantageous, as the reindeer there are never stolen. Such + thefts, on the contrary, are often committed by the + Samoyeds on the mainland. For thirty years back the + Siberian plague has raged severely among the reindeer. A + Russian informed me that he now owned but two hundred, + while some years ago he had a thousand; and this statement + was confirmed by the other Russians. Men too are attacked + by this disease. Two or three days before our arrival a + Samoyed and his wife had eaten the flesh of a diseased + animal, in consequence of which the woman died the + following day, and the man still lay ill, and, as the + people on the spot said, would not probably survive. Some + of the Samoyeds are considered rich, for instance the + 'eldest' (starschina) of the tribe, who owns a thousand + reindeer. The Samoyeds also employ themselves, like the + Russians, in fishing. During winter some betake themselves + to Western Siberia, where 'corn is cheap,' and some go to + Pustosersk. + + "The nine Russians form a company (artell) for + whale-fishing. There are twenty-two shares, two of which + fall to the holy Nicholas, and the other twenty are + divided among the shareholders. The company's profit for + the fishing season commonly amounts to 1,500 or 2,000 pood + train oil of the white whale (_Beluga_), but this season + there had been no fishing on account of disagreements + among the shareholders. For in the Russian 'artell' the + rule is, 'equal liability, equal rights,' and as the rich + will never comply with the first part of the rule, it was + their arrogance and greed which caused contention here, as + everywhere else in the world. + + "Neither the Russians nor the Samoyeds carry on any + agriculture. The former buy meal for bread from Irbit. + The price of meal varies; this season it costs one rouble + ten copecks per pood in Pustosersk. Salt is now brought + from Norway to Mesen, where it costs fifty to sixty + copecks per pood. The Samoyeds buy nearly everything from + the Russians. There were many inquiries for gunpowder, + shot, cheap fowling-pieces, rum, bread, sugar, and + culinary vessels (teacups, &c.). The Samoyed women wear + clothes of different colours, chiefly red. In exchange for + the goods enumerated above there may be obtained fish, + train oil, reindeer skins, walrus tusks, and furs, viz, + the skins of the red, white, and brown fox, wolf, Polar + bear, and glutton. + + "The Russians in question are 'Old Believers,' but the + difference between them and the orthodox consists merely + in their not smoking tobacco, and in their making the sign + of the cross with the thumb, the ring finger, and the + little finger, while the orthodox Russians, on the other + hand, make it with the thumb, the forefinger, and the + middle finger. All Samoyeds are baptised into the orthodox + faith, but they worship their old idols at the same time. + They travel over a thousand versts as pilgrims to their + sacrificial places. There are several such places on + Vaygats, where their idols are to be found. The Russians + call these idols 'bolvany.'[55] Both the Russians and + Samoyeds are very tolerant in regard to matters of faith. + The Russians, for instance, say that the Samoyeds + attribute to their 'bolvans' the same importance which + they themselves attach to their sacred pictures, and find + in this nothing objectionable. The Samoyeds have songs and + sagas, relating among other things to their migrations. + + "The Samoyed has one or more wives; even sisters may marry + the same man. Marriage is entered upon without any + solemnity. The wives are considered by the men as having + equal rights with themselves, and are treated accordingly, + which is very remarkable, as the Russians, like other + Christian nations, consider the woman as in certain + respects inferior to the man." + +I visited the place for the first time in the beginning of August, +1875. It was a Russian holiday, and, while still a long way off at +sea, we could see a large number of Russians and Samoyeds standing +in groups on the beach. Coming nearer we found them engaged in +playing various different games, and though it was the first time in +the memory of man that European gentlemen had visited their "town," +they scarcely allowed themselves to be more disturbed in their +occupation than if some stranger Samoyeds had suddenly joined their +company. Some stood in a circle and by turns threw a piece of iron, +shaped somewhat like a marlinspike, to the ground; the art +consisting in getting the sharp end to strike it just in front of +rings placed on the ground, in such a way that the piece of iron +remained standing. Others were engaged in playing a game resembling +our nine-pins; others, again, in wrestling, &c. The Russians and +Samoyeds played with each other without distinction. The Samoyeds, +small of stature, dirty, with matted, unkempt hair, were clad in +dirty summer clothes of skin, sometimes with a showy-coloured cotton +shirt drawn over them; the Russians (probably originally of the +Finnish race and descendants of the old Beormas) tall, well-grown, +with long hair shining with oil, ornamentally parted, combed, and +frizzled, and held together by a head band, or covered with a cap +resembling that shown in the accompanying woodcut, were clad in long +variegated blouses, or "mekkor," fastened at the waist with a belt. +Notwithstanding the feigned indifference shown at first, which was +evidently considered good manners, we were received in a friendly +way. We were first invited to try our luck and skill in the game in +turn with the rest, when it soon appeared, to the no small +gratification of our hosts, that we were quite incapable of entering +into competition either with Russian or Samoyed. Thereupon one of +the Russians invited us to enter his cabin, where we were +entertained with tea, Russian wheaten cakes of unfermented dough, +and brandy. Some small presents were given us with a naive +notification of what would be welcome in their stead, a notification +which I with pleasure complied with as far as my resources +permitted. A complete unanimity at first prevailed between our +Russian and Samoyed hosts, but on the following day a sharp dispute +was like to arise because the former invited one of us to drive with +a reindeer team standing in the neighbourhood of a Russian hut. The +Samoyeds were much displeased on this account, but declared at the +same time, as well as they could by signs, that they themselves were +willing to drive us, if we so desired, and they showed that they +were serious in their declaration by there and then breaking off the +quarrel in order to take a short turn with their reindeer teams at a +rapid rate among the tents. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED WOMAN'S HOOD. One-eighth of natural size. ] + +[Illustration: SAMOYED SLEIGH. After a drawing by Hj Theel. ] + +The Samoyed sleigh is intended both for winter travelling on the +snow, and for summer travelling on the mosses and water-drenched +bogs of the _tundra_. They are, therefore, constructed quite +differently from the "akja" of the Lapp. As the woodcut below shows, +it completely resembles a high sledge, the carriage consisting of a +low and short box, which, in convenience, style, and warmth, cannot +be compared to the well-known equipage of the Lapps. We have here +two quite different types of sleighs. The Lapp "akja" appears from +time immemorial to have been peculiar to the Scandinavian north; the +high sleigh, on the contrary, to northern Russia. Thus we find +"akjas" of the kind still in common use, delineated in Olaus Magnus +(Rome edition, 1555, page 598); Samoyed sleighs, again, in the first +works we have on those regions, for instance, in HUYGHEN VAN +LINSCHOTEN'S _Schip-vaert van by Noorden_, &c., Amsterdam, 1601, as a +side drawing on the principal map. Such high sleighs are also used +on the Kanin peninsula, on Yalmal, and in Western Siberia. +The sleighs of the Chukchis, on the other hand as will be seen by a +drawing given farther on, are lower, and thus more resemble our +"kaelkar," or work-sledges. + +[Illustration: LAPP AKJA. After original in the Northern Museum, +Stockholm. ] + +The neighbourhood of the tents swarmed with small black or white +long-haired dogs, with pointed nose and pointed ears They are used +exclusively for tending the herds of reindeer, and appear to be of +the same race as the "renvallhund," the reindeer dog. At several +places on the coast of the White Sea, however, dogs are also +employed as beasts of draught, but according to information which I +procured before my departure for Spitzbergen in 1872--it was then +under discussion whether dogs should be used during the projected +ice journey--these are of a different race, larger and stronger than +the Lapp or Samoyed dogs proper. + +Immediately after the _Vega_ came to anchor, I went on land on this +occasion also; in the first place with a view to take some solar +altitudes, in order to ascertain the chronometer's rate of going; +for during the voyage of 1875 I had had an opportunity of +determining the position of this place as accurately as is possible +with the common reflecting circle and chronometer, with the +following result:-- + + The Church at Chabarova (Latitude 69 deg. 38' 50". + (Longitude 60 deg. 19' 49" E. from Greenwich. + +[Illustration: _Samoiedarum, trahis a rangiferis protractis infidentium +Nec non Idolorum ab ysdem cultorum effigies._ ] + +[Illustration: SAMOYED SLEIGH AND IDOLS. After an old Dutch engraving. ] + +When the observations were finished I hastened to renew my +acquaintance with my old friends on the spot. I also endeavoured to +purchase from the Samoyeds dresses and household articles; but as I +had not then with me goods for barter, and ready money appeared to +be of small account with them, prices were very high; for instance, +for a lady's beautiful "pesk," twenty roubles; for a cap with brass +ornaments, ten roubles; for a pair of boots of reindeer skin, two +roubles; for copper ornaments for hoods, two roubles each; and so +on. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED IDOLS. One-third of natural size. ] + +As I knew that the Samoyeds during their wanderings always carry +idols with them, I asked them whether they could not sell me some. +All at first answered in the negative. It was evident that they were +hindered from complying with my requests partly by superstition, +partly by being a little ashamed, before the West European, of the +nature of their gods. The metallic lustre of some rouble pieces +which I had procured in Stockholm, however, at last induced an old +woman to set aside all fears. She went to one of the loaded sledges, +which appeared to be used as magazines, and searched for a long time +till she got hold of an old useless skin boot, from which she drew a +fine skin stocking, out of which at last four idols appeared. After +further negotiations they were sold to me at a very high price. They +consisted of a miniature "pesk," with belt, without body; a skin +doll thirteen centimetres long, with face of brass; another doll, +with a bent piece of copper plate for a nose; and a stone, wrapped +round with rags and hung with brass plates, a corner of the stone +forming the countenance of the human figure it was intended to +resemble. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED HAIR ORNAMENTS. One-third of natural size. ] + +More finely-formed gods, dolls pretty well made, with bows forged of +iron, I have seen, but have not had the good fortune to get +possession of. In the case now in question the traffic was +facilitated by the circumstance that the old witch, Anna Petrovna, +who sold her gods, was baptised, which was naturally taken advantage +of by me to represent to her that it was wrong for her as a +Christian to worship such trash as "bolvans," and the necessity of +immediately getting rid of them. But my arguments, at once sophistic +and egoistic, met with disapproval, both from the Russians and +Samoyeds standing round, inasmuch as they declared that on the whole +there was no great difference between the "bolvan" of the Samoyed +and the sacred picture of the Christian. It would even appear as if +the Russians themselves considered the "bolvans" as representatives +of some sort of Samoyed saints in the other world. + +When the traffic in gods was finished, though not to my full +satisfaction, because I thought I had got too little, we were +invited by one of the Russians, as in 1875, to drink tea in his +cabin. This consisted of a lobby, and a room about four metres +square, and scarcely two metres and a half high. One corner was +occupied by a large chimney, at the side of which was the very low +door, and right opposite the window opening, under which were placed +some chests, serving as tea-table for the occasion. Along the two +remaining sides of the room there were fastened to the wall sleeping +places of boards covered with reindeer skin. The window appeared to +have been formerly filled with panes of glass, but most of these +were now broken, and replaced by boards. It need scarcely surprise +us if glass is a scarce article of luxury here. + +We had no sooner entered the cabin than preparations for tea +commenced. Sugar, biscuits, teacups and saucers, and a brandy flask +were produced from a common Russian travelling trunk. Fire was +lighted, water boiled, and tea made in the common way, a thick smoke +and strong fames from the burning fuel spreading in the upper part +of the low room, which for the time was packed full of curious +visitors. Excepting these trifling inconveniences the entertainment +passed off very agreeably, with constant conversation, which was +carried on with great liveliness, though the hosts and most of the +guests could only with difficulty make themselves mutually +intelligible. + +Hence we betook ourselves to the skin tents of the Samoyeds which +stood apart from the wooden huts inhabited by the Russians. Here too +we met with a friendly reception. Several of the inhabitants of the +tents were now clad with somewhat greater care in a dress of +reindeer skin, resembling that of the Lapps. The women's holiday +dress was particularly showy. It consisted of a pretty long garment +of reindeer skin, fitting closely at the waist, so thin that it hung +from the middle in beautiful regular folds. The petticoat has two or +three differently coloured fringes of dogskin, between which stripes +of brightly coloured cloth are sewed on. The foot-covering consists +of boots of reindeer skin beautifully and tastefully embroidered. +During summer the men go bare-headed. The women then have their +black straight hair divided behind into two tresses, which are +braided with straps, variegated ribbons and beads, which are +continued beyond the point where the hair ends as an artificial +prolongation of the braids, so that, including the straps which form +this continuation, loaded as they are with beads, buttons, and metal +ornaments of all kinds, they nearly reach the ground. The whole is +so skilfully done, that at first one is inclined to believe that the +women here were gifted with a quite incredible growth of hair. A +mass of other bands of beads ornamented with buttons was besides +often intertwined with the hair in a very tasteful way, or fixed to +the perforated ears. All this hair ornamentation is naturally very +heavy, and the head is still more weighed down in winter, as it is +protected from the cold by a thick and very warm cap of reindeer +skin, bordered with dogskin, from the back part of which hang clown +two straps set full of heavy plates of brass or copper. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED WOMAN'S DRESS. After a drawing by Hj Theel. ] + +The young woman also, even here as everywhere else, bedecks herself +as best she can; but fair she certainly is not in our eyes. She +competes with the man in dirt. Like the man she is small of stature, +has black coarse hair resembling that of a horse's mane or tail, +face of a yellow colour, often concealed by dirt, small, oblique, +often running and sore eyes, a flat nose, broad projecting +cheekbones, slender legs and small feet and hands. + +The dress of the man, which resembles that of the Lapps, consists of +a plain, full and long "pesk," confined at the waist with a belt +richly ornamented with buttons and brass mounting, from which the +knife is suspended. The boots of reindeer skin commonly go above the +knees, and the head covering consists of a closely fitting cap, also +of reindeer skin. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED BELT WITH KNIFE. One-sixth of natural size. ] + +The summer tents, the only ones we saw, are conical, with a hole in +the roof for carrying off the smoke from the fireplace, which is +placed in the middle of the floor. The sleeping places in many of +the tents are concealed by a curtain of variegated cotton cloth. +Such cloth is also used, when there is a supply of it, for the inner +parts of the dress. Skin, it would appear, is not a very comfortable +material for dress, for the first thing, after fire-water and iron, +which the skin-clad savage purchases from the European, is cotton, +linen, or woollen cloth. + +Of the Polar races, whose acquaintance I have made, the reindeer Lapps +undoubtedly stand highest; next to them come the Eskimo of Danish +Greenland. Both these races are Christian and able to read, and have +learned to use and require a large number of the products of +agriculture, commerce, and the industrial arts of the present day, as +cotton and woollen cloth, tools of forged and cast iron, firearms, +coffee, sugar, bread, &c. They are still nomads and hunters, but cannot +be called savages; and the educated European who has lived among them +for a considerable time commonly acquires a liking for many points of +their natural disposition and mode of life. Next to them in civilisation +come the Eskimo of North-western America, on whose originally rough life +contact with the American whale-fishers appears to have had a very +beneficial influence. I form my judgment from the Eskimo tribe at Port +Clarence. The members of this tribe were still heathens, but a few of +them were far travelled, and had brought home from the Sandwich Islands +not only cocoa-nuts and palm mats, but also a trace of the South Sea +islander's greater love for ornament and order. Next come the Chukchis, +who have as yet come in contact with men of European race to a limited +extent, but whose resources appear to have seriously diminished in +recent times, in consequence of which the vigour and vitality of the +tribe have decreased to a noteworthy extent. Last of all come the +Samoyeds, or at least the Samoyeds who inhabit regions bordering on +countries inhabited by the Caucasian races; on them the influence of the +higher race, with its regulations and ordinances, its merchants, and, +above all, its fire-water, has had a distinctly deteriorating effect. + +[Illustration: SACRIFICIAL EMINENCE ON VAYGATS ISLAND. After a drawing +by A. Hovgaard. ] + +When I once asked an Eskimo in North-western Greenland, known for +his excessive self-esteem, whether he would not admit that the +Danish Inspector (Governor) was superior to him, I got for answer: +"That is not so certain: the Inspector has, it is true, more +property, and appears to have more power, but there are people in +Copenhagen whom he must obey. I receive orders from none." The same +haughty self-esteem one meets with in his host in the "gamma" of the +reindeer Lapp, and the skin tent of the Chukchi. In the Samoyed, on +the other hand, it appears to have been expelled by a feeling of +inferiority and timidity, which in that race has deprived the savage +of his most striking characteristics. + +I knew from old travels and from my own experience on Yalmal, that +another sort of gods, and one perhaps inferior to those which Anna +Petrovna pulled out of her old boot, was to be found set up at +various places on eminences strewn with the bones of animals that +had been offered in sacrifice. Our Russian host informed us the +Samoyeds from far distant regions are accustomed to make pilgrimages +to these places in order to offer sacrifices and make vows. They eat +the flesh of the animals they sacrifice, the bones are scattered +over the sacrificial height, and the idols are besmeared with the +blood of the sacrificed animal. I immediately declared that I wished +to visit such a place. But for a long time none of the Russians who +were present was willing to act as guide. At last however a young +man offered to conduct me to a place on Vaygats Island, where I +could see what I wished. Accordingly the following day, accompanied +by Dr. Almquist, Lieutenant Hovgaard, Captain Nilsson, and my +Russian guide, I made an excursion in one of the steam launches to +the other shore of Yugor Straits. + +The sacrificial eminence was situated on the highest point of the +south-western headland of Vaygats Island, and consisted of a natural +hillock which rose a couple of metres above the surrounding plain. +The plain terminated towards the sea with a steep escarpment. The +land was even, but rose gradually to a height of eighteen metres +above the sea. The country consisted of upright strata of Silurian +limestone running from east to west, and at certain places +containing fossils resembling those of Gotland. Here and there were +shallow depressions in the plain, covered with a very rich and +uniformly green growth of grass. The high-lying dry parts again made +a gorgeous show, covered as they were with an exceedingly luxuriant +carpet of yellow and white saxifrages, blue _Eritrichia_, _Polemonia_ +and _Parryoe_ and yellow _Chrysosplenia_, &c. The last named, +commonly quite modest flowers, are here so luxuriant that they form +an important part of the flower covering. Trees are wholly wanting. +Even bushes are scarcely two feet high, and that only at sheltered +places, in hollows and at the foot of steep slopes looking towards +the south. The sacrificial mound consisted of a cairn of stones some +few metres square, situated on a special elevation of the plain. +Among the stones there were found:-- + +1. Reindeer skulls, broken in pieces for the purpose of extracting +the brains, but with the horns still fast to the coronal bone; these +were now so arranged among the stones that they formed a close +thicket of reindeer horns, which, gave to the sacrificial mound its +peculiar character. + +2. Reindeer skulls with the coronal bone bored through, set up on +sticks which were stuck in the mound. Sometimes there was carved on +these sticks a number of faces, the one over the other. + +3. A large number of other bones of reindeer, among them marrow +bones, broken for the purpose of extracting the marrow. + +4. Bones of the bear, among which were observed the paws and the +head, only half flayed, of a bear which had been shot so recently +that the flesh had not begun to decompose; alongside of this bear's +head there were found two lead bullets placed on a stone. + +5. A quantity of pieces of iron, for instance, broken axes, +fragments of iron pots, metal parts of a broken barmonicon, &c.; and +finally, + +6. The mighty beings to which all this splendour was offered. + +They consisted of hundreds of small wooden sticks, the upper +portions of which were carved very clumsily in the form of the human +countenance, most of them from fifteen to twenty, but some of them +370 centimetres in length. They were all stuck in the ground on the +south-east part of the eminence. Near the place of sacrifice there +were to be seen pieces of driftwood and remains of the fireplace at +which the sacrificial meal was prepared. Our guide told us that at +these meals the mouths of the idols were besmeared with blood and +wetted with brandy, and the former statement was confirmed by the +large spots of blood which were found on most of the large idols +below the holes intended to represent the mouth. + +[Illustration: IDOLS FROM THE SACRIFICIAL CAIRN. One-twelfth of +natural size. ] + +After a drawing had been made of the mound, we robbed it discreetly, +and put some of the idols and the bones of the animals offered in +sacrifice into a bag which I ordered to be carried down to the boat. +My guide now became evidently uncomfortable, and said that I ought +to propitiate the wrath of the "bolvans" by myself offering +something. I immediately said that I was ready to do that, if he +would only show me how to go to work. A little at a loss, and +doubting whether he ought to be more afraid of the wrath of the +"bolvans" or of the punishment which in another world would befal +those who had sacrificed to false gods, he replied that it was only +necessary to place some small coins among the stones. With a solemn +countenance I now laid my gift upon the cairn. It was certainly the +most precious thing that had ever been offered there, consisting as +it did of two silver pieces. The Russian was now satisfied, but +declared that I was too lavish, "a couple of copper coins had been +quite enough." + +The following day the Samoyeds came to know that I had been shown their +sacrificial mound. For their own part they appeared to attach little +importance to this, but they declared that the guide would be punished +by the offended "bolvans." He would perhaps come to repent of his deed +by the following autumn, when his reindeer should return from Vaygats +Island, where they for the present were tended by Samoyeds; indeed if +punishment did not befall him now, it would reach him in the future and +visit his children and grandchildren--certain it was that the gods would +not leave him unpunished. In respect to God's wrath their religious +ideas were thus in full accordance with the teaching of the Old +Testament. + +This place of sacrifice was besides not particularly old, for there +had been an older place situated 600 metres nearer the shore, beside +a grotto which was regarded by the Samoyeds with superstitious +veneration. A larger number of wooden idols had been set up there, +but about thirty years ago a zealous, newly-appointed, and therefore +clean-sweeping archimandrite visited the place, set fire to the +sacrificial mound, and in its place erected a cross, which is still +standing. The Samoyeds had not sought to retaliate by destroying in +their turn the symbol of Christian worship. They left revenge to the +gods themselves, certain that in a short time they would destroy all +the archimandrite's reindeer, and merely removed their own place of +sacrifice a little farther into the land. There no injudicious +religious zeal has since attacked their worship of the "bolvans." + +[Illustration: SACRIFICIAL CAVITY ON VANGATA ISLAND. After a drawing +by A. Hovgaard. ] + +The old place of sacrifice was still recognisable by the number of +fragments of bones and rusted pieces of iron which lay strewed about +on the ground, over a very extensive area, by the side of the +Russian cross. Remains of the fireplace, on which the Schaman gods +had been burned, were also visible. These had been much larger and +finer than the gods on the present eminence, which is also confirmed +by a comparison of the drawings here given of the latter with those +from the time of the Dutch explorers. The race of the Schaman gods +has evidently deteriorated in the course of the last three hundred +years. + +After I had completed my examination and collected some +contributions from the old sacrificial mound I ordered a little +boat, which the steam-launch had taken in tow, to be carried over +the sandy neck of land which separates the lake shown on the map +from the sea, and rowed with Captain Nilsson and my Russian guide to +a Samoyed burying-place farther inland by the shore of the lake. + +Only one person was found buried at the place. The grave was +beautifully situated on the sloping beach of the lake, now gay with +numberless Polar flowers. It consisted of a box carefully +constructed of broad stout planks, fixed to the ground with +earthfast stakes and cross-bars, so that neither beasts of prey nor +lemmings could get through. The planks appeared not to have been +hewn out of drift-wood, but were probably brought from the south, +like the birch bark with which the bottom of the coffin was covered. +As a "pesk," now fallen in pieces, lying round the skeleton, and +various rotten rags showed, the dead body had been wrapped in the +common Samoyed dress. In the grave were found besides the remains of +an iron pot, an axe, knife, boring tool, bow, wooden arrow, some +copper ornaments, &c. Rolled-up pieces of bark also lay in the +coffin, which were doubtless intended to be used in lighting fires +in another world. Beside the grave lay a sleigh turned upside down, +evidently placed there in order that the dead man should not, away +there, want a means of transport, and it is probable that reindeer +for drawing it were slaughtered at the funeral banquet. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED GRAVE ON VAYGATS ISLAND. ] + +As it may be of interest to ascertain to what extent the Samoyeds +have undergone any considerable changes in their mode of life since +they first became known to West-Europeans, I shall here quote some +of the sketches of them which we find in the accounts of the voyages +of the English and Dutch travellers to the North-East. + +[Illustration: SAMOYED-ARCHERS. After Linschoten. ] + +That changes have taken place in their weapons, in other words, that +the Samoyeds have made progress in the art of war or the chase, is +shown by the old drawings, some of which are here reproduced. For in +these they are nearly always delineated with bows and arrows. Now +the bow appears to have almost completely gone out of use, for we +saw not a single Samoyed archer. They had, on the other hand, the +wretched old flint firelocks, in which lost pieces of the lock were +often replaced in a very ingenious way with pieces of bone and +thongs. They also inquired eagerly for percussion guns, but +breechloaders were still unknown to them. In this respect they had +not kept abreast of the times so well as the Eskimo at Port +Clarence. + +One of the oldest accounts of the Samoyeds which I know is that of +Stephen Burrough from 1556. It is given in Hakluyt (1st edition, +page 318). In the narrative of the voyage of the _Searchthrift_ we +read:-- + + "On Saturday the 1st August 1556 I went ashore,[56] and + there saw three morses that they (Russian hunters) had + killed: they held one tooth of a morse, which was not + great, at a roble, and one white beare skin at three + robles and two robles: they further told me, that there + were people called Samoeds on the great Island, and that + they would not abide them nor us, who have no houses, but + only coverings made of Deerskins, set ouer them with + stakes: they are men expert in shooting, and have great + plenty of Deere. On Monday the 3rd we weyed and went roome + with another Island, which was five leagues (15') + East-north-east from us: and there I met againe with + Loshak,[57] and went on shore with him, and he brought me + to a heap of Samoeds idols, which were in number above + 300, the worst and the most unartificiall worke that ever + I saw: the eyes and mouthes of sundrie of them were + bloodie, they had the shape of men, women, and children, + very grosly wrought, and that which they had made for + other parts, was also sprinkled with blood. Some of their + idols were an olde sticke with two or three notches, made + with a knife in it. There was one of their sleds broken + and lay by the heape of idols, and there I saw a deers + skinne which the foules had spoyled: and before certaine + of their idols blocks were made as high as their mouthes, + being all bloody, I thought that to be the table whereon + they offered their sacrifice: I saw also the instruments + whereupon they had roasted flesh, and as farre as I could + perceiue, they make the fire directly under the spit. + Their boates are made of Deers skins, and when they come + on shoare they cary their boates with them upon their + backs: for their cariages they haue no other beastes to + serve them but Deere only. As for bread and corne they + have none, except the Russes bring it to them: their + knowledge is very base for they know no letter." + +Giles Fletcher, who in 1588 was Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to the +Czar, writes in his account of Russia of the Samoyeds in the +following way:--[58] + + "The _Samoyt_ hath his name (as the _Russe_ saith) of + eating himselfe: as if in times past they lived as the + _Cannibals_, eating one another. Which they make more + probable, because at this time they eate all kind of raw + flesh, whatsoeuer it bee, euen the very carrion that lyeth + in the ditch. But as the _Samoits_ themselves will say, + they were called _Samoie_, that is, _of themselves_, as + though they were _Indigenae_, or people bred upon that + very soyle that never changed their seate from one place + to another, as most Nations have done. They are clad in + Seale-skinnes, with the hayrie side outwards downe as low + as the knees, with their Breeches and Netherstocks of the + same, both men and women. They are all Blacke hayred, + naturally beardless. And therefore the Men are hardly + discerned from the Women by their lookes: saue that the + Women weare a locke of hayre down along both their eares." + +In nearly the same way the Samoyeds are described by G. DE VEER in +his account of Barents' second voyage in 1595. Barents got good +information from the Samoyeds as to the navigable water to the +eastward, and always stood on a good footing with them, excepting on +one occasion when the Samoyeds went down to the Dutchmen's boats and +took back an idol which had been carried off from a large +sacrificial mound. + +[Illustration: SAMOYEDS. From Schleissing's Neu-entdecktes Sieweria, +worinnen die Zobeln gefangen werden. Zittau 1693.[59] ] + +The Samoyeds have since formed the subject of a very extensive +literature, of which however it is impossible for me to give any +account here. Among other points their relations to other races have +been much discussed. On this subject I have received from my learned +friend, the renowned philologist Professor AHLQUIST of Helsingfors +the following communication:-- + + The Samoyeds are reckoned, along with the Tungoose, the + Mongolian, the Turkish and the Finnish-Ugrian races, to + belong to the so-called Altaic or Ural-Altaic stem. What + is mainly characteristic of this stem, is that all the + languages occurring within it belong to the so-called + agglutinating type. For in these languages the relations + of ideas are expressed exclusively by terminations or + suffixes--inflections, prefixes and prepositions, as + expressive of relations, being completely unknown to them. + Other peculiarities characteristic of the Altaic languages + are the vocal harmony occurring in many of them, the + inability to have more than one consonant in the beginning + of a word, and the expression of the plural by a peculiar + affix, the case terminations being the same in the plural + as in the singular. The affinity between the different + branches of the Altaic stem is thus founded mainly on + analogy or resemblance in the construction of the + languages, while the different tongues in the material of + language (both in the words themselves and in the + expression of relations) show a very limited affinity or + none at all. The circumstance that the Samoyeds for the + present have as their nearest neighbours several + Finnish-Ugrian races (Lapps, Syrjaeni, Ostjaks, and + Voguls), and that these to a great extent carry on the + same modes of life as themselves, has led some authors to + assume a close affinity between the Samoyeds and the Fins + and the Finnish races in general. The speech of the two + neighbouring tribes however affords no ground for such a + supposition. Even the language of the Ostjak, which is the + most closely related to that of the Samoyeds, is separated + heaven-wide from it and has nothing in common with it, + except a small number of borrowed words (chiefly names of + articles from the Polar nomad's life), which the Ostjak + has taken from the language of his northern neighbour. + With respect to their language, however, the Samoyeds are + said to stand at a like distance from the other branches + of the stem in question. To what extent craniology or the + modern anthropology can more accurately determine the + affinity-relationship of the Samoyed to other tribes, is + still a question of the future. + +[Illustration: BREEDING-PLACE FOR LITTLE AUKS. Foul Bay, on the West +Coast of Spitzbergen, after a photograph taken by A. Envall on the +30th August, 1872. ] + + +[Footnote 53: "Letter of Richard Finch to Sir Thomas Smith, +Governor; and to the rest of the Worshipful Companie of English +Merchants, trading into Russia." _Purchas_, iii. p. 534. ] + +[Footnote 54: Mr. Serebrenikoff writes _Samodin_ instead of +_Samoyed_, considering the latter name incorrect. For _Samoyed_ +means "self-eater," while _Samodin_ denotes "an individual," "one +who cannot be mistaken for any other," and, as the Samoyeds never +were cannibals, Mr. Serebrenikoff gives a preference to the latter +name, which is used by the Russians at Chabarova, and appears to be +a literal translation of the name which the Samoyeds give +themselves. I consider it probable, however, that the old tradition +of man-eaters (_androphagi_) living in the north, which originated +with Herodotus, and was afterwards universally adopted in the +geographical literature of the middle ages, reappears in a +Russianised form in the name "Samoyed." (Compare what is quoted +further on from Giles Fletcher's narrative). ] + +[Footnote 55: This name, which properly denotes a coarse likeness, +has passed into the Swedish, the word _bulvan_ being one of the few +which that language has borrowed from the Russian. ] + +[Footnote 56: Probably on one of the small islands near Vaygats. ] + +[Footnote 57: A Russian hunter who had been serviceable to Stephen +Burrough in many ways. ] + +[Footnote 58: _Treatise of Russia and the adjoining Regions_, +written by Doctor Giles Fletcher, Lord Ambassador from the late +Queen, Everglorious Elizabeth, to Theodore, then Emperor of Russia. +A.D. 1588. _Purchas_, iii. p. 413. ] + +[Footnote 59: A still more extraordinary idea of the Samoyeds, than +that which this woodcut gives us, we get from the way in which they +are mentioned in the account of the journey which the Italian +Minorite, Joannes de Plano Carpini, undertook in High Asia in the +years 1245-47 as ambassador from the Pope to the mighty conqueror of +the Mongolian hordes. In this book of travels it is said that +Occodai Khan, Chingis Khan's son, after having been defeated by the +Hungarians and Poles, turned towards the north, conquered the +Bascarti, _i.e._ the Great Hungarians, then came into collision with +the Parositi--who had wonderfully small stomachs and mouths, and did +not eat flesh, but only boiled it and nourished themselves by +inhaling the steam--and finally came to the _Samogedi_, who lived +only by the chase and had houses and clothes of skin, and to a land +by the ocean, where there were monsters with the bodies of men, the +feet of oxen and the faces of dogs (_Relation des Mongols ou +Tartares_, par le frere Jean du Plan de Carpin, publ. par M. +d'Avezac, Paris 1838, p. 281. Compare Ramusio, _Delle navigationi e +viaggi_, ii. 1583, leaf 236). At another place in the same work it +is said that "the land Comania has on the north immediately after +Russia, the Mordvini and Bileri, _i.e._ the Great Bulgarians, the +Bascarti, _i.e._ the Great Hungarians, then the Parositi and +_Samogedi_, who are said to have the faces of dogs" (_Relation des +Mongols_, p. 351. Ramusio, ii., leaf 239). ] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + From the Animal World of Novaya Zemlya--The Fulmar Petrel-- + The Rotge or Little Auk--Bruennich's Guillemot--The Black + Guillemot--The Arctic Puffin--The Gulls--Richardson's Skua-- + the Tern--Ducks and Geese--The Swan--Waders--The Snow + Bunting--The Ptarmigan--The Snowy Owl--The Reindeer--The + Polar Bear--The Mountain Fox--The Lemming--Insects-- + The Walrus--The Seal--Whales. + + +If we do not take into account the few Samoyeds who of recent years +have settled on Novaya Zemlya or wander about during summer on the +plains of Vaygats Island, all the lands which in the old world have +formed the field of research of the Polar explorer--Spitzbergen, +Franz-Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Vaygats Island, the Taimur +Peninsula, the New Siberian Islands, and perhaps Wrangel's Land +also--are uninhabited. The pictures of life and variety, which the +native, with his peculiar manners and customs, commonly offers to +the foreigner in distant foreign lands, are not to be met with here. +But, instead, the animal life, which he finds there in summer--for +during winter almost all beings who live above the surface of the +sea disappear from the highest North--is more vigorous and perhaps +even more abundant, or, to speak more correctly, less concealed by +the luxuriance of vegetation than in the south. + +It is not, however, the larger mammalia--whales, walruses, seals, +bears and reindeer--that attract attention in the first place, but +the innumerable flocks of birds that swarm around the Polar +traveller during the long summer day of the North. + +Long before one enters the region of the Polar Sea proper, the +vessel is surrounded by flocks of large grey birds which fly, or +rather hover without moving their wings, close to the surface of the +sea, rising and sinking with the swelling of the billows, eagerly +searching for some eatable object on the surface of the water, or +swim in the wake of the vessel in order to snap up any scraps that +may be thrown overboard. It is the Arctic _stormfogel_[60] (Fulmar, +"Mallemuck," "Hafhaest," _Procellaria glacialis_, L.). The fulmar is +bold and voracious, and smells villanously, on which account it is +only eaten in cases of necessity, although its flesh, if the bird +has not recently devoured too much rotten blubber, is by no means +without relish, at least for those who have become accustomed to the +flavour of train oil, when not too strong. It is more common on Bear +Island and Spitzbergen than on Novaya Zemlya, and scarcely appears +to breed in any considerable numbers on the last-named place. I know +three places north of Scandinavia where the fulmar breeds in large +numbers: the first on Bear Island, on the slopes of some not very +steep cliffs near the so-called south harbour of the island,[61] the +second on the southern shore of Brandywine Bay on North-East Land, +the third on ledges of the perpendicular rock-walls in the interior +of Ice Fjord. At the two latter places the nests are inaccessible. +On Bear Island, on the other hand, one can without very great +difficulty plunder the whole colony of the dirty grey, short eggs, +which are equally rounded at both ends. The eggs taste exceedingly +well. The nest is very inconsiderable, smelling badly like the bird +itself. + +When the navigator has gone a little further north and come to an +ice-bestrewed sea, the swell ceases at once, the wind is hushed and +the sea becomes bright as a mirror, rising and sinking with a slow +gentle heaving. Flocks of little auks (_Mergulus alle_, L.) +Bruennich's guillemots (_Uria Bruennichii_, Sabine), and black +guillemots (_Uria grylle_, L.) now swarm in the air and swim among +the ice floes. The _alke-kung_ (little auk), also called the "sea +king," or rotge, occurs only sparingly off the southern part of +Novaya Zemlya, and does not, so far as I know, breed there. The +situation of the land is too southerly, the accumulations of stones +along the sides of the mountains too inconsiderable, for the +thriving of this little bird. But on Spitzbergen it occurs in +incredible numbers, and breeds in the talus, 100 to 200 metres high, +which frost and weathering have formed at several places on the +steep slopes of the coast mountain sides; for instance, at Horn +Sound, at Magdalena Bay, on the Norways (near 80 deg. N.L.), and +other places. These stone heaps form the palace of the rotge, richer +in rooms and halls than any other in the wide round world. If one +climbs up among the stones, he sees at intervals actual clouds of +fowl suddenly emerge from the ground either to swarm round in the +air or else to fly out to sea, and at the same time those that +remain make their presence underground known by an unceasing +cackling and din, resembling, according to Friedrich Martens, the +noise of a crowd of quarrelling women. Should this sound be +stilled for a few moments, one need only attempt in some opening +among the stones to imitate their cry (according to Martens: +_rott-tet-tet-tet-tet_) to get immediately eager and sustained +replies from all sides. The fowl circling in the air soon settle +again on the stones of the mountain slopes, where, squabbling and +fighting, they pack themselves so close together that from fifteen +to thirty of them may be killed by a single shot. A portion of the +flock now flies up again, others seek their safety like rats in +concealment among the blocks of stone. But they soon creep out +again, in order, as if by agreement, to fly out to sea and search +for their food, which consists of crustacea and vermes. The rotge +dives with ease. Its single blueish-white egg is laid on the bare +ground without a nest, so deep down among the stones that it is only +with difficulty that it can be got at. In the talus of the mountains +north of Horn Sound I found on the 18th June, 1858, two eggs of this +bird lying directly on the layer of ice between the stones. Probably +the hatching season had not then begun. Where the main body of these +flocks of birds passes the winter, is unknown,[62] but they return +to the north early--sometimes too early. Thus in 1873 at the end of +April I saw a large number of rotges frozen to death on the ice in +the north part of Hinloopen Strait. When cooked the rotge tastes +exceedingly well, and in consequence of the great development of the +breast muscles it affords more food than could be expected from its +small size. + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE AUK, OR ROTGE. Swedish, Alkekung. (_Mergulus +Alle_, L.) ] + +Along with the rotge we find among the ice far out at sea flocks of +_alkor_ (looms, or Bruennich's guillemots), and the nearer we come to +the coast, the more do these increase in number, especially if the +cliffs along the shore offer to this species of sea-fowl--the most +common of the Polar lands--convenient hatching places. For this +purpose are chosen the faces of cliffs which rise perpendicularly +out of the sea, but yet by ledges and uneven places afford room for +the hatching fowl. On the guillemot-fells proper, eggs lie beside +eggs in close rows from the crown of the cliff to near the sea +level, and the whole fell is also closely covered with seafowl, +which besides in flocks of thousands and thousands fly to and from +the cliffs, filling the air with their exceedingly unpleasant +scream. The eggs are laid, without trace of a nest, on the rock, +which is either bare or only covered with old birds' dung, so +closely packed together, that in 1858 from a ledge of small extent, +which I reached by means of a rope from the top of the fell, I +collected more than half a barrel-full of eggs. Each bird has but +one very large egg, grey pricked with brown, of very variable size +and form. After it has been sat upon for some time, it is covered +with a thick layer of birds' dung, and in this way the hunters are +accustomed to distinguish uneatable eggs from fresh. + +[Illustration: THE LOOM OR BRUeNNICH'S GUILLEMOT. Swedish, Alka +(_Uria Bruennichii_, Sabine). ] + +If a shot be fired at a "loomery," the fowl fly away in thousands +from their hatching places, without the number of those that are not +frightened away being apparently diminished. The clumsy and +short-winged birds, when they cast themselves out of their places, +fall down at first a good way before they get "sufficient air" under +their wings to be able to fly. Before this takes place, many plump +down into the water, sometimes even into the boat which may be rowed +along the foot of the fell. + +An unceasing, unpleasant cackling noise indicates that a continual +gossip goes on in the "loomery"; and that the unanimity there is not +great, is proved by the passionate screams which are heard now and +then. A bird squeezes forward in order to get a place on a ledge of +rock already packed full, a couple of others quarrel about the +ownership of an egg which has been laid on a corner of the rock only +a few inches broad, and which now during the dispute is precipitated +into the abyss. By the beginning of July most of the eggs are +uneatable. I have seen the young of the size of a rotge accompany +their mothers in the middle of August. The loom breeds on Walden +Island and the north coast of North-East land, accordingly far north +of 80 deg.. I found the largest "loomeries" on Spitzbergen south +of Lomme Bay in Hinloopen Strait, at the southern entrance to Van +Meyen Bay in Bell Sound, and at Alkornet in Ice Fjord. In respect to +the large number of fowl, however, only the first of these can +compete with the south shore of Besimannaja Bay (72 deg. 54' N.L.) +and with the part of Novaya Zemlya that lies immediately to the +south of this bay. The eggs of the loom are palatable, and the flesh +is excellent, though not quite free from the flavour of train oil. +In any case it tastes much better than that of the eider. + +Along with the rotge and the loom two nearly allied species of +birds, _lunnefogeln_, the Arctic puffin (_Mormon arcticus_, L.) +and _tejsten_ or _tobis-grisslan_, the black guillemot (_Uria +grylle_, L.) are to be seen among the drift-ice. I do not know any +puffin-fells on Spitzbergen. The bird appears to breed there only in +small numbers, though it is still found on the most northerly part +of the island. On Novaya Zemlya, too, it occurs rather sparingly. +The black guillemot, on the other hand, is found everywhere, though +never collected in large flocks, along the shores of Spitzbergen, +and Novaya Zemlya, even as far north as Parry Island in 80 deg. +40' N.L., where in 1861 I saw several of their nests. These are +placed near the summits of steep cliffs along the shore. The black +guillemots often swim out together in pairs in the fjords. Their +flesh has about the same taste as Bruennich's guillemot, but is +tougher and of inferior quality; the eggs, on the other hand, are +excellent. + +[Illustration: THE ARCTIC PUFFIN. Swedish, Lunnefogel. (Mormon Arcticus, +L.) THE BLACK GUILLEMOT. Swedish, Tejst. (Uria Grylle, L.) ] + +The sea fowl mentioned above are never met with inland. +They never settle on a grassy sward or on a level sandy beach. The +steep fowl-fell sides, the sea, ground-ice, pieces of drift-ice and +small stones rising above the water, form their habitat. They swim +with great skill both on, and under the water. The black guillemots +and rotges fly swiftly and well; Bruennich's guillemots, on the +contrary, heavily and ill. The latter therefore do not perhaps +remove in winter farther from their hatching places than to the +nearest open water, and it is probable that colonies of Bruennich's +guillemots are not located at places where the sea freezes +completely even far out from the coast. On this perhaps depends the +scarcity of Bruennich's guillemot in the Kara Sea. + +While sailing in the Arctic Ocean, vessels are nearly always +attended by two kinds of gulls, the greedy _stormaosen_ or +_borgmaesteren_, glaucous gull (_Larus glaucus_, Bruenn.), and the +gracefully formed, swiftly flying _kryckian_ or _tretaoiga maosen_, +kittiwake (_Larus tridactylus_, L.), and if the hunter lies to at an +ice-floe to flense upon it a seal which has been shot, it is not +long till a large number of snow-white birds with dark blue bills +and black legs settle down in the neighbourhood in order that they +may get a portion of the spoil. They belong to the third kind of +gull common in the north, _ismaosen_, the ivory gull (_Larus +eburneus_, Gmel.). + +[Illustration: BREEDING-PLACE FOR GLAUCOUS GULLS. Borgmaestareport +on Bear Island, after a midnight photograph taken by the Author +on the 18th-19th June, 1864. ] + +In disposition and mode of life these gulls differ much from each +other. The glaucous gull is sufficiently strong to be able to defend +its eggs and young against the attack of the mountain fox. It +therefore breeds commonly on the summits of easily accessible small +cliffs, hillocks or heaps of stones, preferably in the neighbourhood +of "loomeries" or on fowl-islands, where the young of the +neighbouring birds offer an opportunity for prey and hunting during +the season when its own young are being fed. Sometimes, as for +instance at Brandywine Bay on Spitzbergen, the glaucous gull breeds +in great flocks on the ledges of steep fell-sides, right in the +midst of Bruennich's guillemots. On Bear Island I have seen it hatch +on the very beach, at a place, for instance, under the arch of a +waterfall leaping down from a precipitous cliff. The nests, which, +to judge from the quantity of birds' dung in their neighbourhood, +are used for a long succession of years, are placed in a depression +in the rock or the ground, and lined with a little straw or a +feather or two. The number of the eggs is three or four. After +boiling they show a jellylike, half transparent white, and a reddish +yellow, and are exceedingly delicious. The young birds have white +flesh, resembling chicken. The burgomaster is common everywhere +along the coasts of Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen. Yet I have not +seen the nest of this gull on the north coast of North East Land or +on the Seven Islands. + +[Illustration: A. THE KITTIWAKE B. THE IVORY GULL. Swedish, Kryckia. +(Larus tridactylus, L.) Swedish, Ismaos (Larus eburneus, L.) ] + +Still more common than the glaucous gull in the lands of the High +North is _kryckian_, the kittiwake. It is met with far out at sea, +where it accompanies the vessel whole days, circling round the tops +of the masts, and sometimes--according to the statements of the +walrus-hunters, when a storm is approaching--pecking at the points +of the pendant. When the vessel is in harbour, the kittiwakes +commonly gather round it to pick out anything eatable in the refuse +that may be thrown away. They breed in great flocks on the steep +escarpments in some separate part of the fowl-fells, in connection +with which, it is evident that the kittiwakes always endeavour to +choose the best places of the fell--those that are most inaccessible +to the fox and are best protected against bad weather. Among the +birds of the north the kittiwake is the best builder; for its nest +is walled with straw and mud, and is very firm. It juts out like a +great swallow's nest from the little ledge to which it is fixed. +Projecting ends of straw are mostly bent in, so that the nest, with +its regularly rounded form, has a very tidy appearance. The interior +is further lined with a soft, carefully arranged layer of moss, +grass and seaweed, on which the bird lays three to four +well-flavoured eggs. The soft warm underlayer is, however, not +without its inconvenience; for Dr. Stuxberg during the voyage of +1875 found in such a nest no fewer than twelve kinds of insects, +among them _Pulex vagabundus_, Bohem. in nine specimens, a beetle, +a fly, &c. + +The ivory gull, called by Fr. Martens "Rathsherr," the Councillor, +is found, as its Swedish name indicates, principally out at sea in +the _pack_, or in fjords filled with drift-ice. It is a true +ice-bird, and, it may almost be said, scarcely a water-bird at all, +for it is seldom seen swimming on the surface, and it can dive as +little as its relatives, the glaucous gull and the kittiwake. In +greed it competes with the fulmar. When any large animal has been +killed among the drift-ice, the ivory gull seldom fails to put in an +appearance in order to quench its hunger with flesh and blubber. It +consumes at the same time the excrements of the seal and the walrus, +on which account from three to five ivory gulls may often be seen +sitting for a long time round a seal-hole, quiet and motionless, +waiting patiently the arrival of the seal (Malmgren). + +[Illustration: RARE NORTHERN GULLS. A. Sabine's Gull +(Larus Sabinii, Sabine) B. Ross's Gull. (Larus Rossii, Richaids.) ] + +The proper breeding places of this bird scarcely appear to be yet +known. So common as it is both on the coasts of Spitzbergen from the +Seven Islands to South Cape and on the north coast of Novaya Zemlya +and America, its nest has only been found twice, once in 1853 by +McClintock at Cape Krabbe in North America in 77 deg. 25' N.L., +the second time by Dr. Malmgren at Murchison Bay, in 82 deg. 2' +N.L. The two nests that Malmgren found consisted of depressions, +twenty-three to twenty-six centimetres in diameter, in a heap of +loose gravel, on a ledge of a steeply-sloping limestone-rock wall. +In each nest was found only one egg, which, on the 30th July, +already contained a down-covered young bird. For all the ivory gulls +which have their home on Spitzbergen there were doubtless required +several hundred such breeding-places as that at Murchison Bay. When +to this is added the fact that we never in autumn saw on Spitzbergen +any full-grown young of this kind of gull, I assume that its proper +breeding-place must be found farther north, on the shores of some +still unknown Polar land, perhaps continually surrounded by ice. It +deserves to be mentioned with reference to this, that Murchison Bay +was covered with ice when Malmgren found the nests referred to +above. + +Besides these varieties of the gull, two other species have been +found, though very rarely, in the Polar regions, viz., _Larus +Sabinii_, Sabine, and _Larus Rossii_, Richards. Although I have +myself only seen the latter, and that but once (on the Chukchi +Peninsula), I here give drawings of them both for the use of future +Polar explorers. They are perhaps, if they be properly observed, not +so rare as is commonly supposed. + +Often during summer in the Arctic regions one hears a penetrating +shriek in the air. When one inquires into the reason of this, it is +found to proceed from a kittiwake, more rarely from a glaucous gull, +eagerly pursued by a bird as large as a crow, dark-brown, with white +breast and long tail-feathers. It is _labben_, the common skua +(_Lestris parasitica_, L.), known by the Norwegian walrus-hunters +under the name of _tjufjo_, derived from the bird's cry, "_I-o +i-o_," and its shameless thief-nature. When the "tjufjo" sees a +kittiwake or a glaucous gull fly off with a shrimp, a fish, or a +piece of blubber, it instantly attacks it. It flies with great +swiftness backwards and forwards around its victim, striking it with +its bill, until the attacked bird either drops what it has caught, +which is then immediately snapped up by the skua, or else settles +down upon the surface of the water, where it is protected against +attack. The skua besides eats eggs of other birds, especially of +eiders and geese. If the eggs are left but for a few moments +unprotected in the nest, it is immediately to the front and shows +itself so voracious that it is not afraid to attack nests from which +the hatching birds have been frightened away by men engaged in +gathering eggs only a few yards off. With incredible dexterity it +pecks a hole in the eggs and sucks their contents. If speed is +necessary, this takes place so quickly and out of so many eggs in +succession that it sometimes has to stand without moving, unable to +fly further until it has thrown up what it had swallowed. The skua +in this way commonly takes part in the plundering of every eider +island. The walrus-hunters are very much embittered against the bird +on account of this intrusion on their industry, and kill it whenever +they can. The whalers called it "struntjaeger"--refuse-hunter--because +they believed that it hunted gulls in order to make them void their +excrements which "struntjaegeren" was said to devour as a luxury. + +[Illustration: +A. THE COMMON SKUA. Swedish, Labben, (Lestris parasitica, L.) +B. BUFFON'S SKUA. Swedish, Fjellabben. (Lestris Buffonii, Boie.) +C. THE POMARINE SKUA. Swedish, Bredstjertade Labben +(Lestris pomarina. Tem.) ] + +The skua breeds upon low, unsheltered, often water-drenched +headlands and islands, where it lays one or two eggs on the bare +ground, often without trace of a nest. The eggs are so like the +ground that it is only with difficulty that they can be found. The +male remains in the neighbourhood of the nest during the hatching +season. If a man, or an animal which the bird considers dangerous, +approaches the eggs, the pair endeavour to draw attention from them +by removing from the nest, creeping on the ground and flapping their +wings in the most pitiful way. The bird thus acts with great skill a +veritable comedy, but takes good care that it is not caught. + +As is well known, we know only two varieties of colour in this bird, +a self-coloured brown, and a brown on the upper part of the body +with white below. Of these I have only once in the Arctic regions +seen the self-coloured variety, viz. at Bell Sound in 1858. All the +hundreds of skuas which I have seen, besides, have had the throat +and lower part of the body coloured white. + +This bird is very common on Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. Yet +perhaps it scarcely breeds on the north part of North-East Land. +Along with the bird now described there occur, though sparingly, two +others:--_bredstjertade labben_, the Pomarine skua (_Lestris +pomarina_, Tem.) and _fjellalbben_, Buffon's skua (_Lestris +Buffonii_, Boie). The latter is distinguished by its more slender +build and two very long tail-feathers, and it is much more common +farther to the east than on Spitzbergen. I have not had an +opportunity of making any observations on the mode of life of these +birds. + +As the skua pursues the kittiwake and the glaucous gull, it is in +its turn pursued with extraordinary fierceness by the little +swiftly-flying and daring bird _taernan_, the Arctic tern (_Sterna +macroura_, Naum.). This beautiful bird is common everywhere on the +coasts of Spitzbergen, but rather rare on Novaya Zemlya. It breeds +in considerable flocks on low grass-free headlands or islands, +covered with sand or pebbles. The eggs, which are laid on the bare +ground without any trace of a nest, are so like lichen-covered +pebbles in colour, that it is only with difficulty one can get eyes +upon them; and this is the case in a yet higher degree with the +newly-hatched young, which notwithstanding their thin dress of down +have to lie without anything below them among the bare stones. From +the shortness of their legs and the length of their wings it is only +with difficulty that the tern can go on the ground. It is therefore +impossible for it to protect its nest in the same way as the +"tjufjo." Instead, this least of all the swimming birds of the Polar +lands does not hesitate to attack any one, whoever he may be, that +dares to approach its nest. The bird circles round the disturber of +the peace with evident exasperation, and now and then goes whizzing +past his head at such a furious rate that he must every moment fear +that he will be wounded with its sharp beak. + +Along with the swimmers enumerated above, we find everywhere along +these shores two species of eider, the _vanliga eidern_, common +eider (_Somateria mollissima_, L.) and _praktejdern_, king-duck +(_Somateria spectabilis_, L.). The former prefers to breed on low +islands, which, at the season for laying eggs, are already +surrounded by open water and are thus rendered inaccessible to the +mountain foxes that wander about on the mainland. The richest eider +islands I have seen in Spitzbergen are the Down Islands at Horn +Sound. When I visited the place in 1858 the whole islands were so +thickly covered with nests that it was necessary to proceed with +great caution in order not to trample on eggs. Their number in every +nest was five to six, sometimes larger, the latter case, according +to the walrus-hunters, being accounted for by the female when she +sits stealing eggs from her neighbours. I have myself seen an egg of +_Anser bernicla_ in an eider's nest. The eggs are hatched by the +female, but the beautifully coloured male watches in her +neighbourhood and gives the signal of flight when danger approaches. +The nest consists of a rich, soft, down bed. The best down is got by +robbing the down-covered nest, an inferior kind by plucking the dead +birds. When the female is driven from the nest she seeks in haste to +scrape down over the eggs in order that they may not be visible. She +besides squirts over them a very stinking fluid, whose disgusting +smell adheres to the collected eggs and down. The stinking substance +is however so volatile or so easily decomposed in the air that the +smell completely disappears in a few hours. The eider, which some +years ago was very numerous on Spitzbergen,[63] has of late years +considerably diminished in numbers, and perhaps will soon be +completely driven thence, if some restraint be not laid on the +heedless way in which not only the Eider Islands are now plundered, +but the birds too killed, often for the mere pleasure of slaughter. +On Novaya Zemlya, too, the eider is common. It breeds, for instance, +in not inconsiderable numbers on the high islands in Karmakul Bay. +The eider's flesh has, it is true, but a slight flavour of train +oil, but it is coarse and far inferior to that of Bruennich's +guillemot. In particular, the flesh of the female while hatching is +almost uneatable. + +[Illustration: HEADS OF THE + A. EIDER; + B. KING DUCK; + C. BARNACLE GOOSE; + D. WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. ] + +The king-duck occurs more sparingly than the common eider. On +Spitzbergen it is called the "Greenland eider," on Greenland the +"Spitzbergen eider," which appears to indicate that in neither place +is it quite at home. On Novaya Zemlya, on the other hand, it occurs +in larger numbers. Only once have I seen the nest of this bird, +namely, in 1873 on Axel's Islands in Bell Sound, where it bred in +limited numbers together with the common eider. In the years 1858 +and 1864, when I visited the same place, it did not breed there. +Possibly its proper breeding place is on Novaya Zemlya at the inland +lakes a little way from the coast. The walrus-hunters say that its +eggs taste better than those of the common eider. They are somewhat +smaller and have a darker green colour. + +On the Down Islands hatches, along with the eiders, the long-necked +_prutgaessen_, barnacle goose (_Anser bernicla_, L.) marked on the +upper part of the body in black and brownish grey. It lays four to +five white eggs in an artless nest without down, scattered here and +there among the eiders' nests rich in down. This variety of goose is +found in greatest numbers during the moulting season at small inland +lakes along the coast, for instance on the line of coast between +Bell Sound and Ice Fjord and on Gooseland. The walrus-hunters +sometimes call them "rapphoens"--partridges--a misleading name, +which in 1873 induced me to land on the open coast south of Ice +Fjord, where "rapphoens" were to be found in great numbers. On +landing I found only moulting barnacle geese. The barnacle goose +finds its food more on land and inland lakes than in the sea. Its +flesh accordingly is free from the flavour of train oil and tastes +well, except that of the female during the hatching season, when it +is poor and tough. The eggs are better than the eider's. + +On Spitzbergen besides the barnacle goose we meet with the closely +allied species _Anser leucopsis_, Bechst. It is rather rare, but +more common on Novaya Zemlya. Further there occurs at the last-named +place a third species of goose, _vildgaosen_, the "grey goose" or +"great goose" of the walrus-hunters; the bean goose (_Anser +segetum_, Gmel.), which is replaced on Spitzbergen by a nearly allied +type, the pink-footed goose (_Anser brachyrhynchus_, Baillon). These +geese are much larger than both the eider and the barnacle goose, +and appear to be sufficiently strong to defend themselves against +the fox. They commonly breed high up on some mossy or grassy oasis, +among the stone mounds of the coast mountains, or on the summit of a +steep strand escarpment in the interior of the fjords. During the +moulting season the grey geese collect in flocks at the small +fresh-water lakes along the coast. The flesh of this species of +goose is finer than that of the common tame goose and has no trace +of any train flavour. + +Among the swimming birds that give the summer life on Novaya Zemlya +its peculiar character, we may further reckon the scaup-duck and the +swan. _Alfogel_ or _allan_, the long-tailed duck (_Fuligula +glacialis_, L.) is rare on Spitzbergen, but occurs very generally on +Novaya Zemlya, and especially in the Kara Sea, on whose coasts it is +seen in summer collected in large flocks. _Mindre saongsvanen_, +Bewick's swan (_Cygnus Bewickii_, Yarr.), is the most nobly formed +and coloured bird of the north. I have already described its nest, +which is found in considerable numbers in Gooseland. The bird is +blinding white, resembling the common swan, but somewhat smaller and +with a considerable difference in the formation of the windpipe and +the "keel" of the breastbone. The flesh is said to be coarse and of +inferior flavour. + +[Illustration: BEWICK'S SWAN. Swedish, Mindre Saongsvanen. +(Cygnus Bewickii, Yarr) BREASTBONE of Cygnus Bewickii, showing the +peculiar position of the windpipe. After Yarrell. ] + +The land-birds in the Arctic regions are less numerous both in +species and individuals than the sea-birds. Some of them, however, +also occur in large numbers. Almost wherever one lands, some small +greyish brown waders are seen running quickly to and fro, sometimes +in pairs, sometimes in flocks of ten to twenty. It is the most +common wader of the north, the _fjaerplyt_ of the walrus-hunters, +the purple sandpiper (_Tringa maritima_, Bruenn.). It lives on flies, +gnats, and other land insects. Its well-filled crop shows how well +the bird knows how to collect its food even in regions where the +entomologist can only with difficulty get hold of a few of the +animal forms belonging to his field of research. The purple +sandpiper lays its four or five eggs in a pretty little nest of dry +straw on open grassy or mossy plains a little distance from the sea. +It also endeavours to protect its nest by acting a comedy like that +of the _tjufjo_. Its flesh is delicious. + +In the company of the purple sandpiper there is often seen a +somewhat larger wader, or, more correctly, a bird intermediate +between the waders and the swimming birds. This is the beautiful +_brednaebbade simsnaeppan_, the grey (or red) phalarope (_Phalaropus +fulicarius_, Bonap.). It is not rare on Spitzbergen, and it is +exceedingly common, perhaps even the commonest bird on the north +coast of Asia. I imagine therefore that it is not absent from Novaya +Zemlya, though there has hitherto been observed there only the +nearly allied _smalnaebbade simsnaeppan_, the red-necked phalarope +(_Phalaropus hyperboreus_, Lath.). This bird might be taken as the +symbol of married love, so faithful are the male and female, being +continually to be seen in each other's company. While they search +for their food in pools of water along the coast, they nearly always +bear each other company, swimming in zigzag, so that every now and +then they brush past each other. If one of them is shot, the other +flies away only for a short time until it observes that its mate is +left behind. It then flies back, swims with evident distress round +its dead friend, and pushes it with its bill to get it to rise. It +does not, however, spend any special care on its nest or the rearing +of its young, at least to judge by the nest which Duner found at +Bell Sound in 1864. The position of the nest was indicated by three +eggs laid without anything below them on the bare ground, consisting +of stone splinters. The flesh of the phalarope is a great delicacy, +like that of other waders which occur in the regions in question, +but which I cannot now stay to describe. + +During excursions in the interior of the land along the coast, one +often hears, near heaps of stones or shattered cliffs, a merry +twitter. It comes from an old acquaintance from the home land, the +_snoesparfven_ or _snoelaerkan_, the snow-bunting (_Emberiza +nivalis_, L.). The name is well chosen, for in winter this pretty +bird lives as far south as the snow goes on the Scandinavian +peninsula, and in summer betakes itself to the snow limit in +Lapland, the _tundra_ of North Siberia, or the coasts of Spitzbergen +and Novaya Zemlya. It there builds its carefully-constructed nest of +grass, feathers and down, deep in a stone heap, preferably +surrounded by a grassy plain. The air resounds with the twitter of +the little gay warbler, which makes the deeper impression because it +is the only true bird's song one hears in the highest north.[64] + +On Spitzbergen there is sometimes to be met with in the interior of +the country, on the mountain slopes, a game bird, _spetsbergsripan_, +the rock ptarmigan (_Lagopus hyperboreus_, Sund.). A nearly allied +type occurs on the Taimur peninsula, and along the whole north coast +of Asia. It perhaps therefore can scarcely be doubted that it is +also to be found on Novaya Zemlya, though we have not hitherto seen +it there. On Spitzbergen this bird had only been found before 1872 +in single specimens, but in that year, to our glad surprise, we +discovered an actual ptarmigan-fell in the neighbourhood of our +winter colony, immediately south of the 80th degree of latitude. It +formed the haunt of probably a thousand birds; at least a couple of +hundred were shot there in the course of the winter. They probably +breed there under stones in summer, and creeping in among the stones +pass the winter there, at certain seasons doubtless in a kind of +torpid state. + +[Illustration: PTARMIGAN FELL. Mussel Bay on Spitzbergen, +after a photograph taken by A. Envall on the 21st June, 1872. ] + +The mode of life of the Spitzbergen ptarmigan is thus widely +different from that of the Scandinavian ptarmigan, and its flesh +also tastes differently. For the bird is exceedingly fat, and its +flesh, as regards flavour, is intermediate between black-cock and +fat goose.[65] We may infer from this that it is a great delicacy. + +[Illustration: THE SNOWY OWL. Swedish, Fjelluggla (Strix nyctea L.) ] + +When I was returning, in the autumn of 1872, from an excursion of +some length along the shore of Wijde Bay, I fell in with one of our +sportsmen, who had in his hand a white bird marked with black spots, +which he showed me as a "very large ptarmigan." In doing so, +however, he fell into a great ornithological mistake, for it was not +a ptarmigan at all, but another kind of bird, similarly marked in +winter, namely, _fjellugglan_, the walrus-hunter's _isoern_, the +snowy owl (_Strix nyctea_, L.). It evidently breeds and winters at +the ptarmigan-fell, which it appears to consider as its own +poultry-yard. In fact, the marking of this bird of prey is so +similar to that of its victim that the latter can scarcely perhaps +know how to take care of itself. On Spitzbergen the snowy owl is +very rare; but on Novaya Zemlya and the North coast of Asia--where +the lemming, which is wanting on Spitzbergen, occurs in great +crowds--it is common. It commonly sits immoveable on an open mountain +slope, visible at a great distance, from the strong contrast of its +white colour with the greyish-green ground. Even, in the brightest +sunshine, unlike other owls, it sees exceedingly well. It is very +shy, and therefore difficult to shoot. The snow ptarmigan and the +snowy owl are the only birds of which we know with certainty that +they winter on Spitzbergen, and both are, according to Hedenstroem, +native to the New Siberian Islands (_Otrywki o Sibiri_, p. 112). + + +In the cultivated regions of Europe the larger mammalia are so rare +that most men in their whole lifetime have never seen a wild mammal +so large as a dog. This is not the case in the high north. The +number of the larger mammalia here is indeed no longer so large as +in the seventeenth century, when their capture yielded an abundant +living to from twenty to thirty thousand men; but sport on Novaya +Zemlya and Spitzbergen still supports several hundred hunters, and +during summer scarcely a day passes without a visitor of the coasts +of these islands seeing a seal or a walrus, a reindeer or a Polar +bear. In order to present a true picture of the Polar traveller's +surroundings and mode of life, it is absolutely necessary to give a +sketch of the occurrence and mode of life of the wild mammalia in +the Polar lands. + +I shall make a beginning with the reindeer. This graminivorous +animal goes nearly as far to the north as the land in the old world. +It was not, indeed, observed by Payer on Franz Josef Land, but +traces of the reindeer were seen by us on the clay beds at Cape +Chelyuskin; remnants of reindeer were observed at Barents' winter +harbour on the northernmost part of Novaya Zemlya; some very fat +animals were killed by Norwegian walrus-hunters on King Karl's Land +east of Spitzbergen, and for some years back the reindeer was very +numerous even on the north coast of North East Land, and on +Castren's, Parry's, Marten's, and Phipps' Islands, lying still +farther to the north. Although these regions are situated between +80 deg. and 81 deg. N.L., the reindeer evidently thrives there very +well, and finds, even in winter, abundant food on the mountain +slopes swept clear of snow by storms, as is shown by the good +condition in which several of the animals shot by us were, and by +the numerous reindeer traces and tracks which we saw on Castren's +Island in the month of May, 1873. Nor does a winter temperature of +-40 deg. to -50 deg. appear to agree particularly ill with these +relatives of the deer of the south. Even the Norwegian reindeer can +bear the climate of Spitzbergen, for some of the selected draught +reindeer which I took with me to Spitzbergen in 1872, and which made +their escape soon after they were landed, were shot by hunters in +1875. They then pastured in company with wild reindeer, and were, +like them, very fat. It is remarkable that the reindeer, +notwithstanding the devastating pursuit to which it is exposed on +Spitzbergen,[66] is found there in much larger numbers than on North +Novaya Zemlya or the Taimur peninsula, where it is almost protected +from the attacks of the hunter. Even on the low-lying part of South +Novaya Zemlya, the reindeer, notwithstanding the abundance of the +summer pasture, is so rare that, when one lands there, any +reindeer-hunting is scarcely to be counted on. It first occurs in +any considerable numbers farther to the north, on both sides of +Matotschkin Schar. + +It deserves to be mentioned here that three hundred years ago, when +the north part of Novaya Zemlya was for the first time visited by +man, reindeer do not appear to have been more numerous there than +now. In the narrative of Barents' third voyage (De Veer, _Diarium +Nauticum_, 21st June, 1506) it is expressly stated: "Here it may be +remarked that; although the land, which we consider as Groenland +(the present Spitzbergen), lies under and over the 80th degree of +latitude, there grow there abundant leaves and grass, and there are +found there such animals as eat grass, as _reindeer_, while on the +other hand, on Novaya Zemlya, under the 76th degree of latitude, +there are neither leaves nor grass nor any grass-eating animal." +After this, however, traces of reins were found even at the winter +station; a bear, for instance, was killed that had devoured a +reindeer. + +On Spitzbergen the reindeer have been considerably diminished in numbers +by the hunting, first of the Dutch and English, and afterwards of the +Russians and Norwegians. In the northwestern part of the island, where +the Dutch had their train-boiling establishments, the animal has been +completely extirpated.[67] It still, however, occurs on Ice Fjord in +very great numbers, which, were the animal protected, would speedily +increase. + +That so devastating a pursuit as that which goes on year after year +on Spitzbergen can be carried on without the animal being +extirpated, has even given rise to the hypothesis of an immigration +from Novaya Zemlya. But since I have become better acquainted with +the occurrence of the reindeer in the latter place, this mode of +explanation does not appear to me to be correct. If, therefore, as +several circumstances in fact indicate, an immigration of reindeer +to Spitzbergen does take place, it must be from some still unknown +Polar land situated to the north-north-east. In the opinion of some +of the walrus-hunters there are indications that this unknown land +is inhabited, for it has repeatedly been stated that _marked_ +reindeer have been taken on Spitzbergen. The first statement on this +point is to be found in Witsen (_Noort ooster gedeelte van Asia en +Europa_, 1705, ii. page 904), where the reins are said to have been +marked on the horns and the ears; and I have myself heard hunters, +who in Norway were well acquainted with the care of reindeer, state +positively that the ears of some of the Spitzbergen reindeer they +shot were clipped--probably, however, the whole has originated from +the ears having been marked by frost. That no immigration to +Spitzbergen of reindeer from Novaya Zemlya takes place, is shown +besides by the fact that the Spitzbergen reindeer appears to belong +to a race differing from the Novaya Zemlya reindeer, and +distinguished by its smaller size, shorter head and legs, and +plumper and fatter body. + +[Illustration: REINDEER PASTURE. Green Harbour on Spitzbergen, +after a photograph taken by A. Envall on the 20th July, 1873. ] + +The life of the wild reindeer is best known from Spitzbergen. During +summer it betakes itself to the grassy plains in the ice-free +valleys of the island, in late autumn it withdraws--according to the +walrus-hunters' statements--to the sea-coast, in order to eat the +seaweed that is thrown up on the beach, and in winter it goes back +to the lichen-clad mountain heights in the interior of the country, +where it appears to thrive exceedingly well, though the cold during +winter must be excessively severe; for when the reindeer in spring +return to the coast they are still very fat, but some weeks +afterwards, when the snow has frozen, on the surface, and a crust of +ice makes it difficult for them to get at the mountain sides, they +become so poor as scarcely to be eatable. In summer, however, they +speedily eat themselves back into condition, and in autumn they are +so fat that they would certainly take prizes at an exhibition of fat +cattle. In the museum at Tromsoe there is preserved the backbone of +a reindeer, shot on King Karl's Land, which had a layer of fat seven +to eight centimetres in thickness on the loin. + +The reindeer, in regions where it has been much hunted, is very shy, +but, if the ground is not quite even, one can creep within range, if +the precaution be taken not to approach it from the windward. During +the rutting season, which falls in late autumn, it sometimes happens +that the reindeer attacks the hunter. + +The Spitzbergen reindeer is not tormented, like the reindeer in +Lapland and on Novaya Zemlya, by "gorm" (inch-long larvae of a fly, +which are developed under the animal's skin). Its flesh is also +better than that of the Lapp reindeer. None of the contagious +diseases which of late years have raged so dreadfully among the +reindeer in northern Europe has ever, at least during the last fifty +years, been common on Spitzbergen. + +The Polar bear occurs principally on coasts and islands which are +surrounded by drift-ice, often even upon ice-fields far out at sea, +for his best hunting is among the ice-floes. Now he is rather rare +on the south-western coasts of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya which +are almost free of ice during summer, but more common on the +northern parts of these islands, which are almost always surrounded +by ice. Thus for instance during my many landings at Horn Sound, +Bell Sound, Ice Fjord, Foreland Sound, and King's Bay, on the west +coast of Spitzbergen, I have never seen a single bear. On the other +hand, bears were seen at nearly every resting-place during the boat +voyage I made in 1861 with Torell in Hinloopen Strait and along the +shores of the most northerly islands on Spitzbergen, also during the +sledge journey which Palander and I made in the spring of 1873 +round North East Land. The Polar bear is besides found everywhere +along the north coast of Asia and America, apparently in greater +numbers the farther north we go. Sometimes too, first on ice +and then swimming, he has reached the north coast of Norway, for +instance, in March 1853, when, according to a statement in _Tromsoe +Stiftstidende_ (No. 4 for 1869), a Polar bear was killed in +Kjoellefjord in East Einmark. + +The bear is not difficult to kill. When he observes a man he +commonly approaches in hope of prey, with supple movements, and in a +hundred zigzag bends, in order to conceal the direction he intends +to take, and thus keep his prey from being frightened. During his +approach he often climbs up on blocks of ice, or raises himself on +his hind legs, in order to get a more extensive view, or else stands +snuffing up the air with evident care in all directions, in order, +by the aid of smell, which he seems to rely upon more than sight, to +ascertain the true kind and nature of the surrounding objects. If he +thinks he has to do with a seal, he creeps or trails himself forward +along the ice, and is said then to conceal with the fore-paws the +only part of his body that contrasts with the white colour of the +snow--his large black nose. If one keeps quite still, the bear comes +in this way so near that one can shoot him at the distance of two +gun-lengths, or, what the hunters consider safer, kill him with the +lance. If an unarmed man falls in with a Polar bear, some rapid +movements and loud cries are generally sufficient to put him to +flight, but if the man himself flies, he is certain to have the bear +after him at full speed. If the bear is wounded, he always takes to +flight. He often lays snow upon the wound with his fore-paws; +sometimes in his death struggles he scrapes with his fore-feet a +hole in the snow, in which he buries his head. + +When a vessel lies at anchor, the bear sometimes swims out to it, +and if one encamps in distant regions one often finds on getting up +in the morning a Polar bear in the neighbourhood, who during the +night has gone and nosed round the tent, without daring to attack +it. I remember only one case of a bear venturing to look into an +inhabited tent; it was during Kane's journey. He was frightened on +that occasion by the lighting of some lucifers. I have myself with +my comrades encamped without a watch in regions where we were +certain that our encampment would be visited, while we lay in deep +sleep, by some bear, that seldom, when the cook rose to make coffee, +failed to come within range of shot. + +[Illustration: POLAR BEARS. Drawn by G Muetzel of Berlin. ] + +The bear on the other hand has a special fancy for taking an +inventory of depots of provisions, of abandoned vessels, or of boats +that have been left drawn up on the beach. Most Arctic travellers +have remarkable adventures to relate, which both men and bears have +gone through on such occasions. During our expedition in 1864, for +instance, a large bear came and closely examined the contents of a +boat covered with a tent, which we had left unwatched for a few +hours at the bottom of Stor Fjord. He ate up a carefully-cooked +reindeer roast, tore the reserve clothes, scattered about the +ship-biscuit, &c.; and after we had returned in the evening, +gathered our things together in a heap, closed the tent and lain +down to sleep, the same bear returned, and, while we slept, +appropriated all the reindeer beef we had cooked to be used, in +place of the roast we had lost, during the following day's journey. +During one of the English expeditions in search of Franklin, there +was killed on one occasion, a bear in whose stomach there was found, +among many other articles, the stock of sticking-plaster from a +neighbouring depot. The bear can also roll away very large stones, +but a layer of frozen sand is too much for him. + +The Polar bear swims exceedingly well, but not so fast as that he +can escape in this way, if he be pursued in a boat; if a boat and +stout rowers are at hand he is accordingly done for, if, as often +happens, he in attempting to escape seeks his deliverance in the +sea. There, he is, as the hunters say, "as easy to kill as a sheep," +but one has to make haste to get hold of the killed animal with a +harpoon or in some other way, for it speedily sinks, unless it is +very fat. + +The walrus-hunting vessels from Tromsoe brought home in 1868 twenty, +in 1869 fifty-three, in 1870 ninety-eight, in 1871 seventy-four, and +in 1872 thirty-three bears. It may be inferred from this that the +Norwegian walrus-hunters kill yearly on an average at least a +hundred bears. It is remarkable that in this large number a pregnant +female or one with newly-born young is never found.[68] The female +bear appears to keep herself well concealed during the time she is +pregnant; perhaps in some ice-hole in the interior of the country. + +Whether the Polar bear hibernates during winter is not quite +settled; various facts, however, point in this direction. For +instance, he disappears almost completely from wintering stations +during the dark time, and holes have sometimes been met with in +which bears were concealed. Thus it once happened to Tobiesen that +he went down with one foot into such a hole, to the no small dismay +not only of the experienced walrus-hunter, but also of the bear. + +It is also stated that the bear during the dark time goes to the +edge of the ice to seek his food. I cannot say positively whether +this is the case or not; but the fact points in an opposite +direction, that while only a single bear was seen in the course of +the winter in the open water in the neighbourhood of our winter +station at Mussel Bay in 1872-73, Palander and I almost daily saw +bears on the hard frozen sea north of North East Land. Tracks of +bears were visible there in all directions on the ice, and along +with them light, sinuous traces of the fox. There were, on the other +hand, no seal holes to be found, and it was accordingly difficult to +understand wherefore the bears had chosen just this desolate stretch +of ice as their haunt. The bears that were killed were besides +uncommonly lean, the fat which they yielded being scarcely available +as fuel for the sledge-party's cooking apparatus. + +During their extended excursions after prey the male and the female, +the latter generally attended by one or two large young ones, keep +each other company. Larger numbers are seldom seen together, unless +at places where a good many carcases of walruses, seals, or white +fish are lying. + +In former times the sight of a bear created great dismay in Polar +travellers, but now the walrus-hunters do not hesitate a moment to +attack, lance in hand, a large number of bears. They have sometimes +in this way killed as many as twelve within a short time. They +depend less on the gun. During the expedition of 1861 Carl Chydenius +shot three in a few minutes, close to his tent-covered boat. + +I do not know a single case in which any Norwegian walrus-hunter has +been seriously wounded by a bear. It appears, however, as if this +animal were bolder and more dangerous in regions where he has not +made acquaintance with man's dangerous hunting implements. During +the first English and Dutch voyages to Novaya Zemlya, bears were met +with at nearly every place where a landing was effected, in regions +where the Polar bear is now wholly absent, and the travellers were +compelled to undertake actual combats--combats which cost several +human lives. During Barents' second voyage some men on the 26th/16th +September, 1593, landed on the mainland near the eastern mouth of +Yugor Schar, in order to collect "a sort of diamonds occurring +there" (valueless rock crystals), when a large white bear, according +to De Veer, rushed forward and caught one of the stone collectors by +the neck. On the man screaming "Who seizes me by the neck?" a +comrade standing beside answered, "A bear," and ran off. The bear +immediately bit asunder the head of his prey, and sucked the blood. +The rest of the men who were on land now came to his relief, +attacking the bear with levelled guns and lances. But the bear was +not frightened, but rushed forward and laid hold of a man in the +rank of the attacking party, and killed him too, whereupon all the +rest took to flight. Assistance now came from the vessel, and the +bear was surrounded by thirty men, but against their will, because +they had to do with a "grim, undaunted, and greedy beast." Of these +thirty men only three ventured to attack the bear, whom these +"courageous" men finally killed, after a rather severe struggle. + +A large number of occurrences of a similar nature, though commonly +attended with fortunate results, are to be found recorded in most of +the narratives of Arctic travel. Thus a sailor was once carried off +from a whaler caught in the ice in Davis' Straits, and in 1820, +among the drift-ice in the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen, +the same fate was like to befall one of the crew of a Hull whaler; +but he succeeded in effecting his escape by taking to flight, and +throwing to the bear, first his only weapon of defence, a lance, and +then his articles of clothing, one after the other.[69] On the 6th +of March 1870, Dr. Boergen was attacked by a bear, and dragged a +considerable distance.[70] It is remarkable that the bear did not +this time either kill his prey, but that he had time to cry out, "A +bear is dragging me away;" and that, after the bear had dragged him +several hundred yards and he had got free, he could, though very +badly scalped, himself make his way back to the vessel. The scalping +had been done by the bear attempting to crush the skull in its +mouth, as it is accustomed to do to the seals it catches. Scoresby +considers it dangerous to hunt the Polar bear in deep snow. The +well-known Dane, C. Petersen, guide to McClintock, Kane and others, +on the other hand, considered it as little dangerous to attack a +bear as to slaughter a sheep. The Siberian traveller, Hedenstroem, +says that a man may venture to do so with a knife tied to a +walking-stick, and the Norwegian hunters, or at least the +Norwegian-Finnish harpooners, express themselves in much the same +way regarding "this noble and dangerous" sport. + +The bear's principal food consists of the seal and walrus. It is +said that with a single stroke of his powerful paw he can cast a +walrus up on the ice. On the other hand he seldom succeeds in +catching the reindeer, because it is fleeter than the bear. I have, +however, in North East Land, on two occasions, seen blood and hair +of reindeer which had been caught by bears. There is not the least +doubt that, along with flesh, the bear also eats vegetable +substances, as seaweed, grass, and lichens. I have several times, on +examining the stomach of a bear that had been shot, found in it only +remains of vegetable substances; and the walrus-hunters know this so +well that they called a large old Polar bear, which Dr. Theel shot +at Port Dickson in 1875, "an old Land-king" that was too fat to go a +hunting, and therefore ate grass on land. He makes use besides of +food of many different kinds; a bear, for instance, in the winter +1865-66 consumed for Tobiesen the contents of two barrels of salt +fish, which he had left behind in a deserted hut. + +The flesh of the bear, if he is not too old or has not recently +eaten rotten seal-flesh, is very eatable, being intermediate in +taste between pork and beef. The flesh of the young bear is white +and resembles veal. The eating of the liver causes sudden illness. + +Although, as already mentioned, the Polar bear sometimes drifts to +land and is killed in the northernmost part of Norway, his skin is +not enumerated by Othere among the products of Finmark. It thus +appears to have become known in Europe first after the Norwegians' +discovery of Iceland and Greenland, and was at first considered an +extraordinary rarity. A Norwegian of importance, who had emigrated +to Iceland, and there succeeded in getting hold of a female bear +with two young, sent them in 880 to the King of Norway, and got in +return a small vessel laden with wood. This animal had not then been +seen in Norway before. The old sagas of the north are said to relate +further that the priest Isleif, in order to be nominated bishop of +Iceland, in the year 1056 presented a white bear to Kejsar Henrik. +In the year 1064 the King of Denmark gave in exchange for a white +bear from Greenland a well-equipped, full rigged, trading vessel, a +considerable sum of money, and a valuable gold ring.[71] + +[Illustration: POLAR BEARS. After Olaus Magnus (1555). ] + +Marco Polo also says in his account of the country of the +peace-loving nomad Tatar tribes living in the north, that there are +to be found there white bears most of them twenty hands long, large +black foxes, wild asses (reindeer), and a little animal called +"rondes," from which we get the sable fur.[72] As the Polar bear is +only to be found on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, these statements +prove that in the thirteenth century the northernmost part of Asia +was inhabited or at least visited by hunters. Olaus Magnus even +describes the bear's mode of life not incorrectly, with the addition +that it was customary to present their skins to the altars of +cathedrals and parish churches in order that the feet of the priest +might not freeze during mass.[73] The Polar bear however first +became more generally known in Western Europe by the Arctic voyages +of the English and Dutch, and its price has now sunk so much that +its skin, which was once considered an article of extraordinary +value, is now, in adjusting accounts between the owners of a vessel +and the walrus-hunters, reckoned at from twenty-five to fifty +Scandinavian crowns (say twenty-eight to fifty-six shillings). + +In 1609 Stephen Bennet, during his seventh voyage to Bear Island, +captured two young Polar bears, which were brought to England and +kept at Paris Garden (Purchas, iii. p. 562). Now such animals are +very frequently brought to Norway in order to be sent from thence to +the zoological gardens of Europe, in which the Polar bear is seldom +wanting. The capture is facilitated by the circumstance that the +young bears seldom leave their mother when she is killed. + +Along with the reindeer and the bear there are found in the regions +now in question only two other land-mammalia, the mountain fox +(_Vulpes lagopus_ L.) and the lemming (_Myodes obensis_ Brants).[74] +The fox is rather common both on Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. Its +abode sometimes consists of a number of passages excavated in the +ground and connected together, with several openings. Such a nest I +saw on Wahlberg's Island in Hinloopen Strait on the summit of a +fowl-fell; it was abundantly provided with a stock of half-rotten +guillemots, concealed in the passages. The old foxes were not +visible while we were there, but several young ones, some black, +some variegated red and white, ran hither and thither from out the +openings and played with supple movements in the neighbourhood of +the nest. A similar nest also, with young that ran between its +openings, played and hunted each other, I have seen on the north +shore of Matotschkin Schar, and uninhabited fox-holes and passages +at several places on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, commonly in +the tops of dry sandy knolls. + +The lemming is not found on Spitzbergen, but must at certain seasons +occur in incredible numbers on Novaya Zemlya. For at the +commencement of summer, when the snow has recently melted away, +there are to be seen, everywhere in the level fertile places in the +very close grass of the meadows, footpaths about an inch and a half +deep, which have been formed during winter by the trampling of these +small animals, under the snow, in the bed of grass or lichens which +lies immediately above the frozen ground. They have in this way +united with each other the dwellings they had excavated in the +ground, and constructed for themselves convenient ways, well +protected against the severe cold of winter, to their fodder-places. +Thousands and thousands of animals must be required in order to +carry out this work even over a small area, and wonderfully keen +must their sense of locality be, if, as seems probable, they can +find their way with certainty in the endless labyrinth they have +thus formed. During the snow-melting season these passages form +channels for running off the water, small indeed, but everywhere to +be met with, and contributing in a considerable degree to the drying +of the ground. The ground besides is at certain places so thickly +strewed with lemming dung, that it must have a considerable +influence on the condition of the soil. + + +In the Arctic regions proper one is not tormented by the +mosquito,[75] and viewed as a whole the insect fauna of the entire +Polar area is exceedingly scanty, although richer than was before +supposed. Arachnids, acarids, and podurids occur most plentifully, +Dr. Stuxberg having been able during the Yenisej expedition of 1875 +to collect a very large number of them, which were worked out after +his return--the podurids by Dr. T. TULLBERG of Upsala, the arachnids +by Dr. T. KOCH of Nurnberg. These small animals are found in very +numerous individual specimens, among mouldering vegetable remains, +under stones and pieces of wood on the beach, creeping about on +grass, straws, &c. + +Of the insects proper there were brought home from Novaya Zemlya, +during the same expedition, nine species of coleoptera, which were +determined by Professor F.W. MAeKLIN, of Helsingfors.[76] Some few +hemiptera and lepidoptera and orthoptera, and a large number of +hymenoptera and diptera from the same expedition have been examined +by Lector A.E. HOLMGREN of Stockholm. Dr. Stuxberg also collected a +large number of land-worms, which have been described by our +countryman Dr. G. EISEN, now settled in California. The occurrence +of this animal group in a region where the ground at the depth of a +few inches is continually frozen, appears to me exceedingly +remarkable--and from a general point of view the occurrence of +insects in a land which is exposed to a winter cold below the +freezing-point of mercury, and where the animal cannot seek +protection from it by creeping down to a stratum of earth which +never freezes, presupposes that either the insect itself, its egg, +larva, or pupa, may be frozen stiff without being killed. Only very +few species of these small animals, however, appear to survive such +a freezing test, and the actual land-evertebrate-fauna of the Polar +countries is therefore exceedingly scanty in comparison with that of +more southerly regions. + +[Illustration: WALRUSES. After a drawing by G von Yhlen (1861). ] + +It is quite otherwise as regards the sea. Here animal life is +exceedingly abundant as far as man has succeeded in making his way to +the farthest north. At nearly every sweep the dredge brings up from the +sea-bottom masses of decapods, crustacea, mussels, asterids, echini,[77] +&c., in varying forms, and the surface of the sea on a sunny day swarms +with pteropods, beroids, surface-crustacea, &c. Dr. Stuxberg will give, +farther on, a sketch of this department of animal life, which in the +high north is so rich in variety. In the meantime I can but refer to the +large number of papers on this subject which have been issued in the +publications of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. + + +Of the higher animal types a greater number within the Polar +territory occur in the sea than on the land. Thus by far the greater +number of the birds I have enumerated above belong to the sea, not +to the land, and this is the case with nearly all the animals which +for three or four hundred years back have been the objects of +capture in the Arctic regions. This industry, which during the +whale-fishing period yielded a return perhaps equal to that of the +American oil-wells in our time, has not now in the most limited +degree the importance it formerly had. For the animal whose capture +yielded this rich return, the right whale (_Balaena mysticetus_ L.), +is now so extirpated in these navigable waters, that the whalers +were long ago compelled to seek new fishing-places in other parts of +the Polar seas. It is therefore no longer the whale, but other +species of animals which attract the hunter to the coasts of +Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. + +Of these animals the most important for the last fifty years has +been the walrus, but it too is in course of being extirpated. It is +now seldom found during summer on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya +south of Matotschkin Schar. During our visits to that island in +1875, 1876, and 1878 we did not see one of these animals. But in the +Kara Gate, on the east coast of Novaya Zemlya, and at certain places +in the Kara Sea, abundant hunting is still to be had. Earlier in the +year the walrus is also to be met with among the drift-ice on the +west coast, and to the south, off the mouth of the Petchora, +although the number of the animals that are captured by the Samoyeds +at Chabarova appears to be exceedingly small. On the other hand the +Dutch, in their first voyages hither, saw a considerable number of +these gregarious animals. The walrus, however, did not then occur +here in such abundance as they did at the same time on Spitzbergen +and Bear Island, which evidently formed their principal haunts. + +During Stephen Bennet's third voyage to Bear Island in 1606, 700 to +800 walruses were killed there in six hours, and in 1608 nearly +1,000 in seven hours. The carcases left lying on the beach attracted +bears thither in such numbers that, for instance, in 1609 nearly +fifty of them were killed by the crew of a single vessel. At one +place eighteen bears were seen at once (Purchas, iii. p. 560). A +Norwegian skipper was still able during a wintering in 1824-25 to +kill 677 walruses. But when Tobiesen wintered there in 1865-66 he +killed only a single walrus, and on the two occasions of my landing +there I did not see one. Formerly the hunters almost every year, +during late autumn when the drift-ice had disappeared, found "walrus +on land," _i.e._ herds of several hundred walruses which had crept +up on some low, even, sandy beach, to pass days and weeks there in +an almost motionless state. During this period of rest most of them +appear to be sunk in deep sleep, yet not all, for--according to the +concurrent statements of all the walrus-hunters with whom I have +conversed on this subject--they keep a watch to warn their comrades +when danger is near. If necessary precautions are observed, _i.e._ +if the hunters approach the beach where the animals are assembled +when the wind blows from the land, and kill with the lance those +that lie nearest the water, the rest are slaughtered without +difficulty, being prevented by the carcases of their dead comrades +from reaching the sea. Now such an opportunity for the hunter +happens exceedingly seldom; there are famous headlands on which in +former times the walrus was found by hundreds, in whose +neighbourhood now not a single one is to be seen. + +In the sea too there are certain places which the walrus principally +haunts, and which are therefore known by the hunters as +walrus-banks. Such a bank is to be found in the neighbourhood of +Muffin Island, situated on the north coast of Spitzbergen in 80 deg. +north latitude, and the animals that have been killed here +must be reckoned by thousands. Another bank of the same kind is to +be met with in 72 deg. 15' north latitude, on the coast of Yalmal. +The reason why the walruses delight to haunt these places is +doubtless that they find there abundant food, which does not +consist, as has often been stated, of seaweed, but of various living +mussels from the bottom of the sea, principally _Mya truncata_ and +_Saxicava rugosa_. Their fleshy parts are freed, before they are +swallowed, so remarkably well from the shells, and cleaned so +thoroughly, that the contents of the stomach have the appearance of +a dish of carefully-shelled oysters. In collecting its food the +walrus probably uses its long tusks to dig up the mussels and worms +which are deeply concealed in the clay.[78] Scoresby states that in +the stomach of a walrus he found, along with small crabs, pieces of +a young seal. + +The largest walrus tusks I have seen were two of a male walrus +purchased in the summer of 1879 at St. Lawrence Island, in the north +part of Behring's Sea. They measured 830 and 825 millimetres in +length, their largest circumference was 227 and 230 millimetres, and +they weighed together 6,680 gram. I have seen the tusks of females +of nearly the same length, but they are distinguished from those of +the male by being much more slender. The surface of the tusks is +always full of cracks, but under it there is a layer of ivory free +of cracks, which again incloses a grained kernel of bone which at +some places is semi-transparent, as if drenched with oil. + +When the walrus ox gets very old, he swims about by himself as a +solitary individual, but otherwise animals of the same age and sex keep +together in large herds. The young walrus long follows its mother, and +is protected by her with evident fondness and very conspicuous maternal +affection. Her first care, when she is pursued, is accordingly to save +her young even at the sacrifice of her own life. A female walrus with +young is nearly always lost, if they be discovered from a hunting boat. +However eagerly she may try by blows and cuffs to get her young under +water or lead her pursuers astray by diving with it under her forepaw, +she is generally overtaken and killed. Such a hunt is truly grim, but +the walrus-hunter knows no mercy in following his occupation. The +walrus, especially the old solitary male, sleeps and rests during +autumn, when the drift-ice has disappeared, also in the water, with his +head now above the surface, now under it, and with his lungs so strongly +inflated that the body is kept floating, with part of the back +projecting out of the water. The latter way of sleeping is indeed +possible only for so long at once as the animal can keep below, but this +is said to be a very long time. If a hunting boat meets a walrus +sleeping in this way it is first wakened with a loud "strike up" before +it is harpooned, "in order that in its fright it may not knock a hole in +the boat with its tusks." The walrus sinks and is lost, if he is killed +by a shot while in the water, or if he be shot while lying on a piece of +ice, but without being killed so instantaneously that he cannot cast +himself into the water in his death struggles. He is killed accordingly +almost exclusively with the harpoon or lance. + +[Illustration: WALRUS TUSKS. A. Tusk of male, outside. B. Tusk of +male, inside C. Tusks of female. One-tenth of natural size. ] + +The harpoon consists of a large and strong iron hook, very sharp on +the outer edge, and provided with a barb. The hook is loosely fixed +to the shaft, but securely fastened to the end of a slender line ten +fathoms long, generally made of walrus hide. The line is fastened at +its other end to the boat, in the forepart of which it lies in a +carefully arranged coil. There are from five to ten such harpoon +lines in every hunting boat. When the hunters see a herd of walrus, +either on a piece of drift-ice or in the water, they endeavour +silently and against the wind to approach sufficiently near to one +of the animals to be able to harpoon it. If this is managed, the +walrus first dives and then endeavours to swim under water all he +can. But he is fixed with the line to the boat, and must draw it +along with him. His comrades swim towards the boat, curious to +ascertain the cause of the alarm. A new walrus is fixed with another +harpoon, and so it goes on, one after another, until all the +harpoons are in use. The boat is now drawn forward at a whizzing +speed, although the rowers hold back with the oars; but there is no +actual danger as long as all the animals draw in the same direction. +If one of them seeks to take a different course from that of his +comrades in misfortune, his line must be cut off, otherwise the boat +capsizes. When the walruses get exhausted by their exertions and by +loss of blood, the hunters begin to haul in the lines. One animal +after the other is drawn to the stem of the boat, and there they +commonly first get a blow on the head with the flat of a lance, and +when they turn to guard against it, a lance is thrust into the +heart. Since breechloaders have begun to be used by the +walrus-hunters, they often prefer to kill the harpooned walruses +with a ball instead of "lancing" them. To shoot an unharpooned +walrus, on the other hand, the walrus hunters formerly considered an +unpardonable piece of thoughtlessness, because the animal was in +this way generally wounded or killed without any advantage accruing. +They therefore expressed themselves with great irritation against +the tourists who sometimes came to Spitzbergen, and in this way +destroyed the hunting. It cannot however be denied that they +themselves in recent times have often followed the bad example, and +many consider that this is one of the main reasons of the great +diminution in the numbers of the walrus of late years. Should an +international code be established for hunting in the Polar sea, all +shooting of unharpooned walruses ought to be forbidden in the first +place. + +[Illustration: HUNTING IMPLEMENTS. +(1) Harpoon, and (2) Lance for Walrus-hunting. +(3) "Skottel" for the capture of the White Whale. One-fifteenth of +natural size. ] + +Gregariousness and curiosity appear to be the main characteristics +of the walrus. These qualities of theirs I had an opportunity of +observing when once, on a glorious northern summer day, I rowed +forward over a mirror-bright, drift-ice-bestrewn sea right into the +midst of a considerable herd of these animals. Part followed the +boat long distances quite peaceably, now and then emitting a +grunting sound; others swam quite close, and raised themselves high +out of the water in order to take a view of the foreigners; others, +again, lay so closely packed on pieces of drift-ice as to sink them +down to the water's edge, while their comrades swimming about in the +sea endeavoured with violence to gain a place on the already +overfilled resting-places, though a number of unoccupied pieces of +ice floated up and down in the neighbourhood. + +When the hunters have killed a female walrus, it often happens that +they take the young living. It is easily tamed, and soon regards its +keeper with warm attachment. It seeks, as best it can--poorly +equipped as it is for moving about on dry land--to follow the seamen +on the deck, and gives itself no rest if it be left alone. +Unfortunately, one does not succeed in keeping them long alive, +probably because it is impossible to provide them with suitable +food. There are instances, however, of the young of the walrus being +brought to Europe alive. Thus it is said (Purchas, iii., p. 560), +that Master Welden and Stephen Bennet, on the 22nd/12th July, 1608, +caught two young walruses alive, one a male and the other a female. +The female died before they reached England, but the male lived ten +weeks. He was carried to court, shown to the king and many +honourable gentlemen, and excited general admiration for his +extraordinary form and great docility. A young walrus that was taken +to St. Petersburg in 1829-30, also died in a short time. It gave +occasion to K.E. von BAER'S famous treatise: "Anatomische und +zoologische Untersuchungen ueber das Wallross," printed in _Memoires +de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg_, ser. vi., +t. iv. 2, 1838, p. 97. + +The walrus is hunted for its skin, blubber, and oil. The value of a +full-grown walrus was calculated at Tromsoe, in 1868, in settling +accounts between the owners of hunting sloops and the hunters, at +eighty Scandinavian crowns (say 4_l_. 10s.), but it sank in 1871 to +only forty-eight crowns (say 2_l_. 15s.). The flesh of the walrus is +coarse and train-flavoured, and is eaten by the hunters only in +cases of necessity. From my own experience, however, I can certify +that its comparatively small tongue is very delicious. By the Eskimo +and the Chukchis the flesh of the walrus is considered a delicacy. + +[Illustration: WALRUS HUNTING. After Olaus Magnus (1555). ] + +The walrus was doubtless hunted by the Polar tribes long before the +historic period,[79] but it is mentioned for the first time in +writing in the sketch of Othere's Arctic journey. The narrative +shows that it was then captured on the north coast of Scandinavia. +This appears the less improbable, as a walrus now and then even in +our days drifts to land on the Norwegian coast, and walruses are +still annually killed off Swjatoinos on the Kola peninsula,[80] The +walrus is very correctly described in the well-known Norse +confession written in the end of the eleventh century, "Konungs +skuggsja" (the King's Mirror), as an animal resembling the seal,[81] +except that, besides several smaller teeth, it has two large tusks +which project beyond the upper jaw. This clear and unexaggerated +sketch is however replaced in the later writings of the middle ages +by the most extraordinary accounts of the animal's appearance and +mode of capture. Thus Albertus Magnus,[82] who died in 1280, says +that the walrus is taken by the hunter, while the sleeping animal +hangs by its large tusks to a cleft of the rock, cutting out a piece +of its skin and fastening to it a strong rope whose other end is +tied to trees, posts, or large rings fixed to rocks. The walrus is +then wakened by throwing large stones at its head. In its attempts +to escape it leaves its hide behind. It perishes soon after, or is +thrown up half dead on the beach. He further states that walrus +lines on account of their strength are suitable for lifting great +weights, and that they are always on sale at Cologne. They were +probably used at the building of the Cathedral there. Similar +extraordinary representations of the appearance and mode of life of +the walrus are repeated in a more or less altered form even by Olaus +Magnus, whose representation of the walrus is shown by the +accompanying woodcut. + +[Illustration: WALRUSES (female with young). Old Dutch drawing.[83] ] + +[Illustration: JAPANESE DRAWING OF THE WALRUS.[84] ] + +The 11th/1st of August 1556, the year after the publication of the +work of Olaus Magnus, a West European saw for the first time some +actual walruses, which had been killed by Russian hunters at Vaygats +Island. No description of the animal, however, is given, but from +that period all the members of the English and Dutch north-east +expeditions had opportunities of seeing walruses in hundreds and +thousands. It was now first that man learned actually to know this +remarkable animal which had been decked out in so many fables. To +this period belongs the beautiful and natural delineation of the +walrus which is given above. + +A peculiarity of the walrus may be mentioned here. The hide, +especially in old males, is often full of wounds and scratches, +which appear to be caused partly by combats and scraping against +sharp pieces of ice, partly by some severe disease of the skin. Mr. +H.W. Elliot has remarked this of the walrus in Behring's Sea[85]. +The walrus is also troubled with lice, which is not the case, so far +as I know, with any kind of seal. Masses of intestinal worms are +found instead in the stomach of the seal, while on the contrary none +are found in that of the walrus. + +With reference to the other animals that are hunted in the Polar Sea +I am compelled to be very brief, as I have scarcely any observations +to make regarding them which are not already sufficiently known by +numerous writings. + +There are three kinds of seals on Novaya Zemlya. _Storsaelen_, the +bearded seal (_Phoca barbata_, Fabr.) occurs pretty generally even on +the coasts of Spitzbergen, though never in large flocks. The pursuit +of this animal is the most important part of the seal-fishing in +these waters, and the bearded seal is still killed yearly by +thousands. Their value is reckoned in settling accounts between +owners and hunters at twenty to twenty-five Scandinavian crowns (say +22s. to 27s. 6d.). + +[Illustration: YOUNG OF THE GREENLAND SEAL. After a drawing by +A W. Quennerstedt (1864). ] + +_Groenlands_ or _Jan-Mayen-saelen_, the Greenland seal (_Phoca +Groenlandica_ Muller), which at Jan Mayen gives occasion to so +profitable a fishing, also is of general occurrence among the +drift-ice in the Munnan and Kara seas. + +_Snadden_, the rough or bristled seal (_Phoca hispida_, Erxl.) is +also common on the coast. These animals in particular are seen to +lie, each at its hole, on the ice of fjords, which has not been +broken up. It also many times follows with curiosity in the wake of +a vessel for long distances, and can then be easily shot, because it +is often so fat that, unlike the two other kinds of seals, it does +not sink when it has been shot dead in the water. + +_Klapmytsen_, the bladdernose seal, (_Cystophora cristata_, Erxl.) +the walrus-hunters say they have never seen on Novaya Zemlya, but it +is stated to occur yearly in pretty large numbers among the ice +W.S.W. of South Cape on Spitzbergen. Only once during our many +voyages in the Polar Sea has a _Klapmyts_ been seen, viz, a young +one that was killed in 1858 in the neighbourhood of Bear Island. + +Of the various species of whales, the narwhal, distinguished by its +long and valuable horn projecting in the longitudinal direction of +the body from the upper jaw, now occurs so seldom on the coast of +Novaya Zemlya that it has never been seen there by the Norwegian +walrus-hunters. It is more common at Hope Island, and Witsen states +(p. 903) that large herds of narwhals have been seen between +Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. + +[Illustration: THE BEARDED SEAL. Swedish, Storsal (_Phoca barbata_, +Fabr.) THE ROUGH SEAL. Swedish, Snadd. (_Phoca hispida_, Erxl.) ] + +The white whale or beluga, of equal size with the narwhal, on the +other hand, occurs in large shoals on the coasts of Spitzbergen and +Novaya Zemlya, especially near the mouths of fresh-water streams. +These animals were formerly captured, but not with any great +success, by means of a peculiar sort of harpoon, called by the +hunters "skottel." Now they are caught with nets of extraordinary +size and strength, which are laid out from the shore at places which +the white whales are wont to frequent. In this way there were taken +in the year 1871, when the fishing appears to have been most +productive, by vessels belonging to Tromsoe alone, 2,167 white +whales. Their value was estimated at fifty-four Scandinavian crowns +each (about 3_l_.). The fishing, though tempting, is yet very +uncertain; it sometimes falls out extraordinarily abundant, as in +the spring of 1880, when a skipper immediately on arriving at +Magdalena Bay caught 300 of these animals at a cast of the net. Of +the whales thus killed not only the blubber and hide are taken away, +but also, when possible, the carcases, which, when cheap freight can +be had, are utilised at the guano manufactories in the north of +Norway. After having lain a whole year on the beach at Spitzbergen +they may be taken on board a vessel without any great inconvenience, +a proof that putrefaction proceeds with extreme slowness in the +Polar regions. + +[Illustration: THE WHITE WHALE. (_Delphinapterus leucas_, Pallas) +After a drawing by A.W. Quennerstedt (1804). ] + +With its blinding milk-white hide, on which it is seldom possible to +discover a spot, wrinkle, or scratch, the full-grown white whale is +an animal of extraordinary beauty. The young whales are not white, +but very light greyish brown. The white whale is taken in nets not +only by the Norwegians at Spitzbergen, but also by the Russians and +Samoyeds at Chabarova. In former times they appear to have been also +caught at the mouth of the Yenisej, to judge by the large number of +vertebrae that are found at the now deserted settlements there. The +white whale there goes several hundred kilometres up the river. I +have also seen large shoals of this small species of whale on the +north coast of Spitzbergen and the Taimur peninsula. + +Other species of the whale occur seldom on Novaya Zemlya. Thus on +this occasion only two small whales were seen during our passage +from Tromsoe, and I do not remember having seen more than one in the +sea round Novaya Zemlya in the course of my two previous voyages to +the Yenisej. At the north part of the island, too, these animals +occur so seldom, that a hunter told me, as something remarkable, +that towards the end of July, 1873, W.N.W. of the western entrance +to Matotschkin Schar 20' to 30' from land, he had seen a large +number of whales, belonging to two species, of which one was a +_slaethval_, and the other had as it were a top, instead of a fin, +on the back. + +It is very remarkable that whales still occur in great abundance on +the Norwegian coast, though they have been hunted there for a +thousand years back, but, on the other hand, if we except the little +white whale, only occasionally east of the White Sea. The whale +fishing which was carried on on so grand a scale on the west coast +of Spitzbergen, has therefore never been prosecuted to any great +extent on Novaya Zemlya; and fragments of skeletons of the whale +which are found thrown up in such quantities on the shores of +Spitzbergen, are not to be found, so far as my experience reaches, +either on the shores of Novaya Zemlya, on the coast of the Kara Sea, +or at the places on the north coast of Siberia between the Yenisej +and the Lena, at which we landed. The sacrifices which were so long +made in vain in the endeavour to find a passage to China in this +direction accordingly were not compensated, as on Spitzbergen, by +the rise of a profitable whale fishery. Meeting with a whale is +spoken of by the first seafarers in these regions as something very +remarkable and dangerous; for instance, in the account of Stephen +Burrough's voyage in 1556:--"On St. James his day, there was a +monstrous whale aboord of us, so neere to our side that we might +have thrust a sworde or any other weapon in him, which we durst not +doe for feare lie should have over-throwen our shippe; and then I +called my company together, and all of us shouted, and with the crie +that we made he departed from us; there was as much above water of +his back as the bredth of our pinnesse, and at his falling down he +made such a terrible noise in the water, that a man would greatly +have marvelled, except he had known the cause of it; but, God be +thanked, we were quietly delivered of him."[86] When Nearchus sailed +with the fleet of Alexander the Great from the Indus to the Red Sea, +a whale also caused so great a panic that it was only with +difficulty that the commander could restore order among the +frightened seamen, and get the rowers to row to the place where the +whale spouted water and caused a commotion in the sea like that of a +whirlwind. All the men now shouted, struck the water with their +oars, and sounded their trumpets, so that the large, and, in the +judgment of the Macedonian heroes, terrible animal, was frightened. +It seems to me that from these incidents we may draw the conclusion +that great whales in Alexander's time were exceedingly rare in the +sea which surrounds Greece, and in Burrough's time in that which +washes the shores of England. Quite otherwise was the whale regarded +on Spitzbergen some few years after Burrough's voyage by the Dutch +and English whalers. At the sight of a whale all men were out of +themselves with joy, and rushed down into the boats in order from +them to attack and kill the valuable animal. The fishery was carried +on with such success, that, as has already been stated, the right +whale (_Balaena mysticetus_ L.), whose pursuit then gave full +employment to ships by hundreds, and to men by tens of thousands, is +now practically extirpated. Thus during our many voyages in these +waters we have only seen one such whale, which happened on the 23rd +June, 1864, among the drift-ice off the west coast of Spitzbergen in +78 deg. N.L. As the right whale still occurs in no limited numbers +in other parts of the Polar Sea, and as there has been no whale +fishing on the coast of Spitzbergen for the last forty or fifty +years, this state of things shows how difficult it is to get an +animal type to return to a region where it has once been extirpated, +or from which it has been driven away. + +The whale which Captain Svend Foeyn has almost exclusively hunted on +the coast of Finmark since 1864 belongs to quite another species, +_blaohvalen_ (_Balaenoptera Sibbaldii_ Gray); and there are likewise +other species of the whale which still in pretty large numbers +follow shoals of fish to the Norwegian coast, where they sometimes +strand and are killed in considerable numbers. A _tandhval_, killer +or sword-fish (_Orca gladiator_ Desm.) was even captured some years +ago in the harbour of Tromsoe. This whale was already dying of +suffocation, caused by an attempt to swallow an eider which entered +the gullet, not, as the proper way is, with the head, but with the +tail foremost. When the mouthful should have slidden down, it was +prevented by the stiff feathers sticking out, and the bird stuck in +the whale's throat, which, to judge by the extraordinary struggles +it immediately began to make, must have caused it great +inconvenience, which was increased still more when the inhabitants +did not neglect to take advantage of its helpless condition to +harpoon it. + + +[Footnote 60: The name _stormfogel_ is also used for the Stormy +Petrel (_Thalassidroma pelagica_, Vig.). This bird does not occur in +the portions of the Polar Sea with which we are now concerned. ] + +[Footnote 61: At Bear Island, Tobiesen, on the 28th May, 1866, saw +fulmars' eggs laid immediately on the ice which still covered the +rock. At one place a bird sitting on its eggs was even frozen fast +by one leg to the ice on the 31/21 August, 1596. Barents found on +the north part of Novaya Zemlya that some fulmars had chosen as a +hatching-place a piece of ice covered with a little earth. In both +these cases the under part of the egg during hatching could never be +warmed above the freezing-point. ] + +[Footnote 62: It deserves to be investigated whether some little +auks do not, like the Spitzbergen ptarmigan, pass the winter in +their stone mounds, flying out to sea only at pretty long intervals +in order to collect their food. ] + +[Footnote 63: The quantity of eider-down which was brought from the +Polar lands to Tromsoe amounted in 1868 to 540, in 1869 to 963, in +1870 to 882, in 1871 to 630, and in 1872 to 306 kilograms. The total +annual yield may be estimated at probably three times as much. ] + +[Footnote 64: There are, however, various other song-birds found +already on south Novaya Zemlya, for instance, _lappsparfven_, the +Lapland bunting (_Emberiza lapponica_, L.), and _berglaerkan_, the +shore-lark (_Alauda alpestris_, L.). They hatch on the ground under +bushes, tufts of grass, or stones, in very carefully constructed +nests lined with cotton-grass and feathers, and are not uncommon. ] + +[Footnote 65: Hedenstroem also states (_Otrywki o Sibiri_, St. +Petersburg, 1830, p. 130,) that the ptarmigan winters on the New +Siberian Islands, and that there it is fatter and more savoury than +on the mainland. ] + +[Footnote 66: The hunters from Tromsoe brought home, in 1868, 996; +in 1869, 975; and in 1870, 837 reindeer. When to this we add the +great number of reindeer which are shot in spring and are not +included in these calculations, and when we consider that the number +of walrus-hunting vessels which are fitted out from Tromsoe is less +than that of those which go out from Hammerfest, and that the +shooting of reindeer on Spitzbergen is also carried on by hunters +from other towns, and by tourists, we must suppose that at least +3,000 reindeer have been killed during each of those years. Formerly +reindeer stalking was yet more productive, but since 1870 the number +killed has considerably diminished. ] + +[Footnote 67: When Spitzbergen was first mapped, a great number of +places were named after reindeer, which shows that the reindeer was +found there in large numbers, and now just at these places it is +completely absent. On the other hand, the Dutch and English +explorers during the sixteenth century saw no reindeer on Novaya +Zemlya. During the Swedish expedition of 1875 no reindeer were seen +on the west coast of this island south of Karmakul Bay, while a +number were shot at Besimannaja Bay and Matotschkin Schar. When some +of the companions of the well-known walrus-hunting captain, Sievert +Tobiesen, were compelled in 1872-73 to winter at North Goose Cape, +they shot during winter and spring only eleven reindeer. Some +Russians, who by an accident were obliged to pass six years in +succession somewhere on the coast of Stans Foreland (Maloy Broun), +and who, during this long time, were dependent for their food on +what they could procure by hunting without the use of fire-arms +(they had when they landed powder and ball for only twelve shots), +when the three survivors were found and taken home in 1749, had +killed two hundred and fifty reindeer (P.L. le Roy, _Relation des +Aventures arrivees a quatre matelots Russes jettes par une tempete pres +de l'Isle deserte d'Ost-Spitzbergen, sur laquelle ils ont +passe six ans et trois mois_, 1766). ] + +[Footnote 68: During the wintering of 1869-70 on East Greenland, Dr. +Punsch once saw a female bear with quite small young (_Die zweite +deutsche Nordpolarfahrt_, Leipzig, 1873-74. Vol. II p. 157). ] + +[Footnote 69: W. Scoresby's des Juengern, _Tagebuch einer Reise auf +dem Wallfischfang. Aus dem engl. ueebers_. Hamburg, 1825, p. 127. ] + +[Footnote 70: _Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt_, Vol. I. p. 465. ] + +[Footnote 71: _Groenlands historiske Mindesmaerker._ Kjoebenhavn, 1838, +III. p. 384. ] + +[Footnote 72: Ramusio, Part II., Venice, 1583, p. 60. ] + +[Footnote 73: Ol. Magnus. Rome edition, 1555, p. 621. ] + +[Footnote 74: It is stated that wolves also occur on Novaya Zemlya +as far up as to Matotschkin Sound. They are exceedingly common on +the north coasts of Asia and Eastern Europe. ] + +[Footnote 75: That is to say, not on Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, +for it is otherwise on the coast of the mainland. In West Greenland +the mosquito as far north as the southern part of Disco Island is +still so terrible, especially to the new comer during the first +days, that the face of any one who without a veil ventures into +marshy ground overgrown with bushes, becomes in a few hours +unrecognisable. The eyelids are closed with swelling and changed +into water-filled bladders, suppurating tumours are formed in the +head under the hair, &c. But when a man has once undergone this +unpleasant and painful inoculation, the body appears, at least for +one summer, to be less susceptible to the mosquito-poison. ] + +[Footnote 76: As the _only_ Chrysomela, which von Baer found at +Matotschkin Schar, played so great a _role_ in Arctic-zoological +literature, I shall here enumerate the species of coleoptera, now +known--after Professor Maeklim's determination of the collections +which we brought home with us--to exist on Novaya Zemlya. These +are:--_Feronia borealis_ Menetr., _F. gelida_ Maekl., _Amara alpina_ +Fabr., _Agabus subquadratus_ Motsch., _Homalota sibirica_ Maekl., +_Homalium angustatum_ Maekl., _Cylletron (?) hyperboreum_ Maekl., +_Chrysomela septentrionalis_ (?) Menetr., _Prasocuris hannoverana_ +Fabr., v. _degenerata_. From Vaygats Island we brought home seven +species more, which were not found on Novaya Zemlya. The insects +occur partly under stones, especially at places where lemming dung +is abundant, or in tracts where birds'-nests are numerous, partly in +warm days on willow-bushes. ] + +[Footnote 77: Echini occur only very sparingly in the Kara Sea and +the Siberian Polar Sea, but west of Novaya Zemlya at certain places +in such numbers that they almost appear to cover the sea-bottom. ] + +[Footnote 78: Compare Malmgren's instructive papers in the +publications of the Royal (Swedish) Academy of Sciences and +Scoresby's _Arctic Regions_, Edinburgh, 1820, i., p. 502. That the +walrus eats mussels is already indicated in the Dutch drawing from +the beginning of the seventeenth century reproduced below, page 160. ] + +[Footnote 79: Implements of walrus-bone occur among the Northern +grave _finds_. ] + +[Footnote 80: Compare note at page 48 above. ] + +[Footnote 81: I saw in 1858 a _Phoca barbata_ with tusks worn away by +age, which in its reddish-brown colour very much resembled a walrus, +and was little inferior to it in size. ] + +[Footnote 82: Albertus Magnus, _De animalibus_, Mantua, 1479, Lib. +xxiv. At the same place however is given a description of the +whale-fishery grounded on actual experience, but with the shrewd +addition that what the old authors had written on the subject did +not correspond with experience. ] + +[Footnote 83: This drawing is made after a facsimile by Frederick +Mueller from Hessel Gerritz, _Descriptio et delineatio geographica +detectionis freti, &c._ Amsterodami, 1613. The same drawing is +reproduced coloured in Blavii _Atlas major_, Part I, 1665, p. 25, +with the inscription: "Ad vivum delineatum ab Hesselo G.A." ] + +[Footnote 84: The drawing is taken from a Japanese manuscript book +of travels--No. 360 of the Japanese library which I brought home. +According to a communication by an attache of the Japanese embassy +which visited Stockholm in the autumn of 1880, the book is entitled +_Kau-kai-i-fun_, "Narrative of a remarkable voyage on distant seas." +The manuscript, in four volumes, was written in 1830. In the +introduction it is stated that when some Japanese, on the 21st +November, 1793 (?), were proceeding with a cargo of rice to Yesso, +they were thrown out of their course by a storm, and were driven far +away on the sea, till in the beginning of the following June they +came to some of the Aleutian islands, which had recently been taken +by the Russians. They remained there ten months, and next year in +the end of June they came to Ochotsk. The following year in autumn +they were carried to Irkutsk, where they remained eight years, well +treated by the Russians. They were then taken to St. Petersburg, +where they had an audience of the Czar, and got furs and splendid +food. Finally they were sent back by sea round Cape Horn to Japan in +one of Captain von Krusenstern's vessels. They were handed over to +the Japanese authorities in the spring of 1805, after having been +absent from their native country about thirteen years. From Nagasaki +they were carried to Yeddo, where they were subjected to an +examination. One person put questions, another wrote the answers, +and a third showed by drawings all the remarkable events they had +survived. They were then sent to their native place. In the +introduction it is further said that the shipwrecked were unskilful +seamen, by whom little attention was often given to the most +important matters. A warning accordingly is given against full +reliance on their accounts and the drawings in the book. The latter +occupy the fourth part of the work, consisting of more than 100 +quarto pages. It is remarkable that the first Russian circumnavigation +of the globe, and the first journey of the Japanese round the world, +happened at the same time. ] + +[Footnote 85: _A Report upon the Condition of Affairs in the +Territory of Alaska._ Washington, 1875, p. 160. ] + +[Footnote 86: Hakluyt, first edition, p. 317. ] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + The Origin of the names Yugor Schar and Kara Sea--Rules + for Sailing through Yugor Schar--The "Highest Mountain" + on Earth--Anchorages--Entering the Kara Sea-- + Its Surroundings--The Inland-ice of Novaya Zemlya--True + Icebergs rare in certain parts of the Polar Sea--The Natural + Conditions of the Kara Sea--Animals, Plants, Bog Ore-- + Passage across the Kara Sea--The Influence of the Ice on + the Sea-bottom--Fresh-water Diatoms on Sea-ice--Arrival at + Port Dickson--Animal Life there--Settlers and Settlements + at the Mouth of the Yenisej--The Flora at Port Dickson-- + Evertebrates--Excursion to White Island--Yalmal--Previous + Visits--Nmmnelin's Wintering on the Briochov Islands. + + +In crossing to Vaygats Island I met the _Lena_, which then first +steamed to the rendezvous that had been fixed upon. I gave the +captain orders to anchor without delay, to coal from the _Express_, +and to be prepared immediately after my return from the excursion to +weigh anchor and start along with the other vessels. I came on board +the _Vega_ on the evening of the 31st July, much pleased and +gratified with what I had seen and collected in the course of my +excursion on Vaygats Island. The _Lena_, however, was not quite +ready, and so the start was put off till the morning of the 1st +August. All the vessels then weighed anchor, and sailed or steamed +through Vaygats Sound or Yugor Schar into the Kara Sea. + +We do not meet with the name Yugor Schar in the oldest narratives of +travel or on the oldest maps. But it is found in an account dating +from 1611, of a Russian commercial route between "Pechorskoie +Zauorot and Mongozei," which is annexed to the letter of Richard +Finch to Sir Thomas Smith, already quoted (Purchas, iii. p. 539). The +name is clearly derived from the old name, Jugaria, for the land +lying south of the sound, and it is said, for instance, in the map +to Herberstein's work, to have its name from the Hungarians, who are +supposed to derive their origin from these regions. The first Dutch +north-east explorers called it Vaygats Sound or Fretum Nassovicum. +More recent geographers call it also Pet's Strait, which is +incorrect, as Pet did not sail through it. + +There was at first no special name for the gulf between the Taimur +peninsula and Novaya Zemlya. The name "Carska Bay" however is to be +found already in the information about sailing to the north-east, +communicated to the Muscovie Companie by its principal factor, +Antonie Marsh (Purchas, iii. p. 805). At first this name was applied +only to the estuary of the Kara river, but it was gradually +transferred to the whole of the neighbouring sea, whose oldest +Samoyed name, also derived from a river, was in a somewhat +Russianised form, "Neremskoe" (compare Purchas, iii. p. 805, Witsen, +p. 917). I shall in the following part of this work comprehend under +the name "Kara Sea" the whole of that gulf which from 77 deg. N.L. +between Cape Chelyuskin and the northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya +extends towards the south to the north coast of Europe and Asia. + +Captain Palander gives the following directions for sailing through +the sound between Vaygats Island and the mainland:-- + + "As Yugor Straits are difficult to discover far out at + sea, good solar observations ought to be taken on + approaching them, where such can be had, and after these + the course is to be shaped in the middle of the strait, + preferably about N.E. by the compass. On coming nearer + land (three to four English miles) one distinguishes the + straits with ease. Afterwards there is nothing else to + observe than on entering to keep right in the middle of + the fairway. + + "If one wishes to anchor at the Samoyed village one ought + to keep about an English mile from the land on the + starboard, and steer N.E. by the compass, until the + Samoyed huts are seen, when one bends off from starboard, + keeping the church a little to starboard. For larger + vessels it is not advisable to go in shallower water than + eight to nine fathoms, because the depth then diminishes + rather suddenly to from three to four fathoms. + + "From the Samoyed village the course is shaped right to + the south-east headland of Vaygats Island (Suchoi Nos), + which ought to be passed at the distance of half an + English mile. Immediately south-west of this headland lies + a very long shoal, which one ought to take care of. + + "From this headland the vessel is to be steered N.-1/2E. + out into the Kara Sea. With this course there are two + shoals on starboard and two on port at the distance of + half an English mile. + + "The depth is in general ten fathoms; at no place in the + fairway is it less than nine fathoms. + + "Vessels of the greatest draught may thus sail through + Yugor Schar. In passing the straits it is recommended to + keep a good outlook from the top, whence in clear weather + the shoals may easily be seen." + +In the oldest narratives very high mountains, covered with ice and +snow, are spoken of as occurring in the neighbourhood of the sound +between Vaygats Island and the mainland. It is even said that here +were to be found the highest mountains on earth, whose tops were +said to raise themselves to a height of a hundred German miles.[87] +The honour of having the highest mountains on earth has since been +ascribed by the dwellers on the plains of Northern Russia to the +neighbourhood of Matotschkin Schar, "where the mountains are even +much higher than Bolschoj Kamen," a rocky eminence some hundreds of +feet high at the mouth of the Petchora--an orographic idea which +forms a new proof of the correctness of the old saying:--"In the +kingdom of the blind the one-eyed is king." Matotschkin Schar indeed +is surrounded by a wild Alpine tract with peaks that rise to a +height of 1,000 to 1,200 metres. On the other hand there are to be +seen around Yugor Straits only low level plains, terminating towards +the sea with a steep escarpment. These plains are early free of +snow, and are covered with a rich turf, which yields good pasture to +the Samoyed reindeer herds. + +Most of the vessels that wish to sail into the Kara Sea through +Yugor Schar require to anchor here some days to wait for favourable +winds and state of the ice. There are no good harbours in the +neighbourhood of the sound, but available anchorages occur, some in +the bay at Chabarova, at the western entrance of the sound; some, +according to the old Dutch maps, on the eastern side of the sound, +between Mestni Island (Staten Eiland) and the mainland. I have, +however, no experience of my own of the latter anchorages, nor have +I heard that the Norwegian walrus-hunters have anchored there. +Perhaps by this time they are become too shallow. + +When we sailed through Yugor Schar in 1878, the sound was completely +free of ice. The weather was glorious, but the wind was so light +that the sails did little service. In consequence of this we did not +go very rapidly forward, especially as I wished to keep the three +vessels together, and the sailing ship _Express_, not to be left +behind, had to be towed by the _Fraser_. Time was lost besides in +dredging and taking specimens of water. The dredgings gave at some +places, for instance off Chabarova, a rich yield, especially of +isopods and sponges. The samples of water showed that already at a +limited depth from the surface it had a considerable salinity, and +that therefore no notable portion of the mass of fresh water, which +the rivers Kara, Obi, Tas, and Yenisej and others pour into the Kara +Sea, flows through this sound into the Atlantic Ocean. + +In the afternoon of the 1st August we passed through the sound and +steamed into the sea lying to the east of it, which had been the +object of so many speculations, expectations, and conclusions of so +many cautious governments, merchants eager for gain, and learned +cosmographers, from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and +which even to the geographer and man of science of the present has +been a _mare incognitum_ down to the most recent date. It is just +this sea that formed the turning-point of all the foregoing +north-east voyages, from Burrough's to Wood's and Vlamingh's, and it +may therefore not be out of place here, before I proceed further +with the sketch of our journey, to give some account of its +surroundings and hydrography. + +If attention be not fixed on the little new-discovered island, +"Ensamheten," the Kara Sea is open to the north-east. It is bounded on +the west by Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island; on the east by the Taimur +peninsula, the land between the Pjaesina and the Yenisej and Yalmal; and +on the south by the northernmost portion of European Russia, Beli +Ostrov, and the large estuaries of the Obi and the Yenisej. The coast +between Cape Chelyuskin and the Yenisej consists of low rocky heights, +formed of crystalline schists, gneiss, and eruptive rocks, from the +Yenisej to beyond the most southerly part of the Kara Sea, of the Gyda +and Yalmal _tundras_ beds of sand of equal fineness, and at Vaygats +Island and the southern part of Novaya Zemlya (to 73 deg. N.L.) of limestone +and beds of schist[88] which slope towards the sea with a steep +escarpment three to fifteen metres high, but form, besides, the +substratum of a level plain, full of small collections of water which is +quite free of snow in summer. North of 73 deg. again the west coast of the +Kara Sea is occupied by mountains, which near Matotschkin are very high, +and distributed in a confused mass of isolated peaks, but farther north +become lower and take the form of a plateau. + +Where the mountains begin, some few or only very inconsiderable +collections of ice are to be seen, and the very mountain tops are in +summer free of snow. Farther north glaciers commence, which increase +towards the north in number and size, till they finally form a +continuous inland-ice which, like those of Greenland and +Spitzbergen, with its enormous ice-sheet, levels mountains and +valleys, and converts the interior of the land into a wilderness of +ice, and forms one of the fields for the formation of icebergs or +glacier-iceblocks, which play so great a _role_ in sketches of +voyages in the Polar seas. I have not myself visited the inland-ice +on the northern part of Novaya Zemlya, but doubtless the experience +I have previously gained during an excursion with Dr. Berggren on +the inland-ice of Greenland in the month of July 1870, _after all +the snow on it had melted_, and with Captain Palander on the +inland-ice of North-East Land in the beginning of June 1873, _before +any melting of snow had commenced_, is also applicable to the +ice-wilderness of north Novaya Zemlya. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF INLAND-ICE. +A. Open glacier-canal. +B. Snow-filled canal. +C. Canal concealed by a snow-vault. +D. Glacier-clefts. ] + +As on Spitzbergen the ice-field here is doubtless interrupted by +deep bottomless clefts, over which the snowstorms of winter throw +fragile snow-bridges, which conceal the openings of the abysses so +completely that one may stand close to their edge without having any +suspicion that a step further is certain death to the man, who, +without observing the usual precaution of being bound by a rope to +his companions, seeks his way over the blinding-white, almost +velvet-like, surface of this snow-field, hard packed indeed, but +bound together by no firm crust. If a man, after taking necessary +precautions against the danger of tumbling down into these +crevasses, betakes himself farther into the country in the hope that +the apparently even surface of the snow will allow of long day's +marches, he is soon disappointed in his expectations; for he comes +to regions where the ice is everywhere crossed by narrow +depressions, _canals_, bounded by dangerous clefts, with +perpendicular walls up to fifteen metres in height. One can cross +these depressions only alter endless zigzag wanderings, at places +where they have become filled with snow and thereby passable. In +summer again, when the snow has melted, the surface of the +ice-wilderness has quite a different appearance. The snow has +disappeared and the ground is now formed of a blue ice, which +however is not clean, but everywhere rendered dirty by a grey +argillaceous dust, carried to the surface of the glacier by wind and +rain, probably from distant mountain heights. Among this clay, and +even directly on the ice itself, there is a scanty covering of low +vegetable organisms. The ice-deserts of the Polar lands are thus the +habitat of a peculiar flora, which, insignificant as it appears to +be, forms however an important condition for the issue of the +conflict which goes on here, year after year, century after century, +between the sun and the ice. For the dark clay and the dark parts of +plants absorb the warm rays of the sun better than the ice, and +therefore powerfully promote its melting. They eat themselves down +in perpendicular cylindrical holes thirty to sixty centimetres in +depth, and from a few millimetres to a whole metre in diameter. The +surface of the ice is thus destroyed and broken up. + +[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE INLAND-ICE OF GREENLAND. After a drawing +by S. Berggren, 23rd July, 1870. ] + +[Illustration: GREENLAND ICE FJORD. After a design drawn and +lithographed by a Greenland Eskimo. ] + +[Illustration: SLOWLY-ADVANCING GLACIER. At Foul Bay, on the west coast of +Spitzbergen, after a photograph taken by A. Envall, 30th August, 1872. ] + +[Illustration: GLACIER WITH STATIONARY FRONT. Udde Bay, on Novaya +Zemlya, after a drawing by Hj. Theel (1875). ] + +After the melting of the snow there appears besides a number of +inequalities, and the clefts previously covered with a fragile +snow-bridge now gape before the wanderer where he goes forward, with +their bluish-black abysses, bottomless as far as we can depend on +ocular evidence. At some places there are also to be found in the +ice extensive shallow depressions, down whose sides innumerable +rapid streams flow in beds of azure-blue ice, often of such a volume +of water as to form actual rivers. They generally debouch in a lake +situated in the middle of the depression. The lake has generally an +underground outlet through a grotto-vault of ice several thousands +of feet high. At other places a river is to be seen, which has bored +itself a hole through the ice-sheet, down which it suddenly +disappears with a roar and din which are heard far and wide, and at +a little distance from it there is projected from the ice a column +of water, which, like a geyser with a large intermittent jet in +which the water is mixed with air, rises to a great height. + +Now and then a report is heard, resembling that of a cannon shot +fired in the interior of the icy mass. It is a new crevasse that has +been formed, or if one is near the border of the ice-desert, an +ice-block that has fallen down into the sea. For, like, ordinary +collections of water, an ice-lake also has its outlet into the sea. +These outlets are of three kinds, viz., _ice-rapids_, in which the +thick ice-sheet, split up and broken in pieces, is pressed forward +at a comparatively high speed down a narrow steeply-sloping valley, +where ice-blocks tumble on each other with a crashing noise and din, +and from which true icebergs of giant-like dimensions are projected +in hundreds and thousands; _broad; slowly-advancing glaciers_, which +terminate towards the sea with an even perpendicular face, from +which now and then considerable ice-blocks, but no true icebergs, +fall down; and _smaller stationary glaciers_, which advance so slowly +that the ice in the brim melts away about as fast as the whole mass +of ice glides forward, and which thus terminate at the beach not +with a perpendicular face but with a long ice-slope covered with +clay, sand, and gravel. + +The inland-ice on Novaya Zemlya is of too inconsiderable extent to +allow of any large icebergs being formed. There are none such +accordingly in the Kara Sea[89], and it is seldom that even a large +glacier ice-block is to be met with drifting about. + +The name ice-house, conferred on the Kara Sea by a famous Russian +man of science, did not originate from the large number of +icebergs[90], but from the fact that the covering of ice, which +during winter, on account of the severity of the cold and the slight +salinity of the surface-water, is immensely thick, cannot, though +early broken up, be carried away by the marine currents and be +scattered over a sea that is open even during winter[91]. Most of +the ice formed during winter in the Kara Sea, and perhaps some of +that which is drifted down from the Polar basin, is on the contrary +heaped by the marine currents against the east coast of Novaya +Zemlya, where during early summer it blocks the three sounds which +unite the Kara Sea with the Atlantic. It was these ice-conditions +which caused the failure of all the older north-east voyages and +gave to the Kara Sea its bad report and name of ice-house. Now we +know that it is not so dangerous in this respect as it was formerly +believed to be--that the ice of the Kara Sea melts away for the +most part, and that during autumn this sea is quite available for +navigation. + +In general our knowledge of the Kara Sea some decades back was not +only incomplete, but also erroneous. It was believed that its animal +life was exceedingly scanty, and that algae were absolutely wanting; +no soundings had been taken elsewhere than close to the coast; and +much doubt was thrown, not without reason, on the correctness of the +maps. Now all this is changed to a great extent. The coast line, +bordering on the sea, is settled on the maps; the ice-conditions, +currents and depth of water in different parts of the sea are +ascertained, and we know that the old ideas of its poverty in +animals and plants are quite erroneous. + +[Illustration: UMBELLULA FROM THE KARA SEA. +A. Polype stem entire, one-half the natural size. +B. Polype stem, upper part, one-and-a-half times the natural size. ] + +In respect to depth the Kara Sea is distinguished by a special +regularity, and by the absence of sudden changes. Along the east +coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island there runs a channel, up +to 500 metres in depth, filled with cold salt-water, which forms the +haunt of a fauna rich not only in individuals, but also in a large +number of remarkable and rare types, as Umbellula, Elpidia, Alecto, +asterids of many kinds, &c. Towards the east the sea-bottom rises +gradually and then forms a plain lying 30 to 90 metres below the +surface of the sea, nearly as level as the surface of the +superincumbent water. The bottom of the sea in the south and west +parts of it consists of clay, in the regions of Beli Ostrov of sand, +farther north of gravel. Shells of crustacea and pebbles are here +often surrounded by bog-ore formations, resembling the figures on +page 186. These also occur over an extensive area north-east of Port +Dickson in such quantity that they might be used for the manufacture +of iron, if the region were less inaccessible. + +Even in the shallower parts of the Kara Sea the water at the bottom is +nearly as salt as in the Atlantic Ocean, and all the year round cooled +to a temperature of -2 deg. to -2.7 deg.. The surface-water, on the contrary, is +very variable in its composition, sometimes at certain places almost +drinkable, and in summer often strongly heated. The remarkable +circumstance takes place here that the surface water in consequence of +its limited salinity freezes to ice if it be exposed to the temperature +which prevails in the salt stratum of water next the bottom, and that it +forms a deadly poison for many of the decapoda, worms, mussels, +crustacea and asterids which crawl in myriads among the beds of clay or +sand at the bottom. + +At many places the loose nature of the bottom does not permit the +existence of any algae, but in the neighbourhood of Beli Ostrov, +Johannesen discovered extensive banks covered with "sea-grass" +(algae), and from the east coast of Novaya Zemlya Dr. Kjellman in +1875 collected no small number of algae[92], being thereby enabled +to take exception to the old erroneous statements as to the nature +of the marine flora. He has drawn up for this work a full account of +the marine vegetation in the Kara Sea, which will be found further +on. + +[Illustration: ELPIDIA GLACIALIS (THEEL) FROM THE KARA SEA. +Magnified three times. A. Belly. B. Back. +MANGANIFEROUS IRON-ORE FORMATIONS FROM THE KARA SEA. +Half the natural size. ] + +I shall now return to the account of our passage across this sea. On +this subject my journal contains the following notes: + +_August 2nd._ Still glorious weather--no ice. The _Lena_ appears to +wish to get away from the other vessels, and does not observe the +flag which was hoisted as the signal agreed upon beforehand that her +Captain should come on board, or at least bring his little vessel +within hail. The _Fraser_ was therefore sent in pursuit, and +succeeded in overtaking her towards night. + +_August 3rd._ In the morning Captain Johannesen came on board the +_Vega_. I gave him orders to take on board Dr. Almquist and +Lieutenants Hovgaard and Nordquist, and go with them to Beli Ostrov, +where they should have freedom for thirty-six hours to study the +people, animals, and plants, as they pleased; the _Lena_ was then, +if possible, to pass through the Sound between the island and Yalmal +to Port Dickson, where the three other vessels should be found. +Almquist, Nordquist, and Hovgaard were already quite in order for +the excursion; they went immediately on board the _Lena_, and were +soon, thanks to the great power of the engine in proportion to the +size of the vessel, far on their way. + +In the course of the day we met with very open and rotten ice, which +would only have been of use to us by its moderating effect on the +sea, if it had not been accompanied by the usual attendant of the +border of the ice, a thick fog, which however sometimes lightened. +Towards evening we came in sight of Beli Ostrov. This island, as +seen from the sea, forms a quite level plain, which rises little +above the surface of the water. The sea off the island is of an even +depth, but so shallow, that at a distance of twenty to thirty +kilometres from the shore there is only from seven to nine metres of +water. According to a communication from Captain Schwanenberg, there +is, however, a depth of three to four metres close to the north +shore. Such a state of things, that is, a uniform depth, amounting +near the shore to from four to ten metres, but afterwards increasing +only gradually and remaining unchanged over very extensive areas, is +very common in the Arctic regions, and is caused by the ice-mud-work +which goes on there nearly all the year round. Another remarkable +effect of the action of the ice is that all the blocks of stone to +be found in the sea next the beach are forced up on land. The beach +itself is formed accordingly at many places, for instance at several +points in Matotschkin Sound, of a nearly continuous stone rampart +going to the sea level, while in front of it there is a quite even +sea bottom without a fragment of stone. + +[Illustration: SECTION FROM THE SOUTH COAST OF MATOTSCHKIN SOUND. +Showing the origin of Stone-ramparts at the beach. ] + +_August 4th._ In the morning a gentle heaving indicated that the sea +was again free of ice, at least over a considerable space to +windward. Yesterday the salinity in the water was already diminished +and the amount of clay increased; now the water after being filtered +is almost drinkable. It has assumed a yellowish-grey colour and is +nearly opaque, so that the vessel appears to sail in clay mud. We +are evidently in the area of the Ob-Yenisej current. The ice we +sailed through yesterday probably came from the Gulf of Obi, Yenisej +or Pjaesina. Its surface was dirty, not clean and white like the +surface of glacier-ice or the sea-ice that has never come in contact +with land or with muddy river-water. Off the large rivers the ice, +when the snow has melted, is generally covered with a yellow layer +of clay. This clay evidently consists of mud, which has been washed +down by the river-water and been afterwards thrown up by the swell +on the snow-covered ice. The layer of snow acts as a filter and +separates the mud from the water. The former, therefore, after the +melting of the snow may form upon true sea-ice a layer of dirt, +containing a large number of minute organisms which live only in +fresh water. + +_August 5th._ Still under sail in the Kara Sea, in which a few +pieces of ice are floating about. The ice completely disappeared +when we came north-west of Beli Ostrov. We were several times in the +course of the day in only nine metres of water, which, however, in +consequence of the evenness of the bottom, is not dangerous. Fog, a +heavy sea, and an intermittent but pretty fresh breeze delayed our +progress. + +_August 6th._ At three o'clock in the morning we had land in sight. +In the fog we had gone a little way up the Gulf of Yenisej, and so +had to turn in order to reach our destination, Port Dickson. The +mast-tops of the _Express_ were seen projecting over islands to the +north, and both vessels soon anchored south of an island which was +supposed to be Dickson's Island, but when the _Fraser_ soon after +joined us we learned that this was a mistake. The shore, which, seen +from our first anchorage, appeared to be that of the mainland, +belonged in fact to the pretty extensive island, off which the haven +itself is situated. + +After an excursion on land, in the course of which a covey of +partridges was seen, and Dr. Kjellman on the diorite rocks of the +island made a pretty abundant collection of plants, belonging partly +to species which he had not before met with in the Arctic regions, +we again weighed anchor in order to remove to the proper harbour. + +Captain Palander went before in the steam launch in order to examine +the yet unsurveyed fairway. On the way he fell in with and killed a +bear, an exceedingly fat and large male. Like the bear Dr. Theel +shot here in 1875, he had only mosses and lichens in his stomach, +and as it is scarcely probable that the bear in this region can +catch a great many seals in summer, it is to be supposed that his +food consists principally of vegetable substances, with the addition +perhaps of a reindeer or two when he can succeed in getting hold of +them. In the year 1875 we saw here an old male bear that appeared to +pasture quite peaceably in company with some reindeer, probably with +a view to get near enough to spring upon them. Bears must besides be +very common in that part of the north coast of Siberia, for during +the few days we now remained there, two more were shot, both of them +very fat. + +The haven, which has now been surveyed by Lieutenant Bove, was +discovered by me in 1875 and named Port Dickson. It is the best +known haven on the whole north coast of Asia, and will certainly in +the future be of great importance for the foreign commerce of +Siberia. It is surrounded on all sides by rocky islands, and is thus +completely sheltered. The anchorage is a good clay bottom. The haven +may be entered both from the north and from the south-west; but in +sailing in, caution should be used, because some rocky shoals may be +met with which are not shown on Lieutenant Bove's sketch chart, +which was made in the greatest haste. The water probably varies +considerably as to its salinity with the season of the year and with +ebb and flood tides, but is never, even at the surface, completely +fresh. It can therefore be used in cooking only in case of the +greatest necessity. But two streams on the mainland, one debouching +north and the other south of the harbour, yield an abundant supply +of good water, in case snow water cannot be obtained from any of the +beds of snow which up to autumn are to be found at several places +along the strand escarpments in the neighbourhood of the harbour. + +At our arrival six wild reindeer were seen pasturing on Dickson's +Island; one of them was killed by Palander, the others were stalked +unsuccessfully. Some bears, as has already been stated, were also +seen, and everywhere among the heaps of stones there were numerous +remains of the lemming and the fox. With these exceptions there were +few of the higher animals. Of birds we thus saw only snow-buntings, +which bred among the stone heaps both on the mainland and on the +islands, a covey of ptarmigan, a large number of birds, principally +species of Tringa and Phalaropus, but not further determined, +eiders, black guillemots and burgomasters in limited numbers, and +long-tailed ducks and loons in somewhat greater abundance. There are +no "down islands," and as there are no precipitous shore cliffs +neither are there any looneries. A shoal of fish was seen in Lena +Sound, and fish are probably exceedingly abundant. Seals and white +whales also perhaps occur here at certain seasons of the year in no +small numbers. It was doubtless with a view to hunt these animals +that a hut was occupied, the remains of which are visible on one of +the small rocky islands at the north entrance into the harbour. The +ruin, if we may apply the term to a wooden hut which has fallen in +pieces, showed that the building had consisted of a room with a +fireplace and a storehouse situated in front, and that it was only +intended as a summer dwelling for the hunters and fishers who came +hither during the hunting season from the now deserted _simovies_[93] +lying farther south. + +I am convinced that the day will come when great warehouses and many +dwellings inhabited all the year round will be found at Port Dickson. +Now the region is entirely uninhabited as far as Goltschicha, although, +as the map reproduced here shows, numerous dwelling-houses were to be +found built along the river bank and sea-shore beyond the mouth of the +Yenisej and as far as to the Pjaesina. They have long since been +abandoned, in the first place in consequence of the hunting falling off, +but probably also because even here, far away on the north coast of +Siberia, the old simple and unpretentious habits have given way to new +wants which were difficult to satisfy at the time when no steamers +carried on traffic on the river Yenisej. Thus, for instance, the +difficulty of procuring meal some decades back, accordingly before the +commencement of steam communication on the Yenisej, led to the +abandonment of a _simovie_ situated on the eastern bank of the river in +latitude 72 deg. 25' north. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE MOUTH OF THE YENISEJ FROM ATLAS RUSSICUS CURA +ET OPERE ACADEMIAE IMPERIALIS SCIENTIARUM PETROPOLITANAE PETROPOLI 1745. ] + +The _simovies_ at the mouth of the Yenisej formed in their time the +most northerly fixed dwelling-places of the European races.[94] +Situated as they were at the foot of the cold _tundra_, exposed to +continual snowstorms in winter and to close fogs during the greater +part of summer, which here is extremely short, it seems as if they +could not offer their inhabitants many opportunities for enjoyment, +and the reason why this tract was chosen for a residence, especially +in a country so rich in fertile soil as Siberia, appears to be +difficult to find. The remains of an old _simovie_ (Krestovskoj), +which I saw in 1875 while travelling up the river along with Dr. +Lundstroem and Dr. Stuxberg, however, produced the impression that a +true home life had once been led there. Three houses with +turf-covered roofs then still remained in such a state that one +could form an idea of their former arrangement and of the life which +had been earned on in them. Each cabin contained a whole labyrinth +of very small rooms; dwelling-rooms with sleeping places fixed to +the walls, bake-rooms with immense fireplaces, bathing houses with +furnaces for vapour-baths, storehouses for train-oil with large +train-drenched blubber troughs hollowed out of enormous tree-stems, +blubber tanks with remains of the white whale, &c., all witnessing +that the place had had a flourishing period, when prosperity was +found there, when the home was regarded with loyalty, and formed in +all its loneliness the central point of a life richer perhaps in +peace and well-being than one is inclined beforehand to suppose. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF A SIMOVIE AT KRESTOVSKOJ. After a drawing by A. +Stuxberg. ] + +In 1875 a "prikaschik" (foreman) and three Russian labourers lived +all the year round at Goltschicha. Sverevo was inhabited by one man +and Priluschnoj by an old man and his son. All were poor; they dwelt +in small turf-covered cabins, consisting of a lobby and a dirty +room, smoked and sooty, with a large fireplace, wooden benches along +the walls, and a sleeping place fixed to the wall, high above the +floor. Of household furniture only the implements of fishing and the +chase were numerously represented. There were in addition pots and +pans, and occasionally a tea-urn. The houses were all situated near +the river-bank, so high up that they could not be reached by the +spring inundations. A disorderly midden was always to be found in +the near neighbourhood, with a number of draught dogs wandering +about on it seeking something to eat. Only one of the Russian +settlers here was married, and we were informed that there was no +great supply of the material for Russian housewives for the +inhabitants of these legions. At least the Cossack Feodor, who in +1875 and 1876 made several unsuccessful attempts to serve me as +pilot, and who himself was a bachelor already grown old and +wrinkled, complained that the fair or weaker sex was poorly +represented among the Russians. He often talked of the advantages of +mixed marriages, being of opinion, under the inspiration of memory +or hope, I know not which, that a Dolgan woman was the most eligible +_purti_ for a man disposed to marry in that part of the world. + +A little farther south, but still far north of the limit of trees, +there are, however, very well-to-do peasants, who inhabit large +_simovies_, consisting of a great number of houses and rooms, in +which a certain luxury prevails, where one walks on floor-coverings +of skins, where the windows are whole, the sacred pictures covered +with plates of gold and silver, and the walls provided with mirrors +and covered with finely coloured copper-plate portraits of Russian +Czars and generals. This prosperity is won by traffic with the +natives, who wander about as nomads on the _tundra_ with their +reindeer herds. + +The cliffs around Port Dickson consist of diorite, hard and +difficult to break in pieces, but weathering readily. The rocky +hills are therefore so generally split up that they form enormous +stone mounds. They were covered with a great abundance of lichens, +and the plains between them yielded to Dr. Kjellman the following +phanerogamous plants: + + Cineraria frigida RICHARDS. + Erigeron uniflorus L. + Saussurea alpina DC. + Taraxacum phymatocarpum J. VAHL. + Gymnandra Stelleri CH. &c. SCHL. + Pedicularis sudetica WILLD. + Pedicularis hirsuta L. + Pedicularis Oederi VAHL. + Eritrichium villosum BUNGE. + Myosotis silvatica HOFFM. + Astragalus alpinus L. + Oxytropis campestris (L.) DC. + Dryas octopetala L. + Sieversia glacialis B. BR. + Potentilla emarginata PURSH. + Saxifraga oppositifolia L. + Saxifraga bronchialis L. + Saxifraga Hirculus L. + Saxifraga stellaris L. + Saxifraga nivalis L. + Saxifraga hieraciifolia WALDST. &c. KIT. + Saxifraga punctata L. + Saxifraga cernua L. + Saxifraga rivularis L. + Saxifraga caespitosa L. + Chrysosplenium alternifolium L. + Rhodiola rosea L. + Parrya macrocarpa R. BR. + Cardamine pratensis L. + Cardamine bellidifolia L. + Eutrema Edwardsii R. BR. + Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. + Draba alpina L. + Draba oblongata (R. BR.) DC. + Draba corymbosa R. BR. + Draba Wahlenbergii HN. + Draba altaica (LEDEB.) BUNGE. + Papaver nudicaule L. + Banunculus pygmaeus WG. + Ranunculus hyperboreus ROTTB. + Ranunculus lapponicus L. + Ranunculus nivalis L. + Ranunculus sulphureus SOL. + Ranunculus affinis R. BR. + Caltha palustris L. + Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR. + Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR. + Cerastium alpinum L. + Alsine arctica FENZL. + Alsine macrocarpa FENZL. + Alsine rubella WG. + Sagina nivalis FR. + Oxyria digyna (L.) HILL. + Rumex arcticus TRAUTV. + Polygonum viviparum L. + Polygonum Bistorta L. + Salix polaris WG. + Festuca rubra L. + Poa cenisea ALL. + Poa arctica R BR. + Glyceria angustata B. BR. + Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. + Catabrosa concinna TH. FR. + Colpodium latifolium E. BR. + Dupontia Fisheri E. BR. + Koeleria hirsuta GAUD. + Aira caespitosa L. + Alopecurus alpinus SM. + Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH. + Eriophorum vaginatum L. + Eriophorum Scheuchzeri HOPPE. + Carex rigida GOOD. + Carex aquatilis WG. + Juncus biglumis L. + Luzula hyperborea R BR. + Luzula arctica BL. + Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB. + Banunculus pygmaeus WG. + +[Illustration: SIEVERSIA GLACIALIS R. BR. From Port Dickson. ] + +Our botanists thus made on land a not inconsiderable collection, +considering the northerly position of the region. On the other hand +no large algae were met with in the sea, nor was it to be expected +that there would, for the samples of water taken up with Ekman's +instrument showed that the salinity at the bottom was as slight as +at the surface, viz. only 0.3 per cent. The temperature of the water +was also at the time of our visit about the same at the bottom as at +the surface, viz. +9 deg. to +10 deg.. In spring, when the snow +melts, the water here is probably quite fresh, in winter again cold, +and as salt as at the bottom of the Kara Sea. Under so variable +hydrographical conditions we might have expected an exceedingly +scanty marine fauna, but this was by no means the case. For the +dredgings in the harbour gave Dr. Stuxberg a not inconsiderable +yield, consisting of the same types as those which are found in the +salt water at the bottom of the Kara Sea. This circumstance appears +to show that certain evertebrate types can endure a much greater +variation in the temperature and salinity of the water than the +algae, and that there is a number of species which, though as a rule +they live in the strongly cooled layer of salt water at the bottom +of the Kara Sea, can bear without injury a considerable diminution +in the salinity of the water and an increase of temperature of about +12 deg.. + +For the science of our time, which so often places the origin +of a northern form in the south, and _vice versa_, as the foundation +of very wide theoretical conclusions, a knowledge of the types +which can live by turns in nearly fresh water of a temperature +of +10 deg., and in water cooled to -2.7 deg. and of nearly the same +salinity as that of the Mediterranean, must have a certain +interest. The most remarkable were, according to Dr. Stuxberg, +the following: a species of Mysis, _Diastylis Rathkei_ KR., +_Idothea entomon_ LIN., _Idothea Sabinei_ KR., two species of +Lysianassida, _Pontoporeia setosa_ STBRG., _Halimedon brevicalcar_ +GOES, an Annelid, a Molgula, _Yoldia intermedia_ M. SARS, +_Yoldia_ (?) _arctica_ GRAY, and a Solecurtus. + +Driftwood in the form both of small branches and pieces of roots, +and of whole trees with adhering portions of branches and roots, +occurs in such quantities at the bottom of two well-protected coves +at Port Dickson, that the seafarer may without difficulty provide +himself with the necessary stock of fuel. The great mass of the +driftwood which the river bears along, however, does not remain on +its own banks, but floats out to sea to drift about with the marine +currents until the wood has absorbed so much water that it sinks, or +until it is thrown up on the shores of Novaya Zemlya, the north +coast of Asia, Spitzbergen or perhaps Greenland. + +[Illustration: EVERTIBRATIS FROM PORT DICKSON. +A. Yoldia arctica GRAY One and two-thirds of natural size. +B. Diastylis Rathkei KR Magnified three times. ] + +Another portion of the wood sinks, before it reaches the sea, +often in such a way that the stems stand upright in the river +bottom, with one end, so to say, rooted in the sand. They may +thus be inconvenient for the navigation, at least at the shallower +places of the river. A bay immediately off Port Dickson +was almost barred by a natural palisade-work of driftwood +stems. + +_August 7th._ The _Vega_ coaled from the _Express_. In the evening +the _Lena_ arrived, 36 hours after the _Vega_ had anchored, that is +to say, precisely at the appointed time. Concerning this excursion. +Dr. Almquist reports: + + "On the 2nd August we--Horgaard, Nordquist and I--went on + board the _Lena_ to make an excursion to Beli Ostrov. We + were to land on the south-western headland and there + undertake botanical and zoological researches. Thereafter + we were to direct some attention to the opposite shore of + Yalmal and visit the Samoyeds living there. + + "We left the _Vega_ at eleven o'clock forenoon. In the + course of the day we saw here and there in the south + scattered ice, and at half-past ten at night we ran into a + large belt, about 300 metres broad, of scattered ice, + which lay stretched out from N.E. to S.W. It was passed + without difficulty. In the course of the night we now and + then fell in with a little scattered ice, and in the + morning with a belt of masses of ice of considerable + dimensions; sounding constantly in 10 to 3-1/2 metres + water we succeeded, notwithstanding the fog and rain, in + finding the straits between Beli Ostrov and the mainland, + and on the 3rd August at eleven o'clock forenoon we + anchored a little to the east of the southern extremity of + the island. The _Lena_ lay in 3-1/2 metres water, about an + English mile out to sea. The water was shallow for so + great a distance from the beach that we had to leave our + boat about 300 metres out to sea and wade to land. + + "Beli Ostrov consists entirely of fine sand, and only on + that part of the beach which is washed by the sea-water + did we see any stones as large as walnuts; higher up we + did not find a piece of stone even of the size of the + nail. The highest point of the island appears to be + scarcely three metres above the surface of the sea. That + part of the island over which the sea water washes, that + is, the beach and the deep bays which indent the land here + and there, shows the fine sand bare, without trace of + vegetation. Where the ground rises a little, it becomes + covered with a black and white variegated covering of + mosses and lichens; scattered among which at long + intervals are small tufts of grass. First somewhat higher + up, and properly only round the marshy margins of the + numerous small fresh-water lakes and in hollows and bogs, + is the ground slightly green. The higher plants are + represented by only 17 species, all small and stunted,[95] + most of them rising only some few lines above the sand. + Very few plants reached a height of 15 centimetres. No + kind of willow was found, nor any flower seen of any other + colour than green or white. + + "The lichen-flora too was scanty. No species showed any + great luxuriance, and seldom did the black and white + lichen-crust produce any 'apothecium,' The + lichen-vegetation was most abundant on the driftwood of + the beach and on the tufts in the marshes. The larger + lichens, as the reindeer and Iceland lichens, occurred + very sparingly. About 80 species were found. The land + evertebrates were so sparingly represented, that only + three diptera, one species of hymenoptera, and some insect + larvae and spiders could be collected. Only podurae were + found in great abundance; they completely covered the + whole ground at the beach. + + "Several herds of reindeer were seen, but we did not + succeed in getting within range of them. A little fish of + the Cottus family was caught by Nordquist in a ditch which + was in connection with the sea. Driftwood still fresh was + found in great abundance, and farther up on land here and + there lay a more rotten stem. + + "Rain and fog rendered impossible any determination of + position. During night we went across the sound and + anchored about an English mile and a half from the shore + of Yalmal, right opposite some Samoyed tents which we + discovered a little inland. In the same unfavourable + weather as that of the day before we attempted to land + there, but found the water too shallow. First pretty far + to the east we succeeded in reaching the beach at a place + where the land rose out of the sea with a steep bank about + nine metres high. Above the bank, which consisted of loose + clay, we found a plain with the appearance of a rich + watered _tundra_, full of marshes and streams, and + therefore presenting a very green appearance. In order to + meet with the Samoyeds we now went westwards, passing + several rivulets which cut deeply into the land and had + high banks, until after half an hour's walking we came to + a broad but not very deep river, which it was impossible + to ford. We therefore returned to our boat with the view + of seeking a landing-place on the other side of the river; + but as the _Lena's_ distance from land was considerable + and the breeze was freshening, the captain considered that + the time at our disposal did not permit us to undertake so + long an excursion. + + "So far as we may judge from our hasty visit, the + vegetation on this part of Yalmal struck us as being + remarkably abundant. The high banks especially were richly + covered by phanerogamous plants and lichens, and would + have deserved a closer examination. Our cursory + observations of the plants here may however be interesting + for comparison with the flora of Beli Ostrov; we collected + and noted the higher plants[96] and about 40 species of + lichens. Nordquist found that the fauna resembled that of + the neighbouring island, and collected besides two species + of Coleoptera. + + "After lying 26 hours in the sound we weighed anchor again + and went westwards, following a channel with ten to + sixteen metres water. We could not find its course farther + to the east, and were compelled, although we were near the + eastern extremity of Beli Ostrov, to turn in order to pass + out through the western entrance of the sound. We saw a + quantity of stranded ice on the north coast of the island, + which, seen from the sea, did not present any + dissimilarity to the part which we had visited. On the 7th + August we arrived at Port Dickson." + +From Lieutenant Hovgaard's report on this excursion, a map is given +here of Beli Ostrov and the neighbouring coast of Yalmal, in which I +have named the sound between the island and the mainland after +MALYGIN, one of the gallant Russian seamen who first sailed through +it nearly a century and a half ago. + +Yalmal has been visited by Europeans so seldom, and their +observations are scattered in printed papers so inaccessible, that +it may perhaps not be out of place here to collect the most +important facts which are known regarding this peninsula, along with +the necessary bibliographical references. + +First as to its name, it is sometimes also written "Yelmert +Land,"[97] but this is quite incorrect. + +"Yalmal" is of Samoyed origin, and has, according to a private +communication from the well-known philologist Dr. E.D. EUROPAEUS, +the distinctive meaning "land's-end." YELMERT again was a boatswain +with the Dutch whale-fisher VLAMINGH, who in 1664 sailed round the +northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya to Barents' winter haven, and +thence farther to the south-east. Vlamingh himself at his +turning-point saw no land, though all signs showed that land ought +to be found in the neighbourhood; but several of the crew thought +they saw land, and the report of this to a Dutch mapmaker, DICK +REMBRANTSZ. VAN NIEROP, led to the introduction of the supposed land +into a great many maps, commonly as a large island in the Kara Sea. +This island was named Yelmert Land. The similarity between the names +Yelmert Land and Yalmal, and the doubt as to the existence of the +Yelmert Island first shown on the maps, have led to the transfer of +the name Yelmert Land to the peninsula which separates the Gulf of +Obi from the Kara Sea. It is to be remarked, however, that the name +Yalmal is not found in the older accounts of voyages from the +European waters to the Obi. The first time I met with it was in the +narrative of Skuratov's journey in 1737, as the designation of the +most north-easterly promontory of the peninsula which now bears that +name. + +Yalmal's grassy plains offer the Samoyeds during summer reindeer +pastures which are highly valued, and the land is said to have a +very numerous population in comparison with other regions along the +shores of the Polar Sea, the greater portion, however, drawing +southward towards winter with their large herds of reindeer. But the +land is, notwithstanding this, among the most imperfectly known +parts of the great Russian empire. Some information regarding it we +may obtain from sketches of the following journeys: + +SELIFONTOV, 1737. In the months of July and August the surveyor +Selifontov travelled in a reindeer sledge along the coast of the +Gulf of Obi as far as to Beli Ostrov. About this journey +unfortunately nothing else has been published than is to be found in +LITKE, _Viermalige Reise_, &c., Berlin, 1835, p. 66, and WRANGEL, +_Sibirische Reise_, Berlin, 1839, p. 37. + +SUJEFF, in 1771, travelled under the direction of Pallas over the +southern part of Yalmal from Obdorsk to the Kara Sea, and gives an +instructive account of observations made during his journey in +PALLAS, _Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reiches_, +St. Petersburg, 1771--76, III. pp. 14--35. + +KRUSENSTERN, 1862. During his second voyage in the Kara Sea, which +ended with the abandonment of the ship _Yermak_ on the coast of +Yalmal in about 69 deg. 54' N.L., Krusenstern junior escaped with +his crew to the shore, reaching it in a completely destitute +condition. He had lost all, and would certainly have perished if he +had not near the landing-place fallen in with a rich Samoyed, the +owner of two thousand reindeer, who received the shipwrecked men in +a very friendly way and conveyed them with his reindeer to Obdorsk, +distant in a straight line 500, but, according to the Samoyed's +reckoning, 1,000 versts. In the sketch of Krusenstern's travels, to +which I have had access, there is unfortunately no information +regarding the tribe with which he came in contact during this +remarkable journey.[98] + +WALDBURG-ZEIL and FINSCH, 1876. A very full and exceedingly +interesting description of the natural conditions in the +southernmost part of the peninsula is to be found in the accounts of +Count Waldburg-Zeil and Dr. Finsch's journey in the year 1876.[99] + +SCHWANENBERG, 1877. Captain Schwanenberg landed on the north part of +Beli Ostrov during the remarkable voyage which he made in that year +from the Yenisej to St. Petersburg. No traces of men, but some of +reindeer and bears, were visible. The sea was sufficiently deep +close to the shore for vessels of light draught, according to a +private communication which I have received from Captain +Schwanenberg. + +THE SWEDISH EXPEDITION, 1875. During this voyage we landed about the +middle of the west coast of Yalmal. In order to give an idea of the +nature of the country, I make the following extract from my +narrative of the voyage,[100] which has had but a limited +circulation: + +"In the afternoon of the 8th August I landed, along with Lundstroem and +Stuxberg, on a headland projecting a little from Yalmal, on the north +side of the mouth of a pretty large river. The landing place was +situated in lat. 72 deg. 18', long. 68 deg. 42'. The land was bounded here by a +low beach, from which at a distance of one hundred paces a steep bank +rose to a height of from six to thirty metres. Beyond this bank there is +an extensive, slightly undulating plain, covered with a vegetation which +indeed was exceedingly monotonous, but much more luxuriant than that of +Vaygats Island or Novaya Zemlya. The uniformity of the vegetation is +perhaps caused, in a considerable degree, by the uniform nature of the +terrain. There is no solid rock here. The ground everywhere consists of +sand and sandy clay, in which I could not find a stone so large as a +bullet or even as a pea, though I searched for a distance of several +kilometres along the strand-bank. Nor did the dredge bring up any stones +from the sea-bottom off the coast, a circumstance which, among other +things, is remarkable, because it appears to show that the strand-ice +from the Obi and Yenisej does not drift down to and melt in this part of +the Kara Sea. Nor do the sand beds contain any sub-fossil shells, as is +the case with the sand beds of the Yenisej _tundra_. 'Noah's wood' also +appears to be absent here. To judge from our observations at this place, +the peninsula between the Gulf of Obi and the Kara Sea thus differs very +essentially from the _tundra_ lying east of the Yenisej. + +[Illustration: PLACE OF SACRIFICE ON YALMAL. After a drawing by A.N. +Lundstroem. ] + +"We saw no inhabitants, but everywhere along the beach numerous +traces of men--some of them barefoot--of reindeer, dogs and Samoyed +sleighs, were visible. On the top of the strand-bank was found a +place of sacrifice, consisting of forty-five bears' skulls of +various ages placed in a heap, a large number of reindeer skulls, +the lower jaw of a walrus, &c. From most of the bears' skulls the +canine teeth were broken out, and the lower jaw was frequently +entirely wanting. Some of the bones were overgrown with moss and lay +sunk in the earth; others had, as the adhering flesh showed, been +placed there during the present year. In the middle of the heap of +bones stood four erect pieces of wood. Two consisted of sticks a +metre in length with notches cut in them, serving to bear up the +reindeer and bears' skulls, which were partly placed on the points +of the sticks or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted on the +sticks by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two others, +which clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice, +consisted of driftwood roots, on which some carvings had been made +to distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces of +wood, intended to represent the eyes and mouth, had recently been +besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of bones the +entrails of a newly-killed reindeer. Close beside were found the +remains of a fireplace, and of a midden, consisting of reindeer +bones of various kinds and the lower jaws of bears. + +"As the sandy slopes of the beach offered no suitable breeding-place +for looms, black guillemots, or other sea-fowl, and there were no +islands along the coast which could serve as breeding-places for +eiders and other species of geese which breed in colonies, the +abundant bird-life of the Polar Sea was wanting here. At the mouth +of the river, however, large flocks of eiders and long-tailed ducks +flew about, and on the sandy banks along the shore, flocks of +_Calidris arenaria_ and a Tringa or two ran about restlessly seeking +their food. The solitude of the _tundra_ was broken only by a couple +of larks and a pair of falcons (_Falco peregrinus_) with young. +Traces of reindeer were also seen, and two fox-traps set on the +strand-bank showed that foxes occur in these regions in sufficient +numbers to be the object of capture. + +"Later in the afternoon, when some solar altitudes had been taken, +in order to determine the geographical position of the place, we +rowed back to our vessel and sailed on, keeping at some distance +from the coast, and at one place passing between the shore and a +long series of blocks of ground-ice, which had stranded along the +coast in a depth of nine to sixteen metres. During night we passed a +place where five Samoyed tents were pitched, in whose neighbourhood +a large number of reindeer pastured. The land was now quite low, and +the sea had become considerably shallower. The course was therefore +shaped for the N.W., in which direction deeper water was soon met +with. Notwithstanding the slight salinity and high temperature +(+ 7.7 deg.) of the surface water a _Clio borealis_ and a large +number of Copepoda were taken at the surface." + +The excursion now described and Almquist's and Hovgaard's landing in +1878 were, as far as I am aware, the only occasions on which +naturalists have visited the northern part of that peninsula which +separates the Kara Sea from the Obi. The Norwegian hunters also +visit the place seldom, the main reasons being the inaccessibility +of the shallow east coast, and the want of harbours. They now, +however, land occasionally to take in water, and perhaps to barter +the tobacco they have saved from their rations, knives they have no +use for, and old-fashioned guns, gunpowder, lead, &c., for the +products of the Samoyeds' reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing. +At first the natives fled when they saw the Norwegians coming, and, +when they could not make their escape, they saluted them with great +humility, falling on their knees and bending their heads to the +earth, and were unwilling to enter into any traffic with them or to +show them their goods. But since the Samoyeds observed that the +Norwegians never did them any harm, the mistrust and excessive +humility have completely disappeared. Now a visit of Europeans is +very agreeable to them, partly for the opportunity which it offers +of obtaining by barter certain articles of necessity, luxury, or +show, partly perhaps also for the interruption thereby caused in the +monotony of the _tundra_ life. When the walrus-hunters row or sail +along that open coast, it often happens that natives run backwards +and forwards on the shore, and by signs eagerly invite the +foreigners to land; if they do so, and there are any wealthy +Samoyeds in the neighbourhood, there immediately begins a grand +entertainment, according to the customs of the people, with more +than one trait reminding us of the sketches from the traditionary +periods of the civilised nations. + +What I have stated here is about all that we know of Yalmal, and we +see from this that a very promising, yet untouched field for +researches in ethnography and natural history here lies before +future travellers to the Yenisej. + + +What sort of winter is there at the mouth of the Yenisej? We have +for the present no information on this point, as no scientific man +has wintered there. But on the other hand we have a very exciting +narrative of the wintering of the Fin, NUMMELIN, at the Briochov +Islands in the Yenisej in lat. 70 deg. 48' north. + +[Illustration: "JORDGAMMOR" ON THE BRIOCHOV ISLANDS. After a sketch +by the Author. ] + +I visited the place on the 27th August 1875. It consisted of a fishing +post, occupied only in summer, and at that season of the year very +attractive, surrounded as it is by luxuriant vegetation of grass and +bushes. The houses were situated on a sound running between the Briochov +Islands, which form the northernmost group of the labyrinth of islands +which occupy the channel of the Yenisej between 69-1/2 deg. and 71 deg. N.L. At +the time of our visit the fishing was over for the season and the +place deserted. But two small houses and a number of earth-huts +(_jordgammor_), all in good repair, stood on the river bank and gave +evidence, along with a number of large boats drawn up on land, and +wooden vessels intended for salting fish, of the industry which had +been carried on there earlier in the summer. It was at this place that +Nummelin passed one of the severest winters that Arctic literature has +to record.[101] + +In 1876 M. Sidoroff, well known for the lively interest which he +takes in navigation in the Siberian waters, had a ship _Severnoe +Sianie_ (the _Aurora_) built and fitted out at Yeniseisk, in order +to carry goods from the Yenisej to Europe. The vessel was placed +under the command of a Russian sea-captain, Schwanenberg. Under him +Nummelin served as mate, and the vessel had a crew of eighteen men, +most of whom had been exiled to Siberia for crime. In consequence of +various mishaps the vessel could not get farther the first year than +to the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Yenisej, where it was left +in winter quarters at the place which has been named above. Nummelin +and four exiles remained on board, while Schwanenberg and the rest +of the crew returned to Yeniseisk on the 28th September. Frost had +already commenced. During the two following weeks the temperature +kept in the neighbourhood of the freezing point; clear weather +alternating with snow and rain. + +On the 5th of October the crew withdrew to their winter quarters, +having previously collected driftwood and placed it in heaps in +order that they might easily find it under the snow. + +On the 16th October the thermometer at eight o'clock in the morning +showed -4.5 deg. and afterwards sank lower every day, until after the 21st +October the mercury for some days was constantly under -10 deg.. On the 26th +October the temperature was -18 deg., but in the beginning of November it +rose again to -2 deg.. On the 6th November it sank again to -17 deg., but rose +on the 11th to -3.5 deg.. On the 14th November the thermometer showed +-23.5 deg., on the 21st -29.5 deg.. Next day in the morning it stood at -32 deg., +and in the evening at -37 deg., but these figures were arrived at _by +guess_, the instrument not indicating so low temperatures. This +temperature of -30 deg. to -32 deg., varying with frozen mercury, continued till +the end of November, when it rose again to -11.5 deg.. At Christmas there +was again a temperature of -31 deg. and the six following days the mercury +was frozen, with which the new year came in. The temperature then rose +again to -20 deg., but soon sank so that from the 16th January the mercury +was frozen for five days. On the 22nd January the reading was -9 deg.. On +the 26th the mercury froze again, and on the 29th the temperature was +-6 deg.. During the month of February the temperature never rose above -24 deg.; +the mercury was frozen on the 20th, 25th, 26th, and 28th. This was the +case on the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 14th, 16th, and 18th March; on the 22nd +March the reading was -7 deg., on the 30th -29 deg.. April began with -31 deg., but +the temperature afterwards rose, so that on the 16th it reached -11 deg. and +varied between -21 deg. and -6 deg. (the 25th). On the 2nd May the reading in +the morning and evening was -12 deg., at mid-day -2 deg. to -5 deg.. On the 8th May +it was +0, on the 17th -10.5 deg., on the 31st +0.5 deg.. June began with +1.5 deg.. +On the 8th the reading at mid-day was +11 deg., on the morning and evening +of the same day +2 deg. to +3 deg.. During the remainder of June and the month +of July the temperature varied between +2 deg. and +21 deg.. + +It was in such circumstances that Nummelin and his four companions +lived in the ill-provided house of planks on the Little Briochov +Island. They removed to it, as has been already said, on the 5th +October; on the 20th the ice was so hard frozen that they could walk +upon it. On the 26th snowstorms commenced, so that it was impossible +to go out of the house. + +The sun was visible for the last time on the 21st November, and it +reappeared on the 19th January. On the 15th May the sun no longer +set. The temperature was then under the freezing point of mercury. +That the upper edge of the sun should be visible on the 19th January +we must assume a horizontal refraction of nearly 1 deg.. The +islands on the Yenisej are so low that there was probably a pretty +open horizon towards the south. + +Soon after Christmas scurvy began to show itself. Nummelin's +companions were condemned and punished criminals, in whom there was +to be expected neither physical nor moral power of resistance to +this disease. They all died, three of scurvy, and one in the attempt +to cross from the Briochov Islands to a _simovie_ at Tolstoinos. In +their stead Nummelin succeeded in procuring two men from Tolstoinos, +and later on one from Goltschicha. On the 11th May a relief party +arrived from the south. It consisted of three men under the mate +Meyenwaldt, whom Sidoroff had sent to help to save the vessel. They +had first to shovel away the snow which weighed it down. The snow +lay nearly six metres deep on the river ice, which was three metres +thick. When they at last had got the vessel nearly dug out, it was +buried again by a new snowstorm. + +In the middle of June the ice began to move, and the river water +rose so high that Nummelin, Meyenwaldt, and four men, along with two +dogs, were compelled to betake themselves to the roof of the hut, +where they had laid in a small stock of provisions and fuel. Here +they passed six days in constant peril of their lives. + +The river had now risen five metres; the roof of the hut rose but a +quarter of a metre above the surface of the swollen river, and was +every instant in danger of being carried away by a floating piece of +ice. In such a case a small boat tied to the roof was their only +means of escape. + +The whole landscape was overflowed. The other houses and huts were +carried away by the water and the drifting ice, which also +constantly threatened the only remaining building. The men on its +roof were compelled to work night and day to keep the pieces of ice +at a distance with poles. + +The great inundation had even taken the migrating birds at unawares. +For long stretches there was not a dry spot for them to rest upon, +and thus it happened that exhausted ptarmigan alighted among the men +on the roof; once a ptarmigan settled on Meyenwaldt's head, and a +pair on the dogs. + +On the 23rd June the water began to fall, and by the 25th it had +sunk so low that Nummelin and his companions could leave the roof +and remove to the deserted interior of the house. + +The narrative of Nummelin's return to Europe by sea, in company with +Schwanenberg, belongs to a following chapter. + + +[Footnote 87: _Les moeurs et usages des Ostiackes_, par Jean Bernard +Muller, Capitaine de dragon au service de la Suede, pendant sa +captivite en Siberie (_Recueil de Voiages au Nord._ T. VIII., +Amsterdam, 1727, p. 389). ] + +[Footnote 88: I come to this conclusion from the appearance of the +strata as seen from the sea, and from their nature on Vaygats Island +and the west coast of Novaya Zemlya. So far as I know, no geologist +has landed on this part of the east coast. ] + +[Footnote 89: Sometimes, however, icebergs are to be met with in the +most northerly part of the Kara Sea and on the north coast of Novaya +Zemlya, whither they may drive down from Franz Josef Land or from +other yet unknown Polar lands lying farther north. ] + +[Footnote 90: In most of the literary narratives of Polar journeys +colossal icebergs play a very prominent part in the author's +delineations both with the pencil and the pen. The actual fact, +however, is that icebergs occur in far greater numbers in the seas +which are yearly accessible than in those in which the advance of +the Polar travellers' vessel is hindered by impenetrable masses of +ice. If we may borrow a term from the geography of plants to +indicate the distribution of icebergs, they may be said to be more +_boreal_ than _polar_ forms of ice. All the fishers on the coast of +Newfoundland, and most of the captains on the steamers between New +York and Liverpool, have some time or other seen true icebergs, but +to most north-east voyagers this formation is unknown, though the +name iceberg is often in their narratives given to glacier +ice-blocks of somewhat considerable dimensions. This, however, takes +place on the same ground and with the same justification as that on +which the dwellers on the Petchora consider Bolschoj-Kamen a very +high mountain. But although no true icebergs are ever formed at the +glaciers so common on Spitzbergen and also on North Novaya Zemlya, +it however often happens that large blocks of ice fall down from +them and give rise to a swell, which may be very dangerous to +vessels in their neighbourhood. Thus a wave caused by the falling of +a piece of ice from a glacier on the 23rd (13th) of June, 1619, +broke the masts of a vessel anchored at Bell Sound on Spitzbergen, +threw a cannon overboard, killed three men, and wounded many more +(Purchas, iii., p. 734). Several similar adventures, if on a smaller +scale, I could relate from my own experience and that of the +walrus-hunters. Care is taken on this account to avoid anchoring too +near the perpendicular faces of glaciers. ] + +[Footnote 91: It may, however, be doubted whether the _whole_ of the +Kara Sea is completely frozen over in winter. ] + +[Footnote 92: Already in 1771 one of Pallas' companions, the student +Sujeff, found large algae in the Kara Sea (Pallas, _Reise_. St. +Petersburg, 1771--1776, ii. p. 34). ] + +[Footnote 93: Dwellings intended both for winter and summer +habitation. ] + +[Footnote 94: The most northerly fixed dwelling-place, which is at +present inhabited by Europeans, is the Danish commercial post +Tasiusak, in north-western Greenland, situated in 73 deg. 24' N.L. +How little is known, even in Russia, of the former dwellings at the +mouth of the Yenisej may be seen from _Neueste Nachrichten ueber die +noerdlichste Gegend von Sibirien zwischen den Fluessen Pjassida und +Chatanga in Fragen und Autworten abgefasst. Mit Einleitung und +Anmerkungen vom Herausgeber_ (K.E. v. Baer und Gr. v. Helmersen, +_Beitraege sur Kenntniss des russischen Reiches_, vol. iv. p. 269. +St. Petersburg, 1841). ] + +[Footnote 95: The collections made here were after our return +determined by Dr. Kjellman, who has communicated the following list: + + Saxifraga stellaris L. + Saxifraga cernua L. + Saxifraga rivularis L. + Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. + Stellaria humifusa ROTTB. + Sagina nivalis FR. + Arctophila pendulina (LAEST.) ANDS. + Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. + Dupontia Fisheri R. BR. + Aira caespitosa L. + Hierochloa pauciflora R. BR. + Eriophorum russeolum FR. + Eriophorum Scheuchzeri HOPPE. + Carex salina WG. + Carex ursina DESV. + Luzula hyperborea R. BR. + Luzula arctica BL. ] + +[Footnote 96: These according to Dr. Kjellman's determination are: + + Saxifraga cernua L. + Saxifraga caespitosa L. + Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. + Draba alpina L. + Ranunculus sulphureus SOL. + Ranunculus nivalis L. + Ranunculus pygmaeus WG. + Ranunculus lapponicus L. + Ranunculus borealis TRAUTV. + Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR. + Salix glauca L. + Arctophila pendulina (LAEST.) AND. + Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. + Catabrosa concinna TH. FR. + Dupontia Fisheri R. BR. + Calamagrostis lapponica L. + Carex salina WG. + Carex rigida GOOD. + Eriophorum russeolum FR. + Luzula arcuata SM. f. hyperborea R. BR. + Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB. + ] + +[Footnote 97: On the maps in Linschoten's work already quoted, +printed in 1601, and in Blavii _Atlas Major_ (1665, t. i. pp. 24, +25), this land is called "Nieu West Vrieslant" and "West Frisia +Nova," names which indeed have priority _in print_, but yet cannot +obtain a preference over the inhabitants' own beautiful name. ] + +[Footnote 98: Paul von Krusenstern, _Skizzen aus seinem Seemannsleben_. +Hirschberg in Silesia. Farther on I intend to give a more detailed +account of von Krusenstern's two voyages in the Kara Sea. ] + +[Footnote 99: _Deutsche Geogr. Blaetter_ von Lindemann Namens d. +Geogr. Gesellsch., Bremen. I. 1877. II. 1878. O. Finsch, _Reise nach +West-Sibirien im Jahre 1876_. Berlin, 1879. A bibliographical list +has been drawn up by Count von Waldburg-Zeil under the title, +_Litteratur-Nachweis fur das Gebiet des unteren, Ob_. ] + +[Footnote 100: Nordenskioeld, _Redogoerelse for en expedition till +mynningen af Jenisej och Sibirien ar 1875_, Bih. till Kongl. +Vet.-Ak. Handl, vol. iv., No. 1, p. 38-42. ] + +[Footnote 101: I give the particulars of this wintering partly after +communications made to me in conversation by Nummelin, partly after +_Goeteborgs Handelsoch Sjofartstidning_ for the 20th and 21st +November, 1877. This _first_ and, as far as I know, only detailed +narrative of the voyage in question, was dictated to the editor of +that journal, _reference being made to the log_ by Schwanenberg and +Nummelin. Schwanenberg had come to Gothenburg some days before with +his Yeniseisk-built vessel. ] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + The history of the North-east Passage from 1556 to 1878-- + Burrough, 1556--Pet and Jackman, 1580--The first voyage of + the Dutch, 1594--Oliver Brunel--The second voyage, 1595-- + The third voyage, 1596--Hudson, 1608--Gourdon, 1611--Bosman, + 1625--De la Martiniere, 1653--Vlamingh, 1664--Snobberger, + 1675--Roule reaches a land north of Novaya Zemlya--Wood + and Flawes, 1676--Discussion in England concerning the state + of the ice in the Polar Sea--Views of the condition of the + Polar Sea still divided--Payer and Weyprecht, 1872-74. + + +The sea which washes the north coast of European Russia is named by +King Alfred (_Orosius_, Book I. Chaps, i. ii.) the Quaen Sea (in +Anglo-Saxon _Cwen Sae_),[102] a distinctive name, which +unquestionably has the priority, and well deserves to be retained. +To the inhabitants of Western Europe the islands, Novaya Zemlya and +Vaygats, first became known through Stephen Burrough's voyage of +discovery in 1556. Burrough therefore is often called the discoverer +of Novaya Zemlya, but incorrectly. For when he came thither he found +Russian vessels, manned by hunters well acquainted with the +navigable waters and the land. It is clear from this that Novaya +Zemlya had then already been known to the inhabitants of Northern +Russia for such a length of time that a very actively prosecuted +hunting could arise there. It is even probable that in the same way +as the northernmost part of Norway was already known for a thousand +years back, not only to wandering Lapps, but also to Norwegians and +Quaens, the lands round Yugor Schar and Vaygats were known several +centuries before Burrough's time, not only to the nomad Samoyeds on +the mainland, but also to various Beorma or Finnish tribes. Probably +the Samoyeds then, as now, drove their reindeer herds up thither to +pasture on the grassy plains along the coast of the Polar Sea, where +they were less troubled by the mosquito and the reindeer fly than +further to the south, and probably the wild nomads were accompanied +then, as now, by merchants from the more civilised races settled in +Northern Russia. The name Novaya Zemlya (New Land), indicates that +it was discovered at a later period, probably by Russians, but we +know neither when nor how.[103] The narrative of Stephen Burrough's +voyage, which, like so many others, has been preserved from oblivion +by Hakluyt's famous collection, thus not only forms a sketch of the +first expedition of West-Europeans to Novaya Zemlya, but is also the +principal source of our knowledge of the earliest Russian voyages to +these regions. I shall on this account go into greater detail in the +case of this voyage than in those of the other voyages that will be +referred to here. + +It is self-evident that the new important commercial treaties, to +which Chancelor's discovery of the route from England to the White +Sea led, would be hailed with great delight both in England and in +Russia, and would give occasion to a number of new undertakings. At +first, as early as 1555, there was formed in England a company of +"merchant adventurers of England for the discoverie of landes, +territories, isles, dominions, and seigniories unknowen," commonly +called "the Muscovy Company," Sebastian Cabot, then almost an +octogenarian, was appointed governor for the term of his natural +life, and a number of privileges were conferred upon it by the +rulers both of England and Russia. At the same time negotiators, +merchants, and inquirers were sent by different ways from England to +Russia in order to confirm the amity with that country, and more +thoroughly examine the, at least to England, new world, which had +now been discovered in the East. But a detailed account of these +journeys does not enter into the plan of this work. + +With this, however, men were not content. They considered +Chancelor's voyage as but the first step to something far more +important, namely, the opening of the North-East Passage to China +and India. While Chancelor himself the year after his return was +sent along with several merchants to the White Sea, a further +attempt was planned to reach the east coast of Asia by the same +route. A small vessel, the _Searchthrift_, was fitted out for this +purpose and placed under the command of Stephen Burrough.[104] The +most important occurrences during the voyage were the following:-- + +On the 3rd May/23rd April, 1556, the start was made from Ratcliffe +to Blackwall and Grays. Here Sebastian Cabot came on board, together +with some distinguished gentlemen and ladies. They were first +entertained on board the vessel and gave liberal presents to the +sailors, alms being given at the same time to a number of poor +people, in order that they might pray for good luck and a good +voyage; "then at the signe of the Christopher, Master Cabot and +his friends banketted, and made them that were in the company +great cheere; and for very joy that he had to see the towardness +of our intended discovery, he entered into the dance himselfe, +amongst the rest of the young and lusty company." At Orwell Burrough +left his own vessel, in order, at the wish of the merchants, +to make the passage to Vardoehus in the _Edward Bonaventure_. +In the end of May he was off the North Cape, which name Burrough +says he gave to this northernmost headland of Europe during his first +voyage.[105] When Burrough left the _Edward Bonaventure_ and went +on board his own vessel is not stated, but on the 17th/7th June he +replied on the _Searchthrift_ to the parting salute of the +_Edward Bonaventure_. On the 20th/10th June Kola was reached, +and its latitude fixed at 63 deg. 48'.[106] + + "On Thursday the 21st/11th June at 6 of the clocke in the + morning, there came aboord of vs one of the Russe Lodiaes, + rowing with twentie oares, and there were foure and + twentie men in her. The master of the boate presented me + with a great loafe of bread, and six rings of bread, which + they call Colaches, and foure dryed pikes, and a peck of + fine otemeale, and I gave vnto the Master of the boate a + combe, and a small glasse. He declared vnto me that he was + bound to Pechora, and after that I made to drinke, the + tide being somewhat broken, they gently departed. The + Master's name was Pheother (Feodor).... Thursday (the + 28th/18th June) we weyed our ankers in the Riuer Cola, and + went into the Sea seuen or eight leagues, where we met + with the winde farre Northerly, that of force it + constrained vs to goe againe backe into the sayd riuer, + where came aboord of vs sundry of their Boates, which + declared unto me that they were also bound to the + northwards, a fishing for Morse and Salmon, and gave me + liberally of their white and wheaten bread. + + "As we roade in this riuer, wee saw dayly comming downe + the riuer many of their Lodias, and they that had least, + had foure and twentie men in them, and at the last they + grew to thirtie saile of them; and amongst the rest, there + was one of them whose name was Gabriel, who shewed me very + much friendshippe, and he declared vnto mee that all they + were bound to Pechora, a fishing for salmons, and morses: + insomuch that hee shewed mee by demonstrations, that with + a faire winde we had seuen or eight dayes sailing to the + riuer Pechora, so that I was glad of their company. This + Gabriel promised to giue mee warning of shoales, as he did + indeede.... Sunday being the one and twentieth day [of + June, 1st July new style], Gabriel gaue mee a barrell of + Meade, and one of his speciall friends gaue me a barrell + of beere, which was caryed upon mens backs at least 2 + miles. + + "Munday we departed from the riuer Cola, with all the rest + of the said Lodias, but sailing before the wind they were + all too good for vs:[107] but according to promise, this + Gabriel and his friend did often strike their sayles, and + taryed for us forsaking their owne company. Tuesday at an + Eastnortheast sunne we were thwart of Cape St. John.[108] + It is to be vnderstood, that from the Cape S. John vnto + the riuer or bay that goeth to Mezen, it is all sunke + land, and full of shoales and dangers, you shall haue + scant two fadome water and see no land. And this present + day wee came to an anker thwart of a creeke, which is 4 or + 5 leagues to the northwards of the sayd Cape, into which + creeke Gabriel and his fellow rowed, but we could not get + in: and before night there were aboue 20 saile that went + into the sayd creeke, the wind being at the Northeast. We + had indifferent good landfang. This afternoone Gabriel + came aboord with his skiffe, and then I rewarded him for + the good company that he kept with vs ouer the Shoales, + with two small iuory combes, and a steele glasse with two + or three trifles more, for which he was not ungratefull. + But notwithstanding, his first company had gotten further + to the Northwards. Wednesday being Midsummer day we sent + our skiffe aland to sound the creeke, where they found it + almost drie at a low water. And all the Lodias within were + on ground. (In consequence of the threatening appearance + of the weather Burrough determined to go into the bay at + high water. In doing so he ran aground, but got help from + his Russian friends.) Gabriel came out with his skiffe, + and so did sundry others also, shewing their good will to + help us, but all to no purpose, for they were likely to + have bene drowned for their labour, in so much that I + desired Gabriel to lend me his anker, because our owne + ankers were too big for our skiffe to lay out, who sent me + his owne, and borrowed another also and sent it vs." + +[Illustration: RUSSIAN "LODJA." After G. de Veer. ] + +After much trouble Burrough succeeded in getting his vessel off the +shoal, and then sought for a better anchorage on the other side of +Cape St. John. + + "Friday (6th July/26th June) at afternoone we weyed, and + departed from thence, the wether being mostly faire, and + the winde at East-southeast, and plied for the place where + we left our cable and anker, and our hawser, and as soone + as we were at an anker the foresaid Gabriel came aboord of + vs, with 3 or foure more of their small boats, and brought + with them of their Aquauitae and Meade, professing unto me + very much friendship, and reioiced to see vs againe, + declaring that they earnestly thought that we had bene + lost. This Gabriel declared vnto me that they had saued + both the ankers and our hauser, and after we had thus + communed, I caused 4 or 5 of them to goe into my cabbin, + where I gaue them figs and made them such cheere as I + could. While I was banketing of them, there came another + of their Skiffes aboord with one who was a Kerill + (Karelian), whose name afterwards I learned, and that he + dwelt in Colmogro, and Gabriel dwelled in the towne of + Cola, which is not far from the river's mouth. This + foresaid Keril said vnto me that one of the ankers which I + borrowed was his. I gave him thanks for the lone of it, + thinking it had bene sufficient. And as I continued in our + accustomed maner, that if the present which they brought + were worth enterteinment, they had it accordingly, he + brought nothing with him, and therfore I regarded him but + litle. And thus we ended, and they took their leaue and + went ashore. At their comming ashore, Gabriel and Keril + were at vnconvenient words, and by the eares, as I + vnderstand; the cause was because the one had better + enterteinment than the other; but you shal vnderstand that + Gabriel was not able to make his party good, because there + were 17 lodias of the Kerils company who tooke his part, + and but 2 of Gabriel's company. The next high water + Gabriel and his company departed from thence, and rowed to + their former company and neighbours, which were in number + 28 at the least, and all of them belonging to the river + Cola. And as I vnderstood Keril made reckoning that the + hauser which was fast in his anker should have bene his + owne, and at first would not deliver it to our boat, + insomuch that I sent him worde that I would complain vpon + him, whereupon he deliuered the hauser to my company. The + next day being Saturday, I sent our boat on shore to fetch + fresh water and wood, and at their comming on shore this + Keril welcomed our men most gently, and also banketed + them, and in the meanetime caused some of his men to fill + our baricoes with water, and to help our men to beare wood + into their boat; and then he put on his best silke coate, + and his collar of pearles and came aboorde againe, and + brought his present with him: and thus having more respect + vnto his present than to his person, because I perceiued + him to be vain-glorious, I bade him welcome and gaue him a + dish of figs; and then he declared vnto me that his father + was a gentleman, and that he was able to shew me pleasure, + and not Gabriel, who was but a priest's sonne." + +After Burrough has given account of a storm, during which he lost a +jolly boat, which he had purchased at Vardoehus, and by which they +were detained some time in the neighbourhood of Cape St. John (whose +latitude was fixed at 66 deg. 50') he continues:-- + + "Saturday (the 14/24th July) at a Northnorthwest sunne the + wind came at Eastnortheast, and then we weied, and plied + to the Northwards, and as we were two leagues shot past + the Cape, we saw a house standing in a valley, which is + dainty to be seene in those parts and by and by I saw + three men on the top of the hil. Then I iudged them, as it + afterwards proued, that they were men which came from some + other place to set traps to take vermin[109] for their + furres, which trappes we did perceiue very thicke alongst + the shore as we went." + +The 14th to the 19th July, new style, were passed on the coast of +Kanin Nos.[110] On the 19th at noon Burrough was in lat. 68 deg. +40' north. On Friday, the 10/20th July another storm appeared to +threaten. + + "And as I was musing what was best to be done, I saw a + sail come out of a creeke under the foresayd Caninoz, + which was my friend Gabriel, who forsook his harborough + and company, and came as neere us as he might, and pointed + vs to the Eastwards, and then we weyed and followed him. + Saturday we went eastsoutheast and followed Gabriel, and + he brought vs into an harborough called Morgiouets, which + is 30 leagues from Caninoz. This morning Gabriel saw a + smoke on ye way, who rowed vnto it with his skiffe, which + smoke was two leagues from the place where we road; and at + a Northwest sunne he came aboord again, and brought with + him a Samoed,[111] which was but a young man; his apparell + was then strange vnto vs, and he presented me with three + young wild geese, and one young barnacle." + +On the 24th/14th July Burrough sailed past Dolgoi Island, and the +following day entered the mouth of the Petchora, the latitude of +which was fixed at 69 deg. 10'.[112] On the 30th/20th they sailed +out again over sandbanks in only five feet of water, and thanked God +that their vessel was of so light draught. The day after ice was met +with for the first time. On the 4th Aug./6th July in lat. 70 deg. +20' north, they had the meeting already described with an enormous +whale.[113] Somewhat later on the same day the _Searchthrift_ +anchored in a good haven between two islands, situated in 70 deg. +42' N.L.[114] They were named by Burrough St. James's Islands. + + "Tuesday, the 7th Aug./29th July we plyed to the Westwards + alongst the shoare, the wind being at Northwest, and as I + was about to come to anker, we saw a sail comming about + the point whereunder we thought to have ankered. Then I + sent a skiffe aboorde of him, and at their comming aboord, + they tooke acquaintance of them, and the chiefe man said + hee had bene in our company in the riuer Cola, and also + declared vnto them that we were past the way which should + bring vs to the Ob. This land, sayd he, is called Nova + Zembla, that is to say, the New Land; and then he came + aboord himselfe with his skiffe he told me the like ... he + made me also certaine demonstrations of the way to the Ob. + I gave him a steele glasse, two pewter spoons, and a paire + of veluet sheathed knives; and then he seemed somewhat the + more willing to tary and shewed me as much as he knew for + our purpose; he also gave me 17 wild geese.... This man's + name was Loshak. Wednesday, as we plied to Eastwards, we + espied another saile, which was one of this Loshak's + company, and we bare roome and spake with him, who in like + sort tolde us of the Ob, as the other had done.... Friday + (the 10th Aug./31st July) the gale of winde began to + increase, and came Westerly withall, so that by a + Northwest sunne we were at an anker among the Islands of + Waigats, where we saw two small lodias; the one of them + came aboord of us and presented me with a great loafe of + bread; and they told me they were all of Colmogro, except + one man that dwelt at Pechora, who seemed to be the + chiefest among them in killing of the Morse.[115] There + were some of their company on shoare which did chase a + white beare ouer the high clifs into the water, which + beare the lodia that was aboord of us killed in our sight. + This day there was a great gale of wind at North, and we + saw so much ice driving a seaboord that it was then no + going to sea." + +During the first days of August the vessel lay for the most part in +company with or in the neighbourhood of Loshak, who gave them +information about the Samoyeds, after which Burrough visited their +sacrificial places.[116] + + "Tuesday (the 14/4th) August we turned for the harborough + where Loshak's barke lay,[117] where, as before, we road + vnder an Island. And there he came aboord of vs and said + unto me: if God send wind and weather to serve, I will go + to the Ob with you, because the Morses were scant at these + Islands of Vaigats; but if he could not get to the riuer + of Ob, then he sayd hee would goe to the riuer of + Narainzay,[118] where the people were not altogether so + savage as the Samoyds of the Ob are: hee shewed me that + they will shoot at all men to the vttermost of their + power, that cannot speake their speech." + +On the 15/5th of August much ice was seen to drift towards the haven +where the vessel lay, wherefore Burrough removed back to the place +where he had lain a few days before, and whose latitude he now found +to be 70 deg. 25'. Loshak left him unexpectedly the following day, +while Burrough was taking solar altitudes, and on the 19/9th +Burrough too weighed anchor to sail south along the coast of +Vaygats. After sailing about in these waters for a time, and being +exposed to a severe storm with an exceedingly heavy sea, Burrough, +on the 3rd Sept./23rd Aug., determined to turn. On the 21st/11th +September he arrived at Colmogro, where he wintered with a view to +continue his voyage next year to the Obi. This voyage, however, was +abandoned, because he instead went westwards in order to search for +two of the ships which accompanied Chancelor, and which had been +lost during the return voyage from Archangel.[119] + +From this narrative we see that a highly developed Russian or +Russian-Finnish navigation was carried on as early as the middle of +the fifteenth century between the White Sea, the Petchora, Vaygats, +and Novaya Zemlya, and that at that time the Russians or Finns even +sailed to the Obi. The sketch, which Burrough gives of the Russian +or Russian-Finnish hunters, shows, besides, that they were brave and +skilful seamen, with vessels which for the time were very good, and +even superior to the English in sailing before the wind. With very +few alterations this sketch might also be applied to the present +state of things in these regions, which shows that they continue to +stand at a point which was then high, but is now low. Taking a +general view of matters, it appears as if these lands had rather +fallen behind than advanced in well-being during the last three +hundred years. + +To judge by a letter from the Russian Merchant Company, which was +formed in London, it was at his own instance that Stephen Burrough +in 1557 sailed from Colmogro, not to Obi, but to the coast of +Russian Lapland to search for the lost vessels.[120] The following +year the English were so occupied with their new commercial treaties +with Russia and with the fitting out of Frobisher's three +expeditions to the north-west, that it was long before a new attempt +was made in the direction of the north-east, namely till ARTHUR +PETS' voyage in 1580.[121] He was the first who penetrated from +Western Europe into the Kara Sea, and thus brought the solution of +the problem of the North-East Passage to the Pacific a good way +forward. The principal incidents of this voyage too must therefore +be briefly stated here. + +PET and JACKMAN, the former in the _George_, the latter in the +_William_, sailed from Harwich on the 9th June/30th May, 1580. On +the 2nd July/22nd June they doubled the North Cape, and on the +12th/2nd July, Pet was separated from Jackman after appointing to +meet with him at "Verove Ostrove or Waygats." On the 15/5th land was +in sight, the latitude having the preceding day been ascertained to +be 71 deg. 38'. Pet was thus at Gooseland, on the west coast of +Novaya Zemlya. He now sailed E.S.E., and fell in with ice on the +16/6th July. On the 20/10th July, land was seen, and the vessel +anchored at an island, probably one of the many small islands in the +Kara Port, where wood and water were taken on board. + +On the 24/14th July, Pet was in the neighbourhood of land in 70 deg. 26'. At +first he thought that the land was an island, and endeavoured to sail +round it, but as he did not succeed in doing so, he supposed it to be +Novaya Zemlya. Hence he sailed in different directions between S.W. and +S.E., and was on the 26/16th in 69 deg. 40' N.L. Next day there was +lightning with showers of rain. Pet believed himself now to be in +Petchora Bay, and after sighting, on the 28/18th July, the headland +which bounds the mouth of the river on the north-east, he sailed, it +would seem, between this headland and the Selenetz Islands into the +great bay east of Medinski Savorot. Here he made soundings on the +supposition that the sound between Vaygats Island and the mainland would +open out at this place, but the water was found to be too shallow, even +for a boat. Pet now sailed past Yugor Schar along the coast of Vaygats +towards Novaya Zemlya, to a bay on the west coast of Vaygats Island, +where he anchored between two small islands, which were supposed to be +Woronski Ostrov. _The entrance to an excellent haven was indicated on +both sides by two crosses._[122] On the islands there was abundance of +driftwood, and on one of them was found a cross, at the foot of which a +man was buried. Pet inscribed his name on the cross, and likewise on a +stone at the foot of the cross, "in order that Jackman, if he came +thither, might know that Pet had been there." In the afternoon Pet again +weighed anchor, doubled the western extremity of Vaygats Island, and +continued his voyage, following all along the coast of Vaygats, first to +the north and north-east, then to the south, between an ice-field and +the land, until the ice came so close to the shore that the vessel could +make no headway, when he anchored in a good haven by an island which lay +on the east side of Vaygats in the neighbourhood of the mainland. It was +perhaps the island which in recent maps is called Mestni Island. Pet was +thus now in the Kara Sea.[123] The latitude given--69 deg. 14'--shows even, +if it is correct, that he went far into the bay at the mouth of the Kara +river. Here Pet fell in with his comrade Jackman, from whom he had +parted on the coast of Kola, and of whose voyage during the interval we +know nothing. When the vessels met they were both damaged by ice. As, +in addition, the sea to the north and east was barred by compact masses +of ice, the captains, after deliberating with the inferior officers, +determined to return. They had, also, during the return voyage, to +contend with formidable ice obstacles, until, on the 25/15th August, in +Lat. 69 deg. 49' north, near the southeastern extremity of Vaygats they met +with open water. They sailed along the east coast of Vaygats through the +Kara Port, which was passed on the 27/17th August. Hence the course was +shaped for Kolgujev Island, on whose sandbanks both vessels ran aground, +but were soon got off again without loss. The latitude of the sandbanks +was correctly fixed at 68 deg. 48'. + +On the 1st Sept./22nd Aug. _William_ was again lost sight of.[124] +On the 8th Sept./29th Aug. the _George_ anchored in Tana Fiord, on +which there was a town named Hungon.[125] Two days afterwards the +_George_ doubled the North Cape, and on the 5th Nov./26th Oct. again +anchored at Ratcliffe. + +Pet and Jackman were the first north-east explorers who ventured +themselves in earnest amongst the drift-ice. In navigating among ice +they showed good judgment and readiness of resource, and in the +history of navigation the honour falls to them of having commanded +the first vessels from Western Europe that forced their way into the +Kara Sea. It is therefore without justification that BARROW says of +them that they were but indifferent navigators.[126] + +With Pet and Jackman's voyage the English North-east Passage expeditions +were broken off for a long time. But the problem was, instead, taken up +with great zeal in Holland. Through the fortunate issue of the war of +freedom with Spain, and the incitement to enterprise which civil +freedom always brings along with it, Holland, already a great industrial +and commercial state, had begun, towards the close of the sixteenth +century, to develop into a maritime power of the first rank. But +navigation to India and China was then rendered impossible for the +Dutch, as for the English, by the supremacy of Spain and Portugal at +sea, and through the endeavours of these countries to retain the sole +right to the commercial routes they had discovered. In order to become +sharers in the great profits which commerce with the land of silks and +perfumes brought with it, it therefore appeared to be indispensable to +discover a new sea route north of Asia or America to the Eastern seas. +If such a route had been actually found, it was clear that the position +of Holland would have been specially favourable for undertaking this +lucrative trade. In this state of things we have to seek for the reason +of the delight with which the Dutch hailed the first proposal to force a +passage by sea north of Asia to China or Japan. Three successive +expeditions were at great expense fitted out for this purpose. These +expeditions did not, indeed, attain the intended goal--the discovery of +a north-eastern sea route to Eastern Asia, but they not only gained for +themselves a prominent place in the history of geographical discovery, +but also repaid a hundred fold the money that had been spent on them, in +part directly through the whale-fishing to which they gave rise, and +which was so profitable to Holland, and in part indirectly through the +elevation they gave to the self-respect and national feeling of the +people. They compared the achievements of their countrymen among the ice +and snow of the Polar lands to the voyage of the Argonauts, to +Hannibal's passage of the Alps, and to the campaign of the Macedonians +in Asia and the deserts of Libya (see, for instance, BLAVIUS. _Atlas +major_, Latin edition, t. i., pp. 24 and 31.) As these voyages together +present the grandest attempts to solve the problem that lay before the +_Vega_ expedition, I shall here give a somewhat detailed account of +them. + +[Illustration: DUTCH SKIPPER. After G. de Veer. ] + +THE FIRST DUTCH EXPEDITION, 1594.--This was fitted out at the expense of +private persons, mainly by the merchants BALTHASAR MUCHERON, JACOB +VALCKE, and FRANCISCUS MAELSON. The first intention was to send out only +two vessels with the view of forcing a passage through the sound at +Vaygats towards the east, but on the famous geographer PLANCIUS +representing that the route north of Novaya Zemlya was that which would +lead most certainly to the desired goal, other two were fitted out, so +that no fewer than four vessels went out in the year 1594 on an +exploratory expedition towards the north. Of these, two, viz. a large +vessel, specially equipped, it would appear, for the northern waters, +called the _Mercurius_, and commanded by WILLEM BARENTS,[127] and a +common fishing-sloop, attempted the way past the northern extremity of +Novaya Zemlya. The two others, viz. the _Swan_ of Zeeland, commanded by +CORNELIS CORNELISZ. NAY, and the _Mercurius_ of Enkhuizen, commanded by +BRANDT YSBRADTSZ. TETGALES, were to pass through the sound at Vaygats +Island. + +All the four vessels left the Texel on the 15/5th June, and eighteen +days later arrived at Kilduin in Russian Lapland, a place where at +that time vessels, bound for the White Sea, often called. Here the +two divisions of the expedition parted company. + +Barents sailed to Novaya Zemlya, which was reached on the 14/4th +July in 73 deg. 25'; the latitude was determined by measuring the +altitude of the midnight sun at an island which was called Willem's +Island. Barents sailed on along the coast in a northerly direction, +and two days afterwards reached the latitude of 75 deg. 54' north. +On the 19/9th July there was a remarkable chase of a Polar bear. The +bear was fallen in with on land and was pierced by a bullet, but +notwithstanding this he threw himself into the water, and swam with +a vigour "that surpassed all that had been heard of the lion or +other wild animal." Some of the crew pursued him in a boat, and +succeeded in casting a noose round his neck in order to catch him +living, with a view to carry him to Holland. But when the bear knew +that he was caught "he roared and threw himself about so violently +that it can scarcely be described in words." In order to tire him +they gave him a little longer line, rowing forward slowly the while, +and Barents at intervals struck him with a rope. Enraged at this +treatment, the bear swam to the boat, and caught it with one of his +forepaws, on which Barents said: "he wishes to rest himself a +little." But the bear had another object in view, for he cast +himself into the boat with such violence that half his body was soon +within it. The sailors were so frightened that they rushed to the +fore and thought that their last hour was come. Fortunately the bear +could make no further advance, because the noose that was thrown +round his neck had fastened in the rudder. A sailor taking courage, +now went aft and killed the bear with the stroke of an axe. The skin +was sent to Amsterdam. On account of this occurrence the place was +called "Bear Cape." + +[Illustration: CAPTURE OF A POLAR BEAR. After G. de Veer. ] + +Barents sailed on towards the north and north-east, past the place +which he called Cruys Eylandt (Cross Island)[128] and Cape Nassau, a +name which has been retained in recent maps, to the latitude of 77 deg. +55', which was reached on the 23rd/13th July. Here from the +mast-top an ice-field was seen, which it was impossible to see +beyond, which compelled Barents to turn. However, he still remained +in these northern regions, waiting for a better state of the ice, +till the 8th August/29th July, when the vessel was due west of a +promontory situated in latitude 77 deg. north, which was named Ice +Cape. Some gold-glittering stones were found here on the ground. +Such _finds_ have played a not inconsiderable _role_ in the history +of Arctic voyages, and shiploads of worthless ore have on several +occasions been brought home. On the 16th August/31st July, while +sailing among the Orange Islands, they saw 200 walruses on land. The +sailors attacked them with axes and lances, without killing a single +walrus, but they succeeded during the attempt to kill them in +striking out several tusks, which they carried home with them. + +Convinced that he could not reach the intended goal by this northern +route, Barents determined, after consulting with his men, to turn +south and sail to Vaygats. While sailing down, Barents, in latitude +71 deg. north, makes the remark that he was now probably at a +place where OLIVER BRUNEL[129] had been before, and which had been +named by him Costinsark, evidently the present Kostin Schar, a +Russian name still in use for the sound which separates Meschduschar +Island from the main island. It ought to be observed, however, that +on old maps Matotschkin Schar is often marked with some perversion +of the word Kostin Schar. + +South of "St. Laurens Bay,"[130] in 70-3/4 deg., Barents, on the +21st/11th August, found upon a headland across erected, and in the +neighbourhood of it three wooden buildings, the hull of a Russian +vessel and several sacks of meal, and at the same place some graves, +all clearly remains of some Russian salmon-fishers. On the 25/15th +August he arrived at Dolgoi Island, where he fell in with the two +other vessels from Zeeland and Enkhuizen that had come thither +shortly before. All the four vessels sailed back thence to Holland, +arriving there in the middle of September. The narrative of this +voyage closes with the statement that Barents brought home with him +a walrus, which had been fallen in with and killed on the drift-ice. +Barents during this journey discovered and explored the northern +part of Novaya Zemlya, never before visited by West-European +seafarers. + +The two other vessels, that left the Texel at the same time as +Barents, also made a remarkable voyage, specially sketched by the +distinguished voyager JAN HUYGHEN VAN LINSCHOTEN.[131] + +The vessels were manned by fifty men, among them two interpreters--a +Slav, CHRISTOFFEL SPLINDLER, and a Dutch merchant, who had lived +long in Russia, FR. DE LA DALE. Provisions for eight months only +were taken on board. At first Nay and Tetgales accompanied Barents +to Kilduin, which island is delineated and described in considerable +detail in Linschoten's work. + +[Illustration: JAN HUYGHEN VAN LINSCHOTEN. Born in 1563 at Haarlem, +died in 1611 at Enkhuizen. After a portrait in his work, +_Navigatio in Orientalem sive Lusitanorum Indiam_, Hagae Comitis, 1590. ] + +[Illustration: KILDUIN, IN RUSSIAN LAPLAND, IN 1504. After Linschoten. ] + +[Illustration: Russian Map of the North Polar Sea from the beginning of +the 17th century, published in Holland in 1612 by Isaac Massa ] + +On the 12th/2nd July Nay and Tetgales sailed from Kilduin for +Vaygats Island. Three days afterwards they fell in with much +drift-ice. On the 20/10th they arrived at Toxar, according to +Linschoten's map an island on the Timan coast, a little west of the +entrance to Petchora. They there met with a Russian _lodja_, whose +captain stated that he believed, after hearsay, that the Vaygats +Sound[132] was continually covered with ice, and that, when it was +passed, men came to a sea which lay to the south of, and was warmer +than, the Polar Sea. Some other Russians added, the following day, +that it was quite possible to sail through Vaygats Sound, if the +whales and walruses, that destroy all vessels that seek to pass +through, did not form an obstacle; that the great number of rocks +and reefs scarcely permitted the passage of a vessel; and finally, +that the Grand Duke had ordered three vessels to attempt the +passage, but that they had all been crushed by ice. + +On the 22nd/12th July there came to Toxar hunters from the White +Sea, who spoke another language than the Russians, and belonged to +another race of men--they were evidently Finns or Karelians. A large +number of whales were seen in the haven, which gave occasion to a +remark by Linschoten that whale-fishing ought to be profitable +there. After the ice had broken up, and crosses with inscriptions +giving information of their movements had been erected on the shore, +they sailed on. On the 31/21st July they sighted Vaygats. They +landed at a headland marked with two crosses, and there fell in with +a native, clad in much the same way as a Kilduin Lapp, who soon took +to flight. Other headlands marked with crosses were afterwards +visited, and places where idols were found set up by hundreds. +Linschoten also landed on that Idol Cape which was visited during +the voyage of the _Vega_. There were then from three to four hundred +wooden idols, which, according to Lindschoten's description, were +very similar in appearance to those we saw. They were so ill made, +says he, that one could scarcely guess that they were intended to +represent men. The visage was very broad, the nose projecting, there +were two holes in place of the eyes, and another hole represented +the mouth. Five, six, or seven faces were often found carved on one +and the same stock "perhaps intended to represent a whole family." +Many Russian crosses were also erected there. Some days later they +found on the south shore of the sound a small house filled with +idols, much better made than the former, with eyes and paps of +metal. While the Dutch were employed in examining this collection of +idols, a reindeer sledge was driven forward in which sat a man armed +with a bow. When he saw the foreigners, he called loudly, on which a +number of sledges with about thirty men drove out of a valley and +endeavoured to surround the Dutch. They now fled in haste to their +boat, and when it had left the beach the Samoyeds shot at it with +their arrows, but without hitting it. This bloodless conflict is, so +far as we know, the only one that took place between the natives and +the north-east voyagers. The latter are thus free from the great +bloodguiltiness which attaches to most of those, who in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made voyages of discovery in +southern regions. + +Some days later, on the 10th August/31st July, the Dutch had a +friendly meeting with the Samoyeds, who gave them very correct +information concerning the state of the land and the sea, telling +them that "after ten or twelve days they would meet with no more +ice, and that summer would last six or seven weeks longer." After +the Dutch had learned all they could from these "barbarians, who had +greater skill in managing their bow than a nautical gnomon, and +could give better information regarding their hunting than about the +navigable water," they took their departure. When one of the sailors +hereupon blew a horn, the savages were so frightened, that they +begun to take to flight, but, quieted by the assurance that the +blast of the horn was only a sign of friendship, they returned and +on the beach saluted the departing strangers, bowing themselves to +the earth with uncovered heads and crossed hands. + +On the 11th/1st August the Dutch, full of hope, sailed into the Kara +Sea, or, as they called it, the "North Tartaric Ocean." They soon +fell in with ice, on which account on the 13th/3rd they sought +protection under Mestni Island (Staten Eiland). Here they found a +sort of rock crystal resembling diamonds in all respects except +hardness, a disappointing circumstance which was ascribed to the +action of cold. Here also were seen images and sacrificial places, +but no houses and no trees. + +When Nay and Tetgales sailed on, they came to an extensive open sea, +and on the 20/10th August they believed that they were off the mouth +of the Obi. Two of its principal mouth-arms they named, after the +vessels, "Swan" and "Mercurius," names which have since been +forgotten. It is quite evident that the river which the Dutch took +for the Obi was the Kara, and that the mouth-arms, Swan and +Mercurius, were two small coast rivers which debouch from Yalmal +into the Kara Sea. + +On the 21st/11th August they determined to return home, taking it +for proved that, from the point which had been reached, it would be +easy to double "Promontorium Tabin," and thus get to China by the +north-east passage. A large number of whales were seen raising half +their bodies out of the sea and spouting jets of water from their +nostrils in the common way, which was considered a further sign that +they had an extensive ocean before them. + +On the 24/14th August, Nay and Tetgales sailed again through Yugor +Schar (Fretum Nassovicum), and the day after at three small islands, +which were called Mauritius, Orange, and New Walcheren, they fell in +with Barents, and all sailed home to Holland, fully convinced that +the question of the possibility of a north-east passage to China was +now solved. It was shown indeed, in the following year, that this +supposition rested on quite too slight a foundation, but the voyages +of Nay and Tetgales deserve in any case an honoured place in the +history of navigation, for they extended considerably the knowledge +of the northern regions through the discovery, or at least through +the first passage of, Yogor Schar, and, like Barents, these +seafarers must get the credit of carrying out the task assigned to +them with skill, insight, resolution, and resource. + +[Illustration: MAP OF FRETUM NASSOVICUM OR YUGOR SCHAR. After +Linschoten. ] + +THE SECOND DUTCH EXPEDITION, 1595.[133] After the return of the +first expedition a report of the discoveries which had been made was +given in to Prince MAURICE of ORANGE, JAN VAN OLDENBARNEVELT, +Advocate of Holland, and the other authorities at home. They were so +convinced by this report that the sea route to China was actually +discovered, that they immediately made arrangements to send out the +following year a flotilla of seven vessels, two from Amsterdam, two +from Zeeland, two from Enkhuizen, and one from Rotterdam, with a +view to open the new commercial communication. + +The commanders of the vessels were CORNELIS NAY (Admiral), BRANDT +TETGALES (Second in Command), BARENTS, LAMBERT GERRITSZ. OOM, THOMAS +WILLEMSZ., HARMAN JANSZ., and HENDRIK HARTMAN. The lieutenants were +LINSCHOTEN, JACOB HEEMSKERK, FRANCOYS DE LA DALE, JAN CORNELISZ., +RIJP, and N. BUYS. Six of the vessels were laden with goods and +coin; the seventh was to return, home with news when the fleet had +sailed through Vaygats Sound. The great preparations, however, +occupied so much time that it was not until the 12th/2nd July that +the voyage could be begun. On the 22nd/12th August, Kegor on the +Ribatschni peninsula was sighted, and on the 29/19th August the +fleet arrived at the Sound between Vaygats and the mainland, and +found a great deal of ice there. + +On the 3rd Sep./24th Aug. the Dutch met with some Russians, who told +them that the winter had been very severe, but that the ice would in +a short time disappear, and that the summer would still last six +weeks. They also stated that the land to the northward, which was +called Vaygats, was an island, separated on its north side from +Novaya Zemlya; that it was visited in summer by natives, who towards +winter returned to the mainland; that Russian vessels, laden with +goods, yearly sailed through Vaygats Sound past the Obi to the river +Gillissy (Yenisej), where they passed the winter; that the dwellers +on the Yenisej were of the Greek-Christian religion, &c. + +On the 10th Sept./31st Aug. the Dutch came in contact with the +Samoyeds south of Vaygats Sound. Their "king" received the strangers +in a very hospitable and friendly manner, and informed them that in +three or four weeks the cold would begin; that in some years the +drift-ice did not disappear; that during winter the whole sound and +the bays and coves were frozen over, but that the sea on both sides +did not freeze; that beyond the mouth of the river Ob there were the +mouths of two other rivers, of which the more remote was called the +"Molconsay," the nearer, which was often visited by Russian trading +vessels, the Gillissy; that the land continued beyond the Ob to a +cape which projected towards Novaya Zemlya, and that beyond this +promontory there was a great sea, which extended along Tartary to +warm regions.[134] + +When the Dutch sailed into the Kara Sea they fell in with much ice, +on which account they anchored at the island, Staten Eiland, where +during the preceding voyage rock crystal had been found. Here two +men were killed in the way that has already been described.[135] +Depressed by this unfortunate occurrence and afraid to expose their +vessels, laden with valuable goods, too late in the season, to the +large quantity of ice which drifted about in the Kara Sea, the +commanders determined to turn. The fleet returned to Holland without +further adventure, passing through Vaygats Sound on the 25/15th +September. + +This expedition did not yield any new contribution to the knowledge +of our globe. But it deserves to be noted that we can state with +certainty, with the knowledge we now possess of the ice-conditions +of the Kara Sea, that the Dutch during both their first and second +voyages had the way open to the Obi and Yenisej. If they had availed +themselves of this and continued their voyage till they came to +inhabited regions on either of these rivers, a considerable commerce +would certainly have arisen between Middle Asia and Europe by this +route as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century. + +THE THIRD DUTCH EXPEDITION, 1596-97.[136] After the unfortunate +issue of the expedition of 1595, which had been fitted out at so +great an expense, and which had raised so great expectations, the +States-General would not grant the necessary funds for a third +voyage, but they offered instead a great prize to the states or +merchants that at their own expense should send out a vessel that +should by the route north of Asia force a passage to Asia and +China.[137] Encouraged by this offer the merchants of Amsterdam sent +out two vessels, one under the command of Willem Barents and Jacob +van Heemskerk, the other under Jan Cornelisz. Rijp. The crew were +chosen with care, unmarried men being preferred, with the idea that +wife and children would detract from the bravery of the members of +the expedition and lead them to return home prematurely. + +[Illustration: UNSUCCESSFUL FIGHT WITH A POLAR BEAR. During the +Second Dutch Expedition. From De Veer. ] + +On the 20/10th May these vessels left Amsterdam. On the 14/4th June +they saw in lat. 71 deg. North some beautiful parhelia, which are +found delineated in De Veer's work, and Blavii _Atlas Major_. + +[Illustration: Map showing Barents' Third Voyage, from _J.L. Pontani +Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium historia_, Amst., 1611 ] + +On the 15/5th June one of the crew cried out from the deck that he +saw white swans, but on a closer examination it appeared that they +consisted of large pieces of ice, which drifted along the edge of +the pack.[138] On the 19/9th they discovered, north of North Cape, a +new island, situated in latitude 74 deg. 30' North. A large bear +was killed here, and on this account the island was called Bear +Island. On the 29/19th they came in the 80th degree of latitude to +another formerly unknown land, which they believed to be connected +with Greenland. It was in fact the large group of islands, which +afterwards obtained the name Spitzbergen. There were found here on a +small island the eggs of a species of goose--_rotgansen_[139] which +comes yearly to Holland in great flocks, but whose breeding place +was before unknown. With reference to this, De Veer says that it is +finally proved that this goose is not, as has been hitherto +supposed, propagated in Scotland by the goose laying her eggs from +the branches of trees overhanging the water, the eggs being broken +in pieces against the surface of the water, and the newly hatched +young immediately swimming about. + +After an unsuccessful attempt had been made to sail to the north of +Spitzbergen the vessels proceeded southwards along the west +coast,[140] and on the 11th/1st July came again to Bear Island. Here +the vessels parted company, Barents sailing eastwards towards Novaya +Zemlya, Rijp northwards towards the east coast of Spitzbergen. On +the 27/17th July, Barents reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in +latitude 73 deg. 20' North. On the 30/20th July, no further +advance could be made for ice, which still lay close to the shore. +During the stay here there were several adventures with bears, all +of which, came off successfully. In consequence of ice obstacles +their progress was exceedingly slow, so that it was not until the +25/15th August that they reached the Orange Islands. The following +day several of the crew ascended a high mountain, from which they +saw open water on the other side of an island. As glad at the sight +of the sea as the ten thousand under Xenophon, they rushed back to +the vessel to give Barents the important news. He now did all he +could to pass the north extremity of Novaya Zemlya. He was +successful in doing so, and on the 31/21st a haven, situated in +about the latitude of 76 deg. North, was reached with great +difficulty, but all attempts to sail eastwards from it were +unsuccessful. Finally, on the 4th Sept./25th Aug. Barents determined +to return to Holland. + +[Illustration: BARENTS' AND RIJP'S VESSELS. From De Veer. ] + +Now, however, it was too late. The haven was blocked with drift-ice, +which was in constant motion, several times pressed the vessel high up +between the pieces of ice, and finally broke the rudder in pieces. It +was now evident that it would be necessary to winter, and for this +purpose the requisite tools, household articles, and provisions were +landed and men sent out to examine the neighbourhood. Reindeer tracks +were seen, and, what was more important, there were found on the beach +large tree-stems with their roots still adhering, and other wood which +the marine currents had drifted to this otherwise completely woodless +region. The drift-wood was collected in large heaps that it might not be +buried under the snow in winter. A place was chosen for a house, and +the Dutch began to draw timber to the place. The openings in the +drift-ice were on the 25/15th September covered with a crust of ice two +inches thick, but on the 5th Oct./15th Sept. the ice was again somewhat +broken up, which however was of no advantage to the imprisoned, because +their vessel was forced up so high on a block of ground ice that it +could not be got off. Bears were hunted almost daily. They were very +bold and sometimes came on board the vessel. On the 15/5th October all +ice was driven off as far as the eye could see, but the vessel still lay +motionless on the blocks of ground ice. Round these the ice closed in +again, to break up anew at a greater or less distance from the beach. On +the 4th March/22nd Feb. there was still much open water visible from the +beach, and on the 16/6th and 18/8th March, the sea appears to have been +in one direction completely free of ice. + +On the 31/21st October, the crew began to remove into the house, +where they afterwards passed the winter 1596-97 with many +sufferings, dangers, difficulties, and privations which are +described in De Veer's work. The crew, however, never lost courage, +which undoubtedly was a principal cause of most of them being saved. +The house was built on the north-east side of Novaya Zemlya, on the +shore of Barents' Ice Haven. It was situated far to the north of any +other place where men had previously passed the winter. The land and +its animal life was unknown, the hard frozen, almost rock-fast and +yet continually moving ice-covering, with which the sea was bound, +was something quite novel, as also were the effects which long +continued and severe cold exerts on animate and inanimate objects. +Before the attempt was made it was not considered at all certain +that men could actually endure the severe cold of the highest north +and the winter night three or four months long. No wonder therefore +that the skill and undaunted resolution of the Dutch Polar explorers +aroused unmingled admiration among all civilised nations, and that +the narrative of their wintering was received with unbounded +interest and formed the subject of innumerable writings and +reproductions both in prose and verse in almost all civilised +languages. Only a few facts from the journal of the wintering need +therefore be given here. + +[Illustration: BARENTS' HOUSE, OUTSIDE. From De Veer. ] + +[Illustration: BARENTS' HOUSE, INSIDE. From De Bry. ] + +On the 14/4th November the sun disappeared, and was again visible on +the 3rd Feb./24th Jan. These dates have caused scientific men much +perplexity, because in latitude 76 deg. North, the upper edge of +the sun ought to have ceased to be visible when the sun's south +declination in autumn became greater than 13 deg.,[141] and to +have again become visible when the declination again became less +than that figure; that is so say, the sun ought to have been seen +for the last time at Barents' Ice Haven on the 27/17th October, and +it ought to have appeared again there on the 14/4th February. It has +been supposed that the deviation arose from some considerable error +in counting the days, but this was unanimously denied by the crew +who wintered.[142] The bears disappeared and reappeared with the +sun. Instead, foxes came during winter to the building, and were +caught for food in numbers, many on the roof of the house. In order +to pass the time and keep up their courage, the Dutch sometimes had +entertainments, at which the cheerfulness of the partakers had to +make up for the meagreness of the fare. After the return of the sun +the bears again came very close, so that there was a number of +hunting adventures with them, all of which came off successfully. +Several bears made themselves at home in the vessel abandoned by the +crew, casting everything about, and broke up the hatch of the +kitchen, covered as it was with deep snow. An attempt to eat bear's +liver resulted in those that ate of it becoming very ill, and after +recovery renewing their skin over the whole body. Once during severe +cold, when pitcoal was used to warm the building, all the men in it +were like to have died of the fumes. On one or two occasions, for +instance on the 25/15th February, so much snow had collected outside +the door, that it was necessary to go out by the chimney. For the +preservation of their health the Dutch often took a vapour bath in a +barrel fitted up for the purpose. + +On the 7th May/27th April the first small birds were seen, and on +the 25/15th May Barents declared that if the vessel were not got off +before the end of the month, they should return in boats, which were +therefore immediately got ready. This was, however, attended with +great difficulty, because most of the crew had during the course of +the winter become exceedingly weak, evidently from scurvy. After the +equipment of the boats had been completed and they had been properly +laden with provisions, the Dutch at last started on the 23rd/13th June. + +A man had died on the 6th Feb./27th Jan. At beginning of the boat +voyage Barents himself was very ill, and six days after, on the +30/20th June, he died, while resting with his companions on a large +floe, being compelled to do so by the drift-ice. On the same day one +of the crew died, and on the 15/5th July another. + +On the 7th Aug./28 July returning Arctic explorers at St. Lawrens' +Bay fell in with two vessels manned by Russian hunters, whose +acquaintance the Dutchmen had made the year before, and who now +received them with great friendliness and pity for their sufferings. +They continued their voyage in their small open boats, and all +arrived in good health and spirits at Kola, where they were received +with festivities by the inhabitants. It gave them still greater joy +to meet here Jan Cornelisz. Rijp, from whom they had parted at Bear +Island the preceding year, and of whose voyage we know only that he +intended to sail up along the east coast of Spitzbergen, and that, +when this was found to be impossible, he returned home the same +autumn. + +After the two boats, in which Barents' companions had travelled with +so many dangers and difficulties from their winter haven to Russian +Lapland, had been left in the merchant's yard[143] at Kola, as a +memorial of the journey--the first memorial of a Polar expedition +was thus raised at Kola--they went on board Rijp's vessel, and +sailed in it to Holland, arriving there the 8th November/29th +October. Sixteen men had left Holland with Barents, twelve men +returned in safety to their native land, and among them JACOB VAN +HEEMSKERK, a man who during the whole voyage had played a prominent +part, and afterwards lived long enough to see the time when the +Dutch were a match at sea for the Spaniards. For he fell as +commander of the Dutch fleet which defeated the Spanish at Gibraltar +on April 25, 1607. + +[Illustration: JACOB VAN HEEMSKERK. Born in 1567 at Amsterdam, +died in 1607 at Gibraltar After a contemporary engraving by N. +de Clerck. ] + +During Barents' third voyage Bear Island and Spitzbergen were +discovered, and the natural conditions of the high northern regions +during winter first became known. On the other hand, the unfortunate +issue of the maritime expeditions sent out from Holland appears to +have completely deterred from farther attempts to find a +north-eastern commercial route to China and Japan, and this route +was also now less necessary, as Houtman returned with the first +Dutch fleet from the East Indies the same year that Barents' +companions came back from their wintering. The problem was therefore +seriously taken up anew for the first time during the present +century; though during the intervening period attempts to solve it +were not wholly wanting. + +For the desire to extend the White Sea trade to Siberia, and +jealousy of the companies that had known how to procure for +themselves a monopoly of the lucrative commerce with eastern Asia, +still led various merchants now and then during the seventeenth +century to send out vessels to try whether it was possible to +penetrate beyond Novaya Zemlya. I shall confine myself here to an +enumeration of the most important of these undertakings, with the +necessary bibliographical references. + +1608. HENRY HUDSON, during his second voyage, landed on Novaya +Zemlya at Karmakul Bay and other places, but did not succeed in his +attempt to sail further to the east, north of this island. He made +the voyage on account of English merchants. A narrative of it is to +be found in _Purchas_ (iii. p. 574), and an excellent critical +collection of all the original documents relating to Hudson's life +and voyages in G.M. Asher's _Henry Hudson the Navigator_, London, +1860 (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, No. 26). It was west of +the Atlantic that Hudson earned the laurels which gave him for all +time so prominent a place in the history of navigation, and the sea +there also became his grave. Eastwards he did not penetrate so far +as his predecessors. I cannot therefore here find room for any +account of his voyage to Novaya Zemlya; it may only be mentioned +that two of his crew on the morning of the 25/15th of June, 1608, in +75 deg. N.L., saw a mermaid. The following statement is taken from +his journal: "This morning one of the crew, as he looked over the +side, saw a mermaid. Another of his comrades came up at his call. +She was close to the vessel's side, looking steadily at the men. +Soon after she was thrown down by a wave. From the middle upwards +her back and breast were like a woman's. Her body was as large as a +man's, her skin very white, and long dark hair hung down her back. +When she dived, they saw her tail, which resembled that of a dolphin +and was spotted like a mackerel's. The names of the men who saw her +were Thomas Hiller and Robert Bayner." It was probably a curious +seal that gave occasion to this version of the old yarn. + +1611. WILLIAM GOURDON, with the title "appointed chief pilote for +discoverie to Ob," brought this year a cargo of goods to Pustosersk, +and sailed thence to Novaya Zemlya. At the mouth of the Petchora he +saw 24 _lodjas_, manned with ten to 16 men each, bound for +"Mangansei" east of Ob (_Purchas_, iii. pp. 530, 534). While +attempting to get further information regarding these voyages to +Siberia, the Muscovy Company's envoy learned that, at least as a +rule, the question was only of carrying goods by sea to the bottom +of Kara Bay, whence they were transported overland to Ob, advantage +being taken of two small rivers and a lake (_Purchas_, iii. p. 539). +But other accounts lead us to infer that the Russian _lodjas_ +actually sailed to Ob, even through Matotschkin Schar, as appears +from statements in _Purchas_ (iii. pp. 804, 805). At the same place +we find the statement, already quoted, of a Russian, who in 1584 +offered for fifty roubles to act as guide overland from the Petchora +to the Ob, that a West-European ship was wrecked at the mouth of the +Ob, and its crew killed by the Samoyeds who lived there. The Russian +also said that it was an easy matter to sail from Vaygats to the +mouth of the Ob. + +1612. The whaling captain JAN CORNELISZ. VAN HOORN endeavoured to +sail north of Novaya Zemlya towards the east, but met with ice in +77 deg. N.L., which compelled him to return (_Witsen_, p. 906). + +1625. CORNELIS BOSMAN, at the instance of the Northern Company of +the Netherlands, with a vessel of 90 tons, manned by 24 men, and +provisioned for two and a half years, passed through Yugor Schar +eastwards, but fell in with so much ice in the Kara Sea that he was +compelled to seek for a harbour in that sound. There he waited for +more favourable conditions, but was finally compelled by storm and +ice to return with his object unaccomplished. (S. Muller, +_Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie_, Utrecht, 1874, p. 185.) + +1653.[144] This year a Danish expedition was sent out to the +North-east. An account of the voyage was given by DE LA MARTINIERE, +surgeon to the expedition, in a work published for the first time at +Paris in 1671, with the following title: _Voyage des Pais +Septentrionaux. Dans lequel se void les moeurs, maniere de vivre, &c. +superstitions des Norweguiens, Lappons, Kiloppes, Borandiens, +Syberiens, Samojedes, Zembliens, &c. Islandois, enrichi de plusieurs +figures_.[145] This work afterwards attained a considerable +circulation, doubtless in consequence of Martiniere's easy style, +contrasting so strongly with the common dry ship's-log manner, and +the large number of wonderful stories he narrates, without the least +regard to truth or probability. He is the Munchhausen of the +North-east voyages. The Norse peasants, for instance, are said to be +all slaves to the nobles, who have sovereign power over their +property, tyrannise over their inferiors, and are prone to +insurrection. The elks are said to be liable to falling sickness, +and therefore fall down in convulsions when they are hunted--hence +their name "eleend." Sailors are said to have purchased on the +north-west coast of Norway for ten crowns and a pound of tobacco +three knots of wind from the Lapps living there, who were all +magicians; when the first knot was loosed, a gentle breeze arose, +the second gave a strong gale, the third a storm, during which the +vessel was in danger of being wrecked.[146]. Novaya Zemlya is stated +to be inhabited by a peculiar tribe, "the Zembliens," of whom two +were taken prisoners and carried to Copenhagen. De la Martiniere +also got the head of a walrus, which had been harpooned with great +difficulty; the animal was drawn as a fish with a long horn +projecting from its head. As a specimen of the birds of Novaya +Zemlya a penguin was drawn and described, and finally the work +closed with a rectification of the map of the Polar Regions, which +according to the author's ideas ought to be as represented below. I +refer to these absurdities, because the account of Martiniere's +voyage exerted no little influence on the older writings relating to +the Arctic Regions. + +1664 and 1668. A whaling captain, WILLEM DE VLAMINGH, sailed in 1664 +round the northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya to Barents' winter +quarters, and thence eastwards, where one of his men thought he saw +land ("Jelmert-landt," _Witsen_, p. 902).[147] The same Vlamingh +says that in 1668 he discovered, twenty-five miles N.N.E. of +Kolgujev, a new island three to four miles in circumference. This +island, which was described in great detail, and named by the +discoverer "Witsen's Island," has not since been seen again +(_Witsen_, p. 923). + +1666. In this year some vessels were sent from the Netherlands to +the north-east. There were Jews among the owners, and the seafarers +were furnished with letters in Hebrew, because it was believed that +they would come in contact with some of the lost tribes of Israel. +Nothing farther appears to have been known of the voyage, which +undoubtedly was without result. (_Witsen_, p. 962.) + +[Illustration: DE LA MARTINIERE'S MAP. ] + +1675. A Dutch whaling captain, CORNELIS PIERSZ. SNOB-BERGER, visited +Novaya Zemlya, on whose coast he killed three whales and six hundred +walruses. He would probably have got still more "fish," if he had +not in 72-1/2 deg. found an ore, which appeared to contain silver, +gold, and other metals. Instead of blubber the skipper now loaded +ore, which in his opinion was precious, but afterwards on being +tested at home was found to be valueless (_Witsen_, p. 918). + +17th Century, year not stated. Shipmaster CORNELIS ROULE is said to +have sailed in the longitude of Novaya Zemlya to 84-1/2 deg. or 85 deg. +N.L. and there discovered a fjord-land, along which he sailed +ten miles. Beyond that a large open sea was seen. From a high +mountain situated on a sound, in which he rode, it appeared that he +might sail one or two watches further to the north. He found there +large numbers of birds, which were exceedingly tame (_Witsen_, p. +920). If we take some degrees from the latitude stated, which is +perhaps not very unreasonable in dealing with the narratives of old +whalers, which have passed through two or three hands, Roule may, as +far back as two hundred years ago, have reached Franz-Josef's Land, +and sailed along its coast to a very high latitude for those +regions. + +1676. WOOD and FLAWES were sent out from England by Charles II. to +sail by the north-east passage to the Pacific. For this purpose the +English Admiralty fitted out a vessel, the _Speedwell_, while "as +all exploratory voyages are exposed to the possibility of disaster," +another small ship, the _Prosperous_, was purchased and handed over +to the expedition by private gentlemen.[148] The command of the +first vessel was given to Captain Wood, the chief promoter of the +undertaking, and the other vessel was commanded by Captain Flawes. +The voyage was completely without result, as Wood did not penetrate +so far, either to the north or east, as his predecessors or as the +whalers, who appear to have at that time frequently visited North +Novaya Zemlya. Wood had previously accompanied Sir John Narborough +during a voyage through the dangerous Magellan Straits, in the +course of which he became known as a bold and skilful seaman, but he +not only wanted experience in sailing amongst ice, but also the +endurance and the coolness that are required for voyages in the high +north. He thereby showed himself to be quite unfit for the command +which he undertook. Before his departure he was unreasonably certain +of success; with the first encounter with ice his self-reliance gave +way entirely; and when his vessel was wrecked on the coast of Novaya +Zemlya, he knew no other way to keep up the courage of his men and +prevent mutiny than to send the brandy bottle round.[149] Finally +after his return he made Barents and other distinguished seafarers +in the Arctic Regions answerable for all the skipper tales collected +from quite other quarters, which he before his departure held to be +proved undoubtedly true. This voyage would therefore not have been +referred to here, if it had not been preceded and followed by lively +discussions regarding the fitness of the Polar Sea for navigation, +during which at least a portion of the experience which Dutch and +English whalers had gained of the state of the ice between Greenland +and Novaya Zemlya was rescued from oblivion, though unfortunately +almost exclusively in the form of unconfirmed statements of very +high latitudes, which had been occasionally reached. Three papers +mainly led to Wood's voyage. These were:-- + +1. A letter, inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society,[150] +on the state of Novaya Zemlya, said to be founded on discoveries +which had been made at the express command of the Czar. +The letter was accompanied by a map, drawn by an artist named +Panelapoetski, who sent it from Moscow as a present to the writer. +The Kara Sea is said to be a freshwater inland lake which freezes +strongly in winter, and it is stated that according to the unanimous +accounts of the Samoyeds and Tartars it is quite possible to sail +north of Novaya Zemlya to Japan. + +2. Another letter was inserted in the _Transactions_ of the Royal +Society,[151] in which the statement in the former letter on the +connection of Novaya Zemlya with the mainland is repeated, and the +difficulties which Barents met with ascribed to the circumstance +that he sailed too near the land, along which the sea is often +frozen; some miles from the shore, on the other hand, it never +freezes, even at the Pole, unless occasionally. It is also said that +some Amsterdam merchants sailed more than a hundred leagues eastward +of Novaya Zemlya, and on that account petitioned the States-General +for privileges.[152] However, in consequence of opposition from the +Dutch East India Company, their petition was not granted, on which +the merchants turned to Denmark. Here their proposal was immediately +received with favour. Two vessels were fitted out, but instead of +sailing to Japan, they went to Spitzbergen to the whale-fishing. It +is further stated in the letter that it would not be unadvisable to +let some persons live for a time with the Samoyeds, in order to find +out what they knew of the matter, and that, when a more complete +knowledge of the navigable waters was acquired, the whole voyage +from England to Japan might be accomplished in five or six weeks. +Were a wintering necessary, it would not be attended with any +danger, if, instead of a house of thick planks standing by itself, +earth huts were used. + +3. A pamphlet, whose contents are given in the long and peculiar +title: "A brief Discourse of a Passage by the North-Pole to Japan, +China, etc. Pleaded by Three Experiments: and Answers to all +Objections that can be urged against a Passage that way. As: 1. By a +Navigation from Amsterdam into the North-Pole, and two Degrees +beyond it. 2. By a Navigation from Japan towards the North-Pole. 3. +By an Experiment made by the Czar of Muscovy, whereby it appears, +that to the Northwards of Nova Zembla is a free and open Sea as far +as Japan, China, etc. With a Map of all the Discovered Lands neerest +to the Pole. By Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King's most +Exellent Majesty. London, 1674." + +The most remarkable passage in this scarce little book is the +following:-- + + "Being about twenty-two years ago in Amsterdam, I went + into a drinking-house to drink a cup of beer for my + thirst, and sitting by the public fire, among several + people, there happened a seaman to come in, who, seeing a + friend of his there, whom he knew went in the Greenland + voyage, wondered to see him, because it was not yet time + for the Greenland fleet to come home, and asked him what + accident brought him home so soon; his friend (who was the + steer-man aforsaid in a Greenland ship that summer) told + him, that their ship went not out to fish that summer, but + only to take in the lading of the whole fleet, to bring it + to an early market. But, said he, before the fleet had + caught fish enough to lade us, we, by order of the + Greenland Company, sailed unto the north pole and back + again. Whereupon (his relation being novel to me) I + entered into discourse with him, and seemed to question + the truth of what he said; but he did ensure me it was + true, and that the ship was then in Amsterdam, and many of + the seamen belonging to her to justify the truth of it; + and told me, moreover, that they had sailed two degrees + beyond the pole. I asked him if they found no land or + islands about the pole? He told me, No, they saw no ice; I + asked him what weather they had there? He told me fine + warm weather, such as was at Amsterdam in the summer time + and as hot."[153] + +In addition to these stories there were several contributions to a +solution of the problem, which Wood himself collected, as a +statement by Captain Goulden, who had made thirty voyages to +Spitzbergen, that two Dutchmen had penetrated eastward of that group +of islands to 89 deg. N.L.; the observation that on the coast of +Corea whales had been caught with European harpoons in them;[154] +and that driftwood eaten to the heart by the sea-worm was found on +the coasts of the Polar lands, &c.[155] + +When Wood failed, he abandoned the views he had before maintained, +declaring that the statements on which he had founded his plans were +downright lies and delusions. But the belief in a polar sea that is +occasionally navigable is not yet given up. It has since then been +maintained by such men as DAINES BARRINGTON,[156] FERDINAND VON +WRANGEL, AUGUSTUS PETERMANN,[157] and others. Along with nearly all +Polar travellers of the present day, I had long been of an opposite +opinion, believing the Polar Sea to be constantly covered with +impenetrable masses of ice, continuous or broken up, but I have come +to entertain other views since in the course of two winterings--the +first in 79 deg.53', that is to say, nearer the Pole than any +other has wintered in the old world, the second in the neighbourhood +of the Asiatic Pole of cold--I have seen that the sea does not +freeze completely, even in the immediate neighbourhood of land. From +this I draw the conclusion that the sea scarcely anywhere +permanently[158] freezes over where it is of any considerable depth, +and far from land. If this be the case, there is nothing +unreasonable in the old accounts, and what has happened once we may +expect to happen another time. + +However this may be, it is certain that the ignominious result of +Wood's voyage exerted so great a deterring influence from all new +undertakings in the same direction, that nearly two hundred years +elapsed before an expedition was again sent out with the distinctly +declared intention, which was afterwards disavowed, of achieving a +north-east passage. This was the famous Austrian expedition of PAYER +and WEYPRECHT in 1872-74, which failed indeed in penetrating far to +the eastward, but which in any case formed an epoch in the history +of Arctic exploration by the discovery of Franz-Josef's Land and by +many valuable researches on the natural conditions of the Polar +lands. Considered as a North-east voyage, this expedition was the +immediate predecessor of that of the _Vega_. + +It is so well known through numerous works recently published, and +above all by Payer's spirited narrative, that I need not go into +further detail regarding it. + +But if the North-east voyages proper thus almost entirely ceased +during the long interval between Wood's and Payer's voyages, a large +number of other journeys for the purpose of research and hunting +were instead carried out during this period, through which we +obtained the first knowledge founded on actual observations of the +natural conditions of Novaya Zemlya and the Kara Sea. Of these +voyages, mainly made by Russians and Scandinavians, I shall give an +account in the next chapter. It was these that prepared the way for +the success which we at last achieved. + + +[Footnote 102: In Bosworth's translation this name is replaced by +_White Sea_, an unnecessary modernising of the name, and incorrect +besides, as the White Sea is only a bay of the ocean which bounds +Europe on the north. ] + +[Footnote 103: The Russian chronicles state that the land between +the Dwina and the Petchora (Savolotskaja Tchud) was made tributary +under the Slavs in Novgorod during the first half of the ninth +century. A monastery is spoken of in the beginning of the twelfth +century at the mouth of the Dwina, whence we may conclude that the +land was even then partly peopled by Russians, but we want +trustworthy information as to the time when the Russian-Finnish +Arctic voyages began (compare F. Litke, _Viermalige Reise durch das +noerdliche Eismeer_. Berlin, 1835, p. 3). ] + +[Footnote 104: The voyage is described in _Hakluyt_, 1st Edition, p. +311. It is inserted in the list of contents in the following terms: +"The voyage of Steven Burrough towarde the river Ob, intending the +discoverie of the north-east passage. An. 1556." It appears from the +introduction to Hakluyt's work that the narrative was revised by +Burrough himself. In the text Burrowe is written instead of +Burrough. ] + +[Footnote 105: As I have already mentioned, von Herbertstein states +that the Russians (Istoma and others) as early as 1496 sailed round +the northern extremity of Norway in boats, which when necessary +could be carried over land. North Cape, or rather Nordkyn, was +called at that time Murmanski Nos (the Norman Cape). When Hulsius in +his collection of travels gives von Herbertstein's account of +Istoma's voyage, he considers Swjatoi Nos on the Kola peninsula to +be North Cape (Harnel, _Tradescant_, St. Petersburg, 1847, p. 40). ] + +[Footnote 106: This must be a slip of the pen or an error of the +press; it was probably intended to be 68 deg. 48'. Kola lies in 68 deg. +51' N.L. ] + +[Footnote 107: This statement is very remarkable. For it shows that +the vessels, that were then used by the Russians and Fins, were not +very inferior as compared with those of the West-Europeans, which is +confirmed by the fact, among others, that, nowhere in accounts of +the voyages of the English or Dutch in former times to Novaya +Zemlya, do we find it stated that in respect to navigation they were +very superior to the Kola men. As the Russian-Finnish _lodjas_ of +the time were probably beyond the influence of the shipbuilding art +of Western Europe, it is of importance to collect all that is known +about the way in which these vessels were built. Several drawings of +them occur in the accounts of the Dutch voyages, but it is uncertain +how far they are accurate. According to these the _lodja_ was +klinker-built, with boards not riveted together but bound fast with +willows, as is still occasionally practised in these regions. The +form of the craft besides reminds us of that of the present +walrus-hunting sloop. ] + +[Footnote 108: Cape Voronov, on the west side of the mouth of the +river Mesen. ] + +[Footnote 109: Probably mountain foxes. Remains of these fox-traps +are still frequently met with along the coast of the Polar Sea, +where the Russians have carried on hunting. ] + +[Footnote 110: Kanin Nos is in 68 deg. 30' N.L. ] + +[Footnote 111: This was the first meeting between West-Europeans and +Samoyeds. ] + +[Footnote 112: The capes which bound the mouth of the Petchora--Cape +Ruski Savorot and Cape Medinski Savorot,--are very nearly in lat. +69 deg.. ] + +[Footnote 113: See above, page 168. ] + +[Footnote 114: Evidently islands near the southern extremity of +Novaya Zemlya. ] + +[Footnote 115: Probably he was of Finnish race. The Quaens in North +Norway are still the most skilful harpooners. In recent times they +have found rivals in skill with the harpoon and gun in the Lapps. ] + +[Footnote 116: The information Burrough obtained regarding the +Samoyeds is given above at page 100. ] + +[Footnote 117: From the context, and the circumstance that "much ice +was drifting in the sea," we may conclude that this haven was +situated on the north side of the island at the entrance to the Kara +Port. ] + +[Footnote 118: Probably the river which on Massa's map is called +Narontza, and debouches on the west coast of Yalmal. ] + +[Footnote 119: All the three vessels that were employed in the first +English expedition to the North-east had an unfortunate fate, viz.: + +The _Edward Bonaventure_, commanded by Chancelor and Burrough, +sailed in 1553 from England to the White Sea, returned to England in +1554 and was on the way plundered by the Dutch (_Purchas_, iii. p. +250); started again with Chancelor for the Dwina in 1555, and +returned the same year to England under Captain John Buckland; +accompanied Burrough in 1556 to the Kola peninsula; went thence to +the Dwina to convey to England Chancelor and a Russian embassy, +consisting of the ambassador Ossip Gregorjevitsch Nepeja and a suite +of sixteen men; the vessel besides being laden with goods to the +value of 20,000_l_. It was wrecked in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen +(Aberdour Bay) on the 20th (10th) November. Chancelor himself, his +wife, and seven Russians were drowned, and most of the cargo lost. + +The _Bona Esperanza_, admiral of the fleet during the expedition of +1553. Its commander and whole crew perished, as has been already +stated, of disease at Arzina on the coast of Kola in the beginning +of 1554. The vessel was saved and was to have been used in 1556 to +carry to England the Russian embassy already mentioned. After having +been driven by a storm into the North Sea, it reached a harbour in +the neighbourhood of Trondhjem, but after leaving that harbour +disappeared completely, nothing being known of its fate. + +The _Bona Confidentia_ was saved like the _Bona Esperanza_ after the +disastrous wintering at Arzina; was also used in conveying the +Russian embassy from Archangel in 1556, but stranded on the +Norwegian coast, every man on board perishing and the whole cargo +being lost. + +Of the four vessels that left the Dwina on the 2nd August, 1556, +only the _Philip and Mary_ succeeded, after wintering at Trondhjem, +in reaching the Thames on the 28th (18th) April, 1557. (A letter of +Master Henrie Lane to the worshipfull Master William Sanderson, +containing a brief discourse of that which passed in the north-east +discoverie, for the space of three and thirtie yeeres, _Purchas_, +iii. p. 249.) ] + +[Footnote 120: Hamel, _Tradescant der aeltere_, p. 106. Hakluyt, 1st +Edition, p. 326. _The voiage of the foresaid M. Stephen Burrough +An_. 1557 _from Colmogro to Wordhouse, &c._ This voyage of Burrough +has attracted little attention; from it however we learn that the +Dutch even at that time carried on an extensive commerce with +Russian Lapland. In the same narrative there is also a list of words +with statements of prices and suitable goods for trade with the +inhabitants of the Kola peninsula. ] + +[Footnote 121: Two accounts of this voyage are to be found in +Hakluyt's collection (pp. 466 and 476). A copy of Pet's own journal +was discovered some years ago, along with other books, frozen in +among the remains of Barents' wintering on the north-east side of +Novaya Zemlya. It has not been published, but is in the possession +of Consul Rein at Hammerfest. ] + +[Footnote 122: The Russians had thus landmarks on Novaya Zemlya 300 +years ago. ] + +[Footnote 123: It is commonly assumed that Pet sailed into the Kara +Sea through Yugor Schar, but that this was not the case is shown +partly by the fact that he never speaks of sailing through a long +and narrow sound, partly by the account of the many islands which he +saw in his voyage, and partly by the statement that coming from the +south he sailed round the westernmost promontory of Vaygats Island. +If we except small rocks near the shore, there are no islands off +the southern part of Vaygats Island. In sailing east of Medinski +Savorot, Pet took the land south of Yugor Schar for Vaygats, and the +soundings on the 29th (19th) July were carried out undoubtedly in +the mouth of some small river debouching there. ] + +[Footnote 124: Of Jackman Hakluyt says (2nd Edition, i. p. 453): +"William with Charles Jackman came to a haven in Norway between +Tronden and Rostock in October, 1580, and wintered there. Thence the +following February he went with a vessel, belonging to the king of +Denmark, to Iceland, and since then nothing has been heard of him." +About that time an English ship stranded at the Ob, and the crew +were killed by the Samoyeds. It has been conjectured that it +possibly was Jackman (compare _Purchas_, iii. p. 546; _Hamel_, p. +238). It is more probable that the vessel which suffered this fate +was that which, two years before Pet and Jackman's voyage, appears +to have been sent out by the Muscovy Company to penetrate eastwards +from the Petchora. The members of this expedition were James +Bassendine, James Woodcocke, and Richard Brown, but we know nothing +concerning it except the very sensible and judicious rules that were +drawn up for the expedition (_Hakluyt_, 1st Edition, p. 406). ] + +[Footnote 125: I have not been able to find any name resembling this +on modern maps. ] + +[Footnote 126: _A Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic +Regions._ London, 1818, p. 99. ] + +[Footnote 127: His proper name was Willem Barentszoon; it was also +written Barentz, Barendsz, Bernardsson, &c. Barents' three voyages +formed the subject of a work by GERRIT DE VEER, which was published +for the first time in 1598 at Amsterdam in a Dutch, a Latin, and a +French edition. The last-mentioned has the following title: _Vray +Description de Trois Voyages des Mer tres admirables faicis_ ... +_par les navires d'Hollande &c. Zelande au nord_ ... _vers les +Royaumes de China &c. Catay, etc._ Afterwards this work was +frequently reprinted in different languages, both singly and in DE +BEY'S, PURCHAS', and other collections of Travels. See on this point +P.A. Tiele, _Memoire bibliographique sur les journaux des +navigateurs Neerlandais_. Amsterdam, 1867. ] + +[Footnote 128: From two large crosses which were found erected on +the island. This shows that the Russians had also explored the north +part of Novaya Zemlya before the West-Europeans. ] + +[Footnote 129: The name Oliver Brunel occurs so often in accounts of +the first voyages to Novaya Zemlya, and the man who bore it appears +to have exercised so great an influence on the development of +commercial communications with Russia, and the sending out of +exploratory expeditions to the North Polar Sea, that I shall give a +brief sketch of his life, mainly after S. Muller, _Geschiedenis der +Noordsche Compagnie_, Utrecht, 1874, p. 26. + +Oliver Brunel was born in Brussels, and in 1565 went in a Russian +vessel from Kola to Kolmogor in order to learn the Russian language +and make himself acquainted with the trade of the region. But the +English, who of course eagerly endeavoured to prevent any intrusion +on their newly-discovered commercial territory, prevailed on the +Russians to keep him in prison for several years. In the end he was +set at liberty, or rather handed over to the rich merchants Jakov +and Grigory Anikiev (Stroganov). In consequence of this, Brunel came +to take part in the commercial expeditions sent out by this +mercantile house, (which by the conquest of Siberia acquired a +world-historical importance, both by land and sea,) to the parts of +Asia bordering on Russia, whereby he became well acquainted with the +Polar Sea and the Gulf of Obi. Brunel afterwards brought about +direct communication between the Netherlands and the great +commercial house, almost sovereign _de facto_ if not _de jure_ in +extensive countries. In connection with this Brunel made strenuous +exertions to open in earnest the navigation of the Netherlands to +the White Sea, and there found a Netherlands factory, which was +placed not on Rosen Island, which was occupied by the English, but +on the spot where the present Archangel is situated. Brunel next +took part in preparations for a Russian North-east expedition, for +which Swedish shipbuilders were received into Stroganov's service. +Brunei himself travelled by land to Holland to enlist men. A number +of particulars regarding these undertakings of Brunel are contained +in a letter of JOHN BALAK to GERARD MERCATOR, dated "Arusburgi ad +Ossellam fluvium" the 20th February, 1581. The letter is printed in +the second edition of _Hakluyt_, 1598, i. p. 509. Scarcely however +had Brunel returned to his native country, before he altered his +plan and wished to procure for his own fatherland the honour and +advantage of the undertaking. The first attempt of the Dutch to +reach China and Japan by the north-east thus came about. Of this +voyage we know only that Brunel endeavoured without success to sail +through Yugor Schar, and that his vessel, heavily laden with furs, +plates of mica, and rock-crystal, was wrecked on the way home at the +mouth of the Petchora (_Beschryvinghe vander Samoyeden Landt in +Tartarien, &c._ Amsterdam, 1612. S. Muller's Photolithographic +Reproduction, 1878). The mica and rock-crystal were undoubtedly +brought from the Ural, as no useful plates of mica or large +rock-crystals are found in the region of the Petchora. Brunel then +entered the Danish service. For we know that an Oliver Brunel during +the reign of King Fredrik II. in Denmark offered to explore +Greenland, and for that purpose in 1583 obtained the right to settle +in Bergen and there enjoy six years freedom from taxes (Cf. +_Groenlands historiske Mindesmoerker_, Copenhagen, 1838, vol. iii. +p. 666). ] + +[Footnote 130: Probably the Sachanich Bay of the Russians. ] + +[Footnote 131: _Voyagie, ofte Schip Vaert, van Jan Huyghen van +Linschoten, van by Noorden, om langes Noorwegen de Noortcaep, +Laplant, Vinlant, Ruslandt_ ... _tot voorby de revier Oby_, Franeker, +1601. Another edition at Amsterdam in 1624, and in abstract in +Saeghman's collection of travels in 1665. The voyage is also +described in Blavii _Atlas Major_, 1665. Linschoten was "commis" on +board, a post which included both the employment of supercargo and +that of owners' commissioner. ] + +[Footnote 132: That is Yugor Schar. This name also occurs, though in +a somewhat altered form, as "Wegorscoi tzar," on Isaac Massa's map +of 1612, which, according to the statement of the publisher, is a +copy of a Russian chart. ] + +[Footnote 133: Accounts of this expedition are given both by De Veer +and Linschoten in the above-named works. ] + +[Footnote 134: These remarkable statements are found in Linschoten's +above quoted work printed in 1601, and cannot therefore be spurious. +They thus show that Taimur Land was inhabited by Samoyeds, and that +the geography of this region was then well known. ] + +[Footnote 135: See above, page 142. ] + +[Footnote 136: The sketch of this voyage forms the main portion of +the above mentioned work of De Veer. Undoubtedly the adventures +during the wintering, the first in so high a latitude, in the first +place procured for De Veer's work the enormous popularity it +enjoyed, and led to its being translated into so many languages. ] + +[Footnote 137: The resolution regarding the offer of this prize is +given below: Extract nit het Register der Resolutien van de Hoog +Mogende Heeren Staten Generael der Vereenigde Nederlanden. + +Folio 158 vso 13 April 1596. + +De Gedeputeerde van de Heeren Staten van Holland verclaren dat heure +principalen geadviseert hebbende op de hervattinge van het voyagie +naer China en Japan, benoorden om, deselve voyage afgeslagen hebben, +ten aenzien van de groote costen die nu twee Jaren achter den +anderen om de reyse te verzoeken te vorgeefs angewent zijn, maer dat +Hare E. goetgevonden ende geconsenteert hebben, mede tgevolgh van de +andere provincien bij zoeverre datter eenige coopluijden aventuriers +bij compagnie ofte anderssine de voerscreven reijse op heure costen +ende risique, zonder te schepen ende tgelt van den lande, zonde +begeren te verzoeken, dat men dezelve aventuriers de reijse gevonden +ende gedaen hebbende, daervan brengende goet ende geloofflijck +beschijt, tot haer luijder wedercomste, zal vereeren mette somme van +vijff en twintich duysent gulden eens. Item daar enboven accorderen +den vrijdom voor twee jaren van convoyen der goederen die zij uit +dese landen naer China off Japan zullen transporteren, ende noch +vrijdom voer den tyd van acht jaren van te goederen die zij uit +China ofte Japan in dese landen sullen bringen. Waerop geadviseert +wesende hebben de Gedeputeerde van d'andere provincien hen daarmede +geconformeert, die van Seelant opt welbehagen van heure principalen, +maer die van Utrecht hebben verclart niet te consenteren in de +vereeringe van XXVm. ] + +[Footnote 138: Every Polar traveller has at one time or other made +the same or a similar mistake. In 1861, for instance, a boat party, +of whom I was one, thought that they saw clearly sailors in +sou'-westers and with white shirtsleeves building a cairn on a point +which appeared to be at no great distance. But the cairn was found +to be a very distant mountain, the shirt-sleeves were formed of +snow-fields, the sou'-westers of pointed cliffs, and the motion +arose from oscillatory changes in the atmospheric strata. ] + +[Footnote 139: Undoubtedly _Anser bernicla_, which is common on the +west coast of Spitzbergen. The Dutch name ought neither to be +translated _red goose_, as some Englishmen have done, nor confounded +with _rotges_. ] + +[Footnote 140: See the copy of Barents' own map with his course laid +down upon it, which is to be found in Pontanus, _Rerum et urbis +Amstelodamensium Historia_ (Amst. 1611), and is annexed to this work +in photolithographic facsimile. ] + +[Footnote 141: On the assumption of a horizontal refraction of about +45'. ] + +[Footnote 142: See on this point De Veer, leaf 25 and an unpaged +leaf between pages 30 and 31 in Blavii _Atlas Major_, tom. i. That a +mistake occurred in the date is not possible, because the latitude +was determined by solar observations on the 29th (19th) February, +the 21st (11th) and 31st (21st) March (see De Veer, I. 27). Besides, +at the correct date, the 3rd February (24th January), a conjunction +of Jupiter and the moon was observed, whereby the difference of +longitude between Ice Haven and Venice was determined to be 75 deg.. +However erroneous this determination may be, it shows, however, +that the date was correct. ] + +[Footnote 143: Built along with a weigh-house intended for the +Norwegians in 1582 by the first vojvode in Kola (_Hamel_, p. 66). +In Pontanus (_Rerum et urbis Amstelodamensium Historia_, Amsterodami, +1611, p. 142), there is a drawing of the inner yard of this house, +and of the reception of shipwrecked men there. ] + +[Footnote 144: The year is incorrectly given as 1647 by F. von +Adelung (_Kritisch-Litteraerische Uebersicht_, &c.). ] + +[Footnote 145: The following editions are enumerated: four French, +Paris, 1671, 1672, 1676, and Amsterdam, 1708; six German, Hamburg, +1675, Leipzig, 1703, 1706, 1710, 1711, and 1718; one Latin, +Glueckstadt, 1675; two Dutch, Amsterdam, 1681 and 1685; one Italian, +printed in Conte Aurelio degli Anzi's _Il Genio Vagante_, Parma, +1691; two English, one printed separately in 1706, the other in +Harris, _Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibl_., 3rd edition. London, +1744-48, Vol. II. p. 457. ] + +[Footnote 146: The story of the wind knots is taken from Olaus +Magnus, _De gentibus septentrionalibus_, Rome, 1555, p. 119. There a +drawing of the appearance of the knots is also given. ] + +[Footnote 147: Compare page 203. ] + +[Footnote 148: These were James Duke of York, Lord Berkley, Sir John +Williamson, Sir John Bankes, Mr. Samuel Peeps, Captain Herbert, Mr. +Dupey, and Mr. Hoopgood (Harris, _Nav. Bibl._, vol. ii. p. 453). ] + +[Footnote 149: "All I could do in this exigency was to let the +brandy-bottle go round, which kept them allways fox'd, till the 8th +July Captain Flawes came so seasonably to our relief" (Barrow, _A +Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Regions_. London, +1818, p. 268). ] + +[Footnote 150: "A letter, not long since written to the Publisher by +an Experienced person residing at Amsterdam," etc. (_Philosophical +Transactions_, vol. IX. p. 3, London, 1674). ] + +[Footnote 151: "A summary Relation of what hath been hitherto +discovered in the matter of the North-East passage; communicated by +a good Hand" (_Phil. Trans._, vol. x. p. 417. London, 1675). ] + +[Footnote 152: The time when the voyage was made is not stated in +the letter quoted. Harris says that he with great difficulty +ascertained the year of the successful voyage to the eastward to be +1670. He says further that the persons who gave him this information +also stated that, at the time when this petition was given in to the +States-General, it was also asserted that there was no difficulty in +sailing northwards from Spitzbergen (Greenland), and that many Dutch +vessels had actually done it. To confirm this statement the +merchants proposed that the logs of the Spitzbergen fleet for the +year 1655 should be examined. This was done. In seven of them it was +found recorded that the vessels had sailed to 79 deg. N.L. Three +other logs agreed in the point that on the 1st August, 1655, 88 deg. +56' _was observed_. The sea here was open and the swell heavy +(Harris, _Nav. Bibl._, ii. p. 453). J.R. Forster (_Geschichte der +Entdeckungen und Schiffsfahrten im Norden_, Frankfurt a. d. Oder, +1874) appears to place the voyage eastward of Novaya Zemlya in the +period before 1614. It is, however, probable that the voyage in +question is Vlamingh's remarkable one in 1664, or that in 1666, of +which I have already given an account. ] + +[Footnote 153: In more recent times the whalers have been more +modest in their statements about high northern latitudes reached. +Thus a Dutchman who had gone whale-fishing for twenty-two years, at +an accidental meeting with Tschitschagoff in Bell Sound in the +year 1766, stated among other things that he himself had once been +in 81 deg., but that he heard that other whalers had been in 83 deg. +and had seen land over the ice. He had seen the east coast of +Greenland (Spitzbergen) only once in 75 deg. N.L. (Herrn von +Tschitschagoff Russisch-kaiserliehen Admirals _Reise nach dem +Eissmeer_, St. Petersburg, 1793, p. 83). Dutch shipmasters too, +who in the beginning of the seventeenth century penetrated north +of Spitzbergen to 82 deg., said that they had thence seen land towards +the north (Muller, _Geschiedenis der Noordsche Compagnie_. p. 180). ] + +[Footnote 154: Witsen states, p. 43, that he had conversed with a +Dutch seaman, Benedictus Klerk, who had formerly served on board a +whaler, and afterwards been a prisoner in Corea. He had asserted +that in whales that were killed on the coast of that country he had +found Dutch harpoons. The Dutch then carried on whale-fishing only +in the north part of the Atlantic. The _find_ thus shows that whales +can swim from one ocean to the other. As we know that these colossal +inhabitants of the Polar Sea do not swim from one ice-ocean to the +other across the equator, this observation must be considered very +important, especially at a time when the question whether Asia and +America are connected across the Pole was yet unsettled. Witsen also +enumerates, at p. 900, several occasions on which stone harpoons were +found in the skins of whales caught in the North Atlantic. These +harpoons, however, may as well be derived from the wild races, +unacquainted with iron, at Davis\ Strait, as from tribes living +on the north part of the Pacific. At Kamschatka, too, long before +whale-fishing by Europeans began in Behring's Sea, harpoons marked +with Latin letters were found in whales (Steller, _Beschreibung von +dem Lande Kamtschatka_, Frankfurt und Leipzig, 1774, p. 102). ] + +[Footnote 155: The account of Wood's voyage was printed in London in +1694 by Smith and Walford, printers to the Royal Society (according +to a statement by Barrington, _The possibility of approaching the +North Pole asserted_, 2nd Edition, London, 1818, p. 34). I have only +had an opportunity of seeing extracts from the account of this +voyage in _Harris_ and others. ] + +[Footnote 156: Barrington published a number of papers on this +question, which are collected in the work whose title is given +above, of which there were two editions. ] + +[Footnote 157: At several places in his _Mittheilungen_, 1855-79. ] + +[Footnote 158: That thin sheets of ice are formed in clear and calm +weather, even in the open sea and over great depths, was observed +several times during the expedition of 1868. But when we consider +that salt water has no maximum of density situated above the +freezing-point, that ice is a bad conductor of heat, and that the +clear, newly-formed ice is soon covered by a layer of snow which +hinders radiation, it appears to me to be improbable that the +ice-covering at deep, open places can become so thick that it is not +broken up even by a moderate storm. Even the shallow harbour at +Mussel Bay first froze permanently in the beginning of February, and +in the end of January the swell in the harbour was so heavy, that +all the three vessels of the Swedish Expedition were in danger of +being wrecked--_in consequence of the tremendous sea in 80 deg. +N.L. in the end of January!_ The sea must then have been open very +far to the north-west On the west coast of Spitzbergen the sea in +winter is seldom completely frozen within sight of land. Even at +Barents' winter haven on the north-east coast of Novaya Zemlya, the +sea during the coldest season of the year was often free of ice, and +Hudson's statement, "that it is not surprising that the navigator +falls in with so much ice in the North Atlantic, when there are so +many sounds and bays on Spitzbergen," shows that even he did not +believe in any ice being formed in the open sea. ] + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + 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. + +[Illustration: AMMONITE WITH GOLD LUSTRE. From Novaya Zemlya. +_Ammonites alternans_. V. BUCH. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: VIEW FROM MATOTSCHKIN SCHAR. (After a drawing by Hj +Theel. 1875.) ] + +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. + +[Illustration: FRIEDRICH BENJAMIN VON LUeTKE. Born in 1797 in St. +Petersburg. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: AUGUST KARLOVITZ ZIVOLKA. Born in 1810 at Warsaw, died +in 1839 on Novaya Zemlya. (After a pen-and-ink drawing communicated by +Herr Paul Daschkoff.) ] + +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. + +[Illustration: PAUL VON KRUSENSTERN, JUNIOR. Born at Revel in 1834; +died at Dorpat in 1871. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: MICHAEL KONSTANTINOVITSCH SIDOROFF. Born in 1823 at +Archangel. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: NORWEGIAN HUNTING SLOOP. The _Proeven_, +employed by the Swedish Expedition to the Yenisej in 1875. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: ELLING CARLSEN. Born at Tromsoe in 1819. ] + +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. + +[Illustration: EDWARD HOLM JOHANNESEN. Born in 1844, at Balsfjord +Parsonage. ] + +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. + +In 1872 the state of the ice both north of Spitzbergen and round +Novaya Zemlya was exceedingly unfavourable,[180] and several of the +scientific expeditions and hunting vessels, which that year visited +the Arctic Ocean, there underwent severe calamities and misfortunes. +Five of the best hunting vessels from Tromsoe were lost in the ice; +the Swedish expedition, which that year started for the north, could +not, as was intended, erect its winter dwelling on the Seven +Islands, but was compelled to winter at the more southerly Mussel +Bay; and the Austrian expedition under the leadership of Payer and +Weyprecht was beset by ice a few hours after its campaign had +commenced in earnest. It is well known how this carefully equipped +expedition afterwards for two winters in succession drifted about in +the Polar Sea, until it finally came to a standstill at a previously +unknown land lying north of Novaya Zemlya, which was named after the +Austrian Emperor, Franz Josef. These two expeditions, however, did +not touch the territory of the _Vega's_ voyage, on which account I +cannot here take any further notice of them.[181] But the same year +a wintering took place on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, of which +I consider that I ought to give a somewhat more detailed account, +both because in the course of it one of the most gallant Polar +voyagers of Norway met his fate, and because it shows us various +new, hitherto untouched sides of winter life in the High North. + +SIVERT TOBIESEN was one of the oldest and boldest of the Norwegian +walrus-hunting skippers; he had with life and soul devoted himself +to his calling, and in it was exposed to many dangers and +difficulties, which he knew how to escape through courage and skill. +In 1864 he had sailed round the northeastern part of North-east +Land, and had been very successful in hunting; but as he was about +to return home, his vessel was beset by ice near the southern +entrance to Hinloopen Strait, where the same fate also overtook two +other hunting sloops, one of them commanded by the old hunting +skipper MATTILAS, who in the winter of 1872-73 died in a tent at +Grey Hook, the other by the skipper J. ASTROM. They were compelled +to save themselves in boats, in which they rowed through Hinloopen +Strait to the mouth of Ice Fjord, where the shipwrecked crews were +met and saved by the Swedish expedition of 1864. He passed the +winter of 1865-66 happily, in a house built for the purpose on Bear +Island, and communicated to the Swedish Academy of Sciences a series +of valuable meteorological observations, made during the +wintering.[182] After 1868 he had made several successful voyages to +Novaya Zemlya, some of which were also remarkable from a +geographical point of view, and in 1872 he was also on a hunting +expedition to the same regions. + +[Illustration: SIVERT KRISTIAN TOBIESEN. Born at Tromsoe in 1821, +died on Novaya Zemlya in 1873. ] + +As he could not enter the Kara Sea, he sailed up along the west +coast, where in the middle of September he was beset in the +neighbourhood of the Cross Islands. Hence seven of the crew +travelled south in a boat to seek for a vessel, but Tobiesen +himself, his son and two men, remained on board. Their stock of +provisions consisted of only a small barrel of bread, a sack of +corners and fragments of ship biscuit, a small quantity of coffee, +tea, sugar, syrup, groats, salt meat, salt fish, a few pounds of +pork, a couple of tin canisters of preserved vegetables, a little +bad butter, &c. There was abundance of wood on board and on the +land. Notwithstanding the defective equipment they went on bravely +and hopefully with the preparations for wintering, gathered +drift-wood in heaps on the beach, threw a tent of sails over the +vessel, threw up snow about its sides, covered the deck with, the +hides of the seals and walruses that had been captured during +summer, did what could be done to bring about good ventilation on +board, &c. A large number of bears came to the winter station at the +commencement of the wintering, affording an abundant supply of fresh +bears' flesh. So long as this lasted, the health of the party was +good, but when it came to an end at the new year, their food for +three weeks consisted mainly of ill-smelling salt bears' flesh. +Tobiesen and one of the men were now taken ill. The cold sank to +-39-1/2 deg. C.[183] On the 29th April, 1873, Tobiesen died of +scurvy. In the month of May his son was also attacked, and died on +the 5th July. The two men also suffered from scurvy, but recovered. +They rowed south in the month of August, and were rescued by a +Russian hunting-vessel. + +[Illustration: TOBIESEN'S WINTER HOUSE ON BEAR ISLAND. (After a sketch +by the Author.) ] + +The seven men, the harpooner Henrik Nilsen, Ole Andreas Olsen, Axel +Henriksen, Amandus Hansen, Nils Andreas Foxen, Johan Andersson and +Lars Larsen, who rowed away in autumn, had an exceedingly remarkable +fate. When they left the vessel they could only take with them +fourteen ship biscuits, six boxes of lucifers, two guns, with +ammunition, a spy-glass, a coffeepot and an iron pot, but no winter +clothes to protect them from the cold. At first, in order to get to +open water, they had to drag the boat about seven kilometres over +the ice. They then steered southwards along the land. The journey +was made under circumstances of great difficulty and privation. The +darkness and cold increased, as did the storm, and what was worst of +all their stock of provisions was very soon consumed. On the second +day, however, they wore fortunate enough to shoot a bear; afterwards +they also succeeded in killing a pair of seals. Finally, after +having partly rowed and partly sailed about three weeks (they had no +almanac with them), and travelled nearly 400 kilometres, they came +to two small hunting or store houses, which the Russians had built +on the north side of Gooseland. In order to have at least a roof +over their heads the exhausted men settled there, though in the +house they found neither food, clothes, nor hunting implements. They +were all much enfeebled by hunger, thirst, cold, and the long boat +journey; their feet were swollen and partly frost-bitten. + +They remained in the house three weeks, and during that time shot a +seal, two white foxes, and four reindeer, with which they kept in +their lives; but as it appeared that there were no more reindeer to +be had, and there were no more opportunities of shooting seals or +reindeer, they determined to leave the house and endeavour to get to +Vaygats Island. When they broke up, Ole Andreas Olsen and Henrik +Nilsen took the guns and ammunition, while the other five commenced +the journey with some small sledges they had found at the house, on +which they loaded what they had of clothes and other articles. The +boat was left behind. Soon after they left the house Ole Andreas +Olsen and Henrik Nilsen were separated in a snowstorm from the +others who drew the sledges. The latter now agreed to determine by +lot whether they should return to the house or continue their +journey, and when the lot fell for the latter they allowed it to +settle the matter, and so went south.[184] + +Their position was now desperate in the extreme. When they left the +house they had about half a pound of reindeer flesh and a little +blubber remaining. The weather was dreadful; they were badly +clothed, and they wanted water. In consequence they could make only +very short days' marches. At night they buried themselves in the +snow, and while the rest slept, one man kept constant watch, to +prevent the others from being snowed up and to keep the bears at a +distance. They all held out till the sixth night. Then Amandus +Hansen died. The rest were compelled to leave him in the snow and +continue their journey as well as they could, but they had by +degrees become so weak and exhausted that, after having traversed +probably about 100 kilometres, for the most part along the coast, +they had to leave even the sledges and the most of what they had +with them. The seventh or eighth day they caught sight of a little +pile of fuel, and the track of a sledge in the snow. By following +this track for about ten kilometres they found a small house, +inhabited by Samoyeds, who immediately gave them a friendly +reception, and entertained them in the most hospitable way. In +particular they showed much kindness to Nils Andreas Foxen, whose +toes were frost-bitten, and who was in other respects much +enfeebled. + +These Samoyeds, three men, three women, and a boy, spoke Russian. +They had settled for the winter on the south part of Gooseland to +shoot the seal and the walrus. They had with them a large barge, +besides some small Samoyed boats, and were comparatively well +provided with reindeer flesh, meal, tea, sugar, &c. Their guns were +old flint-lock fowling-pieces, but they were good shots. With these +Samoyeds the four shipwrecked men remained the whole winter, and +were tolerably well off. When the weather permitted they assisted +the Samoyeds in capturing seals, and when the weather was bad they +passed the time as well as they could, the Samoyeds generally +employing themselves in playing cards or draughts. In order to avoid +scurvy the Samoyeds often took exercise in the open air, and ate +reindeer flesh, partly cooked and partly raw, and drank the blood. +They lived in the house until March was well advanced, when, for +want of fuel, they were obliged to hew it down. Instead they removed +into a tent of reindeer skin. These Samoyeds appear to have been +Christians in name, though they must have had strange ideas of their +new God. When, for instance, they saw a seal and missed shooting it, +they shot at the sun, because they believed that God was angry with +them. They lived in a sort of marriage, but if the man became +unfriendly to the woman, or tired of her, he could take another; +they had no clocks, but, notwithstanding, had a tolerably good idea +of time by the help of the stars and the sun; instead of an almanac +they used a piece of wood, in which for every day they cut a notch. +Although they sometimes quarrelled with and threatened one another, +they were, however, on the whole friendly, and reasonable, and +showed much kindness to the four shipwrecked men, whom they provided +with warm skin clothes, and during the whole time with food in +abundance, according to their circumstances, so that they did not +suffer any want. + +Ole Andreas Olsen and Henrik Nilsen had, when they were separated in +the snowstorm from the sledge party, half a pound of flesh and their +guns, and nothing more. They did not succeed in finding any game, +and though they were not very far from the house, they required +three days and a half to get back to it. In the meantime, also, +these two comrades in misfortune had been separated. Henrik Nilsen +found the house first, lighted a fire, roasted and ate some pieces +of fox flesh that he found remaining. Ole Andreas Olsen, who in +desperation had endeavoured to quench his thirst with sea-water, was +so weak that, when late at night he came to the boat, he could not +crawl up to the house. He had kept himself in life by eating snow +and devouring large pieces of his "pesk," which was made of the raw +hides of reindeer he had previously shot. After having lain a while +in the boat he crept up to the house, where he found Henrik sleeping +by the fire, which was not yet quite extinguished. The following day +they both began to make arrangements for a lengthened stay in the +house. But here they found nothing, neither food, household +furniture, nor aught else. Nor did they succeed at first in getting +any game; and for more then a fortnight they sustained life by +boiling and gnawing the flesh from the bones of the reindeer, the +seal, and the bear, that lay under the snow, remains from the +Russian hunting excursions of the preceding year. Finally, before +Christmas they succeeded in killing a reindeer. Their lucifers were +now done, but they lighted a fire by loading their guns with a +mixture of which gunpowder formed a part, and firing into old ropes, +left behind by the Russians, which they picked asunder and dried. +One of the Russian huts they tore down and used as fuel. They had +neither axe nor saw, but they split up the fuel by means of a piece +of iron, which they took from the keel of the boat, and of which +they made, by hammering with stones, a sort of knife. Of some nails, +which they also took from the boat, they likewise forged needles by +means of stones; they used reindeer sinews for thread, and of the +hides they sewed clothes for themselves. They lived in the hut until +some time in April. During this time they shot eleven reindeer and a +bear, so that they did not actually suffer hunger; but in the middle +of April they had powder remaining for only three shots, and they +now saw the impossibility of supporting themselves longer at that +place, wherefore they determined to go farther south, in order, if +possible, to reach Vaygats Island. They went by land along the +sea-shore, leaving the boat behind. After the lapse of some days +they came to the same Samoyeds with whom the other four of the crew +were, and they now remained till the middle of June with the +Samoyeds, who gave them the same hospitable treatment as their +companions in misfortune. When at the time specified it was +determined to fetch the boat from the Russian hut, in order that +they might make their way southwards, Johan Andersson, a Swede by +birth, declared that he wished to remain with the Samoyeds, and was +not willing to accompany the other five on their homeward journey. + +The latter now dragged the boat for two days over the ice but when it +became too heavy they had to cut it through the middle and leave a half +behind. Of a large sealskin, which they got from the Samoyeds, they made +a stern to the other half, which they continued to drag over the ice for +three days, until they came to open water. Then they rowed in the +truncated boat ten days, until they reached a fast ice-border at the +Vaygats Island, where they again fell in with Samoyeds. Even by these, +who could speak neither Russian nor Quaen, and by whom they could with +difficulty make themselves understood, they were well received. They +remained there eight days and got good entertainment. These Samoyeds had +tame reindeer, with which they sent the shipwrecked men on their way +southwards, till they fell in with a vessel, with which four returned to +Norway. Lars Larsen now did not wish to go home, preferring to remain +with the Samoyed family which he had last met with. Samoyed life, +however, must not be so pleasant after all, for in a year or two both +the men who had remained among the Samoyeds returned home. As a reward +for the hospitality which the shipwrecked walrus-hunters had received +from the Samoyeds on Gooseland, the Norwegian Government presented them +with a number of gifts, consisting of clothes, pearls, breechloaders, +with ammunition, &c., which were handed over to them with festive +speeches and toasts on the 17th July, 1880. During the entertainment +which took place on this occasion on the coast of Novaya Zemlya, toasts +were drunk in champagne, and it is said that this liquor was very much +relished by the Samoyeds.[185] + +As little as Tobiesen could any other walrus-hunter make his way, +either in 1872 or 1873, into the Kara Sea, the entrances of which +were during these summers blocked by a compact belt of ice, which +extended along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island to +the mainland. In the belief of a large number of experienced +walrus-hunters, with whom I have conversed on the subject, this belt +of ice was only some few nautical miles broad, and it is therefore +probable that even in those years there would have been no obstacle +to prevent a passage eastwards by this route in autumn. + +In 1874, on the contrary, the state of the ice became very +favourable, and many walrus-hunters again as formerly sailed in all +directions across the Kara Sea, which this year was also visited by +an Englishman, Captain J. WIGGINS. None of them, however, penetrated +farther to the east or north than Johannesen, Carlsen, Mack, and +others had done during the years 1869-70. + +It was not until the following year that the North-east voyages took +a step forward, important both in a purely geographical as well as a +practical point of view, when I succeeded in a walrus-hunting sloop, +the _Proeven_, commanded by the walrus-hunting Captain Isaksen, in +sailing through Yugor Straits, which were passed on 2nd August, and +over the nearly ice-free Kara Sea as far as to the mouth of the +Yenisej. The _Proeven_ anchored there on the 15th August 1875, in, +or more correctly immediately off, the same splendid haven where the +_Vega_ expedition lay at anchor from the 6th to the 10th August, +1878. Hence I sailed under various difficulties along with Dr. +Stuxberg and Dr. Lundstroem and three men in a Nordland boat, up the +river to Saostrovskoj, where we fell in with a steamer, in which we +afterwards travelled to Yenisejsk. On leaving Port Dickson I handed +over the command to Dr. Kjellman, who along with Dr. Theel returned +by sea to Europe across the Kara Sea and through Matotschkin Schar, +which was passed during the return voyage on the 4th to the 11th +September. + +By this voyage of 1875 I was the first who succeeded in penetrating +from the Atlantic Ocean in a vessel to the mouths of the great +Siberian rivers. One of the objects which the old North-east +voyagers had aimed at was thus at last accomplished, and that in a +way that promised to be of immense practical importance for the +whole of Siberia. The voyage was also regarded in that light by +leading men in the great empire of the East, and our return journey +from Yenisejsk by Krasnojarsk, Tomsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, +Nischni-Novgorod, Moscow and St. Petersburg, became therefore a +journey from _fete_ to _fete_. But a number of voices were +simultaneously raised, which asserted that the success of the +_Proeven_ depended on an accidental combination of fortunate +circumstances, which would not soon occur again. In order to show +that this was not the case, and that I might myself bring the first +goods by sea to Siberia, I undertook my second voyage to the Yenisej +in 1876, in which I penetrated with the steamer _Ymer_, not only to +the mouth of the river, but also up the river to the neighbourhood +of Yakovieva in 71 deg. N.L. Hence I returned the same year by sea +to Europe.[186] In the gulf of Yenisej a large island was +discovered, which I named after Mr. Alexander Sibiriakoff, who +defrayed the principal expenses of the expedition. Before starting +on this voyage, I visited the Philadelphia Exhibition, and it may +perhaps deserve to be mentioned, that leaving New York on the 1st +July by one of the ordinary steamers, and going on board my own +vessel in Norway, I reached the mouth of the Yenisej on the 15th +August, that is to say, in forty-six days. + +The same year Captain Wiggins also undertook a voyage to the +Yenisej, in which he penetrated with a steamer up the river beyond +the labyrinth of islands lying between 70 deg. and 71 deg. N.L. +The vessel wintered there, but was lost the following spring at the +breaking up of the ice.[187] + +The voyages of the _Proeven_ and the _Ymer_ led to several purely +commercial voyages to the Yenisej and the Ob, of which however I can +here with the greatest brevity mention only the following: + +[Illustration: JOSEPH WIGGINS ] + +The Swedish steamer _Fraser_, commanded by the German Captain +DALLMANN, after having been fitted out at Gothenburg on +Sibiriakoff's account, sailed in 1877 with a cargo from Bremen to +the Yenisej and back. The vessel left Hammerfest on the 9th August, +arrived at Goltschicha on the 21st August, commenced the return +voyage on the 14th September, and on the 24th of the same month was +back at Hammerfest. + +The steamer _Louise_ commanded by Captain DAHL, with a cargo of +iron, olive oil, and sugar, the same year made the first voyage from +England to Tobolsk, starting from Hull on the 18th July and arriving +at Tobolsk on the 20th September.[188] + +Captain SCHWANENBERG sailed in a half-decked sloop, the _Utrennaja +Saria_, from the Yenisej to Europe. To what has been already said of +this voyage, I may here add a few words more. + +[Illustration: DAVID IVANOVITSCH SCHWANENBERG. Born in Courland in +1831. ] + +During the inundation in the spring of 1877, which compelled the +mate Nummelin to betake himself for eight days to the roof of the +fragile dwelling in which he had passed the winter, the +Yenisejsk-built vessel, the _Aurora_ (or _Sewernoe Sianie_) was +lost. Schwanenberg, who soon afterwards came to the neighbourhood, +succeeded in purchasing from an Englishman, Mr. SEEBOHM, another +little vessel, which was also built at Yenisejsk by Mr. Boiling for +the purpose of transporting thither the goods which I had carried in +the _Ymer_ to Korepovskoj, a _simovie_ on the bank of the Yenisej in +71 deg. 19' N.L. The goods however had been taken up the river by +a steamer, on which account the vessel was sold by Boiling to Mr. +Seebohm, who made an excursion in it to the lower courses of the +Yenisej for ornithological researches. He named the vessel the +_Ibis_. When Mr. Seebohm no longer required it, there was at first a +proposal that it should be taken over by Captain Wiggins, who, as +has been already stated, had the year before come to the Yenisej +with a small steamer, which wintered at the islands in the river, +and had now stranded during the breaking up of the ice. He wished to +carry his men on the _Ibis_ either home or to the Ob, but the +English seamen declared that they would not for all the world's +honour and riches sail in that vessel. Schwanenberg had thus an +opportunity of purchasing the vessel, whose name he altered to the +_Utrennaja Saria_ (the _Dawn_), and to the surprise of all +experienced seamen he actually made a successful passage to Norway. +The vessel was then towed along the coast to Gothenburg, and through +the Goeta Canal to Stockholm, and finally crossed the Baltic to St. +Petersburg. + +On the 13th August Schwanenberg hoisted the Russian flag on his +little vessel. During his outward passage he met, in the mouth of +the Yenisej, Sibiriakoff's steamer the _Fraser_, Captain Dallmann, +who in vain endeavoured to dissuade him from prosecuting the +adventurous voyage. He anchored at Beli Ostrov on the 24th August, +passed the Kara Port on the 30th August, and reached Vardoe on the +11th September. The _Utrennaja Saria_ arrived at Christiania on the +31st October, at Gothenburg on the 15th November, passed Motala on +the 20th, reached Stockholm on the 23rd November and St. Petersburg +on the 3rd December. Everywhere in Scandinavia the gallant seamen +met with the heartiest reception. Their vessel was the first that +sailed from the town of Yenisejsk to Europe, and is still, when this +is being written, the only one. + +[Illustration: GUSTAF ADOLF NUMMELIN. Born at Viborg in 1853. ] + +The _Dawn_ is 56 feet long, 14 feet beam, and draws 6 feet of water. +Aft there is a little cabin in which there is scant space for three +men. Cooking is done in the fore. The cargo consisted of a small +quantity of graphite, fish, furs, and other samples of the products +of Siberia. + +The vessel was manned by Captain Schwanenberg, the mates Nummelin +and Meyenwaldt, and two exiled criminals, who in this unexpected way +returned to their native country. I take it for granted that by the +rare nautical exploit they took part in, they there won forgiveness +for former offences. + +[Illustration: THE SLOOP UTRENNAJA SARIA. ] + + +[Footnote 159: Compare: "The names of the places that the Russes +sayle by, from Pechorskoie Zauorot to Mongozey" (_Purchas_, III. p. +539): "The voyage of Master Josias Logan to Pechora, and his +wintering there with Master William Pursglove and Marmaduke Wilson, +Anno 1611" (_loc. cit._ p. 541): "Extracts taken out of two letters +of Josias Logan from Pechora, to Master Hakluyt, Prebend of +Westminster" (_loc. cit._ p. 546): "Other obseruations of the sayd +William Pursglove" (_loc. cit._ p. 550). The last paper contains +good information regarding the Obi, Tas, Yenisej, Pjaesina, Chatanga, +and Lena. ] + +[Footnote 160: The stringent regulations regarding fasting of the +Russians, especially the Old Believers, if they be literally +observed, form an insuperable obstacle to the colonisation of +high-northern regions, in which, to avoid scurvy, man requires an +abundant supply of fresh flesh. Thus, undoubtedly, religious +prejudices against certain kinds of food caused the failure of the +colony of Old Believers which was founded in 1767 on Kolgujev +Island, in order that its members might undisturbed use their old +church books and cross themselves in the way they considered most +proper. The same cause also perhaps conduced to the failure of the +attempts which are said to have been made after the destruction of +Novgorod by Ivan the Terrible in 1570 by fugitives from that town to +found a colony on Novaya Zemlya (_Historische Nachrichten von den +Samojeden und den Lapplaendern_, Riga und Mietau, 1769, p. 28). This +book was first printed in French at Koenigsberg in 1762. The author +was Klingstedt, a Swede in the Russian service, who long lived at +Archangel. ] + +[Footnote 161: The statement is incredible, and probably originated +in some mistake. To form such a heap of walruses at least 50,000 +animals would have been required, and it is certain that fifteen men +could not have killed so many. If we assume that in the statement of +the length and breadth, feet ought to stand in place of fathoms, we +get the still excessive number of 1,500 to 3,000 killed animals. +Probably instead of 90 we should have 9, in which case the heap +would correspond to about 500 walruses and seals killed. The walrus +tusks collected weighed 40 pood, which again indicates the capture +of 150 to 200 animals. ] + +[Footnote 162: _Witsen_, p. 915. Klingstedt states that fifty +soldiers with their wives and children were removed in 1648 to +Pustosersk, and that the vojvode there had so large an income that +in three or four years he could accumulate 12,000 to 15,000 roubles +(_Historische Nachrichten von den Samojeden_, &c., p. 53). ] + +[Footnote 163: According to Luetke, p. 70. Hamel, _Tradescant d. +aeltere_, gives the date 1742-44. ] + +[Footnote 164: Thus on the first map in an atlas published in 1737 +by the St. Petersburg Academy, Novaya Zemlya is delineated as a +peninsula projecting from Taimur Land north of the Pjaesina. ] + +[Footnote 165: Properly "Mate, with the rank of Lieutenant," from +which we may conclude that Rossmuislov wanted the usual education of +an officer. ] + +[Footnote 166: These remarkable voyages were described for the first +time, after the accounts of Zivolka, by the academician K.E. v. Baer +in _Bulletin scientifique publ. par l'Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. +Petersburg_, t. ii. No. 9, 10, 11 (1837). Before this there does not +appear to have been in St. Petersburg any knowledge of Pachtussov's +voyages, the most remarkable which the history of Russian Polar Sea +exploration has to show. ] + +[Footnote 167: The carbasse was named, like the vessels of Lasarev +and Luetke, the _Novaya Zemlya_. It was forty-two feet long, fourteen +feet beam, and six feet deep, decked fore and aft, and with the open +space between protected by canvas from breakers. ] + +[Footnote 168: The details of Pachtussov's voyages are taken partly +from von Baer's work already quoted, partly from Carl Svenske, +_Novaya Zemlya_, &c., St. Petersburg, 1866 (in Russian, published at +the expense of M.K. Sidoroff), and J. Spoerer, _Nowaja Semlae in +geographischer, naturhistorischer und volkswirthschaftlicher +Beziehung, nach den Quellen bearbsitet_. Ergaenz-Heft. No. 21 zu +Peterm. _Geogr. Mittheilungen_, Gotha, 1867. ] + +[Footnote 169: _Bulletin scientifique publie par l'Academie Imp. de +St. Petersburg_, t. ii. (1837), p. 315; iii. (1838), p. 96, and +other places. ] + +[Footnote 170: Paul von Krusenstern, _Skizzen aus sienem +Seemannsleben. Seinen Freunden gewidmet_. Hirschberg in Silesia, +without date. ] + +[Footnote 171: Information regarding the mode of life of the Russian +hunters on the coasts of Spitzbergen is to be found in P.A. le Roy, +_Relation des avantures arrivees a quatre matelots Russes, &c._ +1766; Tschitschagov's _Reise nach dem Eismeer_, St. Petersburg, +1793; John Bacstrom, _Account of a voyage to Spitzbergen_, 1780, +London, 1808 (as stated; I have not seen this work); B.M. Keilhau, +_Reise i Oest og Vest Finmarken, samt til Beeren-Eiland og +Spetsbergen i Aarene 1827 og 1828_, Christiania, 1831; A. Erman, +_Archiv fuer wissenschastliche Kunde von Russland_, Part 13 (1854), +p. 260; K. Chydenius, _Svenska expeditionen till Spetsbergen 1861_ +(p. 435); Duner and Nordenskioeld, _Svenska Expeditioner till +Spetsbergen och Jan Mayen 1863 och 1864_ (p. 101). ] + +[Footnote 172: Before 1858 there is to be found in Petermann's +_Mittheilungen_ only a single notice of the Norwegian Spitzbergen +hunting, the existence of which was at the time probably known to no +great number of European geographers. ] + +[Footnote 173: The first account of this voyage was published in +_Oefversigt af Svenska Vetenskaps-akademiens forhandlingar_, 1870, +p. 111. ] + +[Footnote 174: _Athenoeum_, 1869, p. 498. Petermann's +_Mittheilungen_, 1869, p. 391. ] + +[Footnote 175: Palliser's game consisted of 49 walruses, 14 Polar +bears and 25 seals; that of the working hunters was many times +greater. All the vessels which went from Tromsoe that year captured +805 walruses, 2,302 seals, 53 bears, &c. ] + +[Footnote 176: Sidoroff too started in 1869 on a north-east voyage +in a steamer of his own, the _George_. However, he only reached the +Petchora, and the statement that went the round of the press, that +the _George_ actually reached the Ob, is thus one of the many +mistakes which so readily find their way into the news of the day. ] + +[Footnote 177: Petermann's _Mittheilungen_, 1871, p. 97. Along with +Ulve's, Mack's, and Quale's voyages, Petermann refers to a voyage +round Novaya Zemlya by T. Torkildsen. In this case, however, +Petermann was exposed to a possibly unintended deception. +Torkildsen, who visited the Polar Sea for the first time in 1870, +indeed made the voyage round Novaya Zemlya, but only as a rescued +man on Johannesen's vessel. Torkildsen's own vessel, the _Alfa_, had +been wrecked on the 13th July at the bottom of Kara Bay, after which +the skipper and six men were saved by Johannesen, yet by no means so +that Torkildsen, as is stated by Petermann, had the least command of +the vessel that saved him. (Cf. _Tromsoe Stiftstidende_, 1871, No. 23.) ] + +[Footnote 178: _Tromsoe Stiftstidende_, 1871, No. 83; Petermann's +_Mittheilungen_, 1872, p. 384. ] + +[Footnote 179: Cf. _The Three Voyages of William Barents_, by Gerrit +de Veer, 2nd Edition, with an Introduction by Lieutenant Koolemaens +Beynen. London, 1876 (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, No. 54). ] + +[Footnote 180: The sea in the neighbourhood of Spitzbergen on the +east was on the other hand very open that year, so that it was +possible for the same time to reach and circumnavigate the large +island situated to the east of Spitzbergen, which had been seen in +1864 by Duner and me from the top of White Mount in the interior of +Stor Fjord. ] + +[Footnote 181: Nor does space permit me to give an account of +various expeditions, which indeed concerned Novaya Zemlya, but did +not penetrate farther eastward than their predecessors; for +instance, the Rosenthal expedition of 1871, in which the well-known +African traveller and Spitzbergen voyager Baron von Heuglin, and the +Norwegian botanist Aage Aagaard, took part as naturalists; Payer and +Weyprecht's voyage of reconnaissance in the sea between Spitzbergen +and Novaya Zemlya in 1871, &c. ] + +[Footnote 182: Kongl. _Svenska Vetenskaps-akademiens +handlingar_, 1869. ] + +[Footnote 183: At Mussel Bay, too, during the winter of 1872-73, the +greatest deg. of cold was the same; that is to say, at neither +place did it reach the freezing-point of mercury. At the _Vega's_ +winter station, on the contrary, it was considerably greater. ] + +[Footnote 184: It is very common that the hunters in cases of +importance and danger when it is difficult to settle what course +ought to be taken, permit the drawing of lots to determine the +choice. ] + +[Footnote 185: The statements made here regarding the wintering of +Tobiesen and his companions are taken partly from a copy which I +caused to be made of his journal, partly from an account of the +adventures of the seven hunters, copied from _Finmarksposten_ into +_Aftonbladet_ for 1873, No. 220. Finally, the account of the +distribution of presents to the Samoyeds is copied from Norwegian +journals into _Aftonbladet_ for 1880, No. 197. ] + +[Footnote 186: The dates of the _Ymer's_ voyage are as +follows:--Left the coast of Norway on the 26th July; stay at +Matotschkin Sound, through which I, on this occasion, steamed into +the Kara Sea from the 30th July to the 5th August; arrival at the +Yenisej on the 15th August; arrival at the anchorage at Goltschicha +on the 16th August; commenced the return voyage on the 1st +September, in the course of it passed Matotschkin Schar on the 7th +September. ] + +[Footnote 187: Of Captain Wiggins' voyage I know only that his +original destination was the Ob, but that on account of currents and +shoals which, he encountered at the mouth of this river, he altered +his plan, and reached the Yenisej in the beginning of September. ] + +[Footnote 188: _Deutsche Geographische Blaetter_, Bremen, 1870, i. p. +216, and ii. p. 35. ] + +[Illustration: Map of Port Dickson, by G. Bove. Map of Cape Bolvan on +Vaygats Island, by the author. The _Lena's_ cruise in Malygin Sound, +by A. Hovgaard. Map of Cape Chelyuskin, by G. Bove ] + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Departure from Port Dickson--Landing on a rocky island + east of the Yenisej--Self-dead animals--Discovery of + crystals on the surface of the drift-ice--Cosmic dust-- + Stay in Actinia Bay--Johannesen's discovery of the island + Ensamheten--Arrival at Cape Chelyuskin--The natural state + of the land and sea there--Attempt to penetrate right + eastwards to the New Siberian Islands--The effect of the + mist--Abundant dredging-yield--Preobraschenie Island-- + Separation from the _Lena_ at the mouth of the river Lena. + + +When on the morning of the 9th August the _Fraser_ and _Express_ +sailed for the point higher up the river where their cargo was +lying, the _Vega_ and the _Lena_ were also ready to sail. I, +however, permitted the vessels to remain at Port Dickson a day +longer, in order to allow Lieutenant Bove to finish his survey, and +for the purpose of determining astronomically, if possible, the +position of this important place. In consequence of a continuous +fog, however, I had as little opportunity of doing so on this +occasion as during the voyage of 1875, which serves to show of what +sort the weather is during summer at the place where the warm water +of the Yenisej is poured into the Arctic Ocean. It was thus not +until the morning of the 10th August that the _Vega_ and the _Lena_ +weighed anchor in order to continue their voyage. The course was +shaped for the most westerly of the islands, which old maps place +off the estuary-bay of the Pjaesina, and name Kammenni Ostrova (Stone +Islands), a name which seems to indicate that in their natural state +they correspond to the rocky islands about Port Dickson. The sky was +hid by mist, the temperature of the air rose to +10.4 deg. C.; +that of the water was at first +10 deg., afterwards +8 deg.; its +salinity at the surface of the sea was inconsiderable. No ice was +seen during the course of the day. Favoured by a fresh breeze from +the south-east, the _Vega_ could thus begin her voyage with all sail +set. Small rocky islands, which are not to be found on the chart, +soon reminded us of the untrustworthiness of the maps. This, +together with the prevailing fog, compelled Captain Palander to sail +forward with great caution, keeping a good outlook and sounding +constantly. Warm weather and an open sea were also favourable for +the next day's voyage. But the fog now became so dense, that the +_Vega_ had to lie-to in the morning at one of the many small islands +which we still met with on our way. + +Dr. Kjellman, Dr. Almquist, Lieutenant Nordquist, and I, landed +here. The bare and utterly desolate island consisted of a low gneiss +rock, rising here and there into cliffs, which were shattered by the +frost and rather richly clothed with lichens. On the more low-lying +places the rock was covered with a layer of gravel, which, through +drying and consequent contraction, had burst into six-sided figures, +mostly from 0.3 to 0.5 metre in diameter. The interior of the +figures was completely bare of vegetation, only in the cracks there +was to be seen an exceedingly scanty growth of stunted mosses, +lichens, and flowering plants. Of the last-named group there were +found fifteen species,[189] which could with success, or more +correctly without succumbing, survive the struggle for existence on +the little poor archipelago, protected by no mountain heights, from +the storms of the Polar Sea; but of these species, perhaps a couple +seldom develop any flowers. The mosses, too, were in great part +without fruit, with the exception of those which grew on the margin, +formed of hard clay covered with mud, of a pool, filled with +brackish water and lying close to the sea-margin. A large number of +pieces of driftwood scattered round this pool showed that the place +was occasionally overflowed with sea-water, which thus appears to +have been favourable to the development of the mosses. Of lichens +Dr. Almquist found a number of species, well developed, and +occurring in comparative abundance. On the contrary, the sea, +although the surrounding rocky islands indicated a good bottom for +algae, was so completely destitute of the higher algae, that only a +single microscopic species was found by Dr. Kjellman. No mammalia +were seen, not even the usual inhabitant of the desolate rocky +islands of the Polar Sea, the Polar bear, who, in regions where he +has not made acquaintance with the hunter's ball or lance, in secure +reliance on his hitherto unvanquished might, seldom neglects to +scrutinise the newly arrived guests from the tops of high rocks or +ice-blocks. We saw here only six species of birds. The first of +these that attracted our attention was the snow-bunting, which had +left the more fertile mountain heights of the south to choose this +bare and desolate island in the Arctic Ocean for its breeding-place, +and now fluttered round the stone mounds, where it had its nest, +with unceasing twitter, as if to express its satisfaction with its +choice. Further, two species of waders, _Tringa maritima_ and +_Phalaropus fulicarius_, were observed running restlessly about the +beach to collect their food, which consists of insects. The birds +that were killed often had their crops full of the remains of +insects, although living at a place where the naturalist has to +search for hours to find a dozen gnats or their equals in size, a +circumstance that tells very favourably for these birds' powers of +vision, of locomotion, and of apprehension. It is difficult in any +case to understand what it is that attracts this insectivorous bird +to one of the regions that is poorest in insect life in the whole +world. The glaucous gulls' plunderer, the skua, and its chastiser +the bold tern, were also observed, as were a few barnacle geese. On +the other hand, no eiders were met with. All the birds named +occurred only in inconsiderable numbers, and there was nothing found +here resembling the life which prevails on a Spitzbergen +fowl-island. Finally, it may be mentioned that Lieutenant Nordquist +found under stones and pieces of drift-wood a few insects, among +them a beetle (a _staphylinid_). Dr. Stuxberg afterwards found a +specimen of the same insect species at Cape Chelyuskin itself. No +beetle is found on Spitzbergen, though the greater portion of that +group of islands is, in respect of climate, soil, and vegetation, +much better favoured than the region now in question. This seems to +me to show that the insect fauna of Spitzbergen, exceedingly +inconsiderable and limited in numbers as it is, has migrated thither +in comparatively recent times, and in how high a degree the +migration of beetles is rendered difficult by their inability to +pass broad expanses of water. + +[Illustration: THE VEGA AND LENA MOORED TO AN ICE-FLOE. On the morning +of the 12th August, 1878. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +By afternoon the air had again cleared somewhat, so that we could +sail on. A piece of ice was seen here and there, and at night the +ice increased for a little to an unpleasant extent. Now, however, it +did not occur in such quantity as to prove an obstacle to navigation +in clear weather or in known waters. + +On the 12th August we still sailed through considerable fields of +scattered drift-ice, consisting partly of old ice of large +dimensions, partly of very rotten year's ice. It formed, however, no +serious obstacle to our advance, and nearer the shore we would +probably have had quite open water, but of course it was not +advisable to go too near land in the fog and unknown waters, without +being obliged. A large number of fish (_Gadus polaris_) were seen +above the foot of a large block of ground ice, near which we lay-to +for some hours. Next day we saw near one of the islands, where the +water was very clear, the sea-bottom bestrewed with innumerable fish +of the same species. They had probably perished from the same cause, +which often kills fish in the river Ob in so great numbers that the +water is infected, namely, from a large shoal of fish having been +enclosed by ice in a small hole, where the water, when its surface +has frozen, could no longer by absorption from the air replace the +oxygen consumed, and where the fish have thus been literally +drowned. I mention this inconsiderable _find_ of some self-dead +fish, because self-dead vertebrate animals, even fish, are found +exceedingly seldom. Such _finds_ therefore deserve to be noted with +much greater care than, for instance, the occurrence of animal +species in the neighbourhood of places where they have been seen a +thousand times before. During my nine expeditions in the Arctic +regions, where animal life during summer is so exceedingly abundant, +the case just mentioned has been one of the few in which I have +found remains of recent vertebrate animals which could be proved to +have died a natural death. Near hunting-grounds there are to be seen +often enough the remains of reindeer, seals, foxes, or birds that +have died from gunshot wounds, but no self-dead Polar bear, seal, +walrus, white whale, fox, goose, auk, lemming or other vertebrate. +The Polar bear and the reindeer are found there in hundreds, the +seal, walrus, and white whale in thousands, and birds in +millions.[190] These animals must die a "natural" death in untold +numbers. What becomes of their bodies? Of this we have for the +present no idea, and yet we have here a problem of immense +importance for the answering of a large number of questions +concerning the formation of fossiliferous strata. It is strange in +any case that on Spitzbergen it is easier to find vertebrae of a +gigantic lizard of the Trias, than bones of a self-dead seal, +walrus, or bird, and the same also holds good of more southerly +inhabited lands. + +On the 13th August we again sailed past a large number of small +rocks or islands. The sea was at first pretty free of ice, but was +afterwards bestrewed with even, thin pieces of drift-ice, which were +not forced up on each other, and thus had not been exposed in winter +to any ice-pressure. This ice did not cause any inconvenience to the +navigation, but at the same time all was wrapt in a very close mist, +which soon compelled us to anchor near the shore in a little bay. I +endeavoured without success to determine the position of the place +by astronomical observations. Along the shore there still remained +nearly everywhere a pretty high snow and ice-foot, which in the fog +presented the appearance of immense glaciers. The land besides was +free of ice. In respect of its geological formation and its animals +and plants it resembled completely the island I have just described. +But the sea-water here was clear and salt, and the dredging +therefore yielded to Dr. Kjellman some large algae, and to Dr. +Stuxberg a large number of marine evertebrates. + +When the fog lightened, we immediately steamed on, but we had +scarcely got to sea before we were again wrapped in so close a fog +that we were compelled to lie-to for the night beside a large piece +of drift-ice. The hempen tangles were used, and brought up a very +abundant yield of large, beautiful animal forms, a large number of +asterids, Astrophyton, Antedon, &c. There was besides made here an +exceedingly remarkable, and to me still, while I write, a very +enigmatical _find_. + +For several years back I have been zealous for the examination of +all substances of the nature of dust which fall to the surface of +the earth with rain or snow, and I have proved that a portion of +them is of cosmic origin. This inconsiderable fall of dust is thus +of immense importance for the history of the development of our +globe, and we regard it, besides, with the intense interest which we +inevitably cherish for all that brings us an actual experience +regarding the material world beyond our globe. The inhabited +countries of the earth, however, are less suitable for such +investigations, as the particles of cosmic dust falling down here in +very limited quantity can only with difficulty be distinguished from +the dust of civilization, arising from human dwellings, from the +offal of industry, from furnaces and the chimneys of steam-engines. +The case is quite different on the snow and ice-fields of the High +North, remote from human habitations and the tracks of steamers. +Every foreign grain of dust can here he easily distinguished and +removed, and there is a strong probability that the offal of +civilization is here nearly wholly wanting. It is self-evident from +this that I would not be disposed to neglect the first opportunity +for renewed investigations in the direction indicated, our +involuntary rest at the drift-ice field offered. + +[Illustration: HAIRSTAR FROM THE TAIMUR COAST. _Antedon Eschrichtii_, +J. MUeLLER. Three-fifths of the natural size. ] + +Immediately after the _Vega_ lay-to, I therefore went down on the +ice in order to see whether here too some such metalliferous dust, +as I had before found north of Spitzbergen, was not to be found on +the surface of the ice. Nothing of the kind, however, was to be +seen. On the other hand, Lieutenant Nordquist observed small yellow +specks in the snow, which I asked him to collect and hand over for +investigation to Dr. Kjellman. For I supposed that the specks +consisted of diatom ooze. After examining them Dr. Kjellman however +declared that they did not consist of any organic substance, but of +crystallised grains of sand. I too now examined them more closely, +but unfortunately not until the morning after we had left the +ice-field, and then found that the supposed ooze consisted of pale +yellow crystals (not fragments of crystals) without mixture of +foreign matter. The quantity of crystals, which were obtained from +about three litres of snow, skimmed from the surface of the snow on +an area of at most 10 square metres, amounted to nearly 0.2 gram. +The crystals were found only near the surface of the snow, not in +the deeper layers. They were up to 1 mm. in diameter, had the +appearance shown in the accompanying woodcut, and appeared to belong +to the rhombic system, as they had one perfect cleavage and formed +striated prisms terminated at either end by truncated pyramids. +Unfortunately I could not make any actual measurements of them, +because after being kept for some time in the air they weathered to +a white non-crystalline powder. They lay, without being sensibly +dissolved, for a whole night in the water formed by the melting of +the snow. On being heated, too, they fell asunder into a tasteless +white powder. The white powder, that was formed by the weathering of +the crystals, was analysed after our return--21 months after the +discovery of the crystals--and was found to contain only carbonate +of lime. + +[Illustration: FORM OF THE CRYSTALS. Found on the ice off the +Taimur coast. Magnified thirty to forty times. ] + +The original composition and origin of this substance appears to me +exceedingly enigmatical. It was not common carbonate of lime, for the +crystals were rhombohedral and did not show the cleavage of calcite. Nor +can there be a question of its being arragonite, because this mineral +might indeed fall asunder "of itself," but in that case the newly-formed +powder ought to be crystalline. Have the crystals originally been a new +hydrated carbonate of lime, formed by crystallising out of the sea-water +in intense cold, and then losing its water at a temperature of 10 deg. or +20 deg. above the freezing-point? In such a case they ought not to have been +found on the surface of the _snow_, but lower down on the surface of the +_ice_. Or have they fallen down from the inter-planetary spaces to the +surface of the earth, and before crumbling down have had a composition +differing from terrestrial substances in the same way as various +chemical compounds found in recent times in meteoric stones? The +occurrence of the crystals in the uppermost layer of snow and their +felling asunder in the air, tell in favour of this view. Unfortunately +there is now no possibility of settling these questions, but at all +events this discovery is a further incitement to those who travel in the +High North to collect with extreme care, from snow-fields lying far from +the ordinary routes of communication, all foreign substances, though +apparently of trifling importance. + +As this question can be answered with the greatest ease and +certainty by investigations in the Polar regions, I shall here, for +the guidance of future travellers, enumerate some discoveries of a +like nature which have been made by me, or at my instance. + +1. In the beginning of December, 1871, there happened at Stockholm +an exceedingly heavy fall of snow, perhaps the heaviest which has +taken place in the memory of man. Several persons perished in the +snow in the immediate neighbourhood of Stockholm. During the last +days of the snowfall I had about a cubic metre of snow collected and +melted in a vessel. It left a residue of black powder, which +contained grains of metallic iron that were attracted by the magnet. + +2. In the middle of March, 1872, a similar investigation was made by +my brother, KARL NORDENSKIOeLD, in a remote forest settlement, Evois, +in Finland. Here, too, was obtained, on the melting of the snow, a +small residuum, consisting of a black powder containing metallic +iron. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF THE UPPER PART OF THE SNOW ON A DRIFT-ICE +FIELD IN 60 deg. N.L. One-half the natural size. ] + +3. On the 8th August and 2nd September of the same year, I examined, +north of Spitzbergen, in 80 deg. N.L., and 13 deg. to 15 deg. E.L., the layer of +snow that there covered the ice. The nature of this layer is shown by +the accompanying woodcut, in which 1, is new-fallen snow; 2, a layer of +hardened old snow, eight mm. in thickness; 3, a layer of snow +conglomerated to a crystalline granular mass; and 4, common granular +hardened snow. Layer 3 was full of small black grains, among which were +found numerous metallic particles that were attracted by the magnet, and +were found to contain iron, cobalt, and possibly nickel also. + +4. On the melting of 500 gram. hail, which fell in Stockholm in the +autumn of 1873, similar metallic particles containing cobalt +(nickel) were obtained, which, in this case, might possibly have +come from the neighbouring roofs, because the hail was collected in +a yard surrounded by houses roofed with sheet-iron painted red. The +black colour of the metallic particles enclosed in the hail, their +position in the hail, and finally, the cobalt they contained, +however, indicate in this case too, a quite different origin. + +5. In a dust (kryokonite), collected on the inland ice of Greenland +in the month of July, 1870, there were also found mixed with it +grains of metallic iron, containing cobalt. The main mass consisted +of a crystalline, double-refracting silicate, drenched through with +an ill-smelling organic substance. The dust was found in large +quantities at the bottom of innumerable small holes in the surface +of the inland ice. This dust could scarcely be of volcanic origin, +because by its crystalline structure it differs completely from the +glass-dust that is commonly thrown out of volcanoes, and is often +carried by the wind to very remote regions, as also from the dust +which, on the 30th March, 1875, fell at many places in the middle of +Scandinavia, and which was proved to have been thrown out by +volcanoes on Iceland. For, while kryokonite consists of small +angular double-refracting crystal-fragments without any mixture of +particles of glass, the volcanic Haga-dust[191] consists almost +wholly of small microscopic glass bubbles that have no action on the +polarisation-planes of the light that passes through them. + +Similar investigations have since been made, among others, by M. +TISSANDIER in Paris, and during NARES' English Polar Expedition. + +It may appear to many that it is below the dignity of science to +concern one's self with so trifling an affair as the fall of a small +quantity of dust. But this is by no means the case. For I estimate +the quantity of the dust that was found on the ice north of +Spitzbergen at from 0.1 to 1 milligram per square metre, and +probably the whole fall of dust for the year far exceeded the latter +figure. But a milligram on every square metre of the surface of the +earth amounts for the whole globe to five hundred million kilograms +(say half a million tons)! Such a mass collected year by year during +the geological ages, of a duration probably incomprehensible by us, +forms too important a factor to be neglected, when the fundamental +facts of the geological history of our planet are enumerated. A +continuation of these investigations will perhaps show, that our +globe has increased gradually from a small beginning to the +dimensions it now possesses; that a considerable quantity of the +constituents of our sedimentary strata, especially of those that +have been deposited in the open sea far from land, are of cosmic +origin; and will throw an unexpected light on the origin of the +fire-hearths of the volcanoes, and afford a simple explanation of +the remarkable resemblance which unmistakably exists between +plutonic rocks and meteoric stones.[192] + + +On the 14th August, when the fog had lightened a little, we got up +steam, but were soon compelled to anchor again in a bay running into +Taimur Island from the north side of Taimur Sound, which I named +Actinia Bay, from the large number of actinia which the dredge +brought up there. It is, besides, not the only place in the Kara Sea +which might be named from the evertebrate life prevailing there, so +unexpectedly abundant. + +[Illustration: GRASS FROM ACTINIA BAY. _Pleuropogon Sabini_, R. BR. ] + +Unfavourable weather detained us in Actinia Bay, which is a good and +well-protected haven, till the 18th August, during which time +excursions were made in various directions, among others farther +into Taimur Sound, where a variable strong current was found to +prevail. The Sound is too shallow to be passed through by large +vessels. The rocks round Taimur Sound consist of gneiss strata, +which form low ridges that have been so shattered by the frost that +they have been converted into immense lichen-clad stone mounds. +Between these stretch extensive valleys and plains, now free of +snow, if we except a snow-drift remaining here and there in the +hollows. The plains were all covered with a very green continuous +vegetation, which however on a closer examination was found to be +not a true turf, but a mixture of grasses, allied plants, and a +large number of different kinds of mosses and lichens. Actual +flowers were found here only sparingly.[193] In this respect the +coast _tundra_ shows a remarkable difference from the coast lands on +Vaygats Island and Novaya Zemlya. On the other hand, the abundance +of luxuriant lichens and mosses was striking. The mosses along the +beach and the borders of the snow-drifts remaining here and there +bore fruit in abundance. Animal life on land was scanty; some few +reindeer were seen, a mountain fox was killed, and a lemming caught. + +[Illustration: Sketch-Map of Taimur Sound; Map of Actinia Bay, +both by G. Bove. ] + +Only the following birds were seen: owls (_Strix nyctea_) rather +numerous, of which one was killed; a species of falcon, which was +hunted unsuccessfully; snow buntings, breeding very generally in the +stone mounds; a covey of snow ptarmigan, of which some young birds +were shot; six species of waders, the most common birds of the +region, of which a large number were shot; two kinds of gulls +(_Larus glaucus_ and _tridactylus_); _Lestris parasitica_ and +_Buffonii_, the latter the more common of the two; _Anser bernicla_, +very common; and finally the long-tailed duck (_Harelda glacialis_) +in great flocks swimming in the Sound. Bird life, viewed as a whole, +was still scanty here, in comparison with that which we were +accustomed to see in the northern regions west of Novaya Zemlya. + +In the sea the higher animal life was somewhat more abundant. A +walrus had been seen during the passage from the Yenisej, and on the +ice drifting about in the Sound a number of seals, both _Phoca +barbata_ and _Phoca hispida_, were observed. This gave rise to the +supposition that at the sea-bottom animal life was richer, which was +also confirmed by the dredging yield. Nowhere was seen on our +arrival any trace of man, but a cairn now indicates the place, off +which the _Vega_ and the _Lena_ were anchored. + +In this sea never before visited by any vessel, however, we were nearly +coming in contact with a countryman. For while we lay at anchor in +Taimur Sound, Captain Edward Johannesen came into the neighbourhood of +the same place with his sailing vessel _Nordland_ from Tromsoe. He had +left Norway on the 22nd May 1878, had come to Gooseland in Novaya Zemlya +on the 6th June, and had reached the northernmost point of that island +on the 22nd July. Here loud thunder was heard on the 26th July. On the +10th August he steered eastwards from Novaya Zemlya across the Kara Sea +between 76 deg. and 77 deg. N.L. in open water. On the 16th he had the Taimur +country in sight. Here he turned, and steered first to the west, then to +the north. In 77 deg. 31' N.L. and 86 deg. E.L. from Greenwich he discovered and +circumnavigated a new island, which was named "Ensamheten" (Solitude). +The island was free of snow, but not overgrown with grass. The animals +that were seen were some bears and bearded seals, terns, fulmars, ivory +gulls, flocks of black guillemots, and a "bird with a rounded tail and +long bill," probably some wader. On the north-east side of the island a +strong northerly current prevailed. The remote position and desolate +appearance of the island gave occasion to the name proposed by +Johannesen. Hence Johannesen sailed with a great bend to the north, +which brought him to 78 deg. N.L., back to the northern extremity of Novaya +Zemlya, and thence on the 12th September to Norway. During the return +voyage across the Kara Sea also scarcely any ice was met with.[194] + +An exceedingly persistent fog prevailed during the whole of the time +we remained here, but at last on the 18th it lightened a little. We +immediately weighed anchor and steamed along the western shore of +Taimur Island. It is surrounded by a large number of islands that +are not given on the map, and possibly Taimur Island itself is +divided by sounds into several parts. During our voyage, however, +the fog that was still very close hindered us from mapping, +otherwise than in a very loose way, the islands, large and small, +between and past which the _Vega_ searched for a passage. So much we +could in any case see, that the northern extremity of Taimur Island +does not run so far north as the common maps show. + +Ice we met with only in small quantity, and what we saw was very +rotten fjord or river ice. I scarcely believe that in the course of +the day we met with a single piece of ice large enough to flense a +seal upon. We had as yet seen no true old drift-ice such as is to be +met with north of Spitzbergen. In respect to the nature of the ice, +there is a complete dissimilarity between the Kara Sea and the sea +north and east of Spitzbergen. Another striking difference is the +scarcity of warm-blooded animals which prevails in this region, +hitherto exempted from all hunting. In the course of the day we had +not seen a single bird--something which never before happened to me +during a summer journey in the Arctic regions--and scarcely any +seals. + +On the 19th August we continued to sail and steam along the coast, +mostly in a very close fog, which only at intervals dispersed so +much that the lie of the coast could be made out. In order that they +might not be separated, both vessels had often to signal to each +other with the steam-whistle. The sea was bright as a mirror. +Drift-ice was seen now and then, but only in small quantity and very +rotten; but in the course of the day we steamed past an extensive +unbroken ice-field, fast to the land, which occupied a bay on the +west side of the Chelyuskin peninsula. The ice, of which it +consisted, appeared in the mist immensely rough and high, although +in fact it was nearly as rotten as that of which the narrow belts of +ice were formed which we now and then met with out at sea. + +The fog prevented all view far across the ice, and I already feared +that the northernmost promontory of Asia would be so surrounded with +ice that we could not land upon it. But soon a dark, ice-free cape +peeped out of the mist in the north-east. A bay open to the north +here cuts into the land, and in this bay both the vessels anchored +on the 19th August at 6 o'clock p.m. + +We had now reached a great goal, which for centuries had been the +object of unsuccessful struggles. For the first time a vessel lay at +anchor off the northernmost cape of the old world. No wonder then +that the occurrence was celebrated by a display of flags and the +firing of salutes, and, when we returned from our excursion on land, +by festivities on board, by wine and toasts. + +[Illustration: THE VEGA AND LENA SALUTING CAPE CHELYUSKIN. +(After a drawing by A. Hovgaard.) ] + +As on our arrival at the Yenisej, we were received here too by a +large Polar bear, who, even before the vessel anchored, was seen to +go backwards and forwards on the beach, now and then turning his +glance and his nose uneasily out to sea in order to investigate what +remarkable guests had now for the first time come to his kingdom. A +boat was put off to kill him. Brusewitz was the chosen shot; but on +this occasion the bear took care not to form any closer acquaintance +with our guns. The firing of the salute put him so thoroughly to +flight, that he did not, as bears are wont, return the following +day. + +[Illustration: VIEW AT CAPE CHELYUSKIN DURING THE STAY OF THE +EXPEDITION. (After a drawing by A. Hovgaard.) ] + +The north point of Asia forms a low promontory, which a bay divides +into two, the eastern arm projecting a little farther to the north +than the western. A ridge of hills with gently sloping sides runs +into the land from the eastern point, and appears within sight of +the western to reach a height of 300 metres. Like the plains lying +below, the summits of this range were nearly free of snow. Only on +the hill-sides or in deep furrows excavated by the streams of melted +snow, and in dales in the plains, were large white snow-fields to be +seen. A low ice-foot still remained at most places along the shore. +But no glacier rolled its bluish-white ice-masses down the mountain +sides, and no inland lakes, no perpendicular cliffs, no high +mountain summits, gave any natural beauty to the landscape, which +was the most monotonous and the most desolate I have seen in the +High North. + +As on the island off which we lay at anchor on the 11th August, the +ground was everywhere burst asunder into more or less regular +six-sided figures, the interior of which was usually bare of +vegetation, while stunted flowering-plants, lichens and mosses, rose +out of the cracks. At some few places, however, the ground was +covered with a carpet of mosses, lichens, grasses and allied plants, +resembling that which I previously found at Actinia Bay. Yet the +flowering-plants were less numerous here, and the mosses more +stunted and bearing fruit less abundantly. The lichen flora was +also, according to Dr. Almquist's examination, monotonous, though +very luxuriant. The plants were most abundant on the farthest +extremity of the Cape. It almost appeared as if many of the plants +of the Taimur country had attempted to migrate hence farther to the +north, but meeting the sea, had stood still, unable to go farther +and unwilling to turn. For here Dr. Kjellman found on a very limited +area nearly all the plants of the region. The species which were +distinctive of the vegetation here were the following: _Saxifraga +oppositifolia_ L., _Papaver nudicaule_ L., _Draba alpina_ L., +_Cerastium alpinum_ L., _Stellaria Edwardsii_ R. BR., _Alsine +macrocarpa_ FENZL., _Aira coespitosa_ L., _Catabrosa algida_ (SOL.) +FR., and _Alopecurus alpinus_ SM. The following plants occurred less +frequently: _Eritrichium villosum_ BUNGE, _Saxifraga nivalis_ L., +_S cernua_ L., _S. rivularis_ L., _S. stellaris_ L., _S. caspitesa_ +L., _S. flagellaris_ WILLD., _S. serpyllifolia_ PURSH., _Cardamine +bellidifolia_ L., _Cochlearia fenestrata_ R. BR., _Oxyria digyna_ +(L.) HILL., _Salix polaris_ WG, _Poa flexuosa_ WG., and _Lucula +hyperborea_ R. BR. There were thus found in all only twenty-three +species of inconsiderable flowering-plants, among them eight species +belonging to the Saxifrage family, a sulphur-yellow poppy, commonly +cultivated in our gardens, and the exceedingly beautiful, +forget-me-not-like Eritrichium. That the vegetation here on the +northernmost point of Asia has to contend with a severe climate is +shown, among other things, as Dr. Kjellman has pointed out, by most +of the flowering-plants there having a special tendency to form +exceedingly compact half-globular tufts. + +[Illustration: DRABA ALPINA L. FROM CAPE CHELYUSKIN. Natural size. ] + +[Illustration: THE BEETLE LIVING FARTHEST TO THE NORTH. +Micralymma Dicksoni MAKL. Magnified twelve times. ] + +The only insects which occurred here in any large number were +podurae, but some flies were also seen, and even a beetle, the +before-mentioned Staphylinid. Of birds, there were seen a large +number of sandpipers, an exceedingly numerous flock of barnacle +geese--evidently migrating to more southerly regions, perhaps from +some Polar land lying to the north of Cape Chelyuskin--a loom, some +kittiwakes and ivory gulls, and remains of owls. Mammalia were +represented by the bear already mentioned, and by the reindeer and +the lemming, whose traces and dung were seen on the plains. In the +sea, a walrus, several rough seals (_Phoca hispida_), and two shoals +of white whales were seen. + +All rivers were now dried up, but wide, shallow river-beds indicated +that during the snow-melting season there was an abundant flow of +water. The rush of snow rivulets and the cry of birds then certainly +cause an interruption in the desolation and silence which were now +spread over the clay beds of the plains, nearly bare of all +vegetation. Probably, however, a little farther into the country, in +some valley protected from the winds of the Polar Sea, we might find +quite different natural conditions, a more abundant animal life, and +a vegetable world, in summer, as rich in flowers as that which we +meet with in the valleys of Ice Fjord or the "Nameless Bay" +(Besimannaja Bay). We saw no trace of man here. The accounts, which +were current as early as the sixteenth century, relating to the +nature of the north point of Asia, however, make it probable that +the Siberian nomads at one time drove their reindeer herds up +hither. It is even not impossible that Russian hunters from Chatanga +may have prosecuted the chase here, and that Chelyuskin actually was +here, of which we have evidence in the very correct way in which the +Cape, that now rightly bears his name, is laid down on the Russian +maps.[195] + +The rocks consist of a clay-slate, with crystals resembling +chiastolite and crystals of sulphide of iron interspersed. At the +Cape itself the clay-slate is crossed by a thick vein of pure white +quartz. Here, according to an old custom of Polar travellers, a +stately cairn was erected. + +[Illustration: OPHIURID FROM THE SEA NORTH OF CAPE CHELYUSKIN. +_Ophlacantha bidentata_, RETZ. One and one-third of the natural size. ] + +In order to get a good astronomical determination of the position of +this important point I remained there until the 20th August at noon. +The _Lena_ was ordered to steam out to dredge during this time. +Eight minutes north of the bay, where we lay at anchor, heavy and +very close ice was met with. There the depth of the sea increased +rapidly. Animal life at the sea-bottom was very abundant, among +other things in large asterids and ophiurids. + + +According to the plan of the voyage I now wished to steam from this +point right eastwards towards the New Siberian Islands, in order to +see if we should fall in with land on the way. On the 20th and 21st +we went forward in this direction among scattered drift-ice, which +was heavier and less broken up than that which we had met with on +the other side of Taimur Land, but without meeting with any serious +obstacles. We fell in also with some very large ice-floes, but not +with any icebergs. We were besides again attended by so close a mist +that we could only see ice-fields and pieces of ice in the immediate +neighbourhood of the vessel. Besides species of Lestris and +kittiwakes we now also saw looms, birds that are almost wanting in +the Kara Sea. Johannesen was of opinion that the presence of these +birds showed that the sea is not completely frozen over in winter, +because it is not probable that the loom in autumn and spring would +fly across the frozen Kara Sea to seek in this distant region their +food and their breeding-haunts. + +The night before the 22nd we steamed through pretty close ice. The +whole day so thick a fog still prevailed that we could not see the +extent of the ice-fields in the neighbourhood of the vessel. Towards +noon we were, therefore, compelled to take a more southerly course. +When we found that we could not advance in this direction, we lay-to +at a large ice-floe, waiting for clear weather, until in the +afternoon the fog again lightened somewhat, so that we could +continue our voyage. But it was not long before the fog again became +so thick that, as the sailors say, you could cut it with a knife. +There was now evidently a risk that the _Vega_, while thus +continuing to "box the compass" in the ice-labyrinth, in which we +had entangled ourselves, would meet with the same fate that befell +the _Tegetthoff_. In order to avoid this, it became necessary to +abandon our attempt to sail from Cape Chelyuskin straight to the New +Siberian Islands, and to endeavour to reach as soon as possible the +open water at the coast. + +When it cleared on the morning of the 23rd, we therefore began again +to steam forward among the fields of drift-ice, but now not with the +intention of advancing in a given direction, but only of getting to +open water. The ice-fields we now met with were very much broken up, +which was an indication that we could not be very far from the edge +of the _pack_. But notwithstanding this, all our attempts to find +penetrable ice in an easterly, westerly, or southerly direction were +unsuccessful. We had thus to search in a northerly direction for the +opening by which we had sailed in. This was so much the more +unpleasant as the wind had changed to a pretty fresh N.W. breeze, on +which account, with the _Vega's_ weak steam-power, we could make way +only slowly. It was not until 6.30 p.m. that we at last came to the +sack-formed opening in the ice through which we had sailed in at +noon of the previous day. + +One can scarcely, without having experienced it, form any idea of +the optical illusions, which are produced by mist, in regions where +the size of the objects which are visible through the fog is not +known beforehand, and thus does not give the spectator an idea of +the distance. Our estimate of distance and size in such cases depend +wholly on accident. The obscure contours of the fog-concealed +objects themselves, besides, are often by the ignorance of the +spectator converted into whimsical fantastic forms. During a boat +journey in Hinloopen Strait I once intended to row among drift-ice +to an island at a distance of some few kilometres. When the boat +started the air was clear, but while we were employed, as best we +could, in shooting sea-fowl for dinner, all was wrapt in a thick +mist, and that so unexpectedly, that we had not time to take the +bearings of the island. This led to a not altogether pleasant row by +guess among the pieces of ice that were drifting about in rapid +motion in the sound. All exerted themselves as much as possible to +get sight of the island, whose beach would afford us a safe +resting-place. While thus occupied, a dark border was seen through +the mist at the horizon. It was taken for the island which we were +bound for, and it was not at first considered remarkable that the +dark border rose rapidly, for we thought that the mist was +dispersing and in consequence of that more of the land was visible. +Soon two white snow-fields, that we had not observed before, were +seen on both sides of the land, and immediately after this was +changed to a sea-monster, resembling a walrus-head, as large as a +mountain. This got life and motion, and finally sank all at once to +the head of a common walrus, which lay on a piece of ice in the +neighbourhood of the boat; the white tusks formed the snow-fields +and the dark-brown round head the mountain. Scarce was this illusion +gone when one of the men cried out "Land right a head--high land!" +We now all saw before us a high Alpine region, with mountain peaks +and glaciers, but this too sank a moment afterwards all at once to a +common ice-border, blackened with earth. In the spring of 1873 +Palander and I with nine men made a sledge journey round North-east +Land. In the course of this journey a great many bears were seen and +killed. When a bear was seen while we were dragging our sledges +forward, the train commonly stood still, and, not to frighten the +bear, all the men concealed themselves behind the sledges, with the +exception of the marksman, who, squatting down in some convenient +place, waited till his prey should come sufficiently within range to +be killed with certainty. It happened once during foggy weather on +the ice at Wahlenberg Bay that the bear that was expected and had +been clearly seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his +usual supple zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to +nose himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners +for food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings +and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time during +the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which we rested +the cook, who was employed outside, cry out: "A bear! a great bear! +No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!" The same instant a +well-directed shot was fired, and the bear-reindeer was found to be +a very small fox, which thus paid with its life for the honour of +having for some moments played the part of a big animal. From these +accounts it may be seen how difficult navigation among drift-ice +must be in unknown waters. + +On the two occasions on which the vessel was anchored to ice-floes +the trawl-net was used, and the hempen tangles. The net was drawn +forward slowly with the ice which was drifting to the north-west +before a fresh S.E. breeze which was blowing at the time. The yield +of the trawling was extraordinarily abundant; large asterids, +crinoids, sponges, holothuria, a gigantic sea-spider (Pycnogonid), +masses of worms, crustacea, &c. _It was the most abundant yield that +the trawl-net at any one time brought up during the whole of our +voyage round the coast of Asia_, and this from the sea off the +northern extremity of that continent. + +[Illustration: SEA SPIDER (PYCNOGONID) FROM THE SEA EAST OF +CAPE CHELYUSKIN. Half the normal size. ] + +Among the forms collected here we may specially refer to the large +sea-spider, of which a drawing is given (p. 349); and three specimens of +small stalked crinoids. The depth varied between 60 and 100 metres. The +temperature of the water was at the surface +0 deg. to--0.6 deg.; at the +bottom--1.4 deg. to 1.6 deg.; its salinity was considerable, both at the bottom, +where it was very nearly equal to that of the other great oceans, and at +the surface, where it was indeed about a fifth-part less, but yet much +greater than that of the surface-water in the Kara Sea. + +It is singular that a temperature under the freezing-point of pure +water should be advantageous for the development of an animal life +so extremely rich as that which is found here, and that this animal +life should not suffer any harm from the complete darkness, which +during the greater portion of the year prevails at the bottom of the +ice-covered sea. + +When we got out of the ice we steamed towards the land, which was +sighted on the 23rd at 8.45 p.m. The land was low and free from +snow; the depth of the sea at a distance of ten kilometres from the +coast varied between thirteen and fifteen metres. The coast here +stretched from north to south. We followed it at a distance of seven +to ten kilometres. A north-westerly breeze here carried the vessel, +without the help of steam, rapidly forward over a completely smooth +sea. + +On the 24th August we still sailed along the land towards the south. +The depth of the sea now increased to thirty-three metres at a +distance of ten kilometres from land. The land rose gradually, and +some distance from the coast beautiful mountain chains were seen, +which, judging by the eye, rose to a height of from 600 to 900 +metres. They were, like the plains along the coast, quite free from +snow. Only in the clefts of the mountains there remained some few +collections of snow or ice, which at two places appeared to form +true glaciers, which however terminated at a considerable height +above the sea. The snow-free slopes between the foot of the mountain +and the shore bank, thirty to sixty metres high, formed an even +plain, covered by a brownish-green turf, probably of the same nature +as that we saw on Taimur Island. + +During the forenoon we had splendid clear weather, and often we +could see from the vessel no trace of ice. We saw a large number of +walruses, and to judge by the fire which this sight kindled in the +eyes of our hunters, it will not be long till the Norwegian hunting +voyages are extended to the sea north and east of the north point of +Asia. We saw besides a large number of looms and black guillemots, +the former accompanied by young of the year, as large as rotges. +About noon we sighted "land ahead to larboard." It was evidently +Preobraschenie Island. I determined to land on it for a few hours to +carry on researches in natural history, and to fix the position of +the place by astronomical observations, if the weather should +permit. The distance of this high-lying island was however greater +than we expected. So that it was not until six o'clock in the +evening that we could anchor off its south-west side, near the +almost perpendicular face of cliffs abounding in sea-fowl. + +During the last two days we had been sailing over a region, which on +recent maps is marked as land. This shows that a considerable change +must be made on the map of North Siberia, and I shall therefore +quote here the observations on which the determination of our course +is grounded. + + Latitude. Longitude + Cape Chelyuskin[196]................. 77 deg. 36.8' 103 deg. 17.2' + On board the _Vega_[197] at noon of the + 21st Aug. 77 deg. 25' 109 deg. 12' + ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 22nd Aug. 76 deg. 33' 116 deg. 9' + ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 23rd Aug. 76 deg. 48' 115 deg. 0' + ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 24th Aug. 73 deg. 0' 113 deg. 33' + +At the last mentioned point we had laud to starboard of us at an +estimated distance of 4'. Preobraschenie Island lay S. 21 deg. W. +17.5' off. It is on the ground of these data and of the courses +recorded in the log, that the track of the _Vega_ has been laid down +on the map, and no doubt can arise that the position of the east +coast of Taimur peninsula, as indicated by us, is in the main +correct. + +Preobraschenie Island forms a pretty even grassy plain, lying from +thirty to sixty metres above the sea-level, which in the north-west +terminates towards the sea with an almost perpendicular rocky wall, +but to the south-east sinks gradually down to two sand-banks which +run far out to sea. At the time of our visit the island was free of +snow and covered with a carpet of mosses mixed with grass, which was +exceedingly abundant, especially on the south-west slopes of the +island, protected as they were from the north winds. Here we +encountered anew the Arctic animal world in all its profusion. The +ledges of the perpendicular shore-cliffs of the island formed the +breeding-place of numberless looms and kittiwakes, to which a few +black guillemots attached themselves. Along the farthest margin of +the beach waders ran busily backwards and forwards in order to +collect their food. At the summits of the cliffs a flock of glaucous +gulls were breeding, and on the slopes of the low land the white +mountain owl was seen lying in wait for its prey, quiet and +motionless for hours, but as usual it was wary and shy, so that it +was only with difficulty that the hunter could get within range of +it. At some places there extended between the foot of the "loomery" +and the sea a stone-bestrewn beach, which at high water was mostly +covered by the sea, and at low water was full of shallow salt-water +pools. Here had settled two Polar bears that were soon killed, one +by Lieutenant Brusewitz, the other by Captain Johannesen. The bears +had evidently been on the hunt for looms, which along with their +young, large as rotges and already able to swim, were swimming in +the pools of water at the foot of the "loomery," and above all +perhaps they were lying in wait for birds which by some accident +happened to fall down from the breeding-place. In the sea no small +number of seals were seen, and but a few hours before our arrival at +the island we had sailed past herds of walrus. + +[Illustration: PREOBRASCHENIE ISLAND. (After a sketch by O. Nordquist.) ] + +Vegetation was much more luxuriant and richer in species than at +Cape Chelyuskin, and naturally bore a more southern stamp, not only +in consequence of the more southerly position of the island, but +also on account of its shores being washed by the water of the +Chatanga river, which is warm during summer.[198] + +Unfortunately, on account of the advanced season of the year I could +only allow the _Vega_ to remain a few hours off this interesting +island, and at 10.30 p.m. accordingly the anchor was weighed and our +voyage along the coast resumed. + +On the 25th, 26th and 27th August we had for the most part calm, +fine weather, and the sea was completely free of ice. The +temperature of the water again rose to +5.8 deg., and its salinity +diminished considerably. But the depth now decreased so much, that, +for instance, on the night before the 26th we had great difficulty +in getting past some shoals lying west of the delta of the Lena, off +the mouth of the Olonek. + +It had originally been my intention to let the _Vega_ separate from +the _Lena_ at some anchorage in one of the mouth-arms of the Lena +river. But on account of the shallowness of the water, the +favourable wind and the ice-free sea, that now lay before us to the +eastward, I determined to part from the _Lena_ in the open sea off +Tumat Island. This parting took place on the night between the 27th +and 28th August, after Captain Johannesen had been signalled to come +on board the _Vega_, to receive orders, passport,[199] and letters +for home. As a parting salute to our trusty little attendant during +our voyage round the north point of Asia some rockets were fired, on +which we steamed or sailed on, each to his destination. + +During our passage from Norway to the Lena we had been much troubled +with fog, but it was only when we left the navigable water along the +coast to the east of Cape Chelyuskin that we fell in with ice in +such quantity that it was an obstacle to our voyage. If the coast +had been followed the whole time, if the weather had been clear and +the navigable water sufficiently surveyed, so that it had been +possible to keep the course of the vessel near the land, the voyage +of the _Vega_ to the mouth of the Lena _would never have been +obstructed by ice_, and I am convinced that this will happen year +after year during the close of August, at least between the Yenisej +and the Lena. For I believe that the place where ice-obstacles will +perhaps be met with most frequently will not be the north point of +Asia, but the region east of the entrance to the Kara Sea. + + +[Footnote 189: Namely, according to Dr. Kjellman's determination, +the following: + + Saxifraga oppositifolia L. + Saxifraga rivularis L. + Saxifraga caespitosa L. + Cardamine bellidifolia L. + Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. + Ranunculus hyperboreus ROTTB. + Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR. + Cerastium alpinum L. + Alsine macrocarpa FENZL. + Sagina nivalis FR. + Salix polaris WG. + Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR. + Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. + Aira caespitosa L. + Juncus biglumis L. ] + +[Footnote 190: I can remember only one other instance of finding +self-dead vertebrate animals, viz. when in 1873, as has already been +stated (p. 110), I found a large number of dead rotges on the +ice at the mouth of Hinloopen Strait. ] + +[Footnote 191: I use this name because the ash-rain of March 1875 +was first observed at Haga palace near Stockholm, and thus at the +outer limit of the known area of distribution of the dust. It was +first through the request which in consequence of this observation +was published in the newspapers, that communications regarding +singular observations in other quarters should be sent to the +Swedish Academy of Sciences, that it became known that a similar +rain had about the same time taken place over a very large part of +middle Sweden and Norway. The dust however did not fall evenly, but +distributed in spots, and at several different times. The distance +from Stockholm of the volcanoes, where the outbreak took place, is +nearly 2000 kilometres. ] + +[Footnote 192: Namely, by showing that the principal material of the +plutonic and volcanic rocks is of cosmic origin, and that the +phenomena of heat, which occur in these layers, depend on chemical +changes to which the cosmic sediment, after being covered by thick +terrestrial formations, is subjected. ] + +[Footnote 193: Dr. Kjellman has given the following list of the +flowering plants collected by him in this region:-- + + Cineraria frigida RICHARDS. + Potentilla emarginata PURSH. + Saxifraga stellaris L. f. comosa. + Saxifraga nivalis L. + Saxifraga cernua L. + Saxifraga rivularis L. + Chrysosplenium alternifolium L. + Cardamine bellidifolia L. + Draba corymbosa R. BR. + Papaver nudicaule L. + Ranunculus pygmaeus WG. + Ranunculus hyperboreus ROTTB. + Ranunculus sulphureus SOL. + Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR. + Cerastium alpinum L. + Alsine macrocarpa FENZL. + Salix polaris WG. + Poa arctica R. BR. + Arctophila peudulina (LAEST.) ANDS. + Catabrosa algida (Sol.) FR. + Colpodium latifolium R. BR. + Dupontia Fisheri R. BR. + Pleuropogon Sabini R. BR. + Aira caespitosa L. + Hierochloa pauciflora R. BR. + Calamagrostis lapponica (WG.) HN. + Alopecurus alpinus SM. + Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH. + Eriophorum Scheuchzeri HOPPE. + Carex aquatilis WG. + Carex rigida GOOD. + Juncus biglumis L. + Luzula hyperborea R. BR. + Luzula arctica BL. ] + +[Footnote 194: _H. Mohn._ Die Insel Einsamkeit, &c., with a map +(Petermann's _Mittheilungen_, 1879, p. 57). ] + +[Footnote 195: This has been doubted by Russian geographers. Von +Baer for instance says:-- + +"Daruber ist gar kein Zweifel, dass dieses Vorgebirge nie umsegelt +ist, und dass es auf einem Irrthum beruhte, wenn Laptew auf einer +Seefahrt die Bucht, in welche der Taimur sich muendet, erreicht zu +haben glaubte. Seine eigenen spaeteren Fahrten erwiesen diesen +Irrthum. Die Vergleichung der Berichte und Verhaeltnisse laesst mich +aber auch glauben, dass selbst zu Lande man das Ende dieses +Vorgebirges nie erreicht habe; sondern Tscheljuskin, um dieser, man +kann wohl sagen, graesslichen Versuche endlich ueberhoben zu seyr, +sich zu der ungegruendeten Behauptung entschloss, er habe das Ende +gesehen, und sich ueberzeugt, Sibirien sei nach Norden ueberall vom +Meere umgraenzt," [statement by von Baer in _Neueste Nachrichten ueber +die noerdlichste Gegend von Siberien_; von Baer and von Helmersen, +_Beitraege zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches_. IV. St. Petersburg, +1841, p. 275]. In the following page in the same paper von Baer +indeed says that he will not lay any special weight on Strahlenberg's +statement that Siberia and Novaya Zemlya hang together, but he appears +to believe that they are connected by a bridge of perpetual ice. ] + +[Footnote 196: According to an observation with an artificial +horizon on land. ] + +[Footnote 197: According to an observation on board. The +observations for longitude that were made some hours before or after +noon, are reduced to noon. ] + +[Footnote 198: The following 65 species were collected here by Dr. +Kjellman.--Saussurea alpina DC. Gymnandra Stelleri CHAM. &c. +SCHLECHT. Pedicularis hirsuta L. Eritrichium villosum BUNGE. +Myosotis silvatica HOFFM. Phaca frigida L. Dryas octopetala L. +Sieversia glacialis R. BR. Potentilla emarginata PURSH. Saxifraga +oppositifolia L. Saxifraga bronchialis L. Saxifraga flagellaris +WILLD. Saxifraga Hirculus L. Saxifraga serpyllifolia PURSH. +Saxifraga stellaris L.f. comosa. Saxifraga nivalis L. Saxifraga +hieraciifolia WALDST. &c. KIT. Saxifraga punctata L. Saxifraga cernua +L. Saxifraga rivularis L. Saxifraga caespitosa L. Chrysosplenium +alternifolium L. Eutrema Edwardsii R. BR. Parrya macrocarpa R. BR. +Cardamine bellidifolia L. Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. Draba alpina +L. Papaver nudicaule L. Ranunculus pygmaeus WG. Ranunculus +hyperboreus ROTTB. Ranunculus nivalis L. Ranunculus sulphurous SOL. +Caltha palustris L. Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR. Stellaria humifusa +ROTTB. Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR. Cerastium alpinum L. Alsine +macrocarpa FENZL. Alsine rubella WG. Sagina nivalis FR. Oxyria +digyna (L.) HILL. Polygonum viviparum L. Salix arctica PALL. Salix +reticulata L. Salix polaris WG. Poa arctica R. BR. Poa pratensis L. +Glyceria angustata R. BR. Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR. +Arctophila pendulina (LAEST.) AND. Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. +Colpodium latifolium R. BR. Dupontia Fisheri R. BR. Aira caespitosa +L. Hierochloa pauciflora R. BR. Alopecurus alpinus SM. Eriophorum +angustifolium ROTH. Eriophorum russeolum FR. Eriophorum Scheuchzeri +HOPPE. Carex ursina DESV. Carex aquatilis WG. Juncus biglumis L. +Luzula hyperborea R. BR. Luzula arctica BL. Lloydia serotina (L.) +REICHENB. ] + +[Footnote 199: Before our departure, I had through the Swedish +Foreign Office obtained from the Russian Government letters patent +in which the Russian authorities with whom we might come in contact +were instructed to give us all the assistance that circumstances +might call for. ] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + The voyage of the _Fraser_ and the _Express_ up the Yenisej + and their return to Norway--Contract for the piloting of + the _Lena_ up the Lena river--The voyage of the _Lena_ + through the delta and up the river to Yakutsk--The natural + state of Siberia in general--The river territories--The + fitness of the land for cultivation and the necessity for + improved communications--The great rivers, the future + commercial highways of Siberia--Voyage up the Yenisej in + 1875--Sibiriakoff's Island--The _tundra_--The primeval + Siberian forest--The inhabitants of Western Siberia: + the Russians, the Exiles, the "Asiatics"--Ways of travelling + on the Yenisej: dog-boats, floating trading stores propelled + by steam--New prospects for Siberia. + + +I have mentioned in the Introduction that the _Vega_ during the +first part of the voyage was accompanied by three other vessels, +which together with the principal vessel of the Expedition stood at +my disposal and under my orders, and I have stated in passing that +their voyages too deserve a place in the history of navigation. Now, +when we were parted from the vessel which had accompanied the _Vega_ +farthest in her route eastwards, it may be the proper place to give +a brief account of the close of the voyages of the _Fraser_, the +_Express_, and the _Lena_ and give reasons for what I have said of +the importance of these voyages. + +[Illustration: THE STEAMER "FRASER." ] + +On the 9th August at 10 a.m., after Mr. Serebrenikoff had gone on +board the _Express_ to take command, as Sibiriakoff's commissioner, +of the two vessels bound for the Yenisej, the _Fraser_, with the +_Express_ in tow, started from Port Dickson for the river. The +voyage passed without other adventures than that in consequence of +unacquaintance with the navigable waters the vessel sometimes gently +grounded. On the 11th August Korepovskoj was reached, the same place +where I laid up in 1876 the goods which I had brought with me in the +_Ymer_. Here my old friend from my voyages of 1875 and 1876, the +Cossack Feodor, was taken on board. He however proved now as +unskilful a pilot as before. Notwithstanding his experience in 1876, +when, he several times ran the _Ymer_ aground, he had not yet got a +clear idea of the difference between the build of an ocean vessel +and of the common flat-bottomed Yenisej lighters, and his conception +of the responsibility of a pilot was expressed by his seeking, when +he was allowed to take his own course, to forget in the arms of +sleep all dangers and difficulties. Mr. Serebrenikoff and the +captains of the vessels were therefore themselves compelled by means +of frequent soundings, which were commonly made from a steam launch +in advance, to endeavour to find out the proper course. The +navigable water between the level islands covered with bushy +thickets and rich grassy meadows was often very narrow, but appears +to have been pretty deep, as, even when the vessels went forward +without the guidance of a skilful pilot, there was a depth of from 5 +to 30 metres; and after a fisher, who knew the river better than +Feodor, had been taken on board, it was found possible to go at full +speed between the more southerly of the Briochov Islands[200] in a +depth of 30 to 50 metres. On 14th August the vessels reached +Tolstojnos, where a very well preserved _simovie_ is situated about +70 deg. 10' N.L., 370 kilometres south of Port Dickson. On the +15th August they anchored in a good haven at Saostrovskoj, a +_simovie_ lying 100 kilometres farther up the river at the limit of +trees, where the goods were to be discharged and another cargo taken +on board. After a jetty had been constructed on the 16th, the +landing of the goods began on the 17th, and was finished on the +20th. The _Fraser_ went still farther up the river to Dudino, in +order to load various goods laid up there--tallow, wheat, rye, and +oats. On the 2nd September the steamer returned to Saostrovskoj, +where in the meantime the _Express_ had taken on board her cargo. + +Dudino is a church village, situated at the point where the river +Dudinka flows into the Yenisej. Here live two priests, a _smotritel_ (a +police official), a couple of exiles, some Russian workmen, and a number +of natives, as well as the owner of the place, the influential merchant +SOTNIKOFF. This active and able man is in an economical point of view +ruler over the whole of the surrounding region, all whose inhabitants +are in one way or other dependent upon him. He exchanges grain, brandy, +sugar, tea, iron goods, powder and lead, cloth and leather, for furs, +fish, mammoth-ivory, &c.; and these goods are sent by steamer to +Yenisejsk to be forwarded from thence to China, Moscow, St. Petersburg, +&c. Among other things he is also the owner of very thick coal-seams in +the Noril Mountains lying about 60 kilometres from Dudino. This simple +and unostentatious man has been very obliging to all the scientific men +who have visited the region. His dwelling, situated in the neighbourhood +of the limit of trees, is probably the stateliest palace of the Siberian +_tundra_, admired by natives from far and near. It is built of large +logs, consists of two stories, has a roof painted green, many windows +with decorated frames painted white and blue; the rooms are warm, +provided with carpets of furs, pot-flowers in the windows, numerous +sacred pictures, photographs, and copper engravings. + +On the 7th September all was ready for departure. The _Fraser_ and +_Express_ weighed anchor to commence the return voyage down the +river. At Tolstojnos two days after they met the steamer +_Moskwa_[201] of Bremen, Captain Dallmann, having on board the crew +of the Norwegian steamer _Zaritza_, Captain Brun, which had stranded +at the mouth of the Yenisej and been abandoned by the crew. In the +case of this stranding, however, the damage done had not been +greater than that, when the _Fraser_ fell in with the stranded +_Zaritza_, it could be pumped dry, taken off the shoal, and, the +engine having first been put in order, carried back to Norway. On +the 19th September all the three vessels arrived at Matotschkin +Sound, where they lay some days in Beluga Bay in order to take in +water and trim the cargo and coal; after which on the 22nd of the +same month they sailed through the sound to the west, and on the +26th anchored at Hammerfest in good condition and with full +cargoes.[202] The goods, which now for the first time were carried +from the Yenisej to Europe, consisted of about 600 tons--tallow, +wheat, rye and oats. The goods imported into Siberia consisted +mainly of 16 tons nails, 8 tons horseshoes, 4 tons horsenails, +16-1/2 tons bar iron, 33 tons tobacco, 60 tons salt, 24 casks +petroleum, an iron lighter in pieces with the necessary adjuncts of +anchors, &c.[203] + + +Before I begin to give an account of the voyage of the _Lena_ I must +briefly mention the steps which Mr. Sibiriakoff took for her safety +during her voyage from the mouth of the river, where she was to part +from the _Vega_, to her proper destination, the town of Yakutsk. It +is naturally very difficult for a vessel to seek her way without a +pilot through an extensive delta completely unknown in a +hydrographic respect, and crossed by a large number of deeper or +shallower river arms. Mr. Sibiriakoff had therefore arranged that a +river pilot should meet the _Lena_ at the north point of the delta, +and had through Mr. Kolesoff negotiated with him the following +contract, which I reproduce here in full, because it gives in +several respects a very graphic picture of various social relations +in these remote regions. The copy of the contract which has been +communicated to me when translated runs thus:-- + + At Yakutsk, in the year one thousand eight hundred and + seventy-eight on the 18th February, I, the undersigned + Yakut AFONASII FEODOROFF WINOKUROFF, have concluded the + following contract with IVAN PLATONOWITSCH KOLESOFF, + merchant of the second guild in the town of Yakutsk. + + 1. I, Winokuroff bind myself as pilot to carry the vessel + of Professor Nordenskioeld's expedition up the river Lena + from the village Tas-Ary, which lies about 150 versts + below the village Bulun. From Tumat Island, which is + situated in the northeastern part of the Lena delta, I + bind myself for the piloting of the same vessel to procure + at my own cost among the inhabitants of the place a pilot + who knows well the deepest channel of the Lena river as + far as the village Tas-Ary. This pilot the chief of the + expedition shall discharge at the village Tas-Ary. + + 2. As I am not master of the Russian language I bind + myself to bring along with me a Yakut interpreter, who + knows the Russian language and is able to write. In May of + this year, I, Winokuroff, with the interpreter shall + travel from the town of Yakutsk down the Lena river to + Tumat Island and there along with the interpreter wait for + the expedition. + + 3. During the passage down the river I am bound to hire + among the inhabitants of the regions a competent guide, + who shall accompany us in my own boats to the island by + the deepest channel in the Lena delta. During the passage + from the village Tas-Ary I shall take soundings and record + the depth of the fairway. + + 4. Between the village Bulun and Tumat Island, I bind + myself to seek for two places for the wintering of the + vessel, which are quite suitable for the purpose, and + protected from ice. I shall further lay before the + commander of the expedition a journal containing + everything which I can find that it would be advantageous + to know for the safety of navigation and for the wintering + of the vessels, also accounts of the places which are + dangerous or unsuitable for navigation. + + 5. On my arrival at Tumat Island I shall make it my first + duty to find a deep and convenient haven for the seagoing + vessels on the western side of the island. For this + purpose I bind myself to have with me two boats, which, if + necessary, shall be given over to the expedition. At the + haven when found I bind myself to erect on some eminence + near the shore of the island, which can be seen from Cape + Olonek, a signal tower of driftwood or earth, like a + Cossack mound, not lower than seven feet. On this + foundation I shall raise a pyramidal frame of three or + more thick logs, on the top of which I shall fix a + flagstaff with a pulley block for the flag. The flag is to + be flown at least 42 feet from the ground. I shall guard + the landmark thus erected until the river freezes. For + this purpose Herr Kolesoff has provided me with a + ready-made flag, a pulley block and a line. And when the + nights become dark I shall light two or three large fires + or hang up lanterns on the landmark itself, so that these + fires or lanterns may be seen from the sea. + + 6. From the village Tas-Ary I shall carry the vessel of + the expedition to the town of Yakutsk, inasmuch as I shall + show the proper fairway on the Lena river. The interpreter + shall be at my side during the whole journey. + + 7. During the whole time from the day when I start from + Yakutsk, up to the close of my time of service in + Nordenskioeld's expedition we, I, Winokuroff, and my + interpreter, must be always sober (never intoxicated), + behave faithfully and courteously, and punctually comply + with the captain's orders. + + 8. For all these obligations Herr Kolesoff has to pay me + 900 roubles. + + 9. After the arrival of the expedition at Yakutsk I will + not be allowed to leave the ship without the permission of + the chief, but shall still remain on board. If the captain + finds it necessary that I accompany him back to the mouth + of the Lena, I shall conform to his wish in consideration + of an extra fee of 300 roubles. During this latter passage + I am not bound to have with me any interpreter. + + 10. If the arrival of the expedition at Tumat Island is + delayed by any circumstance to the month of November, I + have the right to betake myself along with my interpreter + to Yakutsk and here to produce to Herr Kolesoff an + official certificate given by Commandant Baschleff or any + other local official that I had erected a landmark on + Tumat Island and remained there until the river was frozen + over, and that I did not leave until the expedition was no + longer to be expected. Then Herr Kolesoff on the ground of + this contract must settle with me by paying me the whole + sum of 900 roubles, together with 200 roubles for my + return journey. + + 11. If the vessel of the expedition arrive at Tumat Island + so late that the voyage becomes impossible, we, I and my + interpreter, shall winter with the expedition until the + river becomes open in 1879. And in this case we, I and my + interpreter, shall live at our own expense, and serve the + expedition as belonging to its crew. After the + commencement of navigation in 1879 I shall conduct the + vessel from the wintering station to the town of Yakutsk. + On this account I have to receive, besides the 900 roubles + coming to me, 800 roubles more. If during this voyage too + it should be necessary to accompany the vessels from + Yakutsk back to the mouth of the Lena, I shall do that, + and receive on that account 300 roubles. But if the + vessels winter at Yakutsk, I shall be free during winter, + and only during next year's voyage, if so required, + accompany them to the mouth of the Lena. In that case I + have to receive 300 roubles. + + 12. Of this sum agreed upon Herr Kolesoff shall pay me in + advance on the conclusion of this contract 300 roubles, in + the month of May at my departure 150 roubles, and at the + village Bulun 250 roubles, for my payment to my companions + and pilot and other expenses. The balance shall be paid to + me after my return to Yakutsk. + + 13. In the month of May, at the time for starting, if I be + prevented by illness from betaking myself to Tumat Island, + I shall repay to Herr Kolesoff the sum paid to me at the + conclusion of this contract, with the exception of the + money I have paid to the interpreter as pocket-money and + for the boats. Should I not be able to repay the sum, I, + Winokuroff, shall work out the amount not repaid at Herr + Sibiriakoff's gold mines. + + 14. All this are we, the two contracting parties, bound to + observe in full and without infringement. + +A note to the copy further informs us that to this contract the Yakut +Afonasii Feodoroff Winokuroff had, in place of his signature, attached +his own seal, which the Yakut Alexii Zassimoff Mironoff had engraved, +and that the conditions had been approved by the merchant Ivan Kolesoff, +and the whole registered at the police-office of the Yakutsk circle. + +The contract had been entered into with the friendly co-operation of the +Governor and Bishop of Yakutsk, who were much interested in the proposed +voyage. The latter knew the coast of the Polar Sea from his own +experience. But notwithstanding all this, the affair was attended with +no better success than that the pilot celebrated the receipt of the +large sum of money by getting thoroughly intoxicated, and while in that +state he broke one of the bones of the fore-arm. He was thus unable ever +to reach the appointed rendezvous, and Johannesen was allowed to manage +by his own hand, as best he could, his little steamer. + +[Illustration: THE STEAMER "LENA." ] + +After the _Lena_ had parted with the _Vega_ during the night between +the 27th and 28th August, she steamed towards land, and came the +same day to the northernmost cape of the Lena delta, situated in 73 deg. +47' N.L.[204] It was here that the pilot's landmark was to +have been erected, but there was no pilot here, and no flagstaff was +visible. In order to fall in with this landmark Johannesen sailed +forty kilometres westward along the shore, but as his search in this +direction was not attended with success, he turned back to the +first-mentioned place and landed there. On the shore stood a very +old hut, already completely filled with earth. It probably dated +from some of the expeditions which visited the region in the +beginning of the century. Wild reindeer were seen in large numbers. +As according to the contract which has been quoted the landmark was +to be visible from Cape Olonek, Johannesen steamed once more to the +west, running as close to the land as possible. But as the water +here became shallower and shallower without any signal-tower being +visible, Johannesen had to find his way himself through the delta; +and for this purpose he determined to search for the easternmost arm +of the river, which, on the maps, is drawn as being very broad, +and also appears to have been made use of by the vessels of +"the great northern expeditions."[205] + +[Illustration: HANS CHRISTIAN JOHANNESEN. +Captain of the "Lena." Born in 1846. ] + +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. + +Even at that remote spot on the border of the _tundra_ the Asiatic +comprehended very well the importance of vessels from the great oceans +being able to reach the large rivers of Siberia. I too had a proof of +this in the year 1875. While still rowing up the river in my own +Nordland boat with two scientific men and three hunters, before we got +up with the steamer _Alexander_ we landed, among others, at a place +where a number of Dolgans were collected. When they understood clearly +that we had come to them, not as brandy-sellers or fish-buyers from the +south, but from the north, _from the ocean_, they went into complete +ecstasies. We were exposed to unpleasant embraces from our skin-clad +admirers, and finally one of us had the misfortune to get a bath in the +river in the course of an attempt which the Dolgans in their excitement +made to carry him almost with violence to the boat, which was lying in +the shallow water some distance from the shore. At Dudino, also, the +priests living there held a thanksgiving service for our happy arrival +thither. Two of them said mass, while the clerk, clad in a sheepskin +caftan reaching to his feet, zealously and devoutly swung an immense +censer. The odour from it was at first not particularly pleasant, but it +soon became so strong and disagreeable that I, who had my place in front +of the audience, was like to choke, though the ceremony was performed in +the open air. Soon the clerk was completely concealed in a dense cloud +of smoke, and it was now observed that his skin cloak had been set fire +to at the same time as the incense. The service, however, was not +interrupted by this incident, but the fire was merely extinguished by a +bucket of water being thrown, to the amusement of all, over the clerk. + +At nine in the morning the _Lena_ continued her voyage up the river with +the priest and the Crown officials on board, but they had soon to be +landed, because in their joy they had become dead drunk. On the 13th +September Schigansk was reached, and samples of the coal found there +were taken on board, but these proved unserviceable,[208] and on the +21st September the _Lena_ reached Yakutsk. The first vessel which, +coming from the ocean, reached the heart of Siberia was received with +great goodwill and hospitality, both by the authorities and the common +people. But when Johannesen did not find here Sibiriakoff's +representative, Kolesoff, he continued his voyage up the river, until, +on the 8th October, he came to the village Njaskaja, 220 versts from +Vitim, in about 60 deg. N.L. Here he turned back to Yakutsk and laid up the +steamer in winter quarters a little to the south of that town. + +[Illustration: YAKUTSK IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. (After Witsen.) ] + +Both the _Fraser_ and _Express_ and the _Lena_ had thus fully +answered the purposes intended before the departure of the +expedition, and their voyages will always form an important +link in the chain of the attempts through which navigation in +the Siberian Polar Sea has been opened. + +In order to give an idea of the influence which this sea-route +may have on the commerce of the world, and the new source of +fortune and prosperity which thereby maybe rendered accessible +to millions, I shall in a few words give an account of the nature +of the territory which by means of this sea-communication +will be brought into contact with the old civilised countries +of Europe. + +[Illustration: YAKUTSK IN OUR DAYS. (After a recent Russian drawing.) ] + +If we take Siberia in its widest sense, that is to say, if we +include under that name not only Siberia proper, but also the parts +of High Asia which lie round the sources of the great Siberian +rivers, this land may very well be compared in extent, climate, +fertility, and the possibility of supporting a dense population, +with America north of 40 deg. N.L. Like America, Siberia is +occupied in the north by woodless plains. South of this region, +where only the hunter, the fisher, and the reindeer nomad can find a +scanty livelihood, there lies a widely extended forest territory, +difficult of cultivation, and in its natural conditions, perhaps, +somewhat resembling Sweden and Finland north of 60 deg. or 61 deg. +N.L. South of this wooded belt, again, we have, both in +Siberia and America, immeasurable stretches of an exceedingly +fertile soil, of whose power to repay the toil of the cultivator the +grain exports during recent years from the frontier lands between +the United States and Canada have afforded so striking evidence. +There is, however, this dissimilarity between Siberia and America, +that while the products of the soil in America may be carried easily +and cheaply to the harbours of the Atlantic and the Pacific, the +best part of Siberia, that which lies round the upper part of the +courses of the Irtisch-Ob and the Yenisej, is shut out from the +great oceans of the world by immense tracts lying in front of it, +and the great rivers which in Siberia cross the country and appear +to be intended by nature to form not only the arteries for its inner +life, but also channels of communication with the rest of the world, +all flow towards the north and fall into a sea which, down to the +most recent times, has been considered completely inaccessible. + +[Illustration: Map of the River System of Siberia. ] + +Of these rivers the double river, Ob-Irtisch, with its numerous +affluents, occupies an area of more than 60,000 geographical square +miles, the Yenisej-Angara, not quite 50,000, and the Lena, somewhat +over 40,000.[209] As the map of the river system of Siberia, which +accompanies this work, shows, but a small part of these enormous +territories lies north of the Arctic Circle, and only very +inconsiderable portions of it are occupied by woodless _tundra_, +which is explained by the fact that the greater part of the +coast-land bordering on the Arctic Ocean is drained by small rivers +of its own, and therefore cannot be considered to belong to the +river territories now in question. If we draw the northern boundary +of the land that may be cultivated with advantage at 60 deg. N.L., +there remains a cultivable area of 90,000 geographical square miles. +Perhaps a third part of this is occupied by rocky country which is +wooded, and probably capable of being cultivated only with +considerable difficulty, but the rest consists for the most part of +easily cultivated grassy plains, with little wood, and covered with +the most luxuriant vegetation. The soil, in many places resembling +the black earth or _tscherno-sem_ of Russia, recompenses with +abundant harvests even the slightest labour of cultivation. +Notwithstanding this, these regions now support only an exceedingly +sparse population, but many, many millions may without difficulty +find their subsistence there when once cultivation has developed the +rich natural resources of the country. + +It is a circumstance specially fortunate for the future development +of Siberia that its three great rivers are already navigable for the +greater part of their course. The Ob is navigable from Biisk (52-1/2 deg. +N.L.), and the Irtisch at least from Semipalitinsk (50 deg. +18' N.L.). The Yenesej, again, which, after leaving the region of +its sources in China, crosses with its two main arms the whole of +Siberia from north to south, from the forty-sixth to the +seventy-third degree of latitude, and thus traverses a territory +which corresponds in length to the distance between Venice and the +North Cape, or between the mouth of the Mississippi and the north +part of Lake Winnipeg, and is already navigable by nature from the +sea to Yenisejsk. To this town goods are already transported _down_ +both the main arms from Minusinsk and the region of Lake Baikal. It +is said that the Angara might be made quite navigable during its +whole course at an expenditure trifling in comparison with the +advantages that would thus be gained, as well as its continuation, +the Selenga, in its lower part between the Chinese frontier and Lake +Baikal. In this way a river route would be opened for the conveyance +of the products of North China and South Siberia to a sea which an +ordinary steamer would cross in five or six days to the White Sea or +the North Cape. A similar communication with the Atlantic may be +opened on the double river Ob-Irtisch with Western Siberia and High +Asia as far as to Chinese Dsungaria, where the Irtisch begins its +course as a small river, the Black Irtisch, which falls into Lake +Saisan, and rises south of the Altai Mountains in the neighbourhood +of the Selenga, the source-river of the Yenisej. At several places +the river territories of the Ob and the Yenesej nearly reach hands +to one another through affluents, which rise so close to each other +that the two river systems might easily be connected by canals. This +is also the case with the affluents of the Yenesej and the Lena, +which at many places almost meet, and the Lena itself is, according +to Latkin's statement, navigable from the village of Kotschuga to +the sea. We see from this how extraordinarily advantageous is the +natural system of interior communication which Siberia possesses, +and at the same time that a communication by sea between this +country and the rest of the world is possible only by the Arctic +Ocean. It is on this that the enormous importance of the navigation +of the Siberian Polar Sea depends. If this can be brought about, +Siberia, with an inconsiderable expenditure in making canals, will +not only become one of the most fortunate countries of the globe in +respect of the possibility of the cheap transport of goods, but the +old proposal of a north-eastern commercial route to China may even +become a reality. If, on the other hand, navigation on the Polar Sea +be not brought about, Siberia will still long remain what it is at +present--a land rich in raw materials, but poor in all that is +required for the convenience and comfort with which the civilised +man in our days can with difficulty dispense. + +Many perhaps believe that the present want of commercial +communication may be removed by a railway running across Russia and +Southern Siberia. But this is by no means the case. On the contrary, +communication by sea is an indispensable condition of such a railway +being profitable. For it can never come in question to carry on a +railway the products of the forest or the field over the stretch of +three to five thousand kilometres which separates the fertile river +territory of the Ob-Irtisch from the nearest European port. Even if +we suppose that the railway freight, inclusive of all costs, could +be reduced to a farthing the kilometre-ton, it would in any case +rise, from the grain regions of Siberia to a harbour on the Baltic, +to from 4_l_. to nearly 7_l_. per ton. So high a freight, with the +costs of loading in addition, none of the common products of +agriculture or forestry can stand, as may easily be seen if we +compare this amount with the prices current in the markets of the +world for wheat, rye, oats, barley, timber, &c. But if the Siberian +countryman cannot sell his raw products, the land will continue to +be as thinly peopled as it is at present, nor can the sparse +population which will be found there procure themselves means to +purchase such products of the industry of the present day as are +able to bear long railway carriage. In the absence of contemporaneous +sea-communication the railway will therefore be without traffic, the +land such as it is at present, and the unprosperous condition of the +European population undiminished. + +In order to give the reader an idea of the present natural +conditions, and the present communication on a Siberian river, I +shall, before returning to the sketch of the voyage of the _Vega_, +give some extracts from notes made during my journey up the Yenesej +in 1875, reminding the reader, however, that the natural conditions +of the Ob-Irtisch and the Lena differ considerably from those of the +Yenisej, the Ob-Irtisch flowing through lower, more fertile, and +more thickly peopled regions, the Lena again through a wilder, more +beautiful, but less cultivated country. + +When one travels up the river from Port Dickson, the broad sound +between Sibiriakoff's Island and the mainland is first passed, but +the island is so low that it is not visible from the eastern bank of +the river and which is usually followed in sailing up or down the +river. The mainland, on the other hand, is at first high-lying, and +in sailing along the coast it is possible to distinguish various +spurs of the range of hills, estimated to be from 150 to 200 metres +high, in the interior. These are free of snow in summer. A little +south of Port Dickson they run to the river bank, where they form a +low rock and rocky island projecting into the river, named after +some otherwise unknown Siberian Polar trapper, Yefremov Kamen. + +Sibiriakoff's Island has never, so far as we know, been visited by +man, not even during the time when numerous _simovies_ were found at +the mouth of the Yenesej. For no indication of this island is found +in the older maps of Siberia, although these, as appears from the +fac-simile reproduced at page 192, give the names of a number of +_simovies_ at the mouth of the Yenisej, now abandoned. Nor is it +mentioned in the accounts of the voyages of the great northern +expeditions. The western strand of the island, the only one I have +seen, completely bore the stamp of the _tundra_ described below. +Several reindeer were seen pasturing on the low grassy eminences of +the island, giving promise of abundant sport to the hunter who first +lands there. + +Still at Yefremov Kamen we saw in 1875 three Polar bears who +appeared to pasture in all peacefulness among the rocks, and did not +allow themselves to be disturbed by the enormous log-fire of +driftwood we lighted on the strand to make our coffee. Here were +found for the last time during our journey up the river actual +marine animals: Appendicularia, Olio, medusae, large beroids, &c. +Large bushy plants were still completely wanting, but the vegetable +world already began to assume a stamp differing from the Arctic +Ocean flora proper. A short distance south of Yefremov Kamen begins +the veritable _tundra_, a woodless plain, interrupted by no mountain +heights, with small lakes scattered over it, and narrow valleys +crossing it, which often make an excursion on the apparently level +plain exceedingly tiresome. + +[Illustration: RIVER VIEW ON THE YENISEJ. (From a drawing by A.N. +Lundstroem.) ] + +As is the case with all the other Siberian rivers running from south +to north,[210] the western strand of the Yenisej, wherever it is +formed of loose, earthy layers, is also quite low and often marshy, +while on the other hand the eastern strand consists of a steep bank, +ten to twenty metres high, which north of the limit of trees is +distributed in a very remarkable way into pyramidal pointed mounds. +Numerous shells of crustacea found here, belonging to species which +still live in the Polar Sea, show that at least the upper earthy +layer of the _tundra_ was deposited in a sea resembling that which +now washes the north coast of Siberia.[211] + +The _tundra_ itself is in summer completely free of snow, but at a +limited depth from the surface the ground is continually frozen. At +some places the earthy strata alternate with strata of pure, clear +ice. It is in these frozen strata that complete carcases of +elephants and rhinoceroses have been found, which have been +protected from putrefaction for hundreds of thousands of years. Such +_finds_, however, are uncommon, but on the other hand single bones +from this primeval animal world occur in rich, abundance, and along +with them masses of old driftwood, originating from the Mammoth +period, known by the Russian natives of Siberia under the +distinctive name of "Noah's wood." Besides there are to be seen in +the most recent layer of the Yenesej _tundra_, considerably north of +the present limit of actual trees, large tree-stems with their roots +fast in the soil, which show that the limit of trees in the Yenesej +region, even during our geological period, went further north than +now, perhaps as far as, in consequence of favourable local +circumstances, it now goes on the Lena. + +[Illustration: SUB-FOSSIL MARINE CRUSTACEA FROM THE TUNDRA. ] + +On the slopes of the steep _tundra_ bank and in several of the _tundra_ +valleys there is an exceedingly rich vegetation, which already, only 100 +kilometres south of Yefremov Kamen, forms actual thickets of flowering +plants, while the _tundra_ itself is overgrown with an exceedingly +scanty carpet, consisting more of mosses than of grasses. Salices of +little height go as far north as Port Dickson (73 deg. 30' N.L.), the dwarf +birch (_Betula nana_, L.) is met with, though only as a bush creeping +along the ground, at Cape Schaitanskoj (72 deg. 8' N.L.); and here in 1875, +on the ice-mixed soil of the _tundra_, we gathered ripe cloudberries. +Very luxuriant alders (_Alnaster fruticosus_, LEDEB.) occur already at +Mesenkin (71 deg. 28' N.L.), and the Briochov Islands (70 deg. to 71 deg. N.L.), are +in several places covered with rich and luxuriant thickets of bushes. +But the limit of trees proper is considered to begin first at the great +bend which the river makes in 69 deg. 40' N.L., a little north of Dudino. +Here the hills are covered with a sort of wood consisting of +half-withered, grey, moss-grown larches (_Larix sibirica_), which seldom +reach a height of more than seven to ten metres, and which much less +deserve the name of trees than the luxuriant alder bushes which grow +nearly 2 deg. farther north. But some few miles south of this place, and +still far north of the Arctic Circle, the pine forest becomes tall. Here +begins a veritable forest, the greatest the earth has to show, extending +with little interruption from the Ural to the neighbourhood of the Sea +of Ochotsk, and from the fifty-eighth or fifty-ninth degree of latitude +to far north of the Arctic Circle, that is to say, about one thousand +kilometres from north to south, and perhaps four times as much from east +to west. It is a primeval forest of enormous extent, nearly untouched by +the axe of the cultivator, but at many places devastated by extensive +forest fires. + +On the high eastern bank of the Yenisej the forest begins +immediately at the river bank. It consists principally of pines: the +cembra pine (_Pinus Cembra_, L.), valued for its seeds, enormous +larches, the nearly awl-formed Siberian pine (_Pinus sibirica_, +LEDEB.), the fir (_Pinus obovata_, TURCZ.), and scattered trees of +the common pine (_Pinus sylvestris_, L.). Most of these already +north of the Arctic Circle reach a colossal size, but in such a case +are often here, far from all forestry, grey and half-dried up with +age. Between the trees the ground is so covered with fallen branches +and stems, only some of which are fresh, the others converted into a +mass of wood-mould held together only by the bark, that there one +willingly avoids going forward on an unbroken path. If that must be +done, the progress made is small, and there is constant danger of +breaking one's bones in the labyrinth of stems. Nearly everywhere +the fallen stems are covered, often concealed, by an exceedingly +luxuriant bed of mosses, while on the other hand tree-lichens, +probably in consequence of the dry inland climate of Siberia, occur +sparingly. The pines, therefore, want the shaggy covering common in +Sweden, and the bark of the birches which are seen here and there +among the pines is distinguished by an uncommon blinding whiteness. + +The western bank of the Yenesej consists, like the innumerable +islands of the river, for the most part of lowlying and marshy +stretches of land, which at the season of the spring floods are +overflowed by the river and abundantly manured with its mud. In this +way there is formed here a fertile tract of meadow covered partly +with a grassy turf untouched by the scythe, partly with a very +peculiar bush vegetation, rising to a height of eight metres, among +which there are to be found a number of families of plants well +known by us in Sweden, as Impatiens, Urtica, Sonchus, Heracleum, +&c., but in gigantic forms unknown at home. Often a dense thicket of +a willow (_Salix vitellenia_, L.), whose straight, branchless stems +resemble at a distance the bamboo woods of the south, alternates +with level, grassy carpets of a lively green and small streams in +such a way as gives the whole the appearance of the most smiling +park carefully kept free of fallen branches and dry grass. It is the +river water which in spring has played the gardener's part in these +parks, seldom trodden by the foot of man and endlessly rich in the +most splendid greenery. Near the river there are also to be found +carpets of a uniform green, consisting of a short kind of Equisetum, +unmixed with any other plants, which forms a "gazon," to which no +nobleman's country seat can show a match. The drawback is, that a +stay in these regions during summer is nearly rendered impossible by +the enormous number of mosquitoes with which the air is infested. + +A table drawn up by Dr. Arnell, to be found in _Redogoerelse foer de +svenska expeditionerna till mynningen of Jenisej ar 1876_,[212] +shows the distribution of the most important varieties of trees. +From it we see that on the Yenesej the birch (_Betula odorata_, +BECHST.), the fir (_Pinus obovata_, TURCZ.), the larch (_Pinus +larix_, L.), and the juniper (_Juniperus communis_, L.), go to 69 deg. +35' N.L. (that is to say to the latitude of Tromsoe); the +sallow (_Salix caprea_, L.) to 68 deg. 55'; the bird's cherry +(_Prunus padus_, L.), and the Siberian pine (_Pinus sibirica_, +LEDEB.), to 66 deg. 30'; the aspen (_Populus tremula_, L.) to 65 deg. 55' +(the latitude of Haparanda); the pine (_Pinus sylvatica_, +L.) to 65 deg. 50', &c. + +In the middle of the forest belt the wood appears to cover the whole +land without interruption, there being, unless exceptionally, no +open places. But towards the north the forest passes into the +treeless _tundra_ through bare spots occurring here and there, which +gradually increase, until trees grow only in valleys and sheltered +places, and finally disappear completely. Similar is the passage of +the forest to treeless regions (steppes), which at first are here +and there bestrewed with more or less detached groups of +broad-leaved trees, until they wholly disappear, and the land forms +an endless plain, out of whose fertile soil the warm summer sun +calls forth a great variety of luxuriant vegetable forms, whose +many-hued flowers, often large and splendid, clothe the fields with +the richest splendour of colour. Here is the true homeland of many +of the show-plants in the flower-gardens of Europe, as, for +instance, the peony, the Siberian robinia, the blue iris, &c. + +If the Siberian wooded belt forms the most extensive forest in the +world, this flower-steppe forms the world's greatest cultivable +field, in all probability unequalled in extent and fertility. +Without manure and with an exceedingly small amount of labour +expended on cultivation, man will year by year draw forth from its +black soil the most abundant harvests. For the present, however, +this land, with its splendid capabilities for cultivation, has an +exceedingly scanty population; and this holds good in a yet higher +degree of the forest belt, which is less susceptible of cultivation. +At a considerable distance from the rivers it is for the most part +an unknown land, where the European seldom or never sets his foot, +and where only the native nomad or hunter wanders about. These +forests, however, are by no means so rich in game as might be +expected, perhaps because the mosquitoes in summer are unendurable +by warm-blooded animals. + +The main population in the forest belt consists of native nomad or +hunting tribes, of which Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Tunguses, and Yakuts are +the most numerous. Only along the rivers do we find Russian villages +and peasant settlements, placed there for trading with the natives, +for fishing, and at some places for washing gold. Not till we come +to the middle of the country is the Russian population more +numerous, here it spreads out in a broad belt over the whole of the +immense expanse between the Ural and the Angara. + +[Illustration: SIBERIAN RIVER BOAT. Used by the Norwegian traveller +Chr. Hansteen on the river Angara. ] + +In the farthest north the Russian dwelling-places consist of single +cabins built of logs or planks from broken-up lighters,[213] and +having flat, turf-covered roofs. Such carvings and ornaments as are +commonly found on the houses of the well-to-do Russian peasant, and +whose artistic outlines indicate that the inhabitants have had time +to think of something else than the satisfaction of the wants of the +moment, are here completely wanting; but further south the villages +are larger, and the houses finer, with raised roofs and high gables +richly ornamented with wood-carvings. A church, painted in bright +colours, generally shows that one of the inhabitants of the village +has become rich enough to be at the expense of this ornament to his +native place. The whole indicates a degree of prosperity, and the +interiors of the houses, if we except the cockroaches, which swarm +everywhere, are very clean. The walls are ornamented with numerous, +if not very artistic, photographs and lithographs. Sacred pictures, +richly ornamented, are placed in a corner, and before them hang +several small oil-lamps, or small wax-lights, which are lighted on +festive occasions. The sleeping place is formed of a bedstead near +the roof, so large that it occupies a half or a third of the room, +and at such a height from the floor that one can stand upright under +it. There a tropical heat commonly prevails, the occupant of the bed +accordingly enjoying an almost constant sweat-bath, which does not +prevent him from going out immediately into the open air at a +temperature at which mercury freezes. Food is cooked in large baking +ovens, which are fired daily for that purpose, and at the same time +heat the cabin. Fresh bread is baked every day, and even for the +poor a large tea-urn (_samovar_) is an almost indispensable +household article. The foreigner is certain to receive a hearty and +friendly welcome when he crosses the threshold, and if he stays a +short time in the cabin he will generally, whatever time of the day +it be, find himself drinking a glass of tea with his host. The dress +everywhere closely resembles the Russian: for the rich, wide velvet +trousers stuck into the boots, a shirt showily embroidered with +silver thread, and a large caftan often lined with fur; for the +poor, if not too ragged, the same cut, but the cloth inferior, +dirty, and torn. During winter, however, for going out of doors, the +Samoyed _pesk_ is said to be common to high and low, Russian and +native, settled and nomad. + +In my journey up the Yenesej in 1875 I met with only a few persons +in these regions who had been exiled thither for political reasons, +but on the other hand very many exiled criminals of the deepest +dye--murderers, thieves, forgers, incendiaries, &c. Among them were +also some few Fins and even a Swede, or at least one who, according +to his own statement in broken Swedish, had formerly served in the +King's Guard at Stockholm. Security of person and property was in +any case complete, and it was remarkable that there did not appear +to be any proper distinction of caste between the Russian-Siberian +natives and those who had been exiled for crime. There appeared even +to be little interest in ascertaining the crime--or, as the +customary phrase appears to be here, the "misfortune"--which caused +the exile. On making inquiry on this point I commonly got the +answer, susceptible of many interpretations, "for bad behaviour." We +found a peculiar sort of criminal colony at Selivaninskoj, a very +large village situated on the eastern bank of the Yenesej in about +the latitude of Aavasaksa. My journal of the expedition of 1875 +contains the following notes of my visit to this colony. + +The orthodox Russian church, as is well known, is tolerant towards +the professors of foreign religions--Lutherans, Catholics, Jews, +Mohammedans, Buddhists, Shamans, &c.; but, on the other hand, in +complete correspondence with what took place in former times within +the Protestant world, persecutes sectaries within its own pale, with +temporal punishments here upon earth and with threatenings of +eternal in another world. Especially in former times a great many +sectaries have been sent to Siberia, and therefore there are +sometimes to be found there peculiar colonies enjoying great +prosperity, exclusively inhabited by the members of a certain sect. +Such is the Skopt colony at Selivaninskoj, in connection with which, +however, it may be remarked that the nature of the religious +delusion in this case accounts for the severity of the law or the +authorities. For, on the ground of a text in the Gospel of Matthew +interpreted in a very peculiar way, all Skoptzi subject themselves +to a mutilation, in consequence of which the sect can only exist by +new proselytes; and remarkably enough, these madmen, notwithstanding +all persecution, or perhaps just on that account, actually still +gain followers. A large number of the Skoptzi were Fins from +Ingermanland, with whom I could converse without difficulty. They +had, through industry and perseverance, succeeded in creating for +themselves a certain prosperity, were hospitable and friendly, and +bore their hard fate with resignation. They would not themselves +kill any warm-blooded animal, for it was "a sin to kill what God had +created;" which did not hinder them from catching and eating fish, +and from selling to us, who in any case were lost beings, a fine fat +ox, on condition that our own people should slaughter it. Their +abstinence from some kinds of animal food had besides the good +result of inducing them to devote themselves to the cultivation of +the soil. Round about their cabins accordingly there were patches of +land growing potatoes, turnips, and cabbage, which at least that +year yielded an abundant crop, though lying under the Arctic circle. +Farther south such plots increase in size, and yield rich crops, at +least, of a very large potato. There is no proper cultivation of +grain till we come to Sykobatka, situated in 60 deg. N.L., but in +a future, when forests and mosses are diminished, a profitable +agriculture will be carried on far to the northward. + +[Illustration: OSTYAK TENT. (After a Photograph.) ] + +[Illustration: TOWING WITH DOGS ON THE YENISEJ. The boat _Luna_ +with the Swedish Land Expedition of 1876 on board. (After a +drawing by Hj Theel.) ] + +Along with the dwellings of the Russians, the tents of the natives, +or, as the Russians call them, "the Asiatics," are often to be met +with. They have the same shape as the Lapp "kota." The Samoyed tent +is commonly covered with reindeer skins, the Ostyak tent with birch +bark. In the neighbourhood of the tent there are always large +numbers of dogs, which during winter are employed for general +carrying purposes, and in summer for towing boats up the river--a +means of water transport which greatly astonished the Norwegian +sailors with whom I travelled up the river in 1875. To see people +travelling in a boat drawn by dogs appeared to them more remarkable +than the Kremlin of Moscow, or the bells of Kiev. For such a journey +a sufficient number of dogs are harnessed to a long line, one end of +which is fastened to the stem of the boat. The dogs then go along +the level bank, where they make actual footpaths. The boat being of +light draught is kept afloat at a sufficient distance from land +partly by means of the rudder which is managed by a person sitting +in the stern of the boat, and partly by poling from the fore. Small +boats are often hollowed out of a single tree-stem, and may +notwithstanding, thanks to the size which some of the pines attain +in those regions, be very roomy, and of a very beautiful shape. The +dogs strongly resemble the Eskimo dogs in Greenland, which are also +used as draught animals. + +[Illustration: FISHING BOATS ON THE OB. (After a Photograph.) ] + +Most of the natives who have come into close contact with the +Russians are said to profess the Christian religion. That many +heathen customs, however, still adhere to them is shown, among other +things, by the following incident: At a _simovie_ where we landed +for some hours on the 16th Sept. we found, as is common, a +burying-place in the forest near the dwelling houses. The corpses +were placed in large coffins above ground, at which almost always a +cross was erected. In one of the crosses a sacred picture was +inserted, which must be considered a further proof that a Christian +rested in the coffin. Notwithstanding this, we found some clothes, +which had belonged to the departed, hanging on a bush beside the +grave, together with a bundle containing food, principally dried +fish. At the graves of the richer natives the survivors are even +said to place along with food some rouble notes, in order that the +departed may not be altogether without ready money on his entrance +into the other world. + +[Illustration: GRAVES IN THE PRIMEVAL FOREST OF SIBERIA. (After a +drawing by Hj. Theel.) ] + +Right opposite the village Nasimovskoj is a gold-digger's deserted +"residence," named Yermakova after the first conqueror of Siberia. +The building owed its origin to the discovery of sand-beds rich in +gold, occupying a pretty extensive area east of the Yenisej, which +for a time had the repute of being the richest gold territory in the +world. Here in a short time enormous fortunes were made; and +accounts of the hundreds of poods which one or another yearly reaped +from the sand-beds, and the fast reckless life led by those to whom +fortune dealt out the great prizes in the gold-digging lottery, +still form a favourite topic of conversation in the region. A rise +in the value of labour and a diminished production of the noble +metal have, however, since led to the abandonment of a large number +of the diggings that formerly were most productive; others now +scarcely pay the expense of the working. Many of the gold-diggers +who were formerly rich, in the attempt to win more have been +impoverished, and have disappeared; others who have succeeded in +retaining their "pood of gold"--that is the mint unit which the +gold-diggers prefer to use in their conversation--have removed to +Omsk, Krasnojarsk, Moscow, Petersburg, Paris, &c. The gold-diggers' +residences stand, therefore, now deserted, and form on the eastern +bank of the river a row of half-decayed wooden ruins surrounded by +young trees, after which in no long time only the tradition of the +former period of prosperity will be found remaining. In one respect +indeed the gold-diggers have exerted a powerful influence on the +future of the country. For it was through them that the first +pioneers were scattered in the wilderness, the first seed sown of +the cultivation of the region. + +In 1875 there were only two steamers on the Yenisej. These were +neither passenger nor cargo boats, but rather movable commercial +stores, propelled by steam. The fore-saloon formed a shop provided +with a desk, and shelves on which were to be seen cloths, iron +wares, guns, ammunition, tobacco, tea, matches, sugar, brightly +coloured copper engravings or lithographs, &c. In the after-saloon +was enthroned, among brandy casks, purchased furs, and other +precious or delicate wares, he who had the command on board, a kind +and friendly merchant, who evidently did not concern himself much +with the work of the sailors, but rather with trade and the making +of bargains, and who was seldom called by the crew captain +(_kapitan_), but generally master (_hosain_). After the steamer, or +floating commercial store, there was towed one or two _lodjas_, +which served as magazines, in which meal and salt and other heavy +goods were stored, the purchased fish were salted and looked after, +fresh bread baked for the numerous crew, &c. And as there was not a +single jetty to be found the whole way between Yenisejsk and the +sea, both the steamer and the _lodjas_, in order to be able to load +and deliver goods at any point, had a large number of boats and +lighters in tow. No place was set apart for passengers, but +travellers were received in a friendly and hospitable manner when +they came on board, where they were then allowed to look out for +themselves as best they could. The nautical command was held by two +mates or pilots of a stately and original appearance, who, clad in +long caftans, sat each in his watch on a chair at the wheel, +generally without steering, mostly smoking a cigarette made of +coarse paper and, with the most careless appearance in the world, +exchanging jests with those who were going down the river. The +prohibition of taking away the attention of the steersman from his +work by conversation was thus not in force hereabouts. A man stood +constantly in the fore, uninterruptedly testing the depth with a +long pole. For in order to avoid the strong current of the main +stream the course was always shaped as near the shore as possible, +often so near that one could almost jump ashore, and my own Nordland +boat, which was towed by the side of the steamer, was occasionally +drawn over land. It will be seen from this of how light draught the +steamer was. + +Siberia, especially the river territory of the Yenisej and the Lena, +possesses rich coal seams, which probably extend under considerable +portions of the Siberian plain, but are yet unworked and have +attracted little attention. The river steamers accordingly are +fired, not with coal, but with wood, of which, if I remember right, +180 fathoms went to the voyage of the steamer _Alexander_ up the +river. As the vessel could carry only a small portion of this +quantity of wood at one time, frequent halts were necessary, not +only for trading with the natives, but also for taking fuel on +board. In addition to this, the weak engine, _although the safety +valves were overloaded when necessary with lead weights_, was +sometimes unable to make head with all the vessels in tow against a +current which at some places was very rapid, and often, in the +attempt to find still water near the river bank, the steamer ran +aground, notwithstanding the continual "ladno" cry of the poling +pilot standing in the fore. It made so slow progress on this account +that the passage from Saostrovskoj to Yenisejsk occupied a whole +month. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH VILLAGE ON A SIBERIAN RIVER. (After a +Photograph.) ] + +The two main arms into which the Yenisej is divided south of +Yenisejsk are too rapid for the present Yenisej steamers to ascend +them, while, as has been already stated, there is no difficulty in +descending these rivers from the Selenga and the Baikal Lake on the +one hand, and from the Minusinsk region abounding in grain on the +other. The banks here consist, in many places, of high rocky ridges +covered with fine forests, with wonderfully beautiful valleys +between them, covered with luxuriant vegetation. + +What I have said regarding the mode of travelling up the Yenisej +refers to the year 1875, in which I went up the river accompanied by +two Swedish naturalists and three Norwegian seamen. It was then by +no means unknown, for scientific men such as HANSTEEN (1829), +CASTREN (1846), MIDDENDORFF (winter journeys in 1843 and 1844), and +SCHMIDT (1866), had travelled hither and communicated their +observations to the scientific world in valuable works on the nature +and people of the region. But the visits of the West-European still +formed rare exceptions; no West-European commercial traveller had +yet wandered to those regions, and into the calculations of the +friendly masters of the Yenisej river steamers no import of goods +from, or export of goods to, Europe had ever entered. All at once a +new period seemed to begin. If the change has not gone on so fast as +many expected, life here, however, is more than it was at one time, +and every year the change is more and more noticeable. It is on this +account that I consider these notes from the journey of 1875 worthy +of being preserved. + + +[Footnote 200: With this name, for want of another, I denote all the +innumerable islands which lie in the Yenisej between 69 deg. 45' +and 71 deg. N.L. ] + +[Footnote 201: The _Moskwa_ was the first steamer which penetrated +from the Atlantic to the town of Yenisejsk. The principal dates of +this voyage may therefore be quoted here. + +Baron Knoop, along with several Russian merchants, had chartered in +1878 a steamer, the _Louise_; but this vessel stranded on the coast +of Norway. The _Zaritza_, another Norwegian steamer, was chartered +instead to carry the _Louise's_ goods to their destination. But this +vessel too stranded at the mouth of the Yenisej, and was abandoned +by the crew, who were rescued by a small steamer, the _Moskwa_, +which accompanied the _Zaritza_. In this steamer Captain Dallmann, +the Bremen merchant Helwig Schmidt, and Ehlertz, an official in the +Russian finance office, now travelled up the river. The _Moskwa_ had +a successful voyage, arriving on the 4th September at Goltschicha, +passing Turuchansk in consequence of a number of delays only on the +24th September, reaching Podkamenaja Tunguska on the 1st October, +and on the 14th of the same month its destination, a winter harbour +on the Tschorna river, some miles north of Yenisejsk. (Fahrt auf dem +Yenisse; von der Muendung bis Yenisejsk im Sommer 1878; Petermann's +_Mittheilungen_, 1879, p 81.) ] + +[Footnote 202: The particulars of the voyages of these vessels are +taken from a copy which I have received of Captain Emil Nilsson's +log. ] + +[Footnote 203: The goods carried by me and by Wiggins to the +Yenisej; in 1876, and those which Schwanenberg carried thence in +1877, were properly only samples on a somewhat large scale. I have +no knowledge of the goods which the _Zaritza_ had on board when she +ran aground at the mouth of the Yenisej. ] + +[Footnote 204: According to Johannesen's determination. On Wrangel's +map the latitude of this cape is given as 73 deg. 30'. Johannesen +found the longitude to be 125 deg. 31' instead of 127 deg.. ] + +[Footnote 205: According to Latkin (Petermann's _Mittheilungen_, +1879, p. 92), the Lena delta is crossed by seven main arms, the +westernmost of which is called Anatartisch. It debouches into the +sea at a cape 58 feet high named Ice Cape (Ledjanoi). Next come the +river arm Bjelkoj, then Tumat, at whose mouth a landmark erected by +Laptev in 1739 is still in existence. Then come the other three main +arms, Kychistach, Trofimov, and Kischlach, and finally the very +broad eastmost arm, Bychov. Probably some of the smaller river arms +are to be preferred for sailing up the river to this broad arm, +which is fouled by shoals. ] + +[Footnote 206: A common name used in Siberia for all the native +races. ] + +[Footnote 207: This has been incorrectly interpreted as if they shot +at the vessel. ] + +[Footnote 208: A coal seam is often unfit for use near the surface, +where for centuries it has been uncovered and exposed to the action +of the atmosphere, while farther down it may yield very good coal. +It is probable besides that the layers of shale, which often +surround the coal seams, have in this case been mistaken for the +true coal. For those who are inexperienced in coal-mining to make +such a mistake is the rule and not the exception. ] + +[Footnote 209: In order not to write without due examination about +figures which have been written about a thousand times before, I +have, with the help of Petermann's map of North and Middle Asia in +Stieler's Hand-Atlas, calculated the extent of the areas of the +Siberian rivers, and found them to be:-- + + Square Geographical + kilometres. square miles. + River area of the Ob (with the Tas) 3,445,000 62,560 + River area of the Yenisej 2,712,000 49,250 + River area of the Lena 2,395,000 43,500 + +Of these areas 4,966,000 square kilometres, or about 90,000 +geographical square miles, lie south of 60 deg. N.L. ] + +[Footnote 210: For the northern hemisphere it is the general rule +that where rivers flow through loose, earthy strata in a direction +deviating considerably from that of the parallels of latitude, the +right bank, when one stands facing the mouth of the river, is high, +and the left low. The cause of this is the globular form of the +earth and its rotation, which gives rivers flowing north a tendency +towards the east, and to rivers flowing south a tendency to the west +This tendency is resisted by the bank, but it is gradually eaten +into and washed away by degrees, so that the river bed, in the +course of thousands of years, is shifted in the direction indicated. ] + +[Footnote 211: As specimens of the sub-fossil mollusc fauna of the +_tundra_ some of the common species are delineated on the opposite +page. These are:--1. _Mya arenaria_, Lin. 2/3 of natural size. 2. +_Mya truncata_, Lin. var. _Uddevallensis_, Forbes. 2/3 3. _Saxicava +pholadis_, Lin. 2/3. 4. _Tellina lata_, Gmel. 2/3 5. _Cardium +ciliatum_, Fabr. 2/3. 6. _Leda pernula_, Muell. var. _buccata_, +Steenstr. Natural size. 7. _Nucula expansa_, Reeve. Nat. size. 8. +_Fusus Kroyeri_, Moell. 2/3. 9. _Fusus fornicatus_, Reeve. 1/2. 10. +_Fusus tornatus_, Gould. 2/3. 11. _Margarita elegantissima_, Bean. +Natural size. 12. _Pleurotoma plicifera_, Wood. Natural size. 13. +_Pleurotoma pyramidalis_, Stroem. 1-1/2. 14. _Trichotropis borealis_, +Brod. 1-1/2. 15. _Natica helicoides_, Johnst. Nat. size. ] + +[Footnote 212: _Bihang till Vet. Akad. Handl._ Bd. iv. No. 11, +p. 42. ] + +[Footnote 213: Provisions and wares intended for trade with the +natives are transported on the Yenisej, as on many other Siberian +rivers, down the stream in colossal lighters, built of planks like +logs. It does not pay to take them up the river again, on which +account, after their lading has been taken out of them, they are +either left on the bank to rot or broken up for the timber. ] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + The New Siberian Islands--The Mammoth--Discovery of Mammoth + and Rhinoceros mummies--Fossil Rhinoceros horns--Stolbovoj + Island--Liachoff's Island--First discovery of this island-- + Passage through the sound between this island and the + mainland--Animal life there--Formation of ice in water above + the freezing point--The Bear Islands--The quantity and + dimensions of the ice begin to increase--Different kinds of + sea-ice--Renewed attempt to leave the open channel along + the coast--Lighthouse Island--Voyage along the coast to + Cape Schelagskoj--Advance delayed by ice, shoals, and fog-- + First meeting with the Chukches--Landing and visits to Chukch + villages--Discovery of abandoned encampments--Trade with + the natives rendered difficult by the want of means of + exchange--Stay at Irkaipij--Onkilon graves--Information + regarding the Onkilon race--Renewed contact with the Chukches + --Kolyutschin Bay--American statements regarding the state + of the ice north of Behring's Straits--The _Vega_ beset. + + +After the parting the _Lena_ shaped her course towards the land; the +_Vega_ continued her voyage in a north-easterly direction towards +the new Siberian Islands. + +These have, from the time of their discovery, been renowned among +the Russian ivory collectors for their extraordinary richness in +tusks and portions of skeletons of the extinct northern species of +elephant known by the name of _mammoth_. + +We know by the careful researches of the academicians PALLAS, VON +BAER, BRANDT, VON MIDDENDORFF, FR. SCHMIDT, &c., that the mammoth +was a peculiar northern species of elephant with a covering of hair, +which, at least during certain seasons of the year, lived under +natural conditions closely resembling those which now prevail in +middle and even in northern Siberia. The widely extended grassy +plains and forests of North Asia were the proper homeland of this +animal, and there it must at one time have wandered about in large +herds. + +The same, or a closely allied species of elephant, also occurred in +North America, in England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and North +Russia. Indeed, even in Sweden and Finland inconsiderable mammoth +remains have sometimes been found.[214] But while in Europe only some +more or less inconsiderable remains of bones are commonly to be found, +in Siberia we meet not only with whole skeletons, but also whole animals +frozen in the earth, with solidified blood, flesh, hide, and hair. Hence +we may draw the conclusion that the mammoth died out, speaking +geologically, not so very long ago. This is besides confirmed by a +remarkable antiquarian discovery made in France. Along with a number of +roughly worked flint flakes, pieces of ivory were found, on which, among +other things, a mammoth with trunk, tusks, and hair was engraved in +rough but unmistakable lineaments, and in a style resembling that which +distinguishes the Chukch drawings, copies of which will be found further +on in this work. This drawing, whose genuineness appears to be proved, +surpasses in age, perhaps a hundredfold, the oldest monuments that Egypt +has to show, and forms a remarkable proof that the mammoth, the original +of the drawing, lived in Western Europe contemporaneously with man. The +mammoth remains are thus derived from a gigantic animal form, living in +former times in nearly all the lands now civilized, and whose carcase is +not yet everywhere completely decomposed. Hence the great and intense +interest which attaches to all that concerns this wonderful animal. + +If the interpretation of an obscure passage in Pliny be correct, +mammoth ivory has, from the most ancient times, formed a valued +article of commerce, which, however, was often mistaken for the +ivory of living elephants and of the walrus. But portions of the +skeleton of the mammoth itself are first described in detail by +WITSEN, who during his stay in Russia in 1686 collected a large +number of statements regarding it, and at least in the second +edition of his work gives good drawings of the under jaw of a +mammoth and the cranium of a fossil species of ox, whose bones are +found along with the remains of the mammoth (WITSEN, 2nd. edit. p. +746). But it appears to have escaped Witsen, who himself considered +mammoth bones to be the remains of ancient elephants, and who well +knew the walrus, that in a number of the accounts which he quotes, +the mammoth and the walrus are clearly mixed up together, which is +not so wonderful, as both are found on the coast of the Polar Sea, +and both yielded ivory to the stocks of the Siberian merchants. In +the same way all the statements which the French Jesuit, AVRIL, +during his stay in Moscow in 1686, collected regarding the +amphibious animal, _Behemoth_, occurring on the coast of the +Tartarian Sea, (Polar Sea) refer not to the mammoth, as some +writers, HOWORTH[215] for example, have supposed, but to the walrus. +The name mammoth, which is probably of Tartar origin, Witsen appears +to wish to derive from Behemoth, spoken of in the fortieth chapter +of the Book of Job. The first mammoth tusk was brought to England in +1611, by JOSIAS LOGAN. It was purchased in the region of the +Petchora, and attracted great attention, as appears from Logan's +remark in a letter to Hakluyt, that one would not have dreamed to +find such wares in the region of the Petchora (_Purchas_, iii p. +546). As Englishmen at that time visited Moscow frequently, and for +long periods, this remark appears to indicate that fossil ivory +first became known in the capital of Russia some time after the +conquest of Siberia. + +[Illustration: MAMMOTH SKELETON IN THE IMPERIAL MUSEUM OF THE +ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN ST PETERSBURG. After a Photograph communicated +by the Academician Friedrich Schmidt in St. Petersburg. ] + +[Illustration: RESTORED FORM OF THE MAMMOTH After JUKES, +_The Student's Manual of Geology_, Edinburgh, 1862. ] + +I have not, indeed, been successful during the voyage of the _Vega_ +in making any remarkable discovery that would throw light on the +mode of life of the mammoth,[216] but as we now sail forward between +shores probably richer in such remains than any other on the surface +of the globe, and over a sea, from whose bottom our dredge brought +up, along with pieces of driftwood, half-decayed portions of mammoth +tusks, and as the savages with whom we came in contact, several +times offered us very fine mammoth tusks or tools made of mammoth +ivory, it may not perhaps be out of place here to give a brief +account of some of the most important mammoth _finds_ which have +been preserved for science. We can only refer to the discovery of +mammoth _mummies_,[217] for the _finds_ of mammoth tusks +sufficiently well preserved to be used for carving are so frequent +as to defy enumeration. Middendorff reckons the number of the tusks, +which yearly come into the market, as at least a hundred pairs,[218] +whence we may infer, that during the years that have elapsed since +the conquest of Siberia useful tusks from more than 20,000 animals +have been collected. + +The discovery of a mammoth-_mummy_ is mentioned for the first time +in detail in the sketch of a journey which the Russian ambassador +EVERT YSSBRANTS IDES, a Dutchman by birth, made in 1692 through +Siberia to China. A person whom Yssbrants Ides had with him during +his journey through Siberia, and who travelled every year to collect +mammoth ivory, assured him that he had once found a head of this +animal in a piece of frozen earth which had tumbled down. The flesh +was putrefied, the neck-bone was still coloured by blood, and some +distance from the head a frozen foot was found.[219] The foot was +taken to Turuchansk, whence we may infer that the _find_ was made on +the Yenisej. Another time the same man found a pair of tusks +weighing together twelve poods or nearly 200 kilogram. Ides' +informant further stated, that while the heathen Yakuts, Tunguses, +and Ostyaks, supposed that the mammoth always lived in the earth and +went about in it, however hard the ground might be frozen, also that +the large animal died when it came so far up that it saw or smelled +the air; the old Russians living in Siberia were of opinion that the +mammoth was an animal of the same kind as the elephant, though with +tusks somewhat more bent and closer together; that before the Flood +Siberia had been warmer than now, and elephants had then lived in +numbers there; that they had been drowned in the Flood, and +afterwards, when the climate became colder, had frozen in the river +mud.[220] + +The folk-lore of the natives regarding the mode of life of the +mammoth under ground is given in still greater detail in J.B. +MUeLLER'S _Leben und Gewonheiten der Ostiaken unter dem Polo arctico +wohnende_, &c. Berlin, 1720 (in French in _Recueil de Voiages au +Nord_, Amsterdam, 1731-38, Vol. VIII. p. 373). According to the +accounts given by Muller, who lived in Siberia as a Swedish prisoner +of war,[221] the tusks formed the animal's horns. With these, which +were fastened above the eyes and were movable, the animal dug a way +for itself through the clay and mud, but when it came to sandy soil, +the sand ran together so that the mammoth stuck fast and perished. +Muller further states, that many assured him that they themselves +had seen such animals on the other side of Beresovsk in large +grottos in the Ural mountains (_loc. cit._ p. 382). + +KLAPROTH received a similar account of the mammoth's way of life +from the Chinese in the Russo-Chinese frontier and trading town +Kyachta. For mammoth ivory was considered to be tusks of the giant +rat _tien-shu_, which is only found in the cold regions along the +coast of the Polar Sea, avoids the light, and lives in dark holes in +the interior of the earth. Its flesh is said to be cooling and +wholesome. Some Chinese literati considered that the discovery of +these immense earth rats might even explain the origin of +earthquakes.[222] + +It was not until the latter half of the last century that a European +scientific man had an opportunity of examining a similar _find_. In +the year 1771 a complete rhinoceros, with flesh and hide, was +uncovered by a landslip on the river Wilui in 64 deg. N.L. Its +head and feet are still preserved at St. Petersburg. All the other +parts were allowed to be destroyed for want of means of transport +and preservation.[223] What was taken away showed that this primeval +rhinoceros (_Rhinoceros antiquitatis_ Blumenbach) had been covered +with hair and differed from all now living species of the same +family, though strongly resembling them in shape and size. Already, +long before the horns of the fossil rhinoceros had attracted the +attention of the natives, pieces of these horns were used for the +same purposes for which the Chukches employ strips of whalebone, +viz. to increase the elasticity of their bows. They were considered +at the same time to exert a like beneficial influence on the arrow, +tending to make it hit the mark, as, according to the hunter's +superstition among ourselves in former days, some cat's claws and +owl's eyes placed in the bullet mould had on the ball. The natives +believed that the crania and horns of the rhinoceros found along +with the remains of the mammoth belonged to gigantic birds, +regarding which there were told in the tents of the Yakut, the +Ostyak and the Tunguse many tales resembling that of the bird Roc in +the _Thousand and One Nights_. Ermann and Middendorff even suppose +that such _finds_ two thousand years ago gave occasion to Herodotus' +account of the Arimaspi and the gold-guarding dragons (_Herodotus_, +Book IV. chap. 27). Certain it is that during the middle ages such +"grip-claws" were preserved, as of great value, in the treasuries +and art collections of that time, and that they gave rise to many a +romantic story in the folk-lore both of the West and East. Even in +this century Hedenstroem, the otherwise sagacious traveller on the +Siberian Polar Sea, believed that the fossil rhinoceros' horns were +actual, "grip-claws." For he mentions in his oft-quoted work, that +he had seen such a claw 20 verschoks (0.9 metre) in length, and when +he visited St. Petersburg in 1830, the scientific men there did not +succeed in convincing him that his ideas on this subject were +incorrect.[224] + +[Illustration: SIBERIAN RHINOCEROS HORN. Preserved in the Museum +at St. Petersburg. ] + +A new _find_ of a mammoth _mummy_ was made in 1787, when the natives +informed the Russian travellers SARYTSCHEV and MERK, that about 100 +versts below the village Alasejsk, situated on the river Alasej +running into the Polar Sea, a gigantic animal had been washed out of +the sand beds of the beach in an upright posture, undamaged, with +hide and hair. The _find_, however, does not appear to have been +thoroughly examined.[225] + +In 1799 a Tunguse found on the Tamut Peninsula, which juts out into +the sea immediately south-east of the river-arm by which the _Lena_, +steamed up the river, another frozen-in mammoth. He waited patiently +five years for the ground thawing so much as that the precious tusks +should be uncovered. The softer parts of the animal accordingly were +partly torn in pieces and destroyed by beasts of prey and dogs, when +the place was closely examined in 1806 by ADAMS the Academician. +Only the head and two of the feet were then almost undamaged. The +skeleton, part of the hide, a large quantity of long hair and woolly +hair a foot and a half long were taken away. How fresh the carcase +was may be seen from the fact that parts of the eye could still be +clearly distinguished. Similar remains had been found two years +before, a little further beyond the mouth of the Lena, but they were +neither examined nor removed.[226] + +A new _find_ was made in 1839, when a complete mammoth was uncovered +by a landslip on the shore of a large lake to the west of the mouth +of the Yenisej, seventy versts from the Polar Sea. It was originally +almost entire, so that even the trunk appears to have been +preserved, to judge by the statement of the natives that a black +tongue as long as a month-old reindeer calf was hanging out of the +mouth; but it had, when it was removed in 1842, by the care of the +merchant TROFIMOV, been already much destroyed.[227] + +Next after Trofimov's mammoth come the mammoth-_finds_ of +Middendorff and Schmidt. The former was made in 1843 on the bank of +the river Tajmur, under 75 deg. N.L.; the latter in 1866 or the +Gyda _tundra_, west of the mouth of the Yenisej in 70 deg. 13' +N.L. The soft parts of these _finds_ were not so well preserved as +those just mentioned. But the _finds_ at all events had a greater +importance for science, from the localities having been thoroughly +examined by competent scientific men. Middendorff arrived at the +result that the animal found by him had floated from more southerly +regions to the place where it was found. Schmidt on the other hand +found that the stratum which contained the mammoth rested on a bed +of marine clay, containing shells of high northern species of +crustacea which still live in the Polar Sea, and that it was covered +with strata of sand alternating with beds, from a quarter to half a +foot thick, of decayed remains of plants, which completely +correspond with the turf beds which are still formed in the lakes of +the _tundra_. Even the very beds of earth and clay in which the +bones, pieces of hide, and hair of the mammoth _mummy_ were +enclosed, contained pieces of larch, branches and leaves of the +dwarf birch (_Betulct nana_), and of two northern species of willow +(_Salie glauca_, and _herbacea_).[228] It appears from this that the +climate of Siberia at the time when these mammoth-carcases were +imbedded, was very nearly the same as the present, and as the stream +in whose neighbourhood the find was made is a comparatively +inconsiderable _tundra_ river, lying wholly to the north of the +limit of trees, there is no probability that the carcase drifted +with the spring ice from the wooded region of Siberia towards the +north. Schmidt, therefore, supposes that the Siberian elephant, if +it did not always live in the northernmost parts of Asia, +occasionally wandered thither, in the same way that the reindeer now +betakes itself to the coast of the Polar Sea. VON BRANDT, VON +SCHMALHAUSEN, and others, had besides already shown that the remains +of food which were found in the hollows of the teeth of the Wilui +rhinoceros consisted of portions of leaves and needles of species of +trees which still grow in Siberia.[229] + +Soon after the mammoth found on the Gyda _tundra_ had been examined +by Schmidt, similar _finds_ were examined by GERHARD VON MAYDELL, at +three different places between the rivers Kolyma and Indigirka, +about a hundred kilometres from the Polar Sea. With respect to these +_finds_ I can only refer to a paper by L. VON SCHRENCK in the +_Bulletin_ of the St. Petersburg Academy, T. XVI. 1871, p. 147. + +Under the guidance of natives I collected in 1876 at the confluence +of the river Mesenkin with, the Yenisej, in 71 deg. 28' N.L., some +fragments of bones and pieces of the hide of a mammoth. The hide was +20 to 25 millimetres thick and nearly tanned by age, which ought not +to appear wonderful, when we consider that, though the mammoth lived +in one of the latest periods of the history of our globe, hundreds +of thousands, perhaps millions of years have, however, passed since +the animal died to which these pieces of skin once belonged. It was +clear that they had been washed by the neighbouring river Mesenkin +out of the tundra-bank, but I endeavoured, without success, to +discover the original locality, which was probably already concealed +by river mud. In the neighbourhood was found a very fine cranium of +the musk ox. + +A new and important _find_ was made in 1877 on a tributary of the +Lena, in the circle Werchojansk, in 69 deg. N.L. For there was +found there an exceedingly well preserved carcase of a rhinoceros +(_Rhinoceros Merckii_, Jaeg.), a different species from the Wilui +rhinoceros examined by Pallas. However, before the carcase was +washed away by the river, there had only been removed the +hair-covered head and one foot.[230] From the _find_ Schrenck draws +the conclusion that this rhinoceros belonged to a high-northern +species, adapted to a cold climate, and living in, or at least +occasionally wandering to, the regions where the carcase was found. +There the mean temperature of the year is now very low,[231] the +winter exceedingly cold (-63.3 deg. has been registered) and the +short summer exceedingly warm. Nowhere on earth does the temperature +show extremes so widely separated as here. Although the trees in +winter often split with tremendous noise, and the ground is rent +with the cold, the wood is luxuriant and extends to the +neighbourhood of the Polar Sea, where besides, the winter is much +milder than farther in the interior. With respect to the possibility +of these large animals finding sufficient pasture in the regions in +question, it ought not to be overlooked that in sheltered places +overflowed by the spring inundations there are found, still far +north of the limit of trees, luxuriant bushy thickets, whose +newly-expanded juicy leaves, burned up by no tropical sun, perhaps +form a special luxury for grass-eating animals, and that _even the +bleakest stretches of land in the high north are fertile in +comparison with many regions where at least the camel can find +nourishment, for instance the east coast of the Red Sea_. + +The nearer we come to the coast of the Polar Sea, the more common +are the remains of the mammoth, especially at places where there +have been great landslips at the river banks when the ice breaks up +in spring. Nowhere, however, are they found in such numbers as on +the New Siberian Islands. Here Hedenstroem in the space of a verst +saw ten tusks sticking out of the ground, and from a single sandbank +on the west side of Liachoff's Island the ivory collectors had, when +this traveller visited the spot, for eighty years made their best +tusk harvest. That new _finds_ may be made there year by year +depends on the bones and tusks being washed by the waves out of the +sandbeds on the shore, so that after an east wind which has lasted +some time they may be collected at low water on the banks then laid +dry. The tusks which are found on the coast of the Polar Sea are +said to be smaller than those that are found farther south, a +circumstance which possibly may be explained by supposing that, +while the mammoth wandered about on the plains of Siberia, animals +of different ages pastured in company, and that the younger of them, +as being more agile and perhaps more troubled by flies than the +older, went farther north than these. + +Along with bones of the mammoth there are found on the New Siberian +Islands, in not inconsiderable numbers, portions of the skeletons of +other animal forms, little known, but naturally of immense +importance for ascertaining the vertebrate fauna which lived at the +same time with the mammoth on the plains of Siberia, and the New +Siberian group of islands is not less remarkable for the +"wood-hills," highly enigmatical as to their mode of formation, +which Hedenstroem found on the south coast of the northernmost +island. These hills are sixty-four metres high, and consist of thick +horizontal sandstone beds alternating with strata of fissile +bituminous tree stems, heaped on each other to the top of the hill. +In the lower part of the hill the tree stems lie horizontally, but +in the upper strata they stand upright, though perhaps not +rootfast.[232] The flora and fauna of the island group besides are +still completely unknown, and the fossils, among them ammonites with +exquisite pearly lustre, which Hedenstroem brought home from the rock +strata on Kotelnoj Island, hold out inducement to further +researches, which ought to yield the geologist valuable information +as to the former climate and the former distribution of land and sea +on the surface of the globe. The knowledge of the hydrography of +this region is besides an indispensable condition for judging of the +state of the ice in the sea which washes the north coast of Asia. +Here lies the single available starting-point for the exploration of +the yet altogether unknown sea farther to the north, and from hills +on the two northernmost islands Hedenstroem thought that across the +sea to the north-west and north-east he saw obscure outlines of new +land, on which no man had yet set his foot. All these circumstances +confer on this group of islands an uncommon interest in a scientific +and geographical respect, and therefore no long time can elapse +until a scientific expedition be sent to these regions. Just for +this reason I now desired, as a preparation for a future voyage, to +wander about here for a couple of days, partly on foot, partly by +boat. + +[Illustration: STOLBOVOJ ISLAND. After a drawing by O. Nordquist. ] + +The air was calm, but for the most part clouded, the temperature as +high as +4 deg., the sea clear of ice, the salinity of the water +1.8 per cent, with a temperature of +2 deg. to +3 deg.. At first +we made rapid progress, but after having in the afternoon of the +28th August sighted the westernmost islands, Semenoffskoj and +Stolbovoj, the sea became so shallow that for long stretches we were +compelled to sail in six to seven metres water. Some very rotten +ice, or rather ice sludge, was also met with, which compelled us to +make tedious _detours_, and prevented the _Vega_ from going at full +speed. + +The animal life was among the scantiest I had seen during my many +travels in the Polar Seas. A few seals were visible. Of birds we saw +some terns and gulls, and even far out at sea a pretty large number +of phalaropes--the most common kind of bird on the coast of the +Asiatic Polar Sea, at least in autumn. Stolbovoj Island was, +especially on the north side, high with precipitous shore-cliffs +which afforded splendid breeding-places for looms, black guillemots +and gulls. At all such cliffs there breed on Spitzbergen millions of +sea fowl, which are met with out on the surrounding sea in great +flocks searching for their food. Here not a single loom was seen, +and even the number of the gulls was small, which indeed in some +degree was to be accounted for by the late season of the year, but +also by the circumstance that no colony of birds had settled on the +rocky shores of the island. + +The sea bottom consisted at certain places of hard packed sand, or +rather, as I shall endeavour to show farther on, of _frozen_ sand, +from which the trawl net brought up no animals. At other places +there was found a clay, exceedingly rich in _Idothea entomon_ and +_Sabinei_ and an extraordinary mass of bryozoa, resembling +collections of the eggs of mollusca. + +It was not until the 30th of August that we were off the west side +of Ljachoff's Island, on which I intended to land. The north coast, +and, as it appeared the day after, the east coast was clear, of ice, +but the winds recently prevailing had heaped a mass of rotten ice on +the west coast. The sea besides was so shallow here, that already at +a distance 15' from land we had a depth of only eight metres. The +ice heaped against the west coast of the island did not indeed form +any very serious obstacle to the advance of the _Vega_, but in case +we had attempted to land there it might have been inconvenient +enough, when the considerable distance between the vessel and the +land was to be traversed in a boat or the steam launch, and it might +even, if a sudden frost had occurred, have become a fetter, which +would have confined us to that spot for the winter. Even a storm +arising hastily might in this shallow water have been actually +dangerous to the vessel anchored in an open road. The prospect of +wandering about for some days on the island did not appear to me to +outweigh the danger of the possible failure of the main object of +the expedition. I therefore gave up for the time my intention of +landing. The course was shaped southwards towards the sound, of so +bad repute in the history of the Siberian Polar Sea, which separates +Ljachoff's Island from the mainland. + +[Illustration: IDOTHEA ESTOMON, LIN. From the sea north of the +mouth of the Lena. (Natural size.) ] + +[Illustration: IDOTHEA SABINEI, KROeYER. From the sea off the +mouth of the Lena. (Natural size.) ] + +So far as we could judge at a distance from the appearance of the rocks, +Stolbovoj consisted of stratified rocks, Ljachoff's Island, on the +contrary, like the mainland opposite, of high hills, much shattered, +probably formed of Plutonic stone-masses. Between these there are +extensive plains, which, according to a statement by the land surveyor +CHVOINOFF, who by order of the Czar visited the island in 1775, are +formed of ice and sand, in which lie imbedded enormous masses of the +bones and tusks of the mammoth, mixed with the horns and skulls of some +kind of ox and with rhinoceros' horns. Bones of the whale and walrus are +not mentioned as occurring there, but "long small screw-formed bones," +by which are probably meant the tusks of the narwhal.[233] + +All was now clear of snow, with the exception of a few of the deeper +clefts between the mountains. No traces of glaciers were visible, +not even such small collections of ice as are to be found everywhere +on Spitzbergen where the land rises a few hundred feet above the +surface of the sea. Nor, to judge by the appearance of the hills, +have there been any glaciers in former times, and this is certainly +the case on the mainland. The northernmost part of Asia in that case +has never been covered by such an ice-sheet as is assumed by the +supporters of a general ice age embracing the whole globe. + +The large island right opposite to Svjatoinos was discovered in 1770 +by LJACHOFF, whose name the island now bears. In 1788 Billings' +private secretary, MARTIN SAUER, met with Ljachoff at Yakutsk, but +he was then old and infirm, on which account, when Sauer requested +information regarding the islands in the Polar Sea, he referred him +to one of his companions, ZAITAI PROTODIAKONOFF. He informed him +that the discovery was occasioned by an enormous herd of reindeer +which Ljachoff, in the month of April 1770, saw going from +Svjatoinos towards the south, and whose track came over the ice from +the north. On the correct supposition that the reindeer came from +some land lying to the north, Ljachoff followed the track in a +dog-sledge, and thus discovered the two most southerly of the New +Siberian Islands, a discovery which was rewarded by the Czarina +Catherine II. with the exclusive right to hunt and collect ivory on +them.[234] + +[Illustration: LJACHOFF'S ISLAND. After a drawing by O. Nordquist. ] + +Ljachoff states the breadth of the sound between the mainland and +the nearest large island at 70 versts or 40'. On Wrangel's map again +the breadth is not quite 30'. On the mainland side it is bounded by +a rocky headland projecting far into the sea, which often formed the +turning point in attempts to penetrate eastwards from the mouth of +the river Lena, and perhaps just on that account, like many other +headlands dangerous to the navigator on the north coast of Russia, +was called _Svjatoinos_ (the holy cape), a name which for the oldest +Russian Polar Sea navigators appears to have had the same +signification as "the cape that can be passed with difficulty." No +one however now thinks with any apprehension of the two "holy +capes," which in former times limited the voyages of the Russians +and Fins living on the White Sea to the east and west, and this, I +am quite convinced, will some time be the case with this and all +other holy capes in the Siberian Polar Sea. + +The sea water in the sound was much mixed with river water and had a +comparatively high temperature, even at a depth of nine to eleven +metres. The animal life at the sea bottom was poor in species but +rich in individuals, consisting principally of _Idothea entomon_, of +which Dr. Stuxberg counted 800 specimens from a single sweep of the +dredge. There were obtained at the same time, besides a few +specimens of _Idothea Sabinei_, sponges and bryozoa in great +abundance, and small mussels, crustacea, vermes, &c. Various fishes +were also caught, and some small algae collected. The trawl-net +besides brought up from the bottom some fragments of mammoth tusks, +and a large number of pieces of wood, for the most part sticks or +branches, which appear to have stood upright in the clay, to judge +from the fact that one of their ends was often covered with living +bryozoa. These sticks often caused great inconvenience to the +dredgers, by tearing the net that was being dragged along the +bottom. + +On the night preceding the 31st of August, as we steamed past +Svjatoinos, a peculiar phenomenon was observed. The sky was clear in +the zenith and in the east; in the west, on the other hand, there was a +bluish-grey bank of cloud. The temperature of the water near the surface +varied between +1 deg. and +1.6 deg., that of the air on the vessel between ++1.5 deg. and +1.8 deg.. Although thus both the air and the water had a +temperature somewhat above the freezing-point, ice was seen to form on +the calm, mirror-bright surface of the sea. This ice consisted partly of +needles, partly of a thin sheet. I have previously on several occasions +observed in the Arctic seas a similar phenomenon, that is to say, have +observed the formation of ice when the temperature of the air was above +the freezing-point. On this occasion, when the temperature of the +uppermost stratum of water was also above the freezing-point, the +formation of ice was clearly a sort of hoar-frost phenomenon, caused by +radiation of heat, perhaps both upwards towards the atmosphere and +downwards towards the bottom layer of water, cooled below the +freezing-point. + +The whole day we continued our voyage eastwards with glorious +weather over a smooth ice-free sea, and in the same way on the 1st +September, with a gentle southerly wind, the temperature of the air +at noon in the shade being +5.6 deg.. On the night before the 2nd +September the wind became northerly and the temperature of the air +sank to -1 deg.. Little land was seen, though we were still not +very far from the coast. Near to it there was a broad ice-free, or +nearly ice-free, channel, but farther out to sea ice commenced. The +following night snow fell, so that the whole of the deck and the +Bear Islands, which we reached on the 3rd September, were sprinkled +with it. + +Hitherto, during the whole time we sailed _along the coast_, we had +scarcely met with any fields of drift-ice but such as were formed of +rotten, even, thin and scattered pieces of ice, in many places +almost converted into ice-sludge, without an "ice-foot" and often +dirty on the surface. No iceberg had been seen, nor any large +glacier ice-blocks, such as on the coasts of Spitzbergen replace the +Greenland icebergs. But east of Svjatoinos the ice began to increase +in size and assume the same appearance as the ice north of +Spitzbergen. It was here, besides, less dirty, and rested on a hard +ice-foot projecting deep under water and treacherous for the +navigator. + +The ice of the Polar Sea may be divided into the following +varieties:-- + +1. _Icebergs._ The true icebergs have a height above the surface of +the water rising to 100 metres. They often ground in a depth of 200 +to 300 metres, and have thus sometimes a cross section of up to 400, +perhaps 500 metres. Their area may amount to several square +kilometres. Such enormous blocks of ice are projected into the North +Polar Sea only from the glaciers of Greenland, and according to +Payer's statement, from those of Franz-Josef Land also; but not, as +some authors (GEIKIE, BROWN, and others) appear to assume and have +shown by incorrect ideal drawings, from glaciers which project into +the sea and there terminate with a perpendicular evenly-cut border, +but from very uneven glaciers which always enter the sea in the +bottoms of deep fjords, and are split up into icebergs long before +they reach it. It is desirable that those who write on the origin of +icebergs, should take into consideration the fact that icebergs are +only formed at places where a violent motion takes place in the mass +of the ice, which again within a comparatively short time results in +the excavation of the deep ice-fjord. The largest iceberg, which, so +far as I know, has been _measured_ in that part of the Polar Sea +which lies between Spitzbergen and Wrangel Land, is one which +Barents saw at Cape Nassau on the 17/7th August 1596. It was sixteen +fathoms high, and had grounded in a depth of thirty-six fathoms. In +the South Polar Sea icebergs occur in great numbers and of enormous +size. If we may assume that they have an origin similar to those of +Greenland, it is probable that round the South Pole there is an +extensive continent indented by deep fjords. + +2. _Glacier Ice-blocks._ These, which indeed have often been +called icebergs, are distinguished from true icebergs not only +by their size, but also by the way in which they are formed. +They have seldom a cross section of more than thirty or forty +metres, and it is only exceptionally that they are more than ten +metres high above the surface of the water. They originate from the +"calving" of glaciers which project into the sea with a straight and +evenly high precipitous border. Such glaciers occur in large numbers +on the coasts of Spitzbergen, and they are there of the same height +as similar evenly-cut glaciers on Greenland. According to the +statement of the Dane PETERSEN, who took part both in KANE'S +expedition in 1853-55 and in Torell's in 1861, the glaciers, for +instance, at Hinloopen Strait in Spitzbergen, are fully equal, with +respect to their size and the height of their borders above the +sea-level, to the enormous and much bewritten Humboldt glacier in +Greenland. In Spitzbergen too we find at two places miniatures of +the Greenland ice-currents, for instance the glacier which filled +the North Haven in Bell Sound, another glacier which filled an old +Dutch whaling haven between Recherche Bay and Van Keulen Bay, a +glacier on the north side of Wablenberg Bay and perhaps at that part +of the inland ice marked in my map of the expedition of 1872 as a +bay on the east coast of North-east Land. It is even possible that +small icebergs may be projected from the last-mentioned place, and +thence drift out into the sea on the east coast of Spitzbergen. + +Glacier-ice shows a great disposition to fall asunder into smaller +pieces without any perceptible cause. It is full of cavities, +containing compressed air, which, when the ice melts, bursts its +attenuated envelope with a crackling sound like that of the electric +spark. It thus behaves in this respect in the same way as some +mineral salts which dissolve in water with slight explosions. +Barents relates that on the 20/10th August 1596 he anchored his +vessel to a block of ice which was aground on the coast of Novaya +Zemlya. Suddenly, and without any perceptible cause, the rock of ice +burst asunder into hundreds of smaller pieces with a tremendous +noise, and to the great terror of all the men on board. Similar +occurrences on a smaller scale I have myself witnessed. The cause to +which they are due appears to me to be the following. The ice-block +while part of the glacier is exposed to very severe pressure, which +ceases when it falls into the sea. The pressure now in most cases +equalises itself without any bursting asunder, but it sometimes +happens that the inner strongly compressed portions of the ice-block +cannot, although the pressure has ceased, expand freely in +consequence of the continuous ice-envelope by which they are still +surrounded. A powerful internal tension must thereby arise in the +whole mass, which finally leads to its bursting into a thousand +pieces. We have here a Prince Rupert's drop, but one whose diameter +may rise to fifty metres, and which consists not of glass but of +ice. + +Glacier ice-blocks occur abundantly on the coasts of Spitzbergen and +north Novaya Zemlya, but appear to be wanting or exceedingly rare +along the whole north coast of Asia, between Yugor Schar and Wrangel +Land. East of this they again occur, but not in any great numbers. +This appears to show that the Western Siberian Polar Sea is not +surrounded by any glacial lands. The glacier ice is commonly of a +blue colour. When melted it yields a pure water, free of salt. +Sometimes however it gives traces of salt, which are derived from +the spray which the storms have carried high up on the surface of +the glacier. + +3. Pieces of ice from the ice-foot formed along the sea beach or the +banks of rivers. They rise sometimes five or six metres above the +surface of the water. They consist commonly of dirty ice, mixed with +earth. + +4. _River Ice_, level, comparatively small ice fields, which, when +they reach the sea, are already so rotten that they soon melt away +and disappear. + +5. The walrus-hunters' _Bay Ice_; by which we understand level +ice-fields formed in fjords and bays along the coast, and which have +there been exposed to a comparatively early summer heat. The bay ice +therefore melts away completely during summer, and it is not +commonly much pressed together. When all the snow upon it has +disappeared, there is to be seen above the surface of the water a +little ice of the same colour as the water, while under water very +considerable portions of unmelted hard ice are still remaining. This +has given rise to the walrus-hunters' statement, which has been +warmly maintained, that the ice in autumn finally disappears by +sinking. Nearly all the ice we met with in the course of our voyage +belonged to this variety. + +6. _Sea Ice_, or heavy ice, which often exhibits traces of having +been much pressed together, but has not been exposed to any early +summer heat. The walrus-hunters call it sea ice, wishing, I imagine, +to indicate thereby that it is formed in the sea farther up towards +the north. That it has drifted down from the north is indeed +correct, but that it has been formed far from land over a +considerable depth in the open sea is perhaps uncertain, as the ice +that is formed there cannot, we think, be very thick. It has rather +perhaps drifted down from the neighbourhood of some yet unknown +Polar continent. Of this ice are formed most of the ice-fields in +the seas east of Greenland, north of Spitzbergen, between +Spitzbergen and the north island of Novaya Zemlya, and north of +Behring's Straits. In the northern seas it does not melt completely +during the summer, and remains of sea ice therefore often enter as +component parts into the bay ice formed during the following winter. +The latter then becomes rough and uneven, from remnants of old sea +ice being frozen into the newly formed ice. Sea ice is often pressed +together so as to form great _torosses_ or ice-casts, formed of +pieces of ice which at first are angular and piled loose on each +other, but gradually become rounded, and freeze together into +enormous blocks of ice, which, together with the glacier ice-blocks, +form the principal mass of the ground ice found on the coasts of the +Polar lands. The water which is obtained by melting sea-ice is not +completely free from salt, but the older it is the less salt does it +contain. + + +East of the Bear Islands heavy sea-ice in pretty compact masses had +drifted down towards the coast, but still left an open ice-free +channel along the land. Here the higher animal world was exceedingly +poor, which, as far as the avi-fauna was concerned, must be in some +degree ascribed to the late season of the year. For Wrangel mentions +a cliff at the Bear Islands which was covered with numberless birds' +nests. He saw besides, on the largest of these islands, traces of +the bear, wolf, fox, lemming, and reindeer (Wrangel's _Reise_, i. +pp. 304 and 327). Now the surrounding sea was completely deserted. +No Polar bear saluted us from the ice-floes, no walruses, and only +very few seals were visible. During many watches not a single +natatory bird was seen. Only the phalarope was still met with in +large numbers, even pretty far out at sea. Perhaps it was then +migrating from the north. The lower animal world was more abundant. +From the surface of the sea the drag-net brought up various small +surface crustacea, inconsiderable in themselves, but important as +food for larger animals; and from the sea-bottom were obtained a +large number of the same animal forms as from the sound at +Svjatoinos, and in addition some beautiful asterids and a multitude +of very large beaker sponges. + +On the 3rd September, after we had sailed past the Bear Islands, the +course was shaped right for Cape Chelagskoj. This course, as will be +seen by a glance at the map, carried us far from the coast, and thus out +of the channel next the land, in which we had hitherto sailed. The ice +was heavy and close, although at first so distributed that it was +navigable. But with a north wind, which began to blow on the night +before the 1st September, the temperature fell below the freezing-point, +and the water between the pieces of drift-ice was covered with a very +thick crust of ice, and the drift-ice came closer and closer together. +It thus became impossible to continue the course which we had taken. We +therefore turned towards the land, and at 6 o'clock P.M., after various +bends in the ice and a few concussions against the pieces of ice that +barred our way, again reached the ice-free channel, eight to twelve +kilometres broad, next the land. While we lay a little way in among the +drift-ice fields we could see no sign of open water, but it appeared as +if the compact ice extended all the way to land, a circumstance which +shows how careful the navigator ought to be in expressing an opinion as +to the nature of the _pack_ beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the +vessel. The temperature of the air, which in the ice-field had sunk to +-3 deg., now rose at once to + 4.1 deg., while that of the water rose from -1 deg..2 +to +3.5 deg., and its salinity fell from 2.4 to 13 per cent. All showed that +we had now come into the current of the Kolyma, which from causes which +have been already stated, runs from the mouth of the river along the +land in an easterly direction. + +[Illustration: BEAKER SPONGES. From the sea off the mouth of the Kolyma. ] + +[Illustration: LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND. After a drawing by O. Nordquist. ] + +The Bear Islands lying off the mouth of the Kolyma are, for the most +part, formed of a plutonic rock, whose upper part has weathered +away, leaving gigantic isolated pillars. Four such pillars have +given to the easternmost of the islands the name Lighthouse Island +(Fyrpelaroen). Similar ruin-like formations are found not only on +Cape Baranov, which lies right opposite, but also at a great number +of other places in that portion of the north coast of Siberia which +lies farther to the east. Generally these cliff-ruins are collected +together over considerable areas in groups or regular rows. They +have thus, when seen from the sea, so bewildering a resemblance to +the ruins of a gigantic city which had once been surrounded by +strong walls and been full of temples and splendid buildings, that +one is almost tempted to see in them memorials of the exploits of a +Tamerlane or a Chingis Khan, up here in the high north. + +The north side of the hill-tops was powdered with new-fallen snow, +but the rest of the land was clear of snow. The distance between the +south point of Ljachoff's Island and the Bear Islands is 360'. This +distance we had traversed in three days, having thus made 120' in +the twenty-four hours, or 5' per hour. If we consider the time lost +in dredging, sounding, and determining the temperature and salinity +of the water, and the caution which the navigator must observe +during a voyage in quite unknown waters, this speed shows that +during this part of our voyage we were hindered by ice only to a +slight extent. Cape Baranov was passed on the night before the 5th +September, the mouth of Chaun Bay on the night before the 6th +September, and Cape Chelagskoj was reached on the 6th at 4 o'clock +P.M. The distance in a right line between this headland and the Bear +Islands is 180'. In consequence of the many _detours_ in the ice we +had required 2-1/2 days to traverse this distance, which corresponds +to 72' per day, or 3' per hour, a speed which in a voyage in +unknown, and for the most part ice-bestrewed waters, must yet be +considered very satisfactory. But after this our progress began to +be much slower. At midnight the sun was already 12 deg. to 13 +degree below the horizon, and the nights were now so dark that at +that time of day we were compelled to lie still anchored to some +large ground-ice. A farther loss of time was caused by the dense fog +which often prevailed by day, and which in the unknown shallow water +next the land compelled Captain Palander to advance with extreme +caution. The navigation along the north coast of Asia began to get +somewhat monotonous. Even the most zealous Polar traveller may tire +at last of mere ice, shallow water and fog; and mere fog, shallow +water and ice. + +Now, however, a pleasant change began, by our coming at last in +contact with natives. In the whole stretch from Yugor Schar to Cape +Chelagskoj we had seen neither men nor human habitations, if I +except the old uninhabited hut between Cape Chelyuskin and the +Chatanga. But on the 6th September, when we were a little way off +Cape Chelagskoj, two boats were sighted. Every man, with the +exception of the cook, who could be induced by no catastrophe to +leave his pots and pans, and who had circumnavigated Asia and Europe +perhaps without having been once on land, rushed on deck. The boats +were of skin, built in the same way as the "umiaks" or women's boats +of the Eskimo. They were fully laden with laughing and chattering +natives, men, women, and children, who indicated by cries and +gesticulations that they wished to come on board. The engine was +stopped, the boats lay to, and a large number of skin-clad, +bare-headed beings climbed up over the gunwale in a way that clearly +indicated that they had seen vessels before. A lively talk began, +but we soon became aware that none of the crew of the boats or the +vessel knew any language common to both. It was an unfortunate +circumstance, but signs were employed as far as possible. This did +not prevent the chatter from going on, and great gladness soon came +to prevail, especially when some presents began to be distributed, +mainly consisting of tobacco and Dutch clay pipes. It was remarkable +that none of them could speak a single word of Russian, while a boy +could count tolerably well up to ten in English, which shows that +the natives here come into closer contact with American whalers than +with Russian traders. They acknowledged the name _chukch_ or +_chautchu_. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BOATS. ] + +Many of them were tall, well-grown men. They were clothed in close +fitting skin trousers and "pesks" of reindeer skin. The head was +bare, the hair always clipped short, with the exception of a small +fringe in front, where the hair had a length of four centimetres and +was combed down over the brow. Some had a cap of the sort used by +the Russians at Chabarova, stuck into the belt behind, but they +appeared to consider the weather still too warm for the use of this +head-covering. The hair of most of them was bluish-black and +exceedingly thick. The women were tattooed with black or +bluish-black lines on the brow and nose, a number of similar lines +on the chin, and finally some embellishments on the cheeks. The type +of face did not strike one as so unpleasant as that of the Samoyeds +or Eskimo. Some of the young girls were even not absolutely ugly. In +comparison with the Samoyeds they were even rather cleanly, and had +a beautiful, almost reddish-white complexion. Two of the men were +quite fair. Probably they were descendants of Russians, who for some +reason or other, as prisoners of war or fugitives, had come to live +among the Chukches and had been nationalised by them. + +In a little we continued our voyage, after the Chukches had returned +to their boats, evidently well pleased with the gifts they had +received and the leaf tobacco I had dealt out in bundles,--along +with the clay pipes, of which every one got as many as he could +carry between his fingers,--with the finery and old clothes which my +comrades and the crew strewed around them with generous hand. For we +were all convinced that after some days we should come to waters +where winter clothes would be altogether unnecessary, where our want +of any article could easily be supplied at the nearest port, and +where the means of exchange would not consist of goods, but of +stamped pieces of metal and slips of paper. + +[Illustration: A CHUKCH IN SEAL-GUT GREAT COAT. After a photograph +by L. Palander. ] + +On the 7th September, we steamed the whole day along the coast in +pretty open ice. At night we lay to at a floe. The hempen tangles +and the trawl-net were put out and yielded a very rich harvest. But +in the morning we found ourselves again so surrounded by ice and +fog, that, after several unsuccessful attempts to make an immediate +advance, we were compelled to lie-to at a large piece of drift-ice +near the shore. When the fog had lightened so much that the vessel +could be seen from the land, we were again visited by a large number +of natives, whom as before we entertained as best we could. They +invited us by evident signs to land and visit their tents. As it was +in any case impossible immediately to continue our voyage, I +accepted the invitation, ordered a boat to be put out, and landed +along with most of my comrades. + +The beach here is formed of a low bank of sand which runs between +the sea and a small shallow lagoon or fresh-water lake, whose +surface is nearly on a level with that of the sea. Farther into the +interior the land rises gradually to bare hills, clear of snow or +only covered with a thin coating of powdered snow from the fall of +the last few days. Lagoon formations, with either fresh or salt +water, of the same kind as those which we saw here for the first +time, are distinctive of the north-eastern coast of Siberia. It is +these formations which gave rise to the statement that on the north +coast of Siberia it is difficult to settle the boundaries between +sea and land. In winter this may be difficult enough, for the low +bank which separates the lagoon from the sea is not easily +distinguished when it has become covered with snow, and it may +therefore readily happen in winter journeys along the coast that one +is far into the land while he still believes himself to be out on +the sea-ice. But when the snow has melted, the boundary is sharp +enough, and the sea by no means shallow for such a distance as old +accounts would indicate. A continual ice-mud-work also goes on here +during the whole summer. Quite close to the beach accordingly the +depth of water is two metres, and a kilometre farther out ten to +eleven metres. Off the high rocky promontories the water is commonly +navigable even for vessels of considerable draught close to the foot +of the cliffs. + +The villages of the Chukches commonly stand on the bank of sand +which separates the lagoon from the sea. The dwellings consist of +roomy skin tents, which enclose a sleeping chamber of the form of a +parallelepiped surrounded by warm well-prepared reindeer skins, and +lighted and warmed by one or more train-oil lamps. It is here that +the family sleep during summer, and here most of them live day and +night during winter. In summer, less frequently in winter, a fire is +lighted besides in the outer tent with wood, for which purpose a +hole is opened in the top of the raised tent-roof. But to be +compelled to use wood for heating the inner tent the Chukches +consider the extremity of scarcity of fuel. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH TENT. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) ] + +We were received everywhere in a very friendly way, and were offered +whatever the house afforded. At the time the supply of food was +abundant. In one tent reindeer beef was being boiled in a large +cast-iron pot. At another two recently shot or slaughtered reindeer +were being cut in pieces. At a third an old woman was employed in +taking out of the paunch of the reindeer the green spinage-like +contents and cramming them into a sealskin bag, evidently to be +preserved for green food during winter. The hand was used in this +case as a scoop, and the naked arms were coloured high up with the +certainly unappetising spinage, which however, according to the +statements of Danish colonists in Greenland, has no unpleasant +taste. Other skin sacks filled with train-oil stood in rows along +the walls of the tent. + +The Chukches offered train-oil for sale, and appeared to be +surprised that we would not purchase any. In all the tents were +found seals cut in pieces, a proof that the catch of seals had +recently been abundant. At one tent lay two fresh walrus heads with +large beautiful tusks. I tried without success to purchase these +heads, but next day the tusks were offered to us. The Chukches +appear to have a prejudice against disposing of the heads of slain +animals. According to older travellers they even pay the walrus-head +a sort of worship. + +Children were met with in great numbers, healthy and thriving. In +the inner tent the older children went nearly naked, and I saw them +go out from it without shoes or other covering and run between the +tents on the hoarfrost-covered ground. The younger were carried on +the shoulders both of men and women, and were then so wrapped up +that they resembled balls of skin. The children were treated with +marked friendliness, and the older ones were never heard to utter an +angry word. I purchased here a large number of household articles +and dresses, which I shall describe further on. + +On the morning of the 9th September we endeavoured to steam on, but +were soon compelled by the dense fog to lie-to again at a +ground-ice, which, when the fog lightened, was found to have +stranded quite close to land. The depth here was eleven metres. At +this place we lay till the morning of the 10th. The beach, was +formed of a sandbank,[235] which immediately above high-water mark +was covered with a close grassy turf, a proof that the climate here, +notwithstanding the neighbourhood of the pole of cold, is much more +favourable to the development of vegetation than even the most +favoured parts of the west coast of Spitzbergen. Farther inland was +seen a very high, but snow-free, range of hills, and far beyond them +some high snow-covered mountain summits. No glaciers were found +here, though I consider it probable that small ones may be found in +the valleys between the high fells in the interior. Nor were any +erratic blocks found either in the interior of the coast country or +along the strand bank. Thus it is probable that no such ice-covered +land as Greenland for the present bounds the Siberian Polar Sea +towards the north. At two places at the level of the sea in the +neighbourhood of our anchorage the solid rock was bare. There it +formed perpendicular shore cliffs, nine to twelve metres high, +consisting of magnesian slate, limestone more or less mixed with +quartz, and silicious slate. The strata were nearly perpendicular, +ran from north to south, and did not contain any fossils. From a +geological point of view therefore these rocks were of little +interest. But they were abundantly covered with lichens, and yielded +to Dr. Almquist important contributions to a knowledge of the +previously quite unknown lichen flora of this region. + +The harvest of the higher land plants on the other hand was, in +consequence of the far advanced season of the year, inconsiderable, +if also of great scientific interest, as coming from a region never +before visited by any botanist. In the sea Dr. Kjellman dredged +without success for algae. Of the higher animals we saw only a +walrus and some few seals, but no land mammalia. Lemmings must +however occasionally occur in incredible numbers, to judge by the +holes and passages, excavated by these animals, by which the ground +is crossed in all directions. Of birds the phalarope was still the +most common species, especially at sea, where in flocks of six or +seven it swam incessantly backwards and forwards between the pieces +of ice. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF A CHURCH GRAVE.[236] + (After a drawing by A. Stuxberg.) + _a._ Layer of burned bones, much weathered. + _b._ Layer of turf and twigs. + _c._ Stones. ] + +No tents were met with in the neighbourhood of the vessel's +anchorage, but at many places along the beach there were seen marks +of old encampments, sooty rolled stones which had been used in the +erection of the tents, broken household articles, and above all +remains of the bones of the seal, reindeer, and walrus. At one +place, a large number of walrus skulls lay in a ring, possibly +remains from an entertainment following a large catch. Near the +place where the tents had stood, at the mouth of a small stream not +yet dried up or frozen, Dr. Stuxberg discovered some small mounds +containing burnt bones. The cremation had been so complete that only +one of the pieces of bone that were found could be determined by Dr. +Almquist. It was a human tooth. After cremation the remains of the +bones and the ash had been collected in an excavation, and covered +first with turf and then with small flat stones. The encampments +struck me as having been abandoned only a few years ago, and even +the collections of bones did not appear to me to be old. But we +ought to be very cautious when we endeavour in the Arctic regions to +estimate the age of an old encampment, because in judging of the +changes which the surface of the earth undergoes with time we are +apt to be guided by our experience from more southerly regions. To +how limited an extent this experience may be utilised in the high +north is shown by RINK'S assertion that on Greenland at some of the +huts of the Norwegian colonists, which have been deserted for +centuries, footpaths can still be distinguished,[237] an observation +to which I would scarcely give credence, until I had myself seen +something similar at the site of a house in the bottom of +Jacobshaven ice-fjord in northwestern Greenland, which had been +abandoned for one or two centuries. Here footpaths as sharply +defined as if they had been trampled yesterday ran from the ruin in +different directions. It may therefore very readily happen that the +encampments in the neighbourhood of our present anchorage were older +than we would be inclined at first sight to suppose. No refuse heaps +of any importance were seen here. + +This was the first time that any vessel had lain-to on this coast. +Our arrival was therefore evidently considered by the natives a very +remarkable occurrence, and the report of it appears to have spread +very rapidly. For though there were no tents in the neighbourhood, +we had many visitors. I still availed myself of the opportunity of +procuring by barter a large number of articles distinctive of the +Chukches' mode of life. Eight years before I had collected and +purchased a large number of ethnographical articles, and I was now +surprised at the close correspondence there was between the +household articles purchased from the Chukches, and those found in +Greenland in old Eskimo graves. + +My traffic with the natives was on this occasion attended with great +difficulty. For I suffered from a sensible want of the first +condition for the successful prosecution of a commercial +undertaking, goods in demand. Because, during the expeditions of +1875 and 1876, I found myself unable to make use of the small wares +I carried with me for barter with the natives, and found that +Russian paper-money was readily taken. I had, at the departure of +the _Vega_ from Sweden, taken with me only money, not wares intended +for barter. But money was of little use here. A twenty-five rouble +note was less valued by the Chukches than a showy soap-box, and a +gold or silver coin less than tin or brass buttons. I could, indeed, +get rid of a few fifty-oere pieces, but only after I had first +adapted them by boring to take the place of earrings. + +The only proper wares for barter I now had were tobacco and Dutch +clay pipes. Of tobacco I had only some dozen bundles, taken from a +parcel which Mr. Sibiriakoff intended to import into Siberia by the +Yenisej. Certain as I was of reaching the Pacific this autumn, I +scattered my stock of tobacco around me with so liberal a hand that +it was soon exhausted, and my Chukch friends' wants satisfied for +several weeks. I therefore, as far as this currency was concerned, +already when-the _Vega_ was beset, suffered the prodigal's fate of +being soon left with an empty purse. Dutch clay pipes, again, I had +in great abundance, from the accident that two boxes of these pipes, +which were to have been imported into Siberia with the expedition of +1876, did not reach Trondhjem until the _Ymer_ had sailed from that +town. They were instead taken on the _Vega_, and now, though quite too +fragile for the hard fingers of Chukches, answered well for smaller +bargains, as gifts of welcome to a large number of natives collected +at the vessel, and as gifts to children in order to gain the favour +of their parents. I besides distributed a large quantity of silver +coin with King Oscar's effigy, in order, if any misfortune overtook +us, to afford a means of ascertaining the places we had visited. + +For the benefit of future travellers I may state that the wares most +in demand are large sewing and darning needles, pots, knives +(preferably large), axes, saws, boring tools and other iron tools, +linen and woollen shirts (preferably of bright colours, but also +white), neckerchiefs, tobacco and sugar. To these may be added the +spirits which are in so great request among all savages; a currency +of which, indeed, there was great abundance on the _Vega_, but which +I considered myself prevented from making use of. In exchange for +this it is possible to obtain, in short, anything whatever from many +of the natives, but by no means from all, for even here there are +men who will not taste spirits, but with a gesture of disdain refuse +the glass that is offered them. The Chukches are otherwise shrewd +and calculating men of business, accustomed to study their own +advantage. They have been brought up to this from childhood through +the barter which they carry on between America and Siberia. Many a +beaver-skin that comes to the market at Irbit belongs to an animal +that has been caught in America, whose skin has passed from hand to +hand among the wild men of America and Siberia, until it finally +reaches the Russian merchant. For this barter a sort of market is +held on an island in Behring's Straits. At the most remote markets +in Polar America, a beaver-skin is said some years ago to have been +occasionally exchanged for a leaf of tobacco.[238] An exceedingly +beautiful black fox-skin was offered to me by a Chukch for a pot. +Unfortunately I had none that I could dispense with. Here, too, +prices have risen. When the Russians first came to Kamchatka, they +got eight sable-skins for a knife, and eighteen for an axe, and yet +the Kamchadales laughed at the credulous foreigners who were so +easily deceived. At Yakutsk, when the Russians first settled there, +a pot was even sold for as many sable-skins as it could hold.[239] + +During the night before the 10th September, the surface of the sea +was covered with a very thick sheet of newly-frozen ice, which was +broken up again in the neighbourhood of the vessel by blocks of old +ice drifting about. The _pack_ itself appeared to have scattered a +little. We therefore weighed anchor to continue our voyage. At first +a _detour_ towards the west was necessary to get round a field of +drift-ice. Here too, however, our way was barred by a belt of old +ice, which was bound together so firmly by the ice that had been +formed in the course of the night, that a couple of hours' work with +axes and ice-hatchets was required to open a channel through it. On +the other side of this belt of ice we came again into pretty open +water, but the fog, instead, became so dense that we had again to +lie-to at a ground-ice, lying farther out to the sea but more to the +west than our former resting-place. On the night before the 11th +there was a violent motion among the ice. Fortunately the air +cleared in the morning, so that we could hold on our course among +pretty open ice, until on the approach of night we were obliged as +usual to lie-to at a ground-ice. + +The following day, the 12th September, when we had passed Irkaipij, +or Cape North, a good way, we fell in with so close ice that there +was no possibility of penetrating farther. We were therefore +compelled to return, and were able to make our way with great +difficulty among the closely packed masses of drift ice. Here the +vessel was anchored in the lee of a ground-ice, which had stranded +near the northernmost spur of Irkaipij, until a strong tidal current +began to carry large pieces of drift-ice past the vessel's +anchorage. She was now removed and anchored anew in a little bay +open to the north, which was formed by two rocky points jutting out +from the mainland. Unfortunately we were detained here, waiting for +a better state of the ice, until the 18th September. It was this +involuntary delay which must be considered the main cause of our +wintering. + +[Illustration: IRKAIPIJ. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +Irkaipij is the northernmost promontory in that part of Asia, which +was seen by Cook in 1778. It was, therefore, called by him Cape +North, a name which has since been adopted in most maps, although it +is apt to lead to confusion from capes similarly named being found +in most countries. It is also incorrect, because the cape does not +form the northernmost promontory either of the whole of Siberia, or +of any considerable portion of it. For the northernmost point of the +mainland of Siberia is Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost in the land +east of the Lena Svjatoinos, the northernmost in the stretch of +coast east of Chaun Bay, Cape Chelagskoj, and so on. Cape North +ought, therefore, to be replaced by the original name Irkaipij, +which is well known to all the natives between Chaun Bay and +Behring's Straits. + +[Illustration: REMAINS OF AN ONKILON HOUSE. + _a._ Seen from the side. + _b._ From above. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +On the neck of land which connects Irkaipij with the mainland, there +was at the time of our visit a village consisting of sixteen tents. +We saw here also _ruins_, viz. the remains of a large number of old +house-sites, which belonged to a race called _Onkilon_[240] who +formerly inhabited these regions, and some centuries ago were driven +by the Chukches, according to tradition, to some remote islands in +the Polar Sea. At these old house-sites Dr. Almquist and Lieutenant +Nordquist set on foot excavations in order to collect contributions +to the ethnography of this traditional race. The houses appear to +have been built, at least partly, of the bones of the whale, and +half sunk in the earth. The refuse heaps in the neighbourhood +contained bones of several species of the whale, among them the +white whale, and of the seal, walrus, reindeer, bear, dog, fox, and +various kinds of birds. Besides these remains of the produce of the +chase, there were found implements of stone and bone, among which +were stone axes, which, after lying 250 years in the earth, were +still fixed to their handles of wood or bone. Even the thongs with +which the axe had been bound fast to, or _wedged into_, the handle, +were still remaining. The tusks of the walrus[241] had to the former +inhabitants of the place, as to the Chukches of the present, yielded +a material which in many cases may be used with greater advantage +than flint for spear-heads, bird-arrows, fishhooks, ice-axes, &c. +Walrus tusks, more or less worked, accordingly were found in the +excavations in great abundance. The bones of the whale had also been +employed on a great scale, but we did not find any large pieces of +mammoth tusks, an indication that the race was not in any intimate +contact with the inhabitants of the regions to the westward, so rich +in the remains of the mammoth.[242] At many places the old Onkilon +houses were used by the Chukches as stores for blubber; and at +others, excavations had been made in the refuse heaps in search of +walrus tusks. Our researches were regarded by the Chukches with +mistrust. An old man who came, as it were by chance, from the +interior of the country past the place where we worked, remained +there a while, regarding our labours with apparent indifference, +until he convinced himself that from simplicity, or some other +reason unintelligible to him, we avoided touching the blubber-stores, +but instead rooted up in search of old fragments of bone or +stone-flakes. + +[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THE RUINS OF AN ONKILON HOUSE. + 1. Stone chisel-with bone handle, one-half the natural size. + 2., 4. Knives of slate, one-third. + 3., 7. Spear heads of slate, one-third. + 5. Spear-head of bone, one-third. + 6. Bone spoon, one-third. ] + +Remains of old dwellings were found even at the highest points among +the stone mounds of Irkaipij, and here perhaps was the last asylum +of the Onkilon race. At many places on the mountain slopes were seen +large collections of bones, consisting partly of a large number (at +one place up to fifty) of bears' skulls overgrown with lichens, laid +in circles, with the nose inwards, partly of the skulls of the +reindeer, Polar bear,[243] and walrus, mixed together in a less +regular circle, in the midst of which reindeer horns were found set +up. Along with the reindeer horns there was found the coronal bone +of an elk with portions of the horns still attached. Beside the +other bones lay innumerable temple-bones of the seal, for the most +part fresh and not lichen-covered. Other seal bones were almost +completely absent, which shows that temple-bones were not remains of +weathered seal skulls, but had been gathered to the place for one +reason or another in recent times. No portions of human skeletons +were found in the neighbourhood. These places are sacrificial +places, which the one race has inherited from the other. + +Wrangel gives the following account of the tribe which lived here in +former times:-- + + "As is well known the sea-coast at Anadyr Bay is inhabited + by a race of men, who, by their bodily formation, dress, + language, differ manifestly from the Chukches, and call + themselves Onkilon--seafolk. In the account of Captain + Billing's journey through the country of the Chukches, he + shows the near relationship the language of this coast + tribe has to that of the Aleutians at Kadyak, who are of + the same primitive stem as the Greenlanders. Tradition + relates that upwards of two hundred years ago these + Onkilon occupied the whole of the Chukch coast, from Cape + Chelagskoj to Behring's Straits, and indeed we still find + along the whole of this stretch remains of their earth + huts, which must have been very unlike the present + dwellings of the Chukches; they have the form of small + mounds, are half sunk in the ground and closed above with + whale ribs, which are covered with a thick layer of earth. + A violent quarrel between Kraechoj, the chief of these + North-Asiatic Eskimo, and an _errim_ or chief of the + reindeer Chukches, broke out into open feud. Kraechoj drew + the shorter straw, and found himself compelled to fly, and + leave the country with his people; since then the whole + coast has been desolate and uninhabited. Of the emigration + of these Onkilon, the inhabitants of the village Irkaipij, + where Kraechoj appears to have lived, narrated the + following story. He had killed a Ohukch _errim_, and was + therefore eagerly pursued by the son of the murdered man, + whose pursuit he for a considerable time escaped. Finally + Kraechoj believed that he had found a secure asylum on the + rock at Irkaipij, where he fortified himself behind a sort + of natural wall, which can still be seen. But the young + Chukch _errim_, driven by desire to avenge his father's + death, finds means to make his way within the + fortification and kills Kraechoj's son. Although the + blood-revenge was now probably complete according to the + prevailing ideas, Kraechoj must have feared a further + pursuit by his unrelenting enemy, for during night he + lowers himself with thongs from his lofty asylum, nearly + overhanging the sea, enters a boat, which waits for him at + the foot of the cliff, and, in order to lead his pursuers + astray, steers first towards the east, but at nightfall + turns to the west, reaches Schalaurov Island, and there + fortifies himself in an earth hut, whose remains we + (Wrangel's expedition) have still seen. Here he then + collected all the members of his tribe, and fled with them + in 15 "baydars" to the land whose mountains the Chukches + assure themselves they can in clear sunshine see from Cape + Yakan. During the following winter a Chukch related to + Kraechoj disappeared in addition with his family and + reindeer, and it is supposed that he too betook himself to + the land beyond the sea. With this another tradition + agrees, which was communicated to us by the inhabitants of + Kolyutschin Island. For an old man informed me (Wrangel) + that during his grandfather's lifetime a "baydar" with + seven Chukches, among them a woman, had ventured too far + out to sea. After they had long been driven hither and + thither by the wind, they stranded on a country unknown to + them, whose inhabitants struck the Chukches themselves as + coarse and brutish. The shipwrecked men were all murdered. + Only the woman was saved, was very well treated, and taken + round the whole country, and shown to the natives as + something rare and remarkable. So she came at last to the + Kargauts, a race living on the American coast at Behring's + Straits, whence she found means to escape to her own + tribe. This woman told her countrymen much about her + travels and adventures; among other things she said that + she had been in a great land which lay north of + Kolyutschin Island, stretched far to the _west_, and was + probably connected with America. This land was inhabited + by several races of men; those living in the west + resembled the Chukches in every respect, but those living + in the east were so wild and brutish, that they scarcely + deserved to be called men. The whole account, both of the + woman herself and of the narrators of the tradition, is + mixed up with so many improbable adventures, that it would + scarcely be deserving of any attention were it not + remarkable for its correspondence with the history of + Kraechoj."[244] + +When Wrangel wrote that, he did not believe in the existence of the +land which is to be found set out on his map in 177 deg. E.L. and +71 deg. N.L., and which, afterwards discovered by the Englishman +Kellet, according to the saying, _lucus a non lucendo_, obtained the +name of Wrangel Land. Now we know that the land spoken of by +tradition actually exists, and therefore there is much that even +tells in favour of its extending as far as to the archipelago on the +north coast of America. + +With this fresh light thrown upon it, the old Chukch woman's story ought +to furnish a valuable hint for future exploratory voyages in the sea +north of Behring's Straits, and an important contribution towards +forming a judgment of the fate which has befallen the American +_Jeannette_ expedition, of which, while this is being written, accounts +are still wanting.[245] Between us and the inhabitants of the present +Chukch village at Irkaipij there soon arose very friendly relations. A +somewhat stout, well-grown, tall and handsome man named Chepurin, we +took at first to be chief. He was therefore repeatedly entertained in +the gunroom, on which occasions small gifts were given him to secure his +friendship. Chepurin had clearly a weakness for gentility and grandeur, +and could now, by means of the barter he carried on with us and the +presents he received, gratify his love of show to a degree of which he +probably had never before dreamed. When during the last days of our stay +he paid a visit to the _Vega_ he was clad in a red woollen shirt drawn +over his "pesk," and from either ear hung a gilt watch-chain, to the +lower end of which a perforated ten-oere piece was fastened. Already on +our arrival he was better clothed than the others, his tent was larger +and provided with two sleeping apartments, one for each of his wives. +But notwithstanding all this we soon found that we had made a mistake, +when, thinking that a society could not exist without government, we +assigned to him so exalted a position. Here, as in all Chukch villages +which we afterwards visited, absolute anarchy prevailed. + +At the same time the greatest unanimity reigned in the little +headless community. Children, healthy and thriving, tenderly cared +for by the inhabitants, were found in large numbers. A good word to +them was sufficient to pave the way for a friendly reception in the +tent. The women were treated as the equals of the men, and the wife +was always consulted by the husband when a more important bargain +than usual was to be made; many times it was carried through only +after the giver of advice had been bribed with a neckerchief or a +variegated handkerchief. The articles which the man purchased were +immediately committed to the wife's keeping. One of the children had +round his neck a band of pearls with a Chinese coin having a square +hole in the middle, suspended from it; another bore a perforated +American cent piece. None knew a word of Russian, but here too a +youngster could count ten in English. They also knew the word +"ship." In all the tents, reindeer stomachs were seen with their +contents, or sacks stuffed full of other green herbs. Several times +we were offered in return for the bits of sugar and pieces of +tobacco which we distributed, wrinkled root-bulbs somewhat larger +than a hazel nut, which had an exceedingly pleasant taste, +resembling that of fresh nuts. A seal caught in a net among the ice +during our visit was cut up in the tent by the women. On this +occasion they were surrounded by a large number of children, who +were now and then treated to bloody strips of flesh. The youngsters +carried on the work of cutting up _con amore_, coquetting a little +with their bloody arms and faces. + +The rock which prevails in this region consists mainly of gabbro, +which in the interior forms several isolated, black, plateau-formed +hills, 100 to 150 metres high, between which an even, grassy, but +treeless plain extends. It probably rests on sedimentary strata. For +on the western side of Irkaipij the plutonic rock is seen to rest on +a black slate with traces of fossils, for the most part obscure +vegetable impressions, probably belonging to the Permian +Carboniferous formation. + +Uneasy at the protracted delay here I made an excursion to a hill in +the neighbourhood of our anchorage, which, according to a +barometrical measurement, was 129 metres high, in order, from a +considerable height, to get a better view of the ice than was +possible by a boat reconnaisance. The hill was called by the +Chukches Hammong-Ommang. From it we had an extensive view of the +sea. It was everywhere covered with closely packed drift-ice. Only +next the land was seen an open channel, which, however, was +interrupted in an ominous way by belts of ice. + +The plutonic rock, of which the hill was formed, was almost +everywhere broken up by the action of the frost into angular blocks +of stone, so that its surface was converted into an enormous stone +mound. The stones were on the wind side covered with a translucent +glassy ice-crust, which readily fell away, and added considerably to +the difficulty of the ascent. I had previously observed the +formation of such an ice-crust on the northernmost mountain summits +of Spitzbergen.[246] It arises undoubtedly from the fall of +super-cooled mist, that is to say of mist whose vesicles have been +cooled considerably below the freezing-point without being changed +to ice, which first takes place when, after falling, they come in +contact with ice or snow, or some angular hard object. It is such a +mist that causes the icing down of the rigging of vessels, a very +unpleasant phenomenon for the navigator, which we experienced during +the following days, when the tackling of the _Vega_ was covered with +pieces of ice so large, and layers so thick, that accidents might +have happened by the falling of the ice on the deck.[247] + +The dredgings here yielded to Dr. Kjellman some algae, and to Dr. +Stuxberg masses of a species of cumacea, _Diastylis Rathkei_ Kr., of +_Acanthostephia Malmgreni_ Goes, and _Liparis gelatinosus_ Pallas, +but little else. On the steep slopes of the north side of Irkaipij a +species of cormorant had settled in so large numbers that the cliff +there might be called a true fowl-fell. A large number of seals were +visible among the ice, and along with the cormorant a few other +birds, principally phalaropes. Fish were now seen only in +exceedingly small numbers. + +[Illustration: ALGA FROM IRKAIPIJ. _Laminaria solidungula_ (J G. Ag.). ] + +Even in the summer, fishing here does not appear to be specially +abundant, to judge from the fact that the Chukches had not collected +any stock for the winter. We were offered, however, a salmon or two +of small size. + +[Illustration: CORMORANT FROM IRKAIPIJ. _Graculus bicristatus_ +(Pallas). ] + +On the 18th September[248] the state of the ice was quite unchanged. +If a wintering was to be avoided, it was, however, not advisable to +remain longer here. It had besides appeared from the hill-top which +I visited the day before that an open water channel, only +interrupted at two places by ice, was still to be found along the +coast. The anchor accordingly was weighed, and the _Vega_ steamed +on, but in a depth of only 6 to 8 metres. As the _Vegas_ draught is +from 4.8 to 5 metres, we had only a little water under the keel, and +that among ice in quite unknown waters. About twenty kilometres from +the anchorage, we met with a belt of ice through which we could make +our way though only with great difficulty, thanks to the _Vega's_ +strong bow enabling her to withstand the violent concussions. Our +voyage was then continued, often in yet shallower water than before, +until the vessel, at 8 o'clock in the morning, struck on a ground +ice foot. The tide was falling, and on that account it was not until +next morning that we could get off, after a considerable portion of +the ground-ice, on whose foot the _Vega_ had run up, had been hewn +away with axes and ice-hatchets. Some attempts were made to blast +the ice with gunpowder, but they were unsuccessful. For this purpose +dynamite is much more efficacious, and this explosive ought +therefore always to form part of the equipment in voyages in which +belts of ice have to be broken through. + +On the 19th we continued our voyage in the same way as before, in +still and for the most part shallow water near the coast, between +high masses of ground-ice, which frequently had the most picturesque +forms. Later in the day we again fell in with very low ice formed in +rivers and shut-in inlets of the sea, and came into slightly salt +water having a temperature above the freezing-point. + +After having been moored during the night to a large ground-ice, the +_Vega_ continued her course on the 20th September almost exclusively +among low, dirty ice, which had not been much pressed together +during the preceding winter. This ice was not so deep in the water +as the blue ground-ice, and could therefore drift nearer the coast, +a great inconvenience for our vessel, which drew so much water. We +soon came to a place where the ice was packed so close to land that +an open channel only 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 metres deep remained close to +the shore. We were therefore compelled after some hours' sailing to +lie-to at a ground-ice to await more favourable circumstances. The +wind had now gone from west to north and north-west. Notwithstanding +this the temperature became milder and the weather rainy, a sign +that great open stretches of water lay to the north and north-west +of us. During the night before the 21st it rained heavily, the wind +being N.N.W. and the temperature +2 deg.. An attempt was made on +that day to find some place where the belt of drift-ice that was +pressed against the land could be broken through, but it was +unsuccessful, probably in consequence of the exceedingly dense fog +which prevailed. + +[Illustration: PIECES OF ICE FROM THE COAST OF THE CHUKCH PENINSULA. +(After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +Dredging gave but a scanty yield here, probably because the animal +life in water so shallow as that in which we were anchored, is +destroyed by the ground-ices, which drift about here for the greater +part of the year. Excursions to the neighbouring coast on the other +hand, notwithstanding the late season of the year, afforded to the +botanists of the _Vega_ valuable information regarding the flora of +the region. + +On the 22nd I made, along with Captain Palander, an excursion in the +steam launch to take soundings farther to the east. We soon +succeeded in discovering a channel of sufficient depth and not too +much blocked with ice, and on the 23rd the _Vega_ was able to resume +her voyage among very closely packed drift-ice, often so near the +land that she had only a fourth of a metre of water under her keel. +We went forward however, if slowly. + +The land here formed a grassy plain, still clear of snow, rising +inland to gently sloping hills or earthy heights. The beach was +strewn with a not inconsiderable quantity of driftwood, and here and +there were seen the remains of old dwelling-places. On the evening +of the 23rd September we lay-to at a ground-ice in a pretty large +opening of the ice-field. This opening closed in the course of the +night, so that on the 24th and 25th we could make only very little +progress, but on the 26th we continued our course, at first with +difficulty, but afterwards in pretty open water to the headland +which on the maps is called Cape Onman. The natives too, who came on +board here, gave the place that name. The ice we met with on that +day was heavier than before, and bluish-white, not dirty. It was +accordingly formed farther out at sea. + +On the 27th we continued our course in somewhat open water to +Kolyutschin Bay. No large river debouches in the bottom of this +great fjord, the only one on the north coast of Asia which, by its +long narrow form, the configuration of the neighbouring shores, and +its division into two at the bottom, reminds us of the Spitzbergen +fjords which have been excavated by glaciers. The mouth of the bay +was filled with very closely packed drift-ice that had gathered +round the island situated there, which was inhabited by a large +number of Chukch families. In order to avoid this ice the _Vega_ +made a considerable _detour_ up the fjord. The weather was calm and +fine, but new ice was formed everywhere among the old drift-ice +where it was closely packed. Small seals swarmed by hundreds among +the ice, following the wake of the vessel with curiosity. Birds on +the contrary were seen in limited numbers. Host of them had +evidently already migrated to more southerly seas. At 4.45 P.M. the +vessel was anchored to an ice-floe near the eastern shore of the +fjord. It could be seen from this point that the ice at the +headland, which bounded the mouth of the fjord to the east, lay so +near land that there was a risk that the open water next the shore +would not be deep enough for the _Vega_. + +Lieutenant Hovgaard was therefore sent with the steam launch to take +soundings. He returned with the report that the water off the +headland was sufficiently deep. At the same time, accompanied by +several of the naturalists, I made an excursion on land. In the +course of this excursion the hunter Johnsen was sent to the top of +the range of heights which occupied the interior of the promontory, +in order to get a view of the state of the ice farther to the east. +Johnsen too returned with the very comforting news that a very broad +open channel extended beyond the headland along the coast to the +south-east. I was wandering about along with my comrades on the +slopes near the beach in order, so far as the falling darkness +permitted, to examine its natural conditions, when Johnsen came +down; he informed us that from the top of the height one could hear +bustle and noise and see fires at an encampment on the other side of +the headland. He supposed that the natives were celebrating some +festival. I had a strong inclination to go thither in order, as I +thought, "to take farewell of the Chukches," for I was quite certain +that on some of the following days we should sail into the Pacific. +But it was already late in the evening and dark, and we were not yet +sufficiently acquainted with the disposition of the Chukches to go +by night, without any serious occasion, in small numbers and +provided only with the weapons of the chase, to an encampment with +which we were not acquainted. It was not until afterwards that we +learned that such a visit was not attended with any danger. Instead +of going to the encampment, as the vessel in any case could not +weigh anchor this evening, we remained some hours longer on the +beach and lighted there an immense log fire of drift-wood, round +which we were soon all collected, chatting merrily about the +remaining part of the voyage in seas where not cold but heat would +trouble us, and where our progress at least would not be obstructed +by ice, continual fog, and unknown shallows. None of us then had any +idea that, instead of the heat of the tropics, we would for the next +ten months be experiencing a winter at the pole of cold, frozen in +on an unprotected road, under almost continual snow-storms, and with +a temperature which often sank below the freezing-point of mercury. + +The evening was glorious, the sky clear, and the air so calm that the +flames and smoke of the log fire rose high against the sky. The dark +surface of the water, covered as it was with a thin film of ice, +reflected its light as a fire-way straight as a line, bounded far away +at the horizon by a belt of ice, whose inequalities appeared in the +darkness as the summits of a distant high mountain chain. The +temperature in the quite draught-free air was felt to be mild, and the +thermometer showed only 2 deg. under the freezing-point. This slight degree +of cold was however sufficient to cover the sea in the course of the +night with a sheet of newly-frozen ice, which, as the following days' +experience showed, at the opener places could indeed only delay, not +obstruct the advance of the _Vega_, but which however bound together the +fields of drift-ice collected off the coast so firmly that a vessel, +even with the help of steam, could with difficulty force her way +through. + +When on the following day, the 28th September, we had sailed past +the headland which bounds Kolyutschin Bay on the east, the channel +next the coast, clear of drift-ice, but covered with newly formed +ice, became suddenly shallow. The depth was too small for the +_Vega_, for which we had now to seek a course among the blocks of +ground-ice and fields of drift-ice in the offing. The night's frost +had bound these so firmly together that the attempt failed. We were +thus compelled to lie-to at a ground-ice so much the more certain of +getting off with the first shift of the wind, and of being able to +traverse the few miles that separated us from the open water at +Behring's Straits, as whalers on several occasions had not left this +region until the middle of October. + +As American whalers had during the last decades extended their +whale-fishing to the North Behring Sea, I applied before my +departure from home both directly and through the Foreign Office to +several American scientific men and authorities with a request for +information as to the state of the ice in that sea. In all quarters +my request was received with special good-will and best wishes for +the projected journey. I thus obtained both a large quantity of +printed matter otherwise difficult of access, and maps of the sea +between North America and North Asia, and oral and written +communications from several persons: among whom may be mentioned the +distinguished naturalist, Prof. W.H. DALL of Washington, who lived +for a long time in the Territory of Alaska and the north part of the +Pacific; Admiral JOHN RODGERS, who was commander of the American +man-of-war, _Vincennes_, when cruising north of Behring's Straits in +1855; and WASHBURN MAYNOD, lieutenant in the American Navy. I had +besides obtained important information from the German sea-captain +E. DALLMANN, who for several years commanded a vessel in these +waters for coast traffic with the natives. Space does not permit me +to insert all these writings here. But to show that there were good +grounds for not considering the season of navigation in the sea +between Kolyutschin Bay and Behring's Straits closed at the end of +September, I shall make some extracts from a letter sent to me, +through the American Consul-General in Stockholm, N.A. ELVING, from +Mr. MILLER, the president of the Alaska Commercial Company. + + "The following is an epitome of the information we have + received regarding the subject of your inquiry. + + "The bark _Massachusetts_, Captain O. WILLIAMS, was in 74 deg. + 30' N.L. and 173 deg. W.L. on the 21st Sept. + 1807. No ice in sight in the north, but to the east saw + ice. Saw high peaks bearing W.N.W. about 60'. Captain + Williams is of opinion that Plover Island, so-called by + Kellet, is a headland of Wrangel Land. Captain Williams + says that he is of opinion from his observations, that + usually after the middle of August there is no ice south + of 70 deg.--west of 175 deg., until the 1st of + October. There is hardly a year but that you could go as + far as Cape North (Irkaipij), which is 180 deg., during + the month of September. If the winds through July and + August have prevailed from the S.W., as is usual, the + north shore will be found clear of ice. The season of 1877 + was regarded as an 'icy season,' a good deal of ice to + southward. 1876 was an open season; as was 1875. Our + captain, GUSTAV NIEBAUM, states that the east side of + Behring's Straits is open till November; he passed through + the Straits as late as October 22nd two different seasons. + The north shore was clear of all danger within reasonable + distance. In 1869 the bark _Navy_ anchored under + Kolyutschin Island from the 8th to the 10th October. On + the 10th October of that year there was no ice south and + east of Wrangel Land." + +These accounts show that I indeed might have reason to be uneasy at +my ill luck in again losing some days at a place at whose bare +coast, exposed to the winds of the Polar Sea, there was little of +scientific interest to employ ourselves with, little at least in +comparison with what one could do in a few days, for instance, at +the islands in Behring's Straits or in St. Lawrence Bay, lying as it +does south of the easternmost promontory of Asia and therefore +sheltered from the winds of the Arctic Ocean, but that there were no +grounds for fearing that it would be necessary to winter there. I +also thought that I could come to the same conclusion from the +experience gained in my wintering on Spitzbergen in 1872-73, when +permanent ice was first formed in our haven, in the 80th degree of +latitude, during the month of February. Now, however, the case was +quite different. The fragile ice-sheet, which on the 28th September +bound together the ground-ices and hindered our progress, increased +daily in strength under the influence of severer and severer cold +until it was melted by the summer heat of the following year. Long +after we were beset, however, there was still open water on the +coast four or five kilometres from our winter haven, and after our +return home I was informed that, on the day on which we were frozen +in, an American whaler was anchored at that place. + +Whether our sailing along the north coast of Asia to Kolyutschin Bay +was a fortunate accident or not, the future will show. I for my part +believe that it was a fortunate accident, which will often happen. +Certain it is, in any case, that when we had come so far as to this +point, our being frozen in was a quite accidental misfortune brought +about by an unusual state of the ice in the autumn of 1878 in the +North Behring Sea. + + +[Footnote 214: Further information on this point is given by A.J. +Malmgren in a paper on the occurrence and extent of mammoth-finds, +and on the conditions of this animal's existence in former times +(_Finska Vet.-Soc. Foerhandl_ 1874-5). ] + +[Footnote 215: Compare Ph. Avril, _Voyage en divers etats d'Europe +et d'Asie entrepris pour decouvrir un nouveau chemin a la Chine_, +etc., Paris, 1692, p. 209. Henry H. Howorth, "The Mammoth in +Siberia" (_Geolog. Mag._ 1880, p. 408). ] + +[Footnote 216: As will be stated in detail further on, there were +found during the _Vega_ expedition very remarkable sub-fossil animal +remains, not of the mammoth, however, but of various different +species of the whale. ] + +[Footnote 217: The word _mummies_ is used by Von Middendorff to +designate carcases of ancient animals found in the frozen soil of +Siberia. ] + +[Footnote 218: The calculation is probably rather too low than too +high. The steamer alone, in which I travelled up the Yenisej in +1875, carried over a hundred tusks, of which however the most were +blackened, and many were so decayed that I cannot comprehend how the +great expense of transport from the _tundra_ of the Yenisej could be +covered by the value of this article. According to the statement of +the ivory dealers the whole parcel, good and bad together, was paid +for at a common average price. ] + +[Footnote 219: Notices of yet other _finds_ of mammoth carcases +occur, according to Middendorff (_Sib. Reise_, IV. i. p. 274) in the +scarce and to me inaccessible first edition of Witsen's _Noord en +Oost Tartarye_ (1692, Vol. II. p. 473). ] + +[Footnote 220: E. Yssbrants Ides, _Dreyjarige Reise nach China_, +etc., Frankfort, 1707, p. 55. The first edition was published in +Amsterdam, in Dutch, in 1704. ] + +[Footnote 221: Strahlenberg in _Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von +Europa und Asia_, Stockholm, 1730, p. 393, also gives a large number +of statements regarding the fossil Siberian ivory, and mentions that +the distinguished Siberian traveller Messerschmidt found a complete +skeleton on the river Tom. ] + +[Footnote 222: Tilesius, _De skeleto mammonteo Sibirico (Mem. de +l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, T.V. pour l'annee 1812_, p. 409). +Middendorff, _Sib. Reise_, IV. i. p. 274. Von Olfers, _Die Ueberreste +vorweltlicher Riesenthiere in Beziehung zu Ostasia-tischen Sagen und +Chinesischen Schriften (Abhandl. der Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin +aus dem Jahre 1839_, p 51). ] + +[Footnote 223: P.S. Pallas, _De reliquiis animalium exoticorum per +Asiam borealem repertis complementum (Novi commentarii Acad. Sc. +Petropolitanae_, XVII. pro anno 1772, p. 576), and _Reise durch +verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs_, Th. III. St. +Petersburg, 1776, p. 97. ] + +[Footnote 224: Hedenstroem, _Otrywki o Sibiri_, St. Petersburg, 1830, +p. 125. Ermann's _Archiv_, Part 24, p. 140. ] + +[Footnote 225: Compare K.E. v. Baer's paper in _Melanges +Biologiques_, T.V. St. Petersbourg, 1866, p. 691; Middendorff, IV. +i. p. 277; Gavrila Sarytschev's _Achtjaehrige Reise in nordoestlichen +Sibirien_, etc., translated by J.H. Busse, Th. 1, Leipzig, 1806, +p. 106. ] + +[Footnote 226: Adams' account is inserted at p. 431 in the work of +Tilesius already quoted. Von Baer gives a detailed account of this +and other important _finds_ of the same nature in the above-quoted +paper in Tome V. of _Melanges Biologiques_; St. Petersbourg, +pp. 645-740. ] + +[Footnote 227: Middendorff, IV. 1, p. 272. ] + +[Footnote 228: Friedrich Schmidt, _Wissenschastliche Resultate der +sur Aussuchung eines Mammuthcadavers ausgesandten Expedition (Mem. +de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg_, Ser. VII. T. XVIII. No. 1, 1872). ] + +[Footnote 229: Brandt, _Berichte der preussischen Akad. der +Wissenchasten_, 1846, p. 224. Von Schmalhausen, _Bull de l'Acad. de +St. Petersbourg_, T. XXII. p. 291. ] + +[Footnote 230: The _find_ is described by Heir Czersky in the +Transactions published by the East Siberian division of the St. +Petersburg Geographical Society; and subsequently by Dr. Leopold von +Schrenck in _Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg_, Ser. VII. T. +XXVII. No. 7, 1880. ] + +[Footnote 231: The mean temperature of the different months is shown +in the following table:-- + + JAN. -48 deg. 9 + FEB. -47 deg. 2 + MARCH -33 deg. 9 + APRIL -14 deg. 9 + MAY -0 deg. 40 + JUNE +13 deg. 4 + JULY +15 deg. 4 + AUG. +11 deg. 9 + SEPT. +2 deg. 3 + OCT. -13 deg. 9 + NOV. -39 deg. 1 + DEC. -45 deg. 7 + Of the Year. -16 deg. 7 ] + +[Footnote 232: Hedenstroem, _loc. cit._ p. 128. To find stranded +driftwood in an upright position is nothing uncommon. ] + +[Footnote 233: Martin Sauer, _An account of a Geographical and +Astronomical Expedition the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore +Joseph Billings_, London, 1802, p. 105. The walrus does not occur in +the sea between the mouth of the Chatanga and Wrangel Land, and +large whales are never seen at the New Siberian Islands, but during +Hedenstroem's stay in these regions three narwhals were enclosed in +the ice near the shore at the mouth of the Yana (_Otrywki o +Sibiri_, p. 131). ] + +[Footnote 234: Martin Sauer, _An account of a Geographical and +Astronomical Expedition to the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore +Joseph Billings_, London, 1802, p. 103. A. Ermann, _Reise um die +Erde_, Berlin, 1833-48, D. 1, B. 2, p. 258. Ermann's statement, that +the knowledge of the existence of these islands was concealed from +the government up to the year 1806, is clearly incorrect. ] + +[Footnote 235: Of course the earth here at an inconsiderable depth +under the surface is constantly frozen, but I have nowhere seen such +alternating layers of earth and ice, crossed by veins of ice, as +Hedenstroem in his oft-quoted work (_Otrywki o Sibiri_, p. 119) says +he found at the sea-coast. Probably such a peculiar formation arises +only at places where the spring floods bring down thick layers of +mud, which cover the beds of ice formed during the winter and +protect them for thousands of years from melting. I shall have an +opportunity of returning to the interesting questions relating to +this point. ] + +[Footnote 236: Since we discovered the Chukches also bury their dead +by laying them out on the _tundra_, we have begun to entertain +doubts whether the collection of bones delineated here was actually +a grave. Possibly these mounds were only the remains of fireplaces, +where the Chukches had used as fuel train-drenched bones, and which +they bad afterwards for some reason or other endeavoured to protect +from the action of the atmosphere. ] + +[Footnote 237: H. Rink, _Groenland geographisk og statistisk +beskrevet_, Bd. 2, Copenhagen, 1857, p. 344. ] + +[Footnote 238: C. von Dittmar, _Bulletin hist.-philolog, de l'acad. +de St. Petersbourg_, XIII. 1856, p. 130. ] + +[Footnote 239: Krascheninnikov, _Histoire et Description du +Kamtschatka_, Amsterdam 1770, II. p. 95. A. Ennan, _Reise urn die +Erde_, D.1, B.2, p. 255. ] + +[Footnote 240: _Ankali_ signifies in Chukch dwellers on the coast, +and is now used to denote the Chukches living on the coast. A +similar word, Onkilon, was formerly used as the name of the Eskimo +tribe that lived on the coast of the Polar Sea when the Chukch +migration reached that point. ] + +[Footnote 241: The walrus now appears to be very rare in the sea +north of Behring's Straits, but formerly it must have been found +there in large numbers, and made that region a veritable paradise +for every hunting tribe. While we during our long stay there saw +only a few walruses, Cook, in 1778, saw an enormous number, and an +interesting drawing of walruses is to be found in the account of his +third voyage. _A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc._ Vol. III. (by +James King), London, 1784, p. 259, pl. 52. ] + +[Footnote 242: The greatest number of mammoth tusks is obtained from +the stretches of land and the islands between the Chatanga and Chaum +Bay. Here the walrus is wanting. The inhabitants of North Siberia +therefore praise the wisdom of the Creator, who lets the walrus live +in the regions where the mammoth is wanting, and has scattered +mammoth ivory in the earthy layers of the coasts where the walrus +does not occur (A. Erman, _Reise um die Erde_, Berlin, 1833--48, +D.1, B.2, p. 264). ] + +[Footnote 243: Among the bears' skulls brought home from this place +Lieut. Nordquist found after his return home the skull of a sea-lion +(_Otaria Stelleri_). It is, however, uncertain whether the animal +was captured in the region, or whether the cranium was brought +hither from Kamchatka. ] + +[Footnote 244: Wrangel's _Reise_, Th. 2, Berlin, 1839, p. 220. ] + +[Footnote 245: According to a paper in _Deutsche Geografische +Blaetter_, B. IV. p. 54, Captain E. Dallmann, in 1866, as commander of +the Havai schooner _W.C. Talbot_, not only saw but landed on Wrangel +Land. As Captain Dallmann of recent years has been in pretty close +contact with a large number of geographers, and communications from +him have been previously inserted in geographical journals, it +appears strange that he has now for the first time made public this +important voyage. At all events, Dallmann's statement that the +musk-ox occurs on the coast of the Polar Sea and on Wrangel Land is +erroneous. He has here confused the musk-ox with the reindeer. ] + +[Footnote 246: Cf. _Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar +1872-73_ (Bihang till Vet Ak. handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 91). ] + +[Footnote 247: A more dangerous kind of icing down threatens the +navigator in severe weather not only in the Polar Seas but also in +the Baltic and the North Sea. For it happens at that season that the +sea-water at the surface is over-cooled, that is, cooled below the +freezing-point without being frozen. Every wave which strikes the +vessel is then converted by the concussion into ice-sludge, which +increases and freezes together to hard ice so speedily that all +attempts to remove it from the deck are in vain. In a few hours the +vessel may be changed into an unmanageable floating block of ice +which the sailors, exhausted by hard labour, must in despair abandon +to its fate. Such an icing down, though with a fortunate issue, +befell the steamer _Sofia_ in the month of October off Bear Island, +during the Swedish Polar Expedition of 1868. ] + +[Footnote 248: Irkaipij lies in 180 deg. long. from Greenwich. To +bring our day-reckoning into agreement with that of the New World, +we ought thus to have here lessened our date by one day, and have +written the 17th for the 18th September. But as, with the exception +of the short excursion to Port Clarence and St. Edward Island, we +always followed the coasts of the Old World, and during our stay in +the new hemisphere did not visit any place inhabited by Europeans, +we retained during the whole of our voyage our European +day-reckoning unaltered. If we had met with an American whaler, we +would have been before him one day, our 27th September would thus +have corresponded to his 26th. The same would have been the case on +our coming to an American port. ] + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Wintering becomes necessary--The position of the _Vega_-- + The ice round the vessel--American ship in the neighbourhood + of the _Vega_ when frozen in--The nature of the neighbouring + country--The _Vega_ is prepared for wintering--Provision-depot + and observatories established on land--The winter dress-- + Temperature on board--Health and dietary--Cold, wind, and snow + --The Chukches on board--Menka's visit--Letters sent home-- + Nordquist and Hovgaard's excursion to Menka's encampment-- + Another visit of Menka--The fate of the letters--Nordquist's + journey to Pidlin--_Find_ of a Chukch grave--Hunting-- + Scientific work--Life on board--Christmas Eve. + + +Assured that a few hours' southerly wind would be sufficient to +break up the belt of ice, scarcely a Swedish mile[249] in breadth, +that barred our way, and rendered confident by the above-quoted +communications from experts in America concerning the state of the +ice in the sea north of Behring's Straits, I was not at first very +uneasy at the delay, of which we took advantage by making short +excursions on land and holding converse with the inhabitants. First, +when day after day passed without any change taking place, it became +clear to me that we must make preparations for wintering just on the +threshold between the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans. It was an +unexpected disappointment, which it was more difficult to bear with +equanimity, as it was evident that we would have avoided it if we +had come some hours earlier to the eastern side of Kolyutschin Bay. +There were numerous occasions during the preceding part of our +voyage on which these hours might have been saved: the _Vega_ +did not require to stay so long at Port Dickson, we might have saved +a day at Taimur Island, have dredged somewhat less west of the New +Siberian Islands, and so on; and above all, our long stay at +Irkaipij waiting for an improvement in the state of the ice, was +fatal, because at least three days were lost there without any +change for the better taking place. + +The position of the vessel was by no means very secure. For the +_Vega_, when frozen in, as appears from the sketch map to be found +further on, did not lie at anchor in any haven, but was only, in the +expectation of finding a favourable opportunity to steam on, +anchored behind a ground-ice, which had stranded in a depth of 9-1/2 +metres, 1,400 metres from land, in a road which was quite open from +true N. 74 deg. W. by north to east. The vessel had here no other +protection against the violent ice-pressure which winter storms are +wont to cause in the Polar seas, than a rock of ice stranded at high +water, and therefore also at high water not very securely fixed. +Fortunately the tide just on the occasion of our being frozen in, +appears to have been higher than at any other time during the course +of the winter. The ice-rocks, therefore, first floated again far +into the summer of 1879, when their parts that projected above the +water had diminished by melting. Little was wanting besides to make +our winter haven still worse than it was in reality. For the _Vega_ +was anchored the first time on the 28th September at some small +ice-blocks which had stranded 200 metres nearer the land, but was +removed the following day from that place, because there were only a +few inches of water under her keel. Had the vessel remained at her +first anchorage, it had gone ill with us. For the newly formed ice, +during the furious autumn storms, especially during the night +between the 14th and 15th December, was pressed over these +ice-blocks. The sheet of ice, about half a metre thick, was thereby +broken up with loud noise into thousands of pieces, which were +thrown up on the underlying ground-ices so as to form an enormous +_toross_, or rampart of loose, angular blocks of ice. A vessel +anchored there would have been buried under pieces of ice, pressed +aground, and crushed very early in the winter. + +[Illustration: TOROSS. From the neighbourhood of the _Vega's_ winter +quarters. ] + +When the _Vega_ was beset, the sea near the coast, as has been +already stated, was covered with newly formed ice, too thin to carry +a foot passenger, but thick enough to prevent the passage of a boat. +In the offing lay, as far as the eye could see, closely packed +drift-ice, which was bound together so firmly by the newly formed +ice, that it was vain to endeavour to force a passage. Already, by +the 2nd October, it was possible, by observing the necessary +precautions, to walk upon the newly formed ice nearest the vessel, +and on the 3rd October, the Chukches came on board on foot. On the +10th there were still weak places here and there between the vessel +and the land, and a blue sky to the eastward indicated that there +was still open water in that direction. That this "clearing" was at +a considerable distance from the vessel was seen from an excursion +which Dr. Almquist undertook in a north-easterly direction on the +13th October, when, after walking about twenty kilometres over +closely packed drift-ice, he was compelled to turn without having +reached the open water. It was clear that the _Vega_ was surrounded +by a band, at least thirty kilometres broad, of drift-ice fields, +united by newly formed ice, which in the course of the winter +reached a considerable thickness.[250] + +In this immense ice-sheet there often arose in the course of the +winter cracks of great length. They ran uninterruptedly across newly +formed ice-fields, and old, high ground-ices. One of the largest of +these cracks was formed on the night before the 15th December right +under the bow of the vessel. It was nearly a metre broad, and very +long. Commonly the cracks were only some centimetres broad, but, +notwithstanding this, they were troublesome enough, because the +sea-water forced itself up through them to the surface of the ice +and drenched the snow lying next to it. + +The causes of the formation of the cracks were twofold. Either they +arose from a violent wind disturbing somewhat the position of the +newly formed ice, or through the contraction of the ice in severe +cold. The formation of the cracks took place with a more or less +loud report, and, to judge from the number of these reports, more +frequently than could be observed from the appearance of the +snow-covered ice. Thus even during severe cold the apparently +continuous ice-sheet was divided into innumerable pieces lying in +the close proximity of each other, which either were completely +loose or bound together only by the weak ice-band which was +gradually formed under the snow on the surface of the water which +had forced its way into the crack. Up to a distance of about six +kilometres from the shore the ice in any case lay during the course +of the whole winter nearly undisturbed, with the exception of the +small cracks just mentioned. Farther out to sea, on the other hand, +it was in constant motion. So-called _polynias_ or open places +probably occur here all the year round, and when the weather was +favourable we could therefore nearly always see a blue water sky at +the horizon from true N.W. to E. A southerly wind after some days +brought the open water channel so near the vessel that it was +possible to walk to it in a few hours. It then swarmed with +seals--an indication that it was in connection with a sea that was +constantly open. The neighbourhood of such a sea perhaps also +accounts for the circumstance that we did not see a single seal-hole +in the ice-fields that surrounded the vessel. + +The ground-ice, to which the _Vega_ was moored on the 29th +September, and under which she lay during the course of the winter, +was about forty metres long and twenty-five metres broad; its +highest point lay six metres above the surface of the water. It was +thus not very large, but gave the vessel good shelter. This +ground-ice, along with the vessel and the newly formed ice-field +lying between it and the shore, was indeed moved considerably nearer +land during the violent autumn storms. A groan or two and a knocking +sound in the hull of the vessel indicated that it did not escape +very severe pressure; but the _Vega_ did not during the course of +the winter suffer any damage, either from this or from the severe +cold, during which sharp reports often indicated that some crack in +the woodwork had widened through the freezing of the water that had +made its way into the vessel. "Cold so that the walls crack" is a +well-known expression, with which we inhabitants of the North often +connect memories from some stormy winter evening, passed by the home +hearth; but here these reports heard in our cabins, especially at +night, were unpleasant enough, giving rise to fears that the newly +formed or widened cracks would cause dangerous leaks in the vessel's +hull. In consequence of iron contracting more than wood under the +influence of cold, the heads of the iron bolts, with which the +ship's timbers were fastened together, in the course of the winter +sank deep into the outside planking. But no serious leak arose in +this way, perhaps because the cold only acted on that part of the +vessel which lay above the surface of the water. + +Already during the first days of our wintering we interpreted +various lively accounts of the natives, which they illustrated by +signs, to mean that a whaler would be found at Serdze Kamen, in the +neighbourhood of the _Vega's_ winter haven. On this account +Lieutenant Brusewitz was sent out on the 4th October with two men +and the little boat, _Louise_, built in Copenhagen for the +expedition of 1872-73, and intended for sledge-journeys, with +instructions to ascertain, if possible, if such was the case. He +returned late at night the same day without having got sight of any +vessel. We now supposed that the whole depended on our having +misunderstood the accounts of the Chukches. But a letter which I +received after our return, from Mr. W. BARTLETT, dated New Bedford, +6th January, 1880, shows that this had not been the case. For he +writes, among other things:-- + + "The writer's son, GIDEON W. BAKTLETT, left San Francisco + 1st June, 1878, in our freighter ship _Syren_, of 875 + tons, for St. Lawrence Bay, arriving there July 8th, and, + after loading 6,100 barrels of oil and 37,000 lbs. of bone + from our whalers, she sailed for New Bedford direct, + touching at Honolulu to land her bone, to come here _via_ + San Francisco, and he joined our whaler bark, _Rainbow_, + at St. Lawrence Bay, and went on a tour of observation and + pleasure, visiting Point Barrow and going as far east as + Lion Reefs, near Camden Bay, and then returning to Point + Barrow, and going over to Herald Island, and while there + visiting our different whalers, seeing one "bow-head" + caught and cut in, and September 25th he came down in the + schooner _W.M. Meyer_ to San Francisco, arriving there + October 22nd. By a comparison of dates we find he passed + near Cape Serdze September 29th, or one day after you + anchored near Kolyutschin Bay." + +The 29th September according to the American day-reckoning +corresponds to the 30th according to that of the old world, which +was still followed on board the _Vega_. The schooner _W.M. +Meyer_ thus lay at Serdze Kamen two days after we anchored in our +winter haven. The distance between the two places is only about 70 +kilometres. + +The winter haven was situated in 67 deg. 4' 49" north latitude, +and 173 deg. 23' 2" longitude west from Greenwich, 1.4 kilometres +from land. The distance from East Cape was 120', and from Point Hope +near Cape Lisburn on the American side, 180'. + +The neighbouring land formed a plain rising gradually from the sea, +slightly undulating and crossed by river valleys, which indeed when +the _Vega_ was frozen in was covered with hoarfrost and frozen, but +still clear of snow, so that our botanists could form an idea of the +flora of the region, previously quite unknown. Next the shore were +found close beds of Elymus, alternating with carpets of _Halianthus +peploides_, and further up a poor, even, gravelly soil, covered with +water in spring, on which grew only a slate-like lichen, _Gyrophora +proboscidea_, and a few flowering plants, of which _Armeria sibirica_ +was the most common. Within the beach were extensive salt and +fresh-water lagoons, separated by low land, whose banks were covered +with a pretty luxuriant carpet, formed of mosses, grasses, and +Carices. But first on the neighbouring high land, where the +weathered gneiss strata yielded a more fertile soil than the sterile +sand thrown up out of the sea, did the vegetation assume a more +variegated stamp. No trace of trees[251] was indeed found there, but +low willow bushes, entensive carpets of _Empetrum nigrum_ and +_Andromeda tetragona_ were seen, along with large tufts of a species +of Artemisia. Between these shoot forth in summer, to judge partly +from the dried and frozen remains of plants which Dr. Kjellman +collected in autumn, partly from collections made in spring, a +limited number of flowering plants, some of which are well known at +home, as the red whortleberry, the cloudberry, and the dandelion. + +Although experience from preceding Polar journeys and specially from +the Swedish expedition of 1872-73, showed that even at the 80th +degree of latitude the sea may suddenly break up in the middle of +winter, we however soon found, as has been already stated, that we +must make preparations for wintering. The necessary arrangements +were accordingly made. The snow which collected on deck, and which +at first was daily swept away, was allowed to remain, so that it +finally formed a layer 30 centimetres thick, of hard tramped snow or +ice, which in no inconsiderable degree contributed to increase the +resistance of the deck to cold, and for the same purpose snowdrifts +were thrown up along the vessel's sides. A stately ice stair was +carried up from the ice to the starboard gunwale. A large tent made +for the purpose at Karlskrona was pitched from the bridge to the +fore, so that only the poop was open. Aft the tent was quite open, +the blast and drifting snow having also free entrance from the sides +and from an incompletely closed opening in the fore. The protection +it yielded against the cold was indeed greatly diminished in this +way, but instead it did not have the least injurious action on the +air on the vessel, a circumstance specially deserving of attention +for its influence on the state of health on board. Often under this +tent in the dark days of winter there blazed a brisk smithy fire, +round which the Chukches crowded in curious wonder at the skill with +which the smith fashioned the glowing iron. Here the cook dealt out +to the Chukches the soup and meat that were left over, and the +loaves of bread which at every baking were baked for them. Here was +our reception saloon, where tobacco and sugar were distributed to +the women and children, and where sometimes, if seldom, a frozen +hunter or fisherman was treated to a little spirits. Here pieces of +wood and vertebrae of the whale were valued and purchased, and here +tedious negotiations were carried on regarding journeys in +dog-sledges in different directions. + + +The violent motion which took place in the ice during the night +before the 15th December, gave us a sharp warning that our position +in the open road was by no means so secure as was desirable, but +that there was a possibility that the vessel might be nipped +suddenly and without any previous warning. If such a misfortune had +happened, the crew of the _Vega_ would certainly have had no +difficulty in getting to land over the ice. But the yield of hunting +appeared to be so scanty, and the Chukches were, as almost always, +so destitute of all stock of provisions--for they literally obey +the command to take no thought for to-morrow--that there was every +probability that we, having come safe ashore, would die of hunger, +if no provisions were saved from the vessel. This again, as the +principal part of the provisions was of course down in the hold, +would have been attended with great difficulty, if the _Vega_ had +been suddenly in the night cut into by the ice at the water-line. In +order as far as possible to secure ourselves against the +consequences of such a misfortune, a depot of provisions, guns, +ammunition, &c., reckoned for 30 men and 100 days, was formed on +land. Fortunately we did not require to depend upon it. The stores +were laid up on the beach without the protection of lock or bolt, +covered only with sails and oars, and no watch was kept at the +place. Notwithstanding this, and the want of food which occasionally +prevailed among the natives, it remained untouched both by the +Chukches who lived in the neighbourhood, and by those who daily +drove past the place from distant regions. All however knew very +well the contents of the sail-covered heap, and they undoubtedly +supposed that there were to be found there treasures of immense +value, and provisions enough for the whole population of the Chukch +peninsula for a whole year. + +[Illustration: THE "VEGA" IN WINTER QUARTERS. (After a photograph, +taken in the spring of 1879 by L. Palander.) ] + +The Magnetical Observatory was erected, as will be told in greater +detail further on, upon the beach a kilometre and a half from the +vessel. To this house the observers had to walk to and fro at least +four times in the twenty-four hours over an ice-field, covered with +loose snow, as fine as dust, that was set in motion by the least +puff of wind, and then in a few moments completely obliterated every +footprint. When the moon did not shine, the winter nights were so +dark, that it was impossible to distinguish the very nearest +objects, and day after day during the course of the winter we had, +besides, drifting snow so thick that the high dark hull of the +vessel itself could be distinguished only when one was in its +immediate neighbourhood! In walking from land during the darkness of +the night and in drifting snow it would have been very difficult to +find one's way to the vessel without guidance, and he would have +been helplessly lost who went astray. To prevent such an accident, +the precaution was taken of running a line over high ice-pillars +between the Observatory and the vessel. Even with the help of the +guideline it was often difficult enough to find our way. + +The attempt to keep open a channel in the ice round the vessel +during the whole winter had soon to be given up, but two holes were +kept constantly open, one by the side of the vessel in case of fire, +and the other for the tidal observations which Captain Palander set +on foot during the winter. The latter hole was chosen by a little +seal as its haunt for a long time, until one day we entertained +ourselves by catching him with the necessary care, and making him +pay an involuntary visit on board, where he was offered various +delicacies, which however were disregarded. The seal was let loose +again in his hole, but notwithstanding the friendliness we showed +him, he never more returned. + +[Illustration: THE WINTER DRESS OF THE "VEGA" MEN. ] + +From the meteorological observations it appears that the winter was +not so cold as the winters in the Franklin archipelago or in the +coldest parts of the mainland of Siberia.[252] On the other hand, it +was exceedingly stormy at the _Vega's_ winter station, and day +after day, night after night, we have gone to and from the +Observatory in a high wind and a cold of -30 deg. to -46 deg. C. +In calm weather a cold of -40 deg. is scarcely very troublesome, +but with only a slight draught a degree of cold of for instance -35 deg. +is actually dangerous for one who goes against the wind, and +without the necessary precautions exposes uncovered parts of the +face, the hands, or the wrists, to the cold current of air. Without +one's being warned by any severe pain frostbite arises, which, if it +be not in time thawed by rubbing the injured part with the hand, or +with melting snow, may readily become very serious. Most of those +who for the first time took part in a wintering in the high north, +were, when the first cold occurred, more or less frostbitten, on +several occasions so that there arose high frost-blisters filled +with bloody water, several square centimetres in extent, but +fortunately never to such a degree that any serious bad results +followed. After we, newcomers to the Polar regions, warned by +experience, became more careful, such frostbites occurred but +seldom. Nor did there occur a single case of frostbite in the feet. +To this conduced our clothing, which was adapted to the climate, +and, besides good winter clothes of the sort commonly used in +Sweden, consisted of the following articles of dress brought with us +specially for use in the high north:-- + +1. An abundant stock of good _woollen under-clothing_. + +2. A carefully made _blouse of sailcloth_, provided with many +pockets, intended to be drawn over the ordinary seaman's dress as a +protection against wind and drifting snow. This proved to be very +suitable for the purpose for which it was intended, and was much +liked by the crew. + +3. A Lapp _"pesk" with leggings_ was not so often used, because it +was so warm that it was only with difficulty one could walk with it +any considerable distance. On the other hand, in the case of winter +journeys with dogs or reindeer it was indispensable. + +4. A pair of very large _canvas boots_ with leather soles. Inside +these was put hay of _Carex vesicaria_ L. The foot itself was +covered with one or two pairs of stockings, above which there was a +foot-strip of felt. Our boots were thus intermediate between the +foot-covering introduced by Parry for Arctic journeys, and the +hay-filled _komager_ of the Lapps. All who used these canvas boots +are unanimous in thinking that they left nothing to desire. Even in +the case of extended excursions in wet snow they are to be preferred +to leather shoes; for the latter become heavy and drenched with +water, and can with difficulty be dried in the open air in the +course of a night's rest. Canvas boots and the long hay in them on +the other hand are easily dried in a single night. They are also +light when wet, and in that state little prejudicial to health on +account of the change of air which the hay under the foot renders +possible. I therefore am of opinion that we are warranted in giving +such boots the highest recommendation for winter journeys and winter +hunting excursions, even in our own land. + +5. An _Oeresund cap_ and a loose _felt hood_ (baschlik) of the same +sort as those which are used in the Russian army. I had bought the +baschliks in St. Petersburg on account of the Expedition. + +6. _Fingerless gloves_ of sealskin and chamois, with an inside +lining of sheepskin and at the wrists bordered with long-haired fur. +They were commonly carried with a band from the neck, as children +are wont to carry their gloves. For outside work these thick gloves +were too inconvenient; then fingerless woollen mittens were used. + +7. _Coloured spectacles_, which were distributed to all the men in +the beginning of February. One must himself have lived in the Polar +regions during winter and spring, "after the return of the sun," to +understand how indispensable is such a protection from the +monotonous white light which then surrounds the eye in every +direction. The inexperienced, though warned, seldom observe the +necessary precautions, and commonly pay the penalty by a more or +less complete snowblindness, which indeed is not very dangerous, but +is always exceedingly painful, and which lasts several days. + + +On board the vessel in our cabins and collection-rooms it was +besides by no means so cold as many would suppose. The sides of the +vessel in several places indeed, especially in the cabins, were +covered with a thick sheet of ice, and so was the skylight in the +gun-room. But in the inhabited parts of the vessel we had, a little +from the sides, commonly a temperature of +12 deg. to +17 deg., +that is to say about the same as we in the north are wont to have +indoors in winter, and certainly higher than the temperature of +rooms during the coldest days of the year in many cities in the +south, as for instance in Paris and Vienna. By night however the +temperature in the cabins sank sometimes to +5 deg. and +10 deg., +and the boarding at the side of the berth became covered +with ice. In the work-room 'tweendecks the thermometer generally +stood about +10 deg., and even in the underhold, which was not +heated, but lay under the water-line, the temperature was never +under, commonly 1 deg. or 2 deg. above, the freezing-point. + +Much greater inconvenience than from cold did we in the cabins suffer +from the excessive heat and the fumes, which firing in large cast-iron +stoves is wont to cause in small close rooms. When in the morning after +a cold night the watch all too willingly obeyed the direction, which +sounded from different quarters, to fire well, one had often his wish so +thoroughly satisfied, that, in half an hour after, every man lay bathed +in perspiration. There was no other help for it than to leave the cabin, +take a cold bath and a good rub down, dress rapidly, rush on deck for +fresh air, and cool in the temperature of -30 deg. to -40 deg. prevailing there. +Other opportunities for bathing were also given both to the officers and +crew, and the necessary care was taken to secure cleanliness, a sanitary +measure which ought never to be neglected in Arctic winterings. + +The state of health on board during the course of the winter was +exceedingly good. Dr. Almquist's report enumerates only a few +serious maladies, all successfully cured, among which may be +mentioned stomach colds and slight cases of inflammation of the +lungs, but not a single case of that insidious disease, scurvy, +which formerly raged in such a frightful way among the crews in all +long voyages, and which is still wont to gather so many victims from +among Polar travellers. + +This good state of health depended in the first place on the +excellent spirit which inspired the scientific men, the officers and +the crew of the Expedition, but it ought also to be ascribed to the +suitable equipment of the _Vega_, arranged by Captain Palander at +Karlskrona, and above all to adjustment to the climate of our +dietary, which was settled on the ground of the experience gained in +the expedition of 1872-73, and after taking the advice of its +distinguished physician Dr. Envall. The dietary is shown in the +following table:-- + + +No. 1. SUNDAY. + +_Breakfast_: butter 6 ort, coffee 10 ort, sugar 7.5 ort.[253] + +_Dinner_: salt pork or dried fish 75 ort, sourkrout 75 ort, +preserved or fresh potatoes 12 ort, preserved vegetables 5.5 ort, +extract of meat 1.5 ort, raisins 5 ort, rice 50 ort, brandy or rum 2 +cubic inches. + +_Supper_: butter 6 ort, tea 1.5 ort, sugar 7.5 ort, barley-groats 10 +cubic inches, cheese 12 ort. + + +No. 2. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY. + +_Breakfast_ same as No. 1. + +_Dinner_: preserved meat or fish 1 portion, preserved potatoes 12 +ort, preserved vegetables 5.5 ort, preserved leeks 1 portion, +extract of meat 1.5 ort, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches. + +_Supper_ same as No. 1 without cheese. + + +No. 3. THURSDAY. + +_Breakfast_ same as No. 1. + +_Dinner_: salt pork 1 lb., peas 10 cubic inches, extract of meat 1.5 +ort, barley-groats 2 cubic inches, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches. + +_Supper_ same as No. 2. + + +No. 4. TUESDAY. + +_Breakfast_: butter 6 ort, chocolate 10 ort, sugar 7.5 ort. + +_Dinner_: salt meat 1 lb., maccaroni 15 ort (or brown beans 10 cubic +inches or green peas 1 portion), fruit soup 1 portion, brandy or rum +2 cubic inches. + +_Supper_ same as No. 2. + + +No. 5. SATURDAY. + +_Breakfast_ same as No. 4. + +_Dinner_: preserved beeksteak or stewed beef 1 portion, preserved or +fresh, potatoes 12 ort, preserved leeks 1 portion, fruit soup 1 +portion, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches. + +_Supper_ same as No. 2. + +Every man besides had served out to him daily 1-1/4 lb. dried bread +or flour (2/3 wheat and 1/3 rye), 3 ort tobacco and 2 cubic inches +vinegar; and weekly 1 lb. wheat-flour, 30 ort butter, 21 ort salt, 7 +ort mustard, 3 ort pepper, and two cubic inches vinegar. + +Besides what is included in the above list, "multegroet" (preserved +cloudberries), mixed with rum, was served out twice a week from the +15th February to the 1st April. I would willingly have had a larger +quantity of this, according to northern experience, excellent +antidote to scurvy, but as the cloudberry harvest completely failed +in 1877, I could not, at any price, procure for the Expedition the +quantity that was required. There was purchased in Finland instead, +a large quantity of cranberry-juice, which was regularly served out +to the crew and much liked by them. We carried with us besides a +pair of living swine, which were slaughtered for the Christmas +festivities.[254] All the men at that time had an opportunity of +eating fresh pork twice a week, an invaluable interruption to the +monotonous preserved provisions, which in its proportion conduced, +during this festival, to which we inhabitants of the North are +attached by so many memories, to enliven and cheer us. + +The produce of hunting was confined during the course of the winter +to some ptarmigan and hares, and thus did not yield any contribution +worth mentioning to the provisioning of the vessel. On the other +hand, I was able by barter with the natives to procure fish in +considerable abundance, so that at certain seasons the quantity was +sufficient to allow of fresh fish being served out once a week. The +kind of fish which was principally obtained during the winter, a +sort of cod with greyish-green vertebrae, could however at first +only be served in the gun-room, because the crew, on account of the +colour of its bones, for a long time had an invincible dislike to +it. + +On many of the ground-ices in the neighbourhood of the vessel there +were fresh-water collections of considerable depth, which indeed +were already hard frozen on the surface, but long yielded us +splendid water for drinking and washing. After the 14th of December, +when all the smaller fresh-water collections were almost frozen to +the bottom, and salt-water had made its way into the largest ones +and those on which we most depended, it became necessary to procure +water by melting ice. + +The meteorological observations were made every fourth hour up to the +1st November; after that to the 1st April every hour; after that +again six times in the twenty-four hours. From the 27th November to +the 1st April the thermometers were set up on land at the magnetical +observatory; before and after that time in the immediate neighbourhood +of the vessel. During winter the charge of the meteorological +observations was intrusted to Dr. Stuxberg, who at that season, when all +around us was covered with ice, was compelled to let his own zoological +researches rest. + +[Illustration: COD FROM PITLEKAJ. _Gadus navaga_, Kolreuter one-third +the natural size. ] + +The state of the weather of course had a very sensible influence on our +daily life, and formed the touchstone by which our equipment was tested. +Space does not permit me to give in this work the detailed results of +the meteorological observations. I shall therefore only state the +following facts. + +The greatest cold which was observed during the different +months was in + + October the 24th--20.8 deg. March the 29th--39.8 deg. + November the 30th--27.2 deg. April the 15th--38.0 deg. + December the 23rd--37.1 deg. May the 3rd--26.8 deg. + January the 25th--45.7 deg. June the 3rd--14.3 deg. + February the 2nd--43.8 deg. July the 2nd--1.0 deg. + +Twice we had the barometer uncommonly high, viz.: + + On the 22nd December 6 A.M. 782.0 (0 deg.) mm. + On the 17th February 6 A.M. 788.1 (0 deg.) mm. + +The lowest atmospheric pressure, 728.8 (0 deg.) mm., occurred on +the 31st December at two o'clock P.M. + +The weather during the winter was very stormy, and the direction of +the wind nearest the surface of the earth almost constantly between +north-west and north-north-west. But already in atmospheric strata +of inconsiderable height there prevailed, to judge by the direction +of the clouds, a similar uninterrupted atmospheric current from the +south-east, which when it occasionally sank to the surface of the +earth brought with it air that was warmer and less saturated with +moisture. The reason of this is easy to see, if we consider that +Behring's Straits form a gate surrounded by pretty high mountains +between the warm atmospheric area of the Pacific and the cold one of +the Arctic Ocean. The winds must be arranged here approximately +after the same laws as the draught in the door-opening between a +warm and a cold room, that is to say, the cold current of air must +go below from the cold room to the warm, the warm above from the +warm room to the cold. The mountain heights which, according to the +statement of the natives, are to be found in the interior of the +Chukch peninsula besides conduce to the heat and dryness of the +southerly and south-easterly winds. For they confer on the sea winds +that pass over their summits the properties of the _foehn_ winds. Our +coldest winds have come from S.W. to W., that is to say, from the +Old World's pole of cold, situated in the region of Werchojansk. On +the existence of two currents of air, which at a certain height +above the surface of the earth contend for the mastery, depends also +the surprising rapidity with which the vault of heaven in the region +of Behring's Straits becomes suddenly clouded over and again +completely clear. Already the famous Behring's Straits' navigator, +RODGERS, now Admiral in the American Navy, had noticed this +circumstance, and likened it very strikingly to the drawing up and +dropping of the curtain of a theatre. + +In our notes on the weather a difference was always made between +_snoeyra_ (fall of snow in wind) and _yrsnoe_ (snow-storm without +snow-fall). The fall of snow was not very great, but as there was in +the course of the winter no thaw of such continuance that the snow +was at any time covered with a coherent melted crust, a considerable +portion of the snow that fell remained so loose that with the least +puff of wind it was whirled backwards and forwards. In a storm or +strong breeze the snow was carried to higher strata of the +atmosphere, which was speedily filled with so close and fine +snow-dust, that objects at the distance of a few metres could no +longer be distinguished. There was no possibility in such weather of +keeping the way open, and the man that lost his way was helplessly +lost, if he could not, like the Chukch snowed up in a drift, await +the ceasing of the storm. But even when the wind was slight and the +sky clear there ran a stream of snow some centimetres in height +along the ground in the direction of the wind, and thus principally +from N.W. to S.E. Even this shallow stream heaped snowdrifts +everywhere where there was any protection from the wind, and buried +more certainly, if less rapidly, than the drifting snow of the +storm, exposed objects and trampled footpaths. The quantity of +water, which in a frozen form is removed in this certainly not deep, +but uninterrupted and rapid current over the north coast of Siberia +to more southerly regions, must be equal to the mass of water in the +giant rivers of our globe, and play a sufficiently great _role_, +among others as a carrier of cold to the most northerly forest +regions, to receive the attention of meteorologists. + +The humidity of the air was observed both by August's psychrometer +and Saussure's hygrometer. But I do not believe that these +instruments give trustworthy results at a temperature considerably +under the freezing-point. Moreover the degree of humidity at the +place where there can be a question of setting up a psychrometer and +hygrometer during a wintering in the high north, has not the +meteorological importance which has often been ascribed to it. For +the instruments are as a rule set up in an isolated louvre case, +standing at a height above the surface convenient for reading. While +the snow is drifting almost uninterruptedly it is impossible to keep +this case clear of snow. Even the air, which was originally quite +dry, must here be saturated with moisture through evaporation from +the surrounding layers of snow and from the snow dust which whirls +about next the surface of the earth. In order to determine the true +degree of humidity in the air, I would accordingly advise future +travellers to these regions to weigh directly the water which a +given measure of air contains by absorbing it in tubes with chloride +of calcium, calcined sulphate of copper, or sulphuric acid. It would +be easy to arrange an instrument for this purpose so that the whole +work could be done under deck, the air from any stratum under the +mast-top being examined at will. If I had had the means to make such +an examination at the _Vega's_ winter quarters, it would certainly +have appeared that the relative humidity of the air at a height of +some few metres above the surface of the earth was for the most part +exceedingly small. + +The sandy neck of land which on the side next the vessel divided the +lagoons from the sea, was bestrewn with colossal bones of the whale, +and with the refuse of the Chukches, who had lived and wandered +about there for centuries, and besides with portions of the skeleton +of the seal and walrus, with the excreta of men, dogs, birds, &c. +The region was among the most disagreeable I have seen in any of the +parts inhabited by fishing Lapps, Samoyeds, Chukches, or Eskimo. +When the _Vega_ was beset there were two Chukch villages on the +neighbouring beach, of which the one that lay nearest our winter +haven was called Pitlekaj. It consisted at first of seven tents, +which in consequence of want of food their inhabitants removed +gradually in the course of the winter to a region near Behring's +Straits, where fish were more abundant. At the removal only the most +indispensable articles were taken along, because there was an +intention of returning at that season of the year when the chase +again became more productive. The other encampment, Yinretlen, lay +nearer the cape towards Kolyutschin Bay, and reckoned at the +beginning of our wintering likewise seven tents, whose inhabitants +appeared to be in better circumstances than those of Pitlekaj. They +had during the autumn made a better catch and collected a greater +stock. Only some of them accordingly removed during winter. + +The following encampments lay at a somewhat greater distance from +our winter quarters, but so near, however, that we were often +visited by their inhabitants: + +Pidlin, on the eastern shore of Kolyutschin Bay, four tents. + +Kolyutschin, on the island of the same name, twenty-five tents. This +village was not visited by any of the members of the _Vega_ +Expedition. + +Rirajtinop, situated six kilometres east of Pitlekaj, three tents. + +Irgunnuk, seven kilometres east of Pitlekaj, ten tents, of which, +however, in February only four remained. The inhabitants of the +others had for the winter sought a better fishing place farther +eastward. + +The number of the persons who belonged to each tent was difficult to +make out, because the Chukches were constantly visiting each other +for the purpose of gossip and talk. On an average it may perhaps be +put at five or six persons. Including the inhabitants of Kolyutschin +Island, there thus lived about 300 natives in the neighbourhood of +our winter quarters. + +When we were beset, the ice next the shore, as has been already +stated, was too weak to carry a foot passenger, and the difficulty +of reaching the vessel from the land with the means which the +Chukches had at their disposal was thus very great. When the natives +observed us, there was in any case immediately a great commotion +among them. Men, women, children, and dogs were seen running up and +down the beach in eager confusion; some were seen driving in +dog-sledges on the ice street next the sea. They evidently feared +that the splendid opportunity which here lay before them of +purchasing brandy and tobacco, would be lost. From the vessel we +could see with glasses how several attempts were made to put out +boats, but they were again given up, until at last a boat was got to +a lane, clear of ice or only covered with a thin sheet, that ran +from the shore to the neighbourhood of the vessel. In this a large +skin boat was put out, which was filled brimful of men and women, +regardless of the evident danger of navigating such a boat, heavily +laden, through sharp, newly formed ice. They rowed immediately to +the vessel, and on reaching it most of them climbed without the +least hesitation over the gunwale with jests and laughter, and the +cry _anoaj anoaj_ (good day, good day). Our first meeting with the +inhabitants of this region, where we afterwards passed ten long +months, was on both sides very hearty, and formed the starting-point +of a very friendly relation between the Chukches and ourselves, +which remained unaltered during the whole of our stay. + +[Illustration: KALTIJKAI, A CHUKCH GIRL FROM IRGUNNUK. Front face +and Profile. (After photographs by L. Palander.) ] + +Regard for cleanliness compelled us to allow the Chukches to come +below deck only exceptionally, which at first annoyed them much, so +that one of them even showed a disposition to retaliate by keeping +us out of the bedchamber in his tent. Our firmness on this point, +however, combined with friendliness and generosity, soon calmed +them, and it was not so easy for the men to exclude us from the +inner tent, for in such visits we always had confections and tobacco +with us, both for themselves and for the women and children. On +board the vessel's tent-covered deck soon became a veritable +reception saloon for the whole population of the neighbourhood. +Dog-team after dog-team stood all day in rows, or more correctly lay +snowed up before the ice-built flight of steps to the deck of the +_Vega_, patiently waiting for the return of the visitors, or for the +pemmican I now and then from pity ordered to be given to the +hungered animals. The report of the arrival of the remarkable +foreigners must besides have spread with great rapidity. For we soon +had visits even from distant settlements, and the _Vega_ finally +became a resting-place at which every passer-by stopped with his +dog-team for some hours in order to satisfy his curiosity, or to +obtain in exchange for good words or some more acceptable wares a +little warm food, a bit of tobacco, and sometimes when the weather +was very stormy, a little drop of spirits, by the Chukches called +_ram_, a word whose origin is not to be sought for in the +Swedish-Norwegian _dram_, but in the English word _rum_. + +All who came on board were allowed to go about without let or +hindrance on our deck, which was encumbered with a great many +things. We had not however to lament the loss of the merest trifle. +Honesty was as much at home here as in the huts of the reindeer +Lapps. On the other hand, they soon became very troublesome by their +beggary, which was kept in bounds by no feeling of self-respect. Nor +did they fail to take all possible advantage of what they doubtless +considered the great inexperience of the Europeans. Small deceptions +in this way were evidently not looked upon as blameworthy, but as +meritorious. Sometimes, for instance, they sold us the same thing +twice over, they were always liberal in promises which they never +intended to keep, and often gave deceptive accounts of articles +which were exposed for sale. Thus the carcases of foxes were +offered, after having been flayed and the head and feet cut off, on +several occasions as hares, and it was laughable to see their +astonishment at our immediately discovering the fraud. The Chukches' +complete want of acquaintance with money and our small supply of +articles for barter for which they had a liking besides compelled +even me to hold at least a portion of our wares at a high price. +Skins and blubber, the common products of the Polar lands, to the +great surprise of the natives, were not purchased on the _Vega_. On +the other hand a complete collection of weapons, dresses, and +household articles was procured by barter. All such purchases were +made exclusively on account of the Expedition, and in general the +collection of natural and ethnographical objects for private account +was wholly forbidden, a regulation which ought to be in force in +every scientific expedition to remote regions. + +As the Chukches began to acquire a taste for our food, they never +neglected, especially during the time when their hunting failed, to +bring daily on board driftwood and the vertebrae and other bones of +the whale. They bartered these for bread. A load of five bits of +wood, from four to five inches in diameter and six feet long, was +commonly paid for with two or three ship biscuits, that is to say +with about 250 gram bread, the vertebra of a whale with two ship +biscuits, &c. By degrees two young natives got into the habit of +coming on board daily for the purpose of performing, quite at their +leisure, the office of servant. The cook was their patron, and they +obtained from him in compensation for their services the larger +share of the left victuals. So considerable a quantity of food was +distributed partly as payment for services rendered or for goods +purchased, partly as gifts, that we contributed in a very great +degree to mitigate the famine which during midwinter threatened to +break out among the population. + +None of the natives in the neighbourhood of the _Vega's_ winter station +professed the Christian religion. None of them spoke any European +language, though one or two knew a couple of English words and a Russian +word of salutation. This was a very unfortunate circumstance, which +caused us much trouble. But it was soon remedied by Lieut. Nordquist +specially devoting himself to the study of their language, and that with +such zeal and success that in a fortnight he could make himself pretty +well understood. The natives stated to DE LONG in the autumn of 1879 +that a person on the "man of war" which wintered on the north coast, +spoke Chukch exceedingly well. The difficulty of studying the language +was increased, to a not inconsiderable degree, by the Chukches in their +wish to co-operate with us in finding a common speech being so courteous +as not to correct, but to adopt the mistakes, in the pronunciation or +meaning of words that were made on the _Vega_. As a fruit of his studies +Lieut. Nordquist has drawn up an extensive vocabulary of this little +known language, and given a sketch of its grammatical structure.[255] +The knowledge of the Chukch language, which the other members of the +Expedition acquired, was confined to a larger or smaller number of +words; the natives also learned a word or two of our language, so that a +_lingua franca_ somewhat intelligible to both parties gradually arose, +in which several of the crew soon became very much at home, and with +which in case of necessity one could get along very well, although in +this newly formed dialect all grammatical inflections were totally +wanting. Besides, I set one of the crew, the walrus-hunter Johnsen, free +for a consideral time from all work on board, in order that he might +wander about the country daily, partly for hunting, partly for +conversing with the natives. He succeeded in the beginning of winter in +killing some ptarmigan and hares, got for me a great deal of important +information regarding the mode of life of the Chukches, and procured +several valuable ethnographical objects. But after a time, for what +reason I could never make out, he took an invincible dislike to visit +the Chukch tents more, without however having come to any disagreement +with their inhabitants. + +[Illustration: CHUKCHES ANGLING. ] + +[Illustration: ICE-SEIVE. One-eighth of the natural size. ] + + +On the 5th October the openings between the drift-ice fields next +the vessel were covered with splendid skating ice, of which we +availed ourselves by celebrating a gay and joyous skating festival. +The Chukch women and children were now seen fishing for winter roach +along the shore. In this sort of fishing a man, who always +accompanies the fishing women, with an iron-shod lance cuts a hole +in the ice so near the shore that the distance between the under +corner of the hole and the bottom is only half a metre. Each hole is +used only by one woman, and that only for a short time. Stooping +down at the hole, in which the surface of the water is kept quite +clear of pieces of ice by means of an ice-sieve, she endeavours to +attract the fish by means of a peculiar wonderfully clattering cry. +First when a fish is seen in seen in the water an angling line, +provided with a hook of bone, iron or copper, is thrown down, strips +of the entrails of fish being employed as bait. A small metre-long +staff with a single or double crook in the end was also used as a +fishing implement. With this little leister the men cast up fish on +the ice with incredible dexterity. When the ice became thicker, this +fishing was entirely given up, while during the whole winter a +species of cod and another of grayling were taken in great quantity +in a lagoon situated nearer Behring's Straits. The coregonus is also +caught in the inland lakes, although, at least at this season of the +year, only in limited quantity. + +[Illustration: SMELT FROM THE CHUKCH PENINSULA. _Osmerus eperlanus_, +Lin. one-third the natural size. ] + +On the morning of the 6th October, we saw from the vessel an +extraordinary procession moving forward on the ice. A number of +Chukches drew a dog-sledge on which lay a man. At first we supposed +it was a man who was very ill, and who came to seek the help of the +physician, but when the procession reached the vessel's side, the +supposed invalid climbed very nimbly up the ice-covered rope-ladder +(our ice-stair was not yet in order), stepped immediately with a +confident air, giving evidence of high rank, upon the half-deck, +crossed himself, saluted graciously, and gave us to know in broken +Russian that he was a man of importance in that part of the country. +It now appeared that we were honoured with a visit from the +representative of the Russian empire, WASSILI MENKA, the starost +among the reindeer-Chukches. He was a little dark man, with a pretty +worn appearance, clad in a white variegated "pesk" of reindeer skin, +under which a blue flannel shirt was visible. In order immediately +on his arrival to inspire us with respect, and perhaps also in order +not to expose his precious life to the false Ran's treachery, he +came to the vessel over the yet not quite trustworthy ice, riding in +a sledge that was drawn not by dogs but by his men. On his arrival +he immediately showed us credentials of his rank, and various +evidences of the payment of tribute (or market tolls), consisting of +some few red and some white fox-skins, reckoning the former at 1 +rouble 80 copecks, the latter at 40 copecks each. + +[Illustration: WASSILI MENKA. Starost among the Reindeer Chukches. +(After a photograph by L. Palander.) ] + +He was immediately invited down to the gunroom, entertained after +the best of our ability, and bothered with a number of questions +which he evidently understood with difficulty, and answered in very +unintelligible Russian. He was in any case the first with whom some +of us could communicate, at least in a way. He could neither read +nor write. On the other hand, he could quickly comprehend a map +which was shown him, and point out with great accuracy a number of +the more remarkable places in north-eastern Siberia. Of the +existence of the Russian emperor the first official of the region +had no idea; on the other hand, he knew that a very powerful person +had his home at Irkutsk. On us he conferred the rank of "Ispravnik" +in the neighbouring towns. At first he crossed himself with much +zeal before some photographs and copper-plate engravings in the +gunroom, but he soon ceased when he observed that we did not do +likewise. Menka was accompanied by two badly-clad natives with very +oblique eyes, whom we took at first for his servants or slaves. +Afterwards we found that they were owners of reindeer, who +considered themselves quite as good as Menka himself, and further on +we even heard one of them speak of Menka's claim to be a chief with +a compassionate smile. Now, however, they were exceedingly +respectful, and it was by them that Menka's gift of welcome, two +reindeer roasts, was carried forward with a certain stateliness. As +a return present we gave him a woollen shirt and some parcels of +tobacco. Menka said that he should travel in a few days to Markova, +a place inhabited by Russians on the river Anadyr, in the +neighbourhood of the old Anadyrsk. Although I had not yet given up +hope of getting free before winter, I wished to endeavour to utilize +this opportunity of sending home accounts of the _Vega's_ position, +the state of matters on board, &c. An open letter was therefore +written in Russian, and addressed to his Excellency the +Governor-General at Irkutsk, with the request that he would +communicate its contents to his Majesty, King Oscar. This was +placed, along with several private sealed letters between a couple +of pieces of board, and handed over to Menka with a request to give +them to the Russian authorities at Markova. At first it appeared as +if Menka understood the letter as some sort of farther credentials +for himself. For when he landed he assembled, in the presence of +some of us, a circle of Chukches round himself, placed himself with +dignity in their midst, opened out the paper, but so that he had it +upside down, and read from it long sentences in Chukch to an +attentive audience, astonished at his learning. Next forenoon we had +another visit of the great and learned chief. New presents were +exchanged, and he was entertained after our best ability. Finally he +danced to the chamber-organ, both alone and together with some of +his hosts, to the great entertainment of the Europeans and Asiatics +present. + +As the state of the ice was still unaltered, I did not neglect the +opportunity that now offered of making acquaintance with the +interior of the country. With pleasure, accordingly, I gave +Lieutenants Nordquist and Hovgaard permission to pay a visit to +Menka's encampment. They started on the morning of the 8th October. +Lieut. Nordquist has given me the following account of their +excursion:-- + + "On Tuesday, the 8th October, at 10 o'clock A.M. Lieut + Hovgaard and I travelled from Pitlekaj in dog-sledges into + the interior in a S.S.E. direction. Hovgaard and I had + each a Chukch as driver. Menka had with him a servant, who + almost all the time ran before as guide. My comrade's + sledge, which was heaviest, was drawn by ten dogs, mine by + eight, and Menka's, which was the smallest and in which he + sat alone, by five. In general the Chukches appear to + reckon four or five dogs sufficient for a sledge with one + person. + + "The _tundra_, with marshes and streams scattered over it, + was during the first part of our way only gently + undulating, but the farther we went into the interior of + the country the more uneven it became, and when, at 8 + o'clock next morning, we reached the goal of our + journey--Menka's brother's camp--we found ourselves in a + valley, surrounded by hills, some of which rose about 300 + metres above their bases. A portion of the vegetable + covering the _tundra_ could still be distinguished through + the thin layer of snow. The most common plants on the + drier places were _Aira alpina_ and _Poa alpina_; on the + more low-lying places there grew Glyceria, Pedicularis, + and _Ledum palustre_; everywhere we found _Petasites + frigida_ and a species of Salix. The latter grew + especially on the slopes in great masses, which covered + spots having an area of twenty to thirty square metres. At + some places this bush rose to a height of about a metre + above the ground. The prevailing rock appeared to be + granite. The bottoms of the valleys were formed of + post-Tertiary formations, which most frequently consisted + of sand and rolled stones, as, for instance, was the case + in the great valley in which ilenka's brother's camp was + pitched. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH DOG-SLEDGE. ] + + "When, on the morning of the 9th, we came to the camp + there met us some of the principal Chukches. They saluted + Menka in the Russian way, by kissing him first on both + cheeks and then on the mouth. The Chukches however, appear + to be very averse to this ceremony, and scarcely ever + touched each other with the mouth. Us they saluted in the + common way, by stretching out the hand and bowing + themselves. We then went into Menka's brother's tent, in + front of which the whole inhabitants of the encampment + were speedily assembled to look at us. The camp consisted + of eighteen tents, pitched on both sides of a river which + ran through the valley. The tents were inhabited by + reindeer-Chukches, who carry on traffic between the + Russians and a tribe living on the other side of Behring's + Straits, whom they call _Yekargaules_. Between the tents + we saw a great number of sledges, both empty and loaded. + Some of these were light and low sledges for driving in, + with runners bent upwards and backwards, others were + heavier pack-sledges, made of stronger wood, with the + runners not bent back. Some of the light sledges were + provided with tilts of splints covered with reindeer + skins; others were completely covered, having an entrance + only in front. + + "The knives, axes, boring tools, &c., which I saw were of + iron and steel, and had evidently been obtained from + Americans or Russians. The household articles in Menka's + brother's tent consisted of some copper coffee-pots, which + were used for boiling water, a german-silver beaker with + an English inscription, two teacups with saucers, flat + wooden trays, and barrels. The dress of the + reindeer-Chukches is similar to that of the + coast-Chukches, only with this difference, that the former + use reindeer-skins exclusively, while the latter employ + seal-skin in addition. Some, on our arrival, put on + blouses of variegated cloth, probably of Russian + manufacture. Among ornaments may be mentioned glass-beads, + strung on sinews, which were worn in the ears or on the + neck, chiefly by the women. These were tattooed in the + same way as those of the coast-Chukches. I saw here, + however, an old woman, who, besides the common tattooing + of the face, was tattooed on the shoulders, and another, + who, on the outside of the hands, had two parallel lines + running along the hand and an oblique line connecting + them. The men were not tattooed. Two of them carried + crosses, with Slavonic inscriptions, at the neck, others + carried in the same way forked pieces of wood. Whether + these latter are to be considered as their gods or as + amulets I know not. + + "As we could not obtain here the reindeer that we wished + to purchase on account of the expedition, we betook + ourselves with our dogs on the afternoon of the same day + along with Menka to his son-in-law's encampment, which we + reached at 8 o'clock in the evening. We were received in a + very friendly way, and remained here over night. All the + inhabitants of the tent sleep together in the bedchamber + of it, which is not more than 2 to 2.4 metres long, 1.8 to + 2 metres broad, and 1.2 to 1.5 metres high. Before they + lie down they take supper. Men and women wear during the + night only a _cingulum pudicitiae_, about fifteen + centimetres broad, and are otherwise completely naked. In + the morning the housewife rose first and boiled a little + flesh, which was then served in the bedchamber, before its + inmates had put on their clothes. She cut the meat in + slices in a tray, and distributed them afterwards. In the + morning we saw the Chukches catch and slaughter their + reindeer. Two men go into the herd, and when they have got + sight of a reindeer which they wish to have, they cast, at + a distance of nine or ten metres, a running noose over the + animal's horns. It now throws itself backwards and + forwards in its attempts to escape, and drags after it for + some moments the man who holds the noose. The other man in + the meantime endeavours to approach the reindeer, catches + the animal by the horns and throws it to the ground, + killing it afterwards by a knife-stab behind the shoulder. + The reindeer is then handed over to the women, who, by an + incision in the side of the belly, take out the entrails. + The stomach is emptied of its contents, and is then used + to hold the blood. Finally th skin is taken off. + + "About 10 o'clock A.M. we commenced our homeward journey. + At nightfall we sought to have a roof over our head in a + wretched Chukch tent on the shore of Lake Utschunutsch. It + was partly sunk in one of the small mounds which are found + here along the shore, and which are probably the remains + of old Onkilon dwellings. The present inhabitants, two old + men and an old woman, had their habitation arranged in the + following way:--In the bottom of a cylindrical pit, one + metre deep and three and a half to four and a half metres + in diameter, a vertical pole was erected, against the + upper end of which rested a number of obliquely placed + bars, rising from the edge of the pit, which were covered + with skins. The enclosure or bedchamber, peculiar to the + Chukch tent, was not wanting here. Otherwise the whole + dwelling bore the stamp of poverty and dirt. The food of + the inmates appeared to be fish. Of this, besides the fish + we obtained here, the nets hanging in front of the tent + afforded evidence. Some clothes, an iron pot, two wooden + vessels, and a Shaman drum were the only things I could + discover in the tent. + + "Next morning we continued our journey. On the other side + of Lake Utschunutsch we saw two dwellings, which only + consisted of boats turned upside down with some hides + drawn over them. The rest of the way we came past Najtskaj + and through Irgunnuk, where we were received in an + exceedingly friendly fashion. By 7 o'clock in the evening + of the 11th October we were again on board the _Vega_." + +From Lieutenant Hovgaard's report, which principally relates to the +topography of the region passed through, we make the following +extract relating to the endurance which the Chukches and their dogs +showed:-- + + "During our outward journey, which lasted twenty-one and a + half hours, Menka's attendant, the before-mentioned + reindeer owner, whom we at first took to be Menka's slave + or servant, ran without interruption before the sledges, + and even when we rested he was actively searching for the + track, looking after the dogs, &c. When we came to the + camp he did not sleep, and, notwithstanding, was as fresh + during the following day's journey. During the time he got + no spirituous liquor, by express order of Menka, who said + that if he did he would not be able to continue to run. + Instead he chewed a surprising quantity of tobacco. The + dogs, during the whole time, were not an instant unyoked; + in the mornings they lay half snowed up, and slept in + front of the sledges. We never saw the Chukches give them + any food: the only food they got was the frozen excrements + of the fox and other animals, which they themselves + snapped up in passing. Yet even on the last day no + diminution in their power of draught was observable." + +Nordquist brought with him, among other things, two reindeer, bought +for a rouble and a half each. They were still very serviceable, +though badly slaughtered. But the reindeer we purchased farther on +in the winter were so poor that no one on board could persuade +himself to eat them. + +On the 18th October, by which time we believed that Menka would be +already at Markova, we were again visited by him and his son-in-law. +He said he had no _akmimil_ (fire-water) to keep holiday with, and +now came to us to exchange three slaughtered reindeer for it. Our +miscalculation with respect to the letters, which we hoped were long +ago on their way to their destination, and my dislike to the mode of +payment in question--I offered him, without success, half-imperials +and metal rouble pieces instead of brandy--made his reception on +this occasion less hearty, and he therefore left us soon. It was not +until the 9th. February, 1879, that we again got news from Menka by +one of the Chukches, who had attended him the time before. The +Chukch said that in ten days he had traversed the way between the +_Vega's_ winter haven and Markova, which would run to about ninety +kilometres a day. According to his statement Menka had travelled +with the letters to Yakutsk. The statement seemed very suspicious, +and appeared afterwards to have been partly fabricated, or perhaps +to have been misunderstood by us. But after our return to the world +of newspapers we found that Menka had actually executed his +commission. He, however, did not reach Anadyrsk until the 7th +March/23rd February. Thence the packet was sent to Irkutsk, arriving +there on the 10th May/28th April. The news reached Sweden by +telegraph six days after, on the 16th May, just at a time when +concern for the fate of the _Vega_, was beginning to be very great, +and the question of relief expeditions was seriously entertained.[256] + +In order to relieve the apprehensions of our friends at home, it +was, however, exceedingly important to give them some accounts of +the position of the _Vega_ during winter, and I therefore offered +all the purchasing power which the treasures of guns, powder, ball, +food, fine shirts, and even spirits, collected on board, could +exert, in order to induce some natives to convey Lieutenants +Nordquist and Bove to Markova or Nischni Kolymsk. The negotiations +seemed at first to go on very well, an advance was demanded and +given, but when the journey should have commenced the Chukches +always refused to start on some pretext or other--now it was too +cold, now too dark, now there was no food for the dogs. The +negotiations had thus no other result than to make us acquainted +with one of the few less agreeable sides of the Chukches' +disposition, namely the complete untrustworthiness of these +otherwise excellent savages, and their peculiar idea of the binding +force of an agreement. + +The plans of travel just mentioned, however, led to Lieutenant +Nordquist making an excursion with dog-sledges in order to be even +with one of the natives, who had received an advance for driving him +to Markova, but had not kept his promise. Of this journey Lieutenant +Nordquist gives the following account:-- + + "On the 5th December, at 7.50 A.M., I started with a + dog-sledge for the village Pidlin, lying on Kolyutschin + Bay. I was driven by the Chukch Auango from Irgunnuk. He + had a small, light sledge, provided with runners of + whalebone, drawn by six dogs, of which the leader was + harnessed before the other five, which were fastened + abreast in front of the sledge, each with its draught + belt. The dogs were weak and ill managed, and therefore + went so slowly that I cannot estimate their speed at more + than two or three English miles an hour. As the journey + both thither and back lasted eight to nine hours, the + distance between Pitlekaj and Pidlin may be about + twenty-five English miles. + + "Pidlin and Kolyutschin Island are the only inhabited + places on Kolyutschin Bay. At the former place there are + four tents, pitched on the eastern shore of the bay, the + number of the inhabitants being a little over twenty + persons. I was received in front of the tents by the + population of the village and carried to the tent, which + was inhabited by Chepcho, who now promised to go with me + in February to Anadyrsk. My host had a wife and three + children. At night the children were completely undressed; + the adults had short trousers on, the man of tanned skin, + the woman of cloth. In the oppressive heat, which was kept + up by two train-oil lamps burning the whole night, it was + difficult to sleep even in the heavy reindeer-skin + dresses. Yet they covered themselves with reindeer skins. + Besides the heat there was a fearful stench--the Chukches + obeyed the calls of nature within the bedchamber--which I + could not stand without going out twice to get fresh air. + When we got up next morning our hostess served breakfast + in a flat tray, containing first seals' flesh and fat, + with a sort of sourkrout of fermented willow-leaves, then + seals' liver, and finally seals' blood--all frozen. + + "Among objects of ethnographical interest I saw, besides + the Shaman drum which was found in every tent, and was not + regarded with the superstitious dread which I have often + observed elsewhere, a bundle of amulets fastened with a + small thong, a wolf's skull, which was also hung up by a + thong, the skin together with the whole cartilaginous + portion of a wolf's nose and a flat stone. The amulets + consisted of wooden forks, four to five centimetres long, + of the sort which we often see the Chukches wear on the + breast. My host said that such an amulet worn round the + neck was a powerful means of preventing disease. The + wolf's skull which I had already got, he took back, + because his four- or five-year-old son would need it in + making choice of a wife. What part it played in this I did + not however ascertain. + + "While my driver harnessed the dogs for the journey home, + I had an opportunity of seeing some little girls dance, + which they did in the same way as that in which I had seen + girls dance at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen. Two girls then + place themselves either right opposite to or alongside of + each other. In the former case they often lay their hands + on each other's shoulders, bend by turns to either side, + sometimes leap with the feet held together and wheel + round, while they sing or rather grunt the measure. + + "The journey home was commenced at eight o'clock in the + morning. In the course of it my driver sang Chukch songs. + These are often only imitations of the cries of animals or + improvisations without any distinct metre or rhythm, and + very little variation in the notes; only twice I thought I + could distinguish a distinct melody. In the afternoon my + driver told me the Chukch names of several stars. At five + o'clock in the afternoon I reached the _Vega_." + +On the 10th October, the new ice at many places in the neighbourhood +of the vessel was still so weak that it was impossible to walk upon +it, and blue water-skies at the horizon indicated, that there were +still considerable stretches of open water in the neighbourhood. But +the drift-ice round about us lay so rock-fast, that I could already +take solar altitudes from the deck of the vessel with a mercurial +horizon. In order to ascertain the actual state of the case with +reference to the open water, excursions were undertaken on the 13th +October, in different directions. Dr. Kjellman could then, from the +rocky promontory at Yinretlen, forty-two metres high, see large open +spaces in the sea to the northward. Dr. Almquist went right out over +the ice, following the track of Chukches, who had gone to catch +seals. He travelled about twenty kilometres over closely packed +drift-ice fields, without reaching open water, and found the newly +frozen ice, with which the pieces of drift-ice were bound together, +still everywhere unbroken. The Chukches, who visited the vessel in +dog-sledges on the 28th October, informed us, however, that the sea +a little to the east of us was still completely open. + +On the 15th October the hunter Johnsen returned from a hunting +expedition quite terrified. He informed us that during his +wanderings on the _tundra_, he had found a murdered man and brought +with him, with the idea that, away here in the land of the Chukches, +similar steps ought to be taken as in those lands which are blessed +by a well-ordered judiciary, as _species facti_, some implements +lying beside the dead man, among which was a very beautiful lance, +on whose blade traces of having been inlaid in gold could still be +discovered. Fortunately he had come with these things through the +Chukch camp unobserved. From the description which was given me, +however, I was able immediately to come to the conclusion that the +question here was not of any murder, but of a dead man laid out on +the _tundra_. I requested Dr. Almquist to visit the place, in order +that he might make a more detailed examination. He confirmed my +conjecture. As wolves, foxes, and ravens had already torn the corpse +to pieces, the doctor considered that he, too, might take his share, +and therefore brought home with him from his excursion, an object +carefully wrapped up and concealed among the hunting equipment, +namely, the Chukch's head. It was immediately sunk to the +sea-bottom, where it remained for a couple of weeks to be +skeletonised by the crustacea swarming there, and it now has its +number in the collections brought home by the _Vega_. This sacrilege +was never detected by the Chukches, and probably the wolves got the +blame of it, as nearly every spring it was seen that the corpse, +which had been laid out during autumn, lost its head during winter. +It was, perhaps, more difficult to explain the disappearance of the +lance, but of this, too, the maws of the wolves might well bear the +blame. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE-CARVINGS. (The two largest figures represent +bears.) ] + +Our hunters now made hunting excursions in different directions, but +the supply of game was scanty. The openings in the ice probably +swarmed with seals, but they were too distant, and without a boat it +was impossible to carry on any hunting there. Not a single Polar +bear now appeared to be visible in the neighbourhood, although +bears' skulls are found at several places on the beach, and this +animal appears to play a great part in the imagination of the +natives, to judge of the many figures of bears among the bone +carvings I purchased from the Chukches. The natives often have a +small strip of bear's skin on the seat of their sledges, but I have +not seen any whole bear's skin here; perhaps the animal is being +exterminated on the north coast of Siberia. Our wintering, +therefore, will not enrich Arctic literature with any new bear +stories--a very sensible difficulty for the writer himself. Wolves, +on the other hand, occur on the _tundra_ in sufficient abundance, +even if one or other of the wolves found in mist and drifting snow, +and saluted with shot, turned out, on a critical determination of +species, to be our own dogs. At least, this was the case with the +"wolf," that inveigled one of the crew into shooting a ball one dark +night right through the thermometer case, fortunately without +injuring the instruments, and with no other result than that he had +afterwards to bear an endless number of jokes from his comrades on +account of his wolf-hunt. Foxes, white, red and black, also occurred +here in great numbers, but they were at that season difficult to get +at, and besides they had perhaps withdrawn from the coast. Hares, on +the other hand, maintained themselves during the whole winter at +Yinretlen, by day partly out on the ice partly on the cape, by night +in the neighbourhood of the tents. Sweepings and offal from the +proceeds of the chase had there produced a vegetation, which, though +concealed by snow, yielded to the hares in winter a more abundant +supply of food than the barren _tundra_. It was remarkable that the +hares were allowed to live between the tents and in their +neighbourhood without being disturbed by the score of lean and +hungry dogs belonging to the village. When farther into the winter +for the sake of facilitating the hare-hunting I had a hut erected +for Johnsen the hunter, he chose as the place for it the immediate +neighbourhood of the village, declaring that the richest +hunting-ground in the whole neighbourhood was just there. The +shooters stated that part of the hares became snow-blind in spring. +The hares here are larger than with us, and have exceedingly +delicious flesh. + +[Illustration: HARES FROM CHUKCH LAND. ] + +On our arrival most of the birds had already left these regions, so +inhospitable in winter, or were seen high up in the air in collected +flocks, flying towards the south entrance of Behring's Straits. +Still on the 19th October an endless procession of birds was seen +drawing towards this region, but by the 3rd November it was noted, +as something uncommon, that a gull settled on the refuse heaps in +the neighbourhood of the vessel. It resembled the ivory gull, but +had a black head. Perhaps it was the rare _Larus Sabinii_, of which +a drawing has been given above.[257] All the birds which passed us +came from the north-west, that is, from the north coast of Siberia, +the New Siberian Islands or Wrangel Land. Only the mountain owl, a +species of raven and the ptarmigan wintered in the region, the last +named being occasionally snowed up. + +The ptarmigan here is not indeed so plump and good as the +Spitzbergen ptarmigan during winter, but in any case provided us +with an always welcome, if scanty change from the tiresome preserved +meat. When some ptarmigan were shot, they were therefore willingly +saved up by the cook, along with the hares, for festivals. For in +order to break the monotony on board an opportunity was seldom +neglected that offered itself for holding festivities. Away there on +the coast of the Chukch peninsula there were thus celebrated with +great conscientiousness during the winter of 1878-9, not only our +own birthdays but also those of King Oscar, King Christian and King +Humbert, and of the Emperor Alexander. Every day a newspaper was +distributed, for the day indeed, but for a past year. In addition we +numbered among our diversions constant intercourse with the natives, +and frequent visits to the neighbouring villages, driving in +dog-sledges, a sport which would have been very enjoyable if the +dogs of the natives had not been so exceedingly poor and bad, and +finally industrious reading and zealous studies, for which I had +provided the expedition with an extensive library, intended both for +the scientific men and officers, and for the crew, numbering with +the private stock of books nearly a thousand volumes. + +All this time of course the purely scientific work was not +neglected. In the first rank among these stood the meteorological +and magnetical observations, which from the 1st November were made +on land every hour. However fast the ice lay around the vessel it +was impossible to get on it a sufficiently stable base for the +magnetical variation instrument. The magnetical observatory was +therefore erected on land of the finest building material any +architect has had at his disposal, namely, large parallelopipeds of +beautiful blue-coloured ice-blocks. The building was therefore +called by the Chukches _Tintinyaranga_ (the ice-house), a name which +was soon adopted by the _Vega_ men too. As mortar the builder, +Palander, used snow mixed with water, and the whole was covered with +a roof of boards. But as after a time it appeared that the storm +made its way through the joints and that these were gradually +growing larger in consequence of the evaporation of the ice so that +the drifting snow could find an entrance, the whole house had a sail +drawn over it. As supports of the three variation instruments large +blocks of wood were used, whose lower ends were sunk in pits, which, +with great trouble, were excavated in the frozen ground, and then, +when the block supports were placed, were filled with sand mixed +with water. + +The ice-house was a spacious observatory, well-fitted for its +purpose in every respect. It had but one defect, the temperature was +always at an uncomfortably low point. As no iron could be used in +the building, and we had no copper-stove with us, we could not have +any fireplace there. We endeavoured, indeed, to use a copper +fireplace, that had been intended for sledge journeys, for heating, +but only with the result that the observatory was like to have gone +to pieces. We succeeded little better when we discovered farther on +in the winter, while trimming the hold, a forgotten cask of bear's +oil. We considered this _find_ a clear indication that instead of a +stove fired with wood we should, according to the custom of the +Polar races, use oil-lamps to mitigate the severe cold which +deprived our stay in Tintinyaranga of part of its pleasure. But this +mode of firing proved altogether impracticable. The fumes of the oil +smelled worse than those of the charcoal, and the result of this +experiment was none other than that the splendid crystals of ice, +with which the roof and walls of the ice-house were gradually +clothed, were covered with black soot. Firing with oil was +abandoned, and the oil presented to our friends at Yinretlen, who +just then were complaining loudly that they had no other fuel than +wood. + +Besides the nine scientific men and officers of the _Vega_, the +engineer Nordstroem and the seaman Lundgren took part in the +magnetical and meteorological observations. Every one had his watch +of six hours, five of which were commonly passed in the ice-house. +To walk from the vessel to the observatory, distant a kilometre and +a half, with the temperature under the freezing point of mercury, +or, what was much worse, during storm, with the temperature at -36 deg., +remain in the observatory for five hours in a temperature of +-17 deg., and then return to the vessel, commonly against the +wind--for it came nearly always from the north or north-west--was +dismal enough. None of us, however, suffered any harm from it. On +the contrary, it struck me as if this compulsory interruption to our +monotonous life on board and the long-continued stay in the open air +had a refreshing influence both on body and soul. + +[Illustration: THE OBSERVATORY AT PITLEKAJ. (After a drawing by +O. Nordquist.) ] + +In the neighbourhood of the ice-house the thermometer case was +erected, and farther on in the winter there were built in the +surrounding snowdrifts, two other observatories, not however of ice, +but of snow, in the Greenland snow-building style. Our depot of +provisions was also placed in the neighbourhood, and at a sufficient +distance from the magnetical observatory there was a large wooden +chest, in which the Remington guns, which were carried for safety in +excursions from the vessel, and other iron articles which the +observer had with him, were placed before he entered the +observatory. + +The building of Tintinyaranga was followed by the Chukches with +great interest. When they saw that we did not intend to live there, +but that rare, glancing metal instruments were set up in it, and +that a wonderfully abundant flood of light in comparison with their +tent illumination was constantly maintained inside with a kind of +light quite unknown to them (stearine candles and photogen lamps) a +curious uneasiness began to prevail among them, which we could not +quiet with the language of signs mixed with a Chukch word or two, to +which our communications with the natives were at that time +confined. Even farther on in the year, when an efficient though +word-poor international language had gradually been formed between +us, they made inquiries on this point, yet with considerable +indifference. All sensible people among them had evidently already +come to the conclusion that it was profitless trouble to seek a +reasonable explanation of all the follies which the strange +foreigners, richly provided with many earthly gifts but by no means +with practical sense, perpetrated. In any case it was with a certain +amazement and awe that they, when they exceptionally obtained +permission, entered one by one through the doors in order to see the +lamps burn and to peep into the tubes. Many times even a dog-team +that had come a long way stopped for a few moments at the ice-house +to satisfy the owner's curiosity, and on two occasions in very bad +drifting weather we were compelled to give shelter to a wanderer who +had gone astray. + +When this ice-house was ready and hourly observations began in it, +life on board took the stamp which it afterwards retained in the +course of the winter. In order to give the reader an idea of our +every-day life, I shall reproduce here the spirited sketch of a day +on the _Vega_, which Dr. Kjellman gave in one of his home letters:-- + + "It is about half-past eight in the morning. He whose + watch has expired has returned after five hours' stay in + the ice-house, where the temperature during the night has + been about -16 deg.. His account of the weather is good + enough. There are only thirty-two degrees of cold, it is + half-clear, and, to be out of the ordinary, there is no + wind. Breakfast is over. Cigars, cigarettes, and pipes are + lighted, and the gunroom _personnel_ go up on deck for a + little exercise and fresh air, for below it is confined + and close. The eye rests on the desolate, still + faintly-lighted landscape, which is exactly the same as it + was yesterday; a white plain in all directions, across + which a low, likewise white, chain of hillocks or + _torosses_ here and there raises itself, and over which + some ravens, with feeble wing-strokes, fly forward, + searching for something to support life with. 'Metschinko + Orpist,' 'metschinko Okerpist,' 'metschinko Kellman,' &c., + now sounds everywhere on the vessel and from the ice in + its neighbourhood. 'Orpist' represents Nordquist, + 'Okerpist' again Stuxberg. It is the Chukches' morning + salutation to us. To-day the comparatively fine weather + has drawn out a larger crowd than usual, thirty to forty + human beings, from tender sucking babes to grey old folks, + men as well as women; the latter in the word of salutation + replacing the _tsch_-sound with an exceedingly soft + caressing _ts_-sound. That most of them have come driving + is shown by the equipages standing in the neighbourhood of + the vessel. They consist of small, low, narrow, light + sledges, drawn by four to ten or twelve dogs. The sledges + are made of small pieces of wood and bits of + reindeer-horn, held together by sealskin straps. As + runner-shoes thin plates of the ribs of the whale are + used. The dogs, sharp-nosed, long-backed, and excessively + dirty, have laid themselves to rest, curled together in + the snow. + + "The salutation is followed almost immediately to-day as + on preceding days by some other words: 'Ouinga mouri + kauka,' which may be translated thus: 'I am so hungry; I + have no food; give me a little bread!' They suffer hunger + now, the poor beings. Seal flesh, their main food, they + cannot with the best will procure for the time. The only + food they can get consists of fish (two kinds of cod), but + this is quite too poor diet for them, they have fallen off + since we first met with them. + + "Soon we are all surrounded by our Chukch acquaintances. + The daily market begins. They have various things to + offer, which they know to be of value to us, as weapons, + furs, ornaments, playthings, fish, bones of the whale, + algae, vegetables, &c. For all this only 'kauka' is now + asked. To-day the supply of whales' bones is large, in + consequence of our desire, expressed on previous days, to + obtain them. One has come with two vertebrae, one with a + rib or some fragments of it, one with a shoulder-blade. + They are not shy in laying heavy loads on their dogs. + + "After the close of the promenade and the traffic with the + natives, the gunroom _personnel_ have begun their labours. + Some keep in their cabins, others in the gunroom itself. + The magnetical and meteorological observations made the + day before are transcribed and subjected to a preliminary + working-out, the natural history collections are examined + and looked over, studies and authorship are prosecuted. + The work is now and then interrupted by conversation + partly serious, partly jocular. From the engine-room in + the neighbourhood we hear the blows of hammers and the + rasping of files. In the 'tweendecks, pretty well heated, + but not very well lighted, some of the crew are employed + at ordinary ship's work; and in the region of the kitchen + the cook is just in the midst of his preparations for + dinner. He is in good humour as usual, but perhaps + grumbles a little at the 'mosucks' (a common name on board + for the Chukches), who will not give him any peace by + their continual cries for 'mimil' (water.) + + "The forenoon passes in all quietness and stillness. + Immediately after noon nearly all the gunroom people are + again on deck, promenading backwards and forwards. It is + now very lively. It is the crew's meal-time. The whole + crowd of Chukches are collected at the descent to their + apartment, the lower deck. One soup basin after the other + comes up; they are immediately emptied of their contents + by those who in the crowd and confusion are fortunate + enough to get at them. Bread and pieces of meat and bits + of sugar are distributed assiduously, and disappear with + equal speed. Finally, the cook himself appears with a + large kettle, containing a very large quantity of meat + soup, which the Chukches like starving animals throw + themselves upon, baling into them with spoons, empty + preserve tins, and above all with the hands. + Notwithstanding the exceedingly severe cold a woman here + and there has uncovered one arm and half her breast in + order not to be embarrassed by the wide reindeer-skin + sleeve in her attempts to get at the contents of the + kettle. The spectacle is by no means a pleasant one. + +[Illustration: AN EVENING IN THE GUNROOM OF THE "VEGA" DURING +THE WINTERING. ] + + "By three o'clock it begins to grow dark, and one after + the other of our guests depart, to return, the most of + them, in the morning. Now it is quiet and still. About six + the crew have finished their labours and dispose of the + rest of the day as they please. Most of them are occupied + with reading during the evening hours. When supper has + been served at half-past seven in the gunroom, he who has + the watch in the ice-house from nine to two next morning + prepares for the performance of his disagreeable duty; the + rest of the gunroom _personnel_ are assembled there, and + pass the evening in conversation, play, light reading, &c. + At ten every one retires, and the lamps are extinguished. + In many cabins, however, lights burn till after midnight. + + "Such was in general our life on the _Vega_. One day was + very like another. When the storm howled, the snow + drifted, and the cold became too severe, we kept more + below deck; when the weather was finer we lived more in + the open air, often paying visits to the observatory in + the ice-house, and among the Chukches living in the + neighbourhood, or wandering about to come upon, if + possible, some game." + +The snow which fell during winter consisted more generally of small +simple snow-crystals or ice-needles, than of the beautiful +snow-flakes whose grand kaleidoscopic forms the inhabitants of the +north so often have an opportunity of admiring. Already with a +gentle wind and with a pretty clear atmosphere the lower strata of +the atmosphere were full of these regular ice-needles, which +refracted the rays of the sun, so as to produce parhelia and halos. +Unfortunately however these were never so completely developed as +the halos which I saw in 1873 during the sledge-journey round +North-east Land on Spitzbergen; but I believed that even now I could +confirm the correctness of the observation I then made, that the +representation which is generally given of this beautiful +phenomenon, in which the halo is delineated as a collection of +regular circles, is not correct, but that it forms a very involved +system of lines, extended over the whole vault of heaven, for the +most part coloured on the sun-side and uncoloured on the opposite +side, of the sort shown in the accompanying drawings taken from the +account of the Spitzbergen Expedition of 1872-73. + +[Illustration: REFRACTION-HALO. Seen on Spitzbergen in May 1873, +simultaneously with the Reflection-halo delineated on the +following page. ] + +Another very beautiful phenomenon, produced by the refraction of the +solar rays by the ice-needles, which during winter were constantly +mixed with the atmospheric strata lying nearest the surface of the +earth, was that the mountain heights to the south of the _Vega_ in a +certain light appeared as if feathered with fire-clouds. In clear +sunshine and a high wind we frequently saw, as it were, a glowing +pillar of vapour arise obliquely from the summits of the mountains, +giving them the appearance of volcanos, which throw out enormous +columns of smoke, flame-coloured by the reflection from the glowing +lava streams in the depths of the crater. + +A blue water-sky was still visible out to sea, indicating that open +water was to be found there. I therefore sent Johnsen the hunter +over the ice on the 18th December to see how it was. In +three-quarters of an hour's walking from the vessel he found an +extensive opening, recently covered with thin, blue, newly frozen +ice. A fresh northerly breeze blew at the time, and by it the +drift-ice fields were forced together with such speed, that Johnsen +supposed that in a couple of hours the whole lead would be +completely closed. + +[Illustration: REFLECTION-HALO. Seen simultaneously with the +Retraction-halo delineated on the preceding page, in the part of +the sky opposite the sun. ] + +In such openings in Greenland white whales and other small whales are +often enclosed by hundreds, the natives thus having an opportunity of +making in a few hours a catch which would be sufficient for their +support during the whole winter, indeed for years, if the idea of +_saving_ ever entered into the imagination of the savage. But here in a +region where the pursuit of the whale is more productive than in any +other sea, no such occurrence has happened. During the whole of our stay +on the coast of the Chukch country we did not see a single whale. On the +other hand, masses of whales' bones were found thrown up on the beach. +At first I did not bestow much attention upon them, thinking they were +the bones of whales that had been killed during the recent whale-fishing +period. I soon found however that this could not have been the case. For +the bones had evidently been washed out of the sandy dune running along +the beach, which had been deposited at a time when the present coast lay +ten to twenty metres below the surface of the sea, thus hundreds or +thousands of years ago, undoubtedly before the time when the north coast +of Asia was first inhabited by man. The dune sand is, as recently +exposed profiles show, quite free from other kitchen-midden remains than +those which occur upon its surface. The whales' bones in question were +thus _subfossil_. Their number was so great, that in the systematic +examination of the beach in the immediate neighbourhood of the vessel, +which I undertook during spring with the assistance of Dr. Kjellman and +half a dozen of the sailors, thirty neck-bones and innumerable other +bones of the whale were found in a stretch of from four to five +kilometres. Of course masses of bones are still concealed in the sand; +and a large number of lower jaw-bones, ribs, shoulder-blades, and +vertebrae had been used for runner-shoes, tent-frames, spades, picks and +other implements. A portion, after being exposed for several years to +the action of the air, had undergone decay. The bones are therefore +found in greatest number at those places where the sand of the dune has +been recently carried away by the spring floods or by the furious winds +which prevail here, and which easily gain the ascendency over the dry +sand, bound together only by widely scattered Elymus-stalks. The largest +crania belonged to a species nearly allied to the _Balaena mysticetus_. +Crania of a species of Rachianectes are also found along with some bones +of smaller varieties of the whale. No complete skeleton however has been +found, but we brought home with us so large a quantity of the loose +bones that the collection of whales' bones alone would have formed a +full cargo for a small vessel. These bones will be delineated and +described by Professor. A.W. MALM in _The Scientific Work of the Vega +Expedition_. Special attention was drawn to a skeleton, belonging to the +_Balaena mysticetus_, by its being still partially covered with skin, and +by deep red, almost fresh, flesh adhering to those parts of it which +were frozen fast in the ground. This skeleton lay at a place where the +dune sand had recently been washed away and the coarse underlying sand +uncovered, the whale-_mummy_ also I suppose coming to light at the same +time. That the whale in question had not stranded in the memory of man +the Chukches assured me unanimously. In such a case we have here a proof +that even portions of the flesh of gigantic sea-animals have been +protected against putrefaction in the frozen soil of Siberia--a +parallel to the mammoth-_mummies_, though from a considerably more +recent period. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF THE BEACH STRATA AT PITLEKAJ. +1. Hard frozen coarse sand. +2. The sea. +3. Beach of fine dry sand with masses of bones of the whale. +4. Coast-lagoon. ] + +[Illustration: CHRISTMAS EVE ON THE "VEGA." ] + +Christmas Eve was celebrated in the usual northern fashion. We had +indeed neglected, as in the Expedition of 1872-73, to take with us +any Christmas tree. But instead of it Dr. Kjellman prevailed on our +Chukch friends to bring with dog-sledges willow-bushes from the +valleys lying beyond the mountains to the south. By means of these a +bare driftwood stem was converted into a luxuriant, branchy tree +which, to replace the verdure, was clothed with variegated strips of +paper, and planted in the 'tweendecks, which after our enclosure in +the ice had been arranged as a working room, and was now set in +order for the Christmas festivities, and richly and tastefully +ornamented with flags. A large number of small wax-lights, which we +had brought with us for the special purpose, were fixed in the +Christmas tree, together with about two hundred Christmas boxes +purchased or presented to us before our departure. At six o'clock in +the afternoon all the officers and crew assembled in the +'tweendecks, and the drawing of lots began, now and then interrupted +by a thundering polka round the peculiar Christmas tree. At supper +neither Christmas ale nor ham was wanting. And later in the evening +there made their appearance in the 'tweendecks five punchbowls, +which were emptied with songs and toasts for King and Fatherland, +for the objects of the Expedition, for its officers and men, for the +families at home, for relatives and friends, and finally for those +who decked and arranged the Christmas tree, who were the sailors C. +Lundgren and O. Hansson, and the firemen O. Ingelsson and C. +Carlstroem. + +The other festivals were also celebrated in the best way, and at +midnight before New Year's Day the new year was shot in with sharp +explosive-shell firing from the rifled cannon of the _Vega_, and a +number of rockets thrown up from the deck. + + +[Footnote 249: Equal to 6.64 English miles. ] + +[Footnote 250: When it had become evident that we could make no +further advance before next year, Lieut Brusewitz occasionally +measured the thickness of the newly formed ice, with the following +results:-- + + + THICKNESS OF THE ICE. + 1 December, 56 centimetres. 1 May. 154 centimetres + 1 January, 92 ,, 15 ,, 162 ,, + 1 February, 108 ,, 1 June, 154 ,, + 15 ,, 120 ,, 15 ,, 151 ,, + 1 March, 123 ,, 1 July, 104 ,, + 1 April, 128 ,, 15 67 ,, (full of holes). + 15 ,, 139 ,, 18 ,, The ice broke up. ] + + +[Footnote 251: Low brush is probably to be met with in the interior +of the Chukch peninsula at places which are protected from the cold +north winds. ] + +[Footnote 252: According to H. Wild's newly-published large work, +"_Die Temperatur Verhaeltnisse des Russischen Reiches_, 2e Halfte, +St. Petersburg, 1881," the Old World's cold-pole lies in the +neighbourhood of the town Werchojansk (67 deg. 34' N.L. 133 deg. +51' E.L. from Greenwich). The mean temperature of the different +months and of the whole year is given in the note at page 411. If +the data on which these figures rest are correct, the winter at +Werchojansk is immensely colder than at the _Vega's_ winter station. ] + +[Footnote 253: 1 lb.=100 ort=425.05 gram. 1 kanna=100 cubic +inches=2.617 litres. ] + +[Footnote 254: To carry animals for slaughter on vessels during +Polar expeditions cannot be sufficiently recommended. Their flesh +acts beneficially by forming a change from the preserved provisions, +which in course of time become exceedingly disagreeable, and their +care a not less important interruption to the monotony of the winter +life. ] + +[Footnote 255: I give here an extract from the Vocabulary, that the +reader may form some idea of the language of the north-east point of +Asia:-- + + _Tnaergin_, heaven. + _Tirkir_, the sun. + _Yedlin_, the moon. + _Angatlingan_, a star. + _Nutatschka_, land. + _Angka_, sea. + _Ljedljenki_, winter. + _Edljek_, summer. + _Edljongat_, day. + _Nekita_, night. + _Ayguon_, yesterday. + _Ietkin_, to-day. + _Ergatti_, to-morrow. + _Gnunian_, north. + _Emnungku_, south. + _Nikayan_, east. + _Kayradljgin_, west. + _Tintin_, ice. + _Atljatlj_, snow. + _Yeetedli_, the aurora. + _Yengeen_, mist. + _Tedljgio_, storm. + _Eek_, fire. + _Kljautlj_, a man, a human being. + _Oraedlja_, men. + _Neairen_, a woman. + _Nenena_, a child. + _Empenatschyo_, father. + _Empengau_, mother. + _Ljeut_, head. + _Ljeutljka_, face. + _Dljedljadlin_, eye. + _Liljaptkourgin_, to see. + _Huedljodlin_, ear. + _Huedljokodljaurgin_, to hear. + _Huadljomerkin_, to understand. + _Huedljountakurgin_, not to understand. + _Yeka_, nose. + _Yekergin_, mouth. + _Kametkuaurgin_, to eat. + _Yedlinedljourgin_, to speak. + _Mammah_, a woman's breast. + _Mammatkourgin_, to give suck. + _Yeet_, foot. + _Retschaurgin_, to stand. + _Yetkatjergin_, to lie. + _Tschipiska_, to sleep. + _Kadljetschetuetjakurgin_, to learn. + _Pintekatkourgin_, to be born. + _Kaertraljirgin_, to die. + _Kamakatan_, to be sick. + _Kamak_, the Deity, a guardian Spirit. + _Yaranga_, tent. + _Etschengeratlin_, lamp. + _Orguor_, sledge. + _Atkuat_, boat. + _Anetljkatlj_, fishing-hook. + _Anedljourgin_, to angle. + _Uadlin_, knife. + _Tschupak_, _Kameak_, dog. + _Umku_, Polar bear. + _Rerka_, walrus. + _Memetlj_, seal. + _Korang_, reindeer. + _Gatlje_, bird. + _Enne_, fish. + _Gurgur_, dwarf-birch. + _Kukatkokongadlin_, willow-bush. + _Gem_, I. + _Gemnin_, mine. + _Get_, you. + _Genin_, yours. + _Enkan_, he. + _Muri_, we. + _Turi_, you. + _Mayngin_, much. + _Pljukin_, little. + _Konjpong_, all. + _I_, yes. + _Etlje_, no. + _Metschinka_, thanks. + _Ennen_, one. + _Nirak_, two. + _Nrok_, three. + _Nrak_, four. + _Metljingan_, five. ] + + +[Footnote 256: The King of Sweden has since ordered a gold medal to +be given to Wassili Menka in recognition of the fidelity with which +he executed the commission of carrying our letters to a Russian post +station. ] + +[Footnote 257: See page 119. ] + + + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA ROUND ASIA AND EUROPE. VOL II + + +[Illustration: Adolf Erik Nordenskioeld ] + +[Illustration: His signature ] + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA ROUND ASIA AND EUROPE +WITH A HISTORICAL REVIEW +OF PREVIOUS JOURNEYS ALONG THE NORTH COAST OF THE OLD WORLD + +BY A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD + +TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER LESLIE + +_WITH FIVE STEEL PORTRAITS, NUMEROUS MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL II + +London +MACMILLAN AND CO. +1881 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL II + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Hope of release at the new year--Bove's excursion to the open +water--Mild weather and renewed severe cold--Mercury frozen--Popular +lectures--Brusewitz's excursion to Najtskaj--Another despatch of +letters home--The natives' accounts of the state of the ice on the +coast of Chukch Land--The Chukches carry on traffic between Arctic +America and Siberia--Excursions in the neighborhood of winter +quarters--The weather during spring--The melting of the snow--The +aurora--The arrival of the migratory birds--The animal world of +Chukch Land--Noah Elisej's relief expedition--A remarkable fish--The +country clean of snow--Release--The North-East Passage achieved. + + +CHAPTER XII + +The history, _physique_, disposition, and manners of the Chukches. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +The development of our knowledge of the north coast of +Asia--Herodotus--Strabo--Pliny--Marco Polo--Herbertstein's +map--The conquest of Siberia by the Russians--Deschnev's +voyages--Coast navigation between the Lena and the Kolyma--Accounts +of islands in the Polar Sea and old voyages to them--The +discovery of Kamchatka--The navigation of the Sea of Okotsk is +opened by Swedish prisoners of war--The Great Northern +Expedition--Behring--Schalaurov--Andrejev's Land--The New +Siberian islands--Hedenstroem's expeditions--Anjou and +Wrangel--Voyages from Behring's Straits westward--Fictitious +Polar voyages. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Passage through Behring's Straits--Arrival at Nunamo--Scarce species +of seal--Rich vegetation--Passage to America--State of the +ice--Port Clarence--The Eskimo--Return to Asia--Konyam Bay--Natural +conditions there--The ice breaks up in the interior of Konyam +Bay--St. Lawrence Island--Preceding visits to the Island--Departure +to Behring Island + + +CHAPTER XV + +The position of Behring Island--Its inhabitants--The discovery of +the Island by Behring--Behring's death--Steller--The former and +present fauna of the Island: foxes, sea otters, sea cows, sea lions, +and sea bears--Collection of bones of the Rhytina--Visit to a +"rookery"--Torporkoff Island--Alexander Dubovski--Voyage to +Yokohama--Lightning stroke + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Arrival at Yokohama--A Telegram sent to Europe--The stranding of the +Steamer _A.E. Nordenskioeld_--_Fetes_ in Japan--The Minister of Marine, +Kawamura--Prince Kito-Shira Kava--Audience of the Mikado--Graves of +the Shoguns--Imperial Garden at Tokio--The Exhibition there--Visit +to Enoshima--Japanese Manners and Customs--Thunberg and Kaempfer. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +Excursion to Asamayama--The Nakasendo road--Takasaki--Difficulty +of obtaining Quarters for the Night--The Baths at Ikaho--Massage +in Japan--Swedish matches--Traveling in +_Kago_--Savavatari--Criminals--Kusatsu--The Hot Springs and their +healing power--Rest at Rokurigahara--The Summit of Asamayama--The +Descent--Journey over Usui-toge--Japanese Actors--Pictures of +Japanese Folk life--Return to Yokohama + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +Farewell dinner at Yokohama--The Chinese in Japan--Voyage to +Kobe--Purchase of Japanese Books--Journey by sail to Kioto--Biwa +Lake and the Legend of its Origin--Dredging there--Japanese Dancing +Girls--Kioto--The Imperial Palace--Temples--Swords and Sword +bearers--Shintoism and Buddhism--The Porcelain Manufacture--Japanese +Poetry--Feast in a Buddhist Temple--Sailing across the Inland Sea +of Japan--Landing at Hirosami and Shimonoseki--Nagasaki--Excursion +to Mogi--Collection of Fossil Plants--Departure from Japan + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Hong Kong and Canton--Stone polishing Establishments at +Canton--Political Relations in an English Colony--Treatment of the +Natives--Voyage to Labuan--Coal Mines there--Excursion to the shore +of Borneo--Malay Villages--Singapore--Voyage to Ceylon--Point de +Galle--The Gem Mines at Ratnapoora--Visit to a Temple--Purchase of +Manuscripts--The Population of Ceylon--Dr. Almquist's Excursion to +the Interior of the Island + + +CHAPTER XX + +The Journey Home--Christmas, 1879--Aden--Suez--Cairo--Excursion to +the Pyramids and the Mokattam Mountains--Petrified Tree stems--The +Suez Canal--Landing on Sicily by night--Naples--Rome--The Members of +the Expedition separate--Lisbon--England--Paris--Copenhagen--Festive +Entry into Stockholm--_Fetes_ there--Conclusion + + + + +PORTRAITS + + +Engraved on Steel by G.J. Stodart, of London. + + +Adolf Erik Nordenskioeld To face Title page +Louis Palander ,, Page 68 + + + + +LITHOGRAPHED MAPS + + +9. Herbertstern's Map of Russia, 1550 (photo-lithographic facsimile) + +10. Map of the North Coast of the Old World from Norway to Behring's + Straits, with the track of the _Vega_, constructed from old and + recent sources, and from observations made during the Voyage of + the _Vega_, by N. Selander, Captain in the General Staff + + + + +LIST OF WOOD-CUTS IN VOL II + + +_The Wood-cuts, when not otherwise stated below, were engraved at +Herr Wilhelm Meyer's Xylographic Institute, in Stockholm_ + + 1. Chukches + + 2. The Encampment Pitlekaj abandoned by its Inhabitants on the + 18th February, 1879 + + 3. Notti and Wife Aitanga + + 4. Map of the Region round the _Vega's_ Winter Quarters + + 5. The Sleeping Chamber in a Chukch Tent + + 6. Chukch Lamps + + 7. Section of a Chukch Lamp + + 8. Chukch Shaman Drum + + 9. The Coast between Padljonna and Enjurmi + + 10. Bracelet of Copper + + 11. The North End of Idlidlja Island + + 12. The Common Aurora Arc at the _Vega's_ Winter Quarters + + 13. Aurora at the _Vega's_ Winter Quarters, 3rd March, 1879, at 9 PM + + 14. Double Aurora-Arcs seen 20th March, 1879, at 9 30 PM + + 15. Elliptic Aurora, seen 21st March, 1879, at 2 15 AM + + 16. Elliptic Aurora seen 21st March, 1879, at 3 AM + + 17. Song Birds in the Rigging of the Vega, June, 1879 + + 18. Spoon-billed Sand piper from Chukch Land + (_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, L.) + + 19. Marmots from Chukch Land + + 20. _Stegocephalus Kessleri_ Stuxb + + 21. _Sabinea septemcarinata_, Sabine + + 22. _Acanthostephia Malmgreni_, Goes + + 23. _Ophioglypha nodosa_, Luetken + + 24. Noah Elisej + + 25. Beetles from Pitlekaj + + 26. Phosphorescent Crustacea from Mussel Bay + + 27. Reitinacka + + 28. Dog Fish from the Chukch Peninsula (_Dallia delicatissima_, Smith) + + 29. Crab from the Sea North of Behring's Straits + (Chionoecetes _opilio_, Kroeyer) + + 30. Tree from Pitlekaj (_Salix Arctica_, Pallas) + + 31. Typical Chukch Faces + + 32. ,, ,, + + 33. Plan of a Chukch Grave + + 34. Tent Frame at Pitlekaj + + 35. Chukch Oar + + 36. Dog Shoe + + 37. Chukch Face Tattooing + + 38. Chukch Children + + 39. Snow Shoes + + 40. An Aino Man skating after a Reindeer + + 41. Hunting Cup and Snow scraper + + 42. Chukch Weapons and Hunting Implements + + 43. Chukch Bow and Quiver + + 44. Chukch Arrows + + 45. Stone Hammers and Anvil for Crushing Bones + + 46. Chukch Implements + + 47. Fire Drill + + 48. Ice Mattocks + + 49. Human Figures + + 50. Musical Instruments + + 51. Drawings made by the Chukches-- + + 52. Chukch Buckles and Hooks of Ivory + + 53. Chukch Bone Carvings + + 54. Chukch Doll + + 55. Chukch Bone Carvings-- + + 56. Chukch Bone Carvings of Birds + + 57. Map of the World, said to be of the Tenth Century + + 58. Map of the World showing Asia to be continuous with Africa + + 59. Map of the World after Fra Mauro, from the middle of the + Fifteenth Century + + 60. Map of Asia from an Atlas published by the Russian Academy of + Sciences in 1737 + + 61. Peter Feodorovitsch Anjou + + 62. Ferdinand von Wrangel + + 63. Seal from the Behring Sea, _Histriophoca fasciata_, Zimm + + 64. _Draba Alpina_, L., from St. Lawrence Bay + + 65. Hunting Implements at Port Clarence + + 66. Eskimo Family at Port Clarence + + 67. Eskimo from Port Clarence + + 68. Eskimo from Port Clarence + + 69. Eskimo Fishing Implements, &c. + + 70. Eskimo Bone Carvings &c. + + 71. Eskimo Grave + + 72. Animal Figure from an Eskimo Grave + + 73. Ethnographical Objects from Port Clarence + + 74. Shell from Behring's Straits, _Fusus deformis_, Reeve + + 75. Diagram showing the temperature and depth of the water at + Behring's Straits between Port Clarence and Senjavin Sound, by + G. Bove + + 76. Konyam Bay + + 77. Tattooing Patterns from St. Lawrence Island + + 78. Tattooed Woman from St. Lawrence Island + + 79. The Colony on Behring Island + + 80. The Colony on Copper Island + + 81. Natives of Behring Island + + 82. Skeleton of Rhytina, shown at the _Vega_ Exhibition + at the Royal Palace, Stockholm + + 83. Original Drawings of the Rhytina + + 84. Reconstructed Form of the Sea-Cow + + 85. Sea Bears, Male, Female, and Young + + 86. "Seal Rookery" on St. Paul's Island, one of the Pribylov Islands + + 87. Slaughter of Sea-Bears + + 88. Sea-Bears on their way to "the Rookeries" + + 89. Alga from the shore of Behring Island, + _Thalassiophyllum Clathrus_, Post. and Rupr. + + 90. Fusugama + + 91. The steamer _A.E. Nordenskioeld_ stranded on the East Coast of Yezo + + 92. Kawamura Sumiyashi, Japanese Minister of Marine + + 93. The First Medal which was struck as a Memorial + of the Voyage of the _Vega_ + + 94. The First Medal which was struck as a Memorial + of the Voyage of the _Vega_ + + 95. Stone Lantern and Stone Monument in a Japanese Temple Court + + 96. Japanese House in Tokio + + 97. Japanese Lady at her Toilet + + 98. A Jinrikisha + + 99. Japanese Bedroom + + 100. Tobacco-Smokers, Japanese Drawing + + 101. Ito-Keske, a Japanese Editor of Thunberg's Writings + + 102. Monument to Thunberg and Kaempfer at Nagasaki + + 103. Japanese Kago + + 104. Japanese Wrestlers + + 105. Japanese Bridge, after a Japanese drawing + + 106. Japanese Mountain Landscape, drawn by Prof. P.D. Holm + + 107. Inn at Kusatsu, drawn by R. Haglund + + 108. Bath at Kusatsu, Japanese drawing, drawn by O. Soerling + + 109. Japanese Landscape, drawn by Prof. P.D. Holm + + 110. Burden-bearers on a Japanese Road, Japanese drawing, + drawn by O. Soerling + + 111. Japanese Shop, drawn by V. Andren + + 112. Japanese Court Dress, drawn by ditto + + 113. Noble in Antique Dress, drawn by ditto + + 114. Buddhist Priest, drawn by ditto + + 115. A Samurai, drawn by ditto + + 116. Gate across the Road to a Shinto Temple, drawn by Prof. P.D. Holm + + 117. Buddhist Temple at Kobe, drawn by ditto + + 118. Rio-San's Seal + + 119. Burying-Place at Kioto, drawn by Prof. P.D. Holm + + 120. Entrance to Nagasaki, drawn by R. Haglund + + 121. Fossil Plants from Mogi--1, 2, Beech Leaves + (_Fagus ferruginea_, Ait., var. _pliocena_, Nath.), + drawn by M. Westergren + + 122. Fossil Plant from Mogi--3, Maple Leaf + (_Acer Mono_, Max., var. _pliocena_, Nath.) + + 123. Fossil Plant from Mogi--Leaf of _Zelkova Keakii_, + Sieb., var. _pliocena_, Nath., drawn by M. Westergren + + 124. Gem Diggings at Ratnapoora, drawn by R. Haglund + + 125. Statues in a Temple in Ceylon, drawn by ditto + + 126. A Country Place in Ceylon, drawn by V. Andren + + 127. Highland View from the Interior of Ceylon, drawn by R. Haglund + + 128. The Scientific Men of the _Vega_ + + 129. The Officers of the _Vega_ + + 130. The Crew of the _Vega_, drawn by R. Widing + + 131. The Entrance of the _Vega_ into Stockholm on the 24th April, 1880, + drawn by R. Haglund + + 132. The _Vega_ moored off the Royal Palace, Stockholm, drawn by ditto + + + + +ERRATA [ Transcriber's note: these have been applied to the text ] + + Page 22, under wood-cut, _for_ "_a._ Of wood _b._ Of stone," + _read_ "_a._ Wooden cup to place under the lamp + _b._ Lamp of burned clay." + Page 41, line 6 from foot, _for_ "beginning of May" + _read_ "middle of June." + Page 41, under wood-cut, _for_ "May," _read_ "June." + Page 44, line 19 _for_ "mountain," _read_ "Arctic." + Page 54, last line _for_ "contracteta" _read_ "contracta." + Page 63, last line _for_ "Natural size," _read_ "Half the natural size." + Page 98, lines 9 and 12 from foot, _for_ "moccassin" _read_ "moccasin." + Page 100, line 2 from foot, _for_ "moccassin" _read_ "moccasin." + Page 227, line 11 from foot, _for_ "American," _read_ "Asiatic." + + + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA ROUND ASIA AND EUROPE, VOL II + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Hope of release at the new year--Bove's excursion to the + open water--Mild weather and renewed severe cold--Mercury + frozen--Popular lectures--Brusewitz's excursion to Najtskaj + --Another despatch of letters home--The natives' accounts + of the state of the ice on the coast of Chukch Land-- + The Chukches carry on traffic between Arctic America and + Siberia--Excursions in the neighbourhood of winter quarters + --The weather during spring--The melting of the snow-- + The aurora--The arrival of the migratory birds--The animal + world of Chukch Land--Noah Elisej's relief expedition-- + A remarkable fish--The country clear of snow--Release-- + The North-East Passage achieved. + + +The new year came in with a faint hope of release. For since the +north and north-west winds that had prevailed almost constantly +towards the close of December had given place to winds from the east +and south, considerable "clearings" were again formed out at sea, +and the Chukches again began to say that the ice would drift away, +so that the vessel would be able to continue her voyage; a +prediction which they always ended with a declaration, expressed +both by words and gestures, that they would then bitterly lament, +which they would also have had sufficient reason to do, considering +the very friendly way in which they were treated by all on board the +_Vega_, both officers and men. + +On New Year's Day, in order to see the state of the ice farther out +to sea, Lieut Bove, accompanied by the hunter Johnsen, again made an +excursion to the open water. Of this he gave the following +account:-- + + "I left the vessel on the forenoon of 1st January and + reached the open water after four hours' steady walking. + The deep loose snow made walking very fatiguing, and three + rows of _torosses_ also contributed to this, mainly in + consequence of the often snow-covered cracks, which + crossed the ice-sheet in their neighbourhood. One of the + _torosses_ was ten metres high. The size of the blocks of + ice, which were here heaped on each other, showed how + powerful the forces were which had caused the formation of + the _torosses_. These ice ramparts now afford a much + needed protection to the _Vegas_ winter haven. About + halfway between the open water and the vessel the way was + crossed by cracks running from east to west, and clearly + indicating that the opening in the ice would have extended + to the distance of a kilometre from the vessel, if the + violent storm in December had lasted twelve hours longer. + The _Vega_ would thereby have been in great danger. The + edge of the ice towards the open water was evenly cut, as + with an immense knife, and was so strong that one could + walk along it as on a rock. Even from the top of a + five-metre-high ice-rampart no boundary of the open water + could be seen to the north-east or north. Partly from + this, partly from the extension of the water-sky in this + direction, I draw the conclusion that the breadth of the + open water was at least thirty-five kilometres. The + "clearing" was bounded on the east by an ice-rampart + running north, which at a distance of nine or ten + kilometres appeared to bend to the east. Possibly farther + to the east beyond this ice-rampart there was another open + water basin. The depth at the edge of the ice was + twenty-one metres, the temperature of the water 2 deg. + C. The water ran at a considerable speed right out from + the coast (_i.e._ from S.S.E.) As it ran here nearly in a + straight line, the current may have been a tidal one. The + open water swarmed with seals, according to Johnsen both + bearded and rough. Neither Polar bears, walrusses, nor + birds were seen." + +Lieut. Bove's report confirmed me in my supposition that the open +water, as towards the end of January 1873 at Mussel Bay, might +possibly extend as far as our anchorage and open for us the way to +Behring's Straits, in which case we could not refrain from +continuing our voyage, however unpleasant and dangerous it might be +at this season of the year. The Chukches also declared repeatedly +that the open water in January would continue for a considerable +time, and in expectation of this got their simple fishing implements +ready. But both they and we were disappointed in our expectation. +The _Vega's_ ice-fetters remained undisturbed, and the blue border +at the horizon grew less and again disappeared. This caused so great +a want of food, and above all of train oil, among the natives, that +all the inhabitants of Pitlekaj, the village nearest to us, were +compelled to remove to the eastward, notwithstanding that in order +to mitigate the scarcity a considerable quantity of food was served +out daily at the vessel. + +It appeals, however, as if an actual experience from the preceding +year had been the ground of the Chukches' weather prediction. For on +the 6th February a south-east wind began to blow, and the severe +cold at once ceased. The temperature rose for a few hours to and +even above the freezing-point. A water-sky was again formed along +the horizon of the ice from north-east to north, and from the +heights at the coast there was seen an extensive opening in the +ice-fields, which a little east of Irgunnuk nearly reached the +shore. Some kilometres farther east even the shore itself was free +of ice, and from the hills our sailors thought they saw a heavy sea +in the blue water border which bounded the circle of vision. If this +was not an illusion, caused by the unequal heating and oscillatory +motion of the lower stratum of the atmosphere, the open water may +have been of great extent. Perhaps the statement of the natives was +correct, that it extended as far as Behring's Straits. But we could +not now place complete reliance on their statements, since we had +rewarded with extra treating some predictions, relating to ice and +weather, that were favourable to us. Even between the vessel's +anchorage and the land various cracks had been formed, through which +the sea water had forced its way under the snow, and in which some +of us got cold feet or leg baths during our walks to and from the +land. + +[Illustration: THE ENCAMPMENT PITLEKAJ ABANDONED BY ITS INHABITANTS +ON THE 18TH FEBRUARY, 1879. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +The Chukches at Irgunnuk were now successful in killing a Polar bear +and seventy seals, of which some were ostentatiously set up in rows, +along with frozen slices of blubber, along the outer walls of the +tents, and others were laid down in the blubber cellars, which were +soon filled to overflowing. At Yinretlen, the encampment nearer us, +the hunters on the other hand had obtained only eight seals. +Gladness and want of care for the morrow at all events prevailed +here also, and our skin-clad friends availed themselves of the +opportunity to exhibit a self-satisfied disdain of the simple +provisions from the _Vega_ which the day before they had begged for +with gestures so pitiful, and on which they must, in a day or two, +again depend. The children, who had fallen off during recent weeks, +if not in comparison with European children, at least with well-fed +Chukch ones, began speedily to regain their former condition, and +likewise the older people. Begging ceased for some days, but the +vessel's deck still formed a favourite rendezvous for crowds of men, +women, and children. Many passed here the greater part of the day, +cheerful and gay in a temperature of -40 deg. C, gossiped, helped +a little, but always only a little, at the work on board and so on. +The mild weather, the prospect of our getting free, and of an +abundant fishing for the Chukches, however, soon ceased. The +temperature again sank below the freezing-point, that is _of +mercury_, and the sea froze so far out from the shore that the +Chukches could no longer carry on any fishing. Instead we saw them +one morning come marching, like prisoners on an Egyptian or Assyrian +monument, in goose-march over the ice toward the vessel, each with a +burden on his shoulder, of whose true nature, while they were at a +distance, we endeavoured in vain to form a guess. It was pieces of +ice, not particularly large, which they, self-satisfied, cheerful +and happy at their new bit, handed over to the cook to get from him +in return some of the _kauka_ (food) they some days before had +despised. + + +The first time the temperature of the air sank under the +freezing-point of mercury, was in January. It now became necessary +to use instead of the mercury the spirit thermometers, which in +expectation of the severe cold had been long ago hung up in the +thermometer case. When mercury freezes in a common thermometer, it +contracts so much that the column of mercury suddenly sinks in the +tube; or if it is short, goes wholly into the ball. The position of +the column is therefore no measure of the actual degree of cold when +the freezing takes place. The reading of -89 deg., or even of -150 deg., +which at a time when it was not yet known that mercury could +at a low temperature assume the solid form, was made on a mercurial +thermometer in the north of Sweden,[258] and which at the time +occasioned various discussions and doubts as to the trustworthiness +of the observer, was certainly quite correct, and may be repeated at +any time by cooling mercury under its freezing-point in a +thermometer of sufficient length divided into degrees under 0 deg.. +The freezing of mercury[259] takes place from below upwards, +the frozen metal as being heavier sinking down in that portion which +is still fluid. If when it is half frozen the fluid be poured away +from the frozen portion, we obtain groups of crystals, composed of +small octohedrons, grouped together by the edges of the cube. None +of our mercurial thermometers suffered any damage, nor was there any +alteration of the position of the freezing-point in them from the +mercury having frozen in them and again become fluid. + +During the severe cold the ice naturally became thicker and thicker, +and by the continual northerly winds still higher _torosses_ were +heaped up round the vessel, and larger and larger snow masses were +collected between it and the land, and on the heights along the +coast. All hopes or fears of an early release were again given up, +and a perceptible dullness began to make itself felt after the +bustle and festrvities of the Christmas holidays. Instead there was +now arranged a series of popular lectures which were held in the +lower deck, and treated of the history of the North-East Passage, +the first circumnavigations of the globe, the Austrian-Hungarian +Expedition, the changes of the earth's surface, the origin of man, +the importance of the leaf to the plants, &c. It became both for the +officers and scientific men and the crew a little interruption to +the monotony of the Arctic winter life, and the lecturer could +always be certain of finding his little auditory all present and +highly interested. Some slight attempts at musical evening +entertainments were also made, but these failed for want of musical +instruments and musical gifts among the _Vega_ men. We had among us +no suitable director of theatrical representations after the +English-Arctic pattern, and even if we had had, I fear that the +director would have found it very difficult to gather together the +dramatic talents requisite for his entertainment. + +On the 17th February Lieutenant Brusewitz made an excursion to +Najtskaj, of which he gives the following account:-- + + "I and Notti left the vessel in the afternoon, and after + two hours came to Rirajtinop, Notti's home, where we + passed the night, together with his three younger brothers + and an invalid sister, who all lived in the same + tent-chamber. Immediately after our arrival one of the + brothers began to get the dog-harness and sleigh ready for + the following day's journey, while the rest of us went + into the interior of the tent, where the invalid sister + lay with her clothes off, but wrapt in reindeer skins. She + took charge of two train-oil lumps over which hung two + cooking vessels, one formerly a preserve tin, and the + other a bucket of tinned iron. One of the brothers came in + with a tray, on which was placed a piece of seal blubber, + together with frozen vegetables, principally willow + leaves. The blubber was cut into small square pieces about + the size of the thumb, after which one of the brothers + gave the sister a large portion both of the blubber and + vegetables. The food was thus served out to the others. + Every piece of blubber was carefully imbedded in vegetable + before it was eaten. When the vegetables were finished + there was still some blubber, which was given to the dogs + that lay in the outer tent. After this the boiled + spare-rib of a seal were partaken of, and finally a sort + of soup, probably made from seal's blood. The sister had a + first and special helping of these dishes. I also got an + offer of every dish, and it did not appear to cause any + offence that I did not accept the offer. After the close + of the meal the cooking vessels were set down, the "pesks" + taken off, and some reindeer skins taken down from the + roof and spread out. The older brothers lighted their + pipes, and the younger lay down to sleep. I was shown to + one of the side places in the tent, evidently Notti's own. + One of the lamps was extinguished, after which all slept. + During the night the girl complained several times, when + one of the brothers always rose and attended to her. At + six in the morning I wakened the party and reminded them + of our journey. All rose immediately. Dressing proceeded + slowly, because much attention was given to the foot + covering. No food was produced, but all appeared quite + pleased when I gave them of my stock, which consisted of + bread and some preserved beef-steaks. Immediately after + breakfast four dogs were harnessed to the sleigh, with + which Notti and I continued our journey to Najtskaj, I + riding and he running alongside the sleigh. At Irgunnuk, a + Chukch village about an English mile east of Rirajtinop, a + short stay was made in order to try to borrow some dogs, + but without success. We continued our journey along the + shore, and at 10 o'clock A.M. arrived at Najtskaj, which + is from fifteen to eighteen kilometres E.S.E. from + Irgunnuk. Here we were received by most of our former + neighbours, the inhabitants of Pitlekaj. Of the thirteen + tents of the village the five westernmost were occupied by + the former population of Pitlekaj, while the eight lying + more to the eastward were inhabited by other Chukches. The + Pitlekaj people had not pitched their common large tents, + but such as were of inconsiderable size or small ones + fastened close together. In all the tents here, as at + Rirajtinop and Irgunnuk, there was much blubber laid up, + we saw pieces of seal and whole seals piled up before the + tents, and on the way to Najtskaj we met several sledges + loaded with seals, on their way to Pidlin. At Najtskaj I + went out hunting accompanied by a Chukch. We started eight + hares, but did not succeed in getting within range of + them. A red fox was seen at a great distance but neither + ptarmigan nor traces of them could be discovered. At two + in the afternoon I returned to Irgunnuk and there got + another sleigh drawn by ten dogs, with which I soon + reached the vessel." + +[Illustration: NOTTI AND HIS WIFE AITANGA. (After photographs by L. +Palander.) ] + +On the 20th February three large Chukch sledges laden with goods and +drawn by sixteen to twenty dogs stopped at the _Vega_. They said +they came from the eastward, and were on their way to the market in +the neighbourhood of Nischni Kolymsk. I again by way of experiment +sent with them home-letters, for which, as they declined to take +money, I gave them as postage three bottles of rum and abundant +entertainment for men and dogs. In consideration of this payment +they bound themselves faithfully to execute their commission and +promised to return in May. And they kept then word. For on the 8th +and 9th May a large number of sledges heavily laden with reindeer +skins and drawn by many dogs, passed along the coast from west to +east. Of course all rested at the _Vega_, the only house of +entertainment on the coast of the Asiatic Polar Sea, considering it +as a matter of indisputable right, that they should in return for a +little talk and gossip obtain food and "ram." Very eagerly they now +informed us that a letter would come with another dog train that +might be expected in a few hours. This was for us a very great piece +of news, the importance of which none can understand who has never +hungered for months for news from home, from the home-land and the +home-world. Eager to know if we had actually to expect _a post_ from +Europe, we asked them how large the packet was "Very large" was the +answer, and the "ram" was of course measured accordingly. But when +at last the letter came it was found to be only an exceedingly short +note from some of the Russian officials at Kolyma, informing me that +our letters had reached him on the 4th April/23rd March and had been +immediately sent by express to Yakutsk. Thence they were sent on by +post, reaching Irkutsk on the 20th/14th May, and Sweden on the 2nd +August. + +During autumn and midwinter the sunshine was not of course strong +and continuous enough to be painful to the eyes, but in February the +light from the snow-clouds and the snow-drifts began to be +troublesome enough. On the 22nd February accordingly snow-spectacles +were distributed to all the men, an indispensable precaution, as I +have before stated, in Arctic journeys. Many of the Chukches were +also attacked with snow-blindness somewhat later in the season, and +were very desirous of obtaining from us blue-coloured spectacles. +Johnsen even stated that one of the hares he shot was evidently +snow-blind. + +On the evening of the 22th February there burst upon us a storm with +drifting snow and a cold of -36 deg.. To be out in such weather is +not good even for a Chukch dog. Of this we had confirmation the next +day, when a Chukch who had lost his way came on board, carrying a +dog, frozen stiff, by the backbone, like a dead hare. He had with +his dog gone astray on the ice and lain out, without eating +anything, in a snow-drift for the night. The master himself had +suffered nothing, he was only hungry, the dog on the other hand +scarcely showed any sign of life. Both were naturally treated on +board the _Vega_ with great commiseration and kindness. They were +taken to the 'tweendecks, where neither Chukches nor Chukch dogs +were otherwise admitted, for the man an abundant meal was served of +what we believed he would relish best, and he was then allowed, +probably for the first time in his life, to sleep if not under a +sooty, at least under a wooden roof. The dog was for hours carefully +subjected to massage, with the result that he came to life again, +which struck us, and, as it appeared, not least the Chukch himself, +as something wonderful. + +In the beginning of March there passed us a large number of sledges +laden with reindeer skins, and drawn by eight to ten dogs each. +Every sledge had a driver, and as usual the women took no part in +the journey. These trains were on a commercial journey from Irkaipij +to Paek at Behring's Straits. We found among the foremen many of our +acquaintances from the preceding autumn, and I need not say that +this gave occasion to a special entertainment, for the people, +bread, a little spirits, soup, some sugar, and tobacco, for the +dogs, pemmican. Conversation during such visits became very lively, +and went on with little hindrance, since two of us were now somewhat +at home in the Chukch language. For if I except two men, Menka and +Noah Elisej, who could talk exceedingly defective Russian, there was +not one of the reindeer or dog-foremen travelling past who could +speak any European language, and notwithstanding this they all carry +on an active commerce with the Russians. But the Chukch is proud +enough to require that his own language shall prevail in all +international commerce in the north-east of Asia, and his neighbours +find their advantage in this. + +During the course of the winter, Lieutenant Nordquist collected from +the Chukch foremen coming from a distance who travelled past, +information regarding the state of the ice between Chaun Bay and +Behring's Straits at different seasons of the year. Considering the +immense importance of the question, even in a purely practical point +of view, I shall quote verbatim the statements which he thus +collected. + +_Statements regarding the state of the ice on the coast between +Cape Yakan and Behring's Straits by Chukches living there._ + +"1. A Chukch from Yekanenmitschikan, near Cape Yakan, said that it +is usual for open water to be there the whole summer. + +"2. A Chukch from Kinmankau, which lies a little to the west of Cape +Yakan, said the same. + +"3. A Chukch from Yakan stated that the sea there becomes free of +ice in the end of May or beginning of June. On the other hand it is +never open in winter. + +"4. Tatan from Yakan stated that the sea there is open from the end +of May or beginning of June to the latter part of September or +beginning of October, when the ice begins to drift towards the land. + +"5. Rikkion from Vankarema said that the sea there is covered with +ice in winter, but open in summer. + +"6. A reindeer Chukch, Rotschitlen, who lives about twelve English +miles from the _Vega's_ winter quarters, said that Kolyutschin Bay, +by the Chukches called Pidlin, is clear of ice the whole summer. + +"7. Urtridlin from Kolyutschin said that neither at that island nor +in Kolyutschin Bay is there any ice in summer. + +"8. Ranau, from Yinretlen, also said that Kolyutschin Bay is always +open in summer. + +"9. Ettiu, from the village Nettej, between Irgunnuk and Behring's +Straits, stated that the sea at Nettej is open in summer, +independently of the wind, in winter only when the wind is +southerly. + +"10. Vankatte, from Nettej, stated that the sea there becomes open +during the month "Tautinyadlin," that is, the latter part of May and +the beginning of June, and is again covered with ice during the +month "Kutscshkau," or October and November. + +"11. Kepljeplja, from the village Irgunnuk, lying five English miles +east of the _Vega's_ winter quarters at Pitlekaj, said that the sea +off these villages is open all summer, except when northerly winds +prevail. On the other hand, he said that farther westward, as at +Irkaipij, ice could nearly always be seen from the land. + +"12. Kapatljin, from Kingetschkun, a village between Irgunnuk and +Behring's Straits, stated on the 11th January that there was then open +water at that village. He said further, that Behring's Straits in winter +are filled with ice when the wind is southerly, but open when the wind +is northerly. The same day a Chukch from Nettej-Kengitschkau, also +between Irgunnuk and Behring's Straits, stated that ice then lay off +that village. He confirmed Kapatljin's statement regarding Behring's +Straits. + +"13. Kvano, from Uedlje, near Behring's Straits, said that there the +sea is always open from May to the end of September." + + +On the 13th March we came to know that spirits, too, form an article +of commerce here. For, without having obtained any liquor from the +_Vega_, the Chukches at Yinretlen had the means of indulging in a +general fuddle, and that even their friendly disposition gives way +under the effects of the intoxication we had a manifest proof, when +the day after they came on board with blue and yellow eyes, not a +little seedy and ashamed. In autumn a tall and stout Chukch +giantess, who then paid us a visit, informed us that her husband had +been murdered in a drunken quarrel. + +Sledges of considerable size, drawn by reindeer, began after the +middle of March to pass the _Vega_ in pretty large numbers. They +were laden with reindeer skins and goods bought at the Russian +market-places, and intended for barter at Behring's Straits. + +The reindeer Chukches are better clothed, and appear to be in better +circumstances and more independent than the coast Chukches, or, as +they ought to be called in correspondence with the former name, the +dog Chukches. As every one owns a reindeer herd, all must follow the +nomad mode of living, but at the same time they carry on traffic +between the savages in the northernmost parts of America and the +Russian fur-dealers in Siberia, and many pass their whole lives in +commercial journeys. The principal market is held annually during +the mouth of March, on an island in the river Little Anjui, 250 +versts from Nischni Kolymsk. The barter goes on in accordance with a +normal price-list, mutually agreed upon by the Russian merchants and +the oldest of the Chukches. The market is inaugurated on the part of +the Russians by a mass performed by the priest,[260] who always +accompanies the Russian crown commissioner, and in the Chukches' +camp with buffoonery by one of the Chukch Shamans. At such a market +there is said to be considerable confusion, to judge by the spirited +description which Wrangel gives of it (_Reise_, i. p. 269). +We ought, however, to remember that this description refers to the +customs that prevailed sixty years ago. Now, perhaps, there is a +great change there. In the commercial relations in north-eastern +Asia in the beginning of this century, we have probably a faithful +picture of the commerce of the Beormas in former days in +north-eastern Europe. Even the goods were probably of the same sort +at both places, perhaps, also, the stand-points of the culture of +the two races. + +Besides the traders, a large number of Chukches from Kolyutschin +Island and other villages to the west, travelled past us with empty +sledges, to which were harnessed only a few dogs. They returned in +the course of a few days with their sledges fully laden with fish +which they said they had caught in a lagoon situated to the +eastward. They also sometimes sold a delicious variety of the +Coregonus taken in a lake in the interior some distance from the +coast. + +Further on in winter a number of excursions were undertaken in +different directions, partly to find out these fishing places, +partly to get an idea of the mode of life of the reindeer Chukches. +I, however, never ventured to give permission for any long absence +from the vessel, because I was quite convinced that the sea round +the _Vega_ after a few days' constant southerly storm might become +open under circumstances which would not permit us to remain in the +open road where we lay moored, my comrades' desire to penetrate far +into the Chukch peninsula could not on that account be satisfied. +But short as these excursions were, they give us, however, much +information regarding our winter life, and our contact with the +little-known tribe, on the coast of whose homeland the _Vega_ had +been beset, and on that account, perhaps, there may be reasons for +making extracts from some of the reports given in to me with +reference to these journeys. + +_Palander's and Kjellman's excursion to a reindeer Chukch camp +south-west of Pitlekaj_, is sketched by the former thus:-- + + "On the 17th March, 1879, accompanied by Dr. Kjellman, I + went out with a sledge and five men, among them a native + as guide, to the reindeer Chukch camp in the neighbourhood + of Taffelberg (Table Mountain), with a view to obtain + fresh reindeer flesh. The expedition was fitted out with + two days' provisions, tent, mattrasses, and _pesks_. The + reindeer Chukches were met with eleven English miles from + the vessel. On an eminence here were found two tents, of + which one at the time was uninhabited. The other was + occupied by the Chukch, Rotschitlen, his young wife, and + another young pair, the latter, if I understood them + right, being on a visit, and properly having their home at + Irgunnuk. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE REGION ROUND THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. +Mainly after G. Bove 1. Rotschitlen's tent 2. Yettugin's tent. ] + + "Round the tent, which was considerably smaller than those + we daily saw at the coast, lay a number of sledges piled + up on one another. These sledges differed from the common + dog-sledges in being considerably larger and wider in the + gauge. The runners were clumsy and axed from large wood. + + "Our proposal to purchase reindeer was immediately + declined, although we offered in exchange bread, tobacco, + rum, and even guns. As a reason for this refusal they + stated that the reindeer at this season of the year are + too lean to be slaughtered. We saw about fifty reindeer + pasturing on an eminence at a distance of several thousand + feet from us. + + "In the afternoon Kjellman and I were invited into the + tent, where we passed an hour in their sleeping chamber. + On our entrance the lamp, which was filled with seal oil, + was lighted, a sort of moss (sphagnum) was used as a wick. + Our hostess endeavoured to make our stay in the tent as + agreeable as possible, she rolled together reindeer skins + for pillows and made ready for us a place where, stretched + at full length, we might enjoy much needed repose. In the + outer tent the other women prepared supper, which + consisted of boiled seal's-flesh. We received a friendly + invitation to share their meal, but as we had no taste for + seal's-flesh, we declined their offer under the pretext + that we had just had dinner. They took their meal lying + with the body in the inner tent, but with the head under + the reindeer-skin curtain in the outer, where the food + was. After the meal was partaken of, their heads were + drawn within the curtain, our host divested himself of all + his clothes, the trousers excepted, which were allowed to + remain. Our hostess let her _pesk_ fall down from her + shoulders, so that the whole upper part of the body thus + became bare. The reindeer-skin boots were taken off, and + turned outside in, they were carefully dried and hung up + in the roof over the lamp to dry during the night. We + treated the women to some sugar, which, in consequence of + their want of acquaintance with it, they at first examined + with a certain caution, finding afterwards that it tasted + exceeding well. After the meal our host appeared to become + sleepy, we accordingly said good-night, and went to our + own tent, where it was quite otherwise than warm, the + temperature during the night being about -11 deg. C. + + "After for the most part a sleepless night, we rose at + half-past six next morning. When we came out of the tent + we saw all the reindeer advancing in a compact troop. At + the head was an old reindeer with large horns, that went + forward to his master, who had in the meantime gone to + meet the herd, and bade him good-morning by gently rubbing + his nose against his master's hands. While this was going + on the other reindeer stood drawn up in well-ordered + ranks, like the crew in divisions on board a man-of-war. + The owner then went forward and saluted every reindeer, + they were allowed to stroke his hands with their noses. He + on his part took every reindeer by the horn and examined + it in the most careful way. After the inspection was ended + at a sign given by the master the whole herd wheeled round + and returned in closed ranks, with the old reindeer in + front, to the previous day's pasture. + + "The whole scene made a very favourable impression on us, + it was not the grim hard savage showing in a coarse and + barbarous way his superiority over the animals, but the + good master treating his inferiors kindly, and having a + friendly word for each of them. Here good relations + prevailed between man and the animals. Rotschitlen himself + was a stately young man, with an intelligent appearance + and a supple handsome figure. His dress, of exceedingly + good cut and of uncommonly fine reindeer skin, sat close + to his well-grown frame, and gave us an opportunity of + seeing his graceful and noble bearing, which was most + observable when he was in motion. + + "On our repeating our proposal to purchase reindeer we + again met with a refusal, on which we struck our tent and + commenced our return journey. We came on board on the 18th + March at 3 o'clock P.M., after a march of four hours and + three-quarters. + + "The way to the reindeer camp rose and fell gently. The + snow was hard and even, so that we could go forward + rapidly. On the way out four foxes and some ravens were + seen. At one place we found a large number of lemming + passages excavated through the snow in an oblique + direction towards the ground. Most of them were scratched + up by foxes. The descent to an untouched lemming nest was + cylindrical, and four and a half centimetres in diameter. + During both days we had snow, and a thick and foggy + atmosphere, so that we could see only a short distance + before us, we did not however go astray, thanks to the + good eyes and strongly developed sense of locality of our + guide, the native." + +_Brusewitz's and Nordquist's Excursion to Nutschoitjin_ + +Of this Nordquist gives the following account:-- + + "On the 20th March, at 9 o'clock A.M. Lieut Brusewitz, + boatswain Lustig, the Norwegian hunters Johnsen and + Sievertsen, the Chukch Notti, and I, left the _Vega_. Our + equipment, which consisted of provisions for eight days, + cooking apparatus, canvas tent, india-rubber mattrasses, + reindeer-skin _pesks_, &c., we drew after us on a sledge. + At 2.45 P.M. we came to Nutschoitjin (Coregonus Lake). + During our journey we passed a river which flows between + Nutschoitjin and the mountain Hotschkeanranga, about ten + English miles south of this lake and falls into the great + lagoon south of Prtlekaj. Farther into the interior this + river, according to Notti's statement, flows through + several lakes: he also informed us that in summer it + abounds very much in salmon (_lienne_). Some sandy hills + formed the watershed between it and Nutschoitjin. The only + animal we saw during our outward journey was a fox. On the + other hand we found traces of hares, ptarmigan, and a + couple of lemmings. After we had found a suitable + camping-place, we began to build a snow-house, which, + however, we could not get ready till next day. + + "On the 21st Brusewitz and I went out to view our nearest + surroundings. On a hill north of the lake, where + Potentilla, Carex, and Poa stuck up through the + snow-covering, we saw a large number of traces of the fox, + the hare, and the ptarmigan. We employed the 22nd in + cutting some holes in the ice, which was about one and a + half metres thick, and in setting a net. For I wished to + ascertain what species of Coregonus it is which, according + to Notti's statement, occurs in abundance in this lake. At + the place where the net was set there was something more + than a metre of water under the ice The bottom consisted + of mud. When we cut a hole in the middle of the lake in + order to get deeper water we found that the ice, one and a + half metres thick there, reached to the bottom. + + "Next morning we got in the net eleven Coregoni, of which + the largest were about thirty-five centimetres long. + Although the weather was grey and we could not see very + far, we went the same day to the hill Hotschkeanranga; + partly to determine its height, and partly from its + summit, which is visible for a great distance, to get a + view of the appearance of the surrounding country. After + crossing the river which flows between Nutschoitjin and + Hotchkeanranga, we began to ascend the long slope on whose + summit Hotchkanrakenljeut (Hotchkeanranga's head) rises + with steep sides above the surrounding country. Over the + slope were scattered loose blocks of stone of an eruptive + rock. The crest of "the head" was also closely covered + with loose stones. On the north of wind side these stones + were covered with a hard beaten crust of snow nearly two + feet thick, on the south side most of them were bare. + According to Brusewitz the southern slopes are still + steeper than the northern. South of the hill he saw a + large valley--probably a lake--through which flows the + river which we crossed. + + "As on the outward journey I went with Notti, he advised + me to offer a little food and brandy to the Spirit of the + Lake, _itjaken kamak_, in order to get good net fishing. + On my inquiring what appearance he had, Notti replied + "_uinga lilapen_," "I have never seen him." Besides this + spirit there are in his view others also in streams, in + the earth, and in some mountains. The Chukches also + sacrifice to the sun and moon. On the other hand they do + not appear, as some other races, to pay any sort of + worship to their departed friends. When I gave him a + biscuit and bade him offer it, he made with the heel a + little depression in the snow on Nutschoitjin, crumbled a + little bit of the biscuit in pieces, and threw the crumbs + into the hollow. The rest of the biscuit he gave back, + declaring that _kamak_ did not require more, and that we + should now have more fish in the net than the first time. + Notti said also that the Chukches are wont to sacrifice + something for every catch. Thus have probably arisen all + the collections of bear and seal skulls and reindeer + horns, which we often saw on the Chukch coast, especially + on eminences. + + "After we had read off the aneroid, we speedily made our + way to the snow-house, because during the interval a + violent storm of drifting snow had arisen, so that we + could not see more than half a score of paces before us. + On the slope below "the head" we had already on our way + thither seen traces of two wild reindeer. Notti said that + there are a few of them on the hill the whole winter. The + greater number, however, draw farther southward, and + approach the coast only during summer. Johnson had wounded + an owl (_Strix nyctea_), which however made its escape. On + the 24th snow fell and drifted during the whole day, so + that we could not go out to shoot. On the 25th we came on + board again. + + "According to the aneroid observations made during the + journey, the highest summit we visited had a height of 197 + metres." + +_Lieutenant Bove's Account of an Excursion to Najtskaj and Tjapka._ + + "On the 19th April, at 4 o'clock A.M. the hunter Johnsen + and I started on a short excursion eastward along the + coast, with a view to pay a visit to the much frequented + fishing station Najtskaj, where our old friends from + Pitlekaj had settled. We had a little sledge which we + ourselves drew, and which was laden with provisions for + three days and some meteorological and hydrographical + instruments. + + "At 6 o'clock A.M. we reached Rirajtinop, where we found + Notti, a serviceable, talented, and agreeable youth. The + village Rirajtinop, which formerly consisted of a great + many tents, now had only one tent, Notti's, and it was + poor enough. It gave the inhabitants only a slight + protection against wind and cold. Among household articles + in the tent I noticed a face-mask of wood, less shapeless + than those which according to Whymper's drawings are found + among the natives along the river Youcon, in the territory + of Alaska, and according to Dr. Simpson among the + West-Eskimo. I learned afterwards that this mask came from + Paek, Behring's Straits, whither it was probably carried + from the opposite American shore. + +[Illustration: THE SLEEPING CHAMBER IN A CHUKCH TENT. +(After a drawing by the seaman Hansson.) ] + + "The village Irgunnuk lies from three to four hundred + metres from Rirajtinop, and consists of five tents, one of + which two days before had been removed from Yinretlen. The + tents are as usual placed on earthy eminences, and have if + possible the entrance a couple of paces from some steep + escarpment, manifestly in order that the door opening may + not be too much obstructed with snow. I reckon the + population of Irgunnuk at forty persons. + + "Off this village the ice is broken up even close to the + land into _torosses_, five to six metres high, which form + a chain which closely follows the shore for a distance of + five to six hundred metres to the eastward. The coast from + Irgunnuk to Najtskaj runs in a straight line, is low, and + only now and then interrupted by small earthy eminences, + which all bear traces of old dwellings. Each of these + heights has its special name: first Uelkantinop, then + Tiumgatti, and lastly Tiungo, two miles west of Najtskaj. + In the neighbourhood of Uelkantinop we were overtaken by a + reindeer-Chukch, who accompanied us to Najtskaj in order + there to purchase fish and seal-blubber. At noon we + reached Najtskaj, where our arrival had been announced by + a native, who, with his dog-team, had driven past us on + the way. Accordingly on our entrance we were surrounded by + the youth of the village, who deafened us with then + unceasing cries for bread (_kauka_), tobacco, _ram_, &c. + After some moments the begging urchins were joined both by + women and full-grown men. We entered a tent, which + belonged to a friend or perhaps relation of Notti. There + we were very well received. In the same tent the + reindeer-Chukch also lodged who had given us his company + on the way. He went into the sleeping chamber, threw + himself down there, took part in the family's evening + meal, all almost without uttering a word to the hostess, + and the next morning he started without having saluted the + host. Hospitality is here of a peculiar kind. It may + perhaps be expressed thus _To-day I eat and sleep in your + tent, to-morrow you eat and sleep in mine_; and + accordingly, as far as I saw, all, both rich and poor, + both those who travelled with large sledges, and those who + walked on foot, were received in the same way. All are + sure to find a corner in the tent-chamber. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH LAMPS. + _a._ Wooden cup to place under the lamp. + _b._ Lamp of burned clay. One-fifth of the natural size. ] + + "The tent-chamber, or _yaranga_, as this part of the tent + is called by the natives, takes up fully a third-part of + the whole tent, and is at the same time work-room, + dining-room, and sleeping chamber. Its form is that of a + parallelepiped; and a moderately large sleeping chamber + has a height of 1.80 metre, a length of 3.50, and a + breadth of 2.20 metres. The walls are formed of reindeer + skin with the hair inwards, which are supported by a + framework of posts and cross-bars. The floor consists of a + layer of grass undermost, on which a walrus skin is + spread. The grass and the skin do not form a very soft + bed, yet one on which even a tried European wanderer may + find rest. The interior of the sleeping-chamber is lighted + and warmed by lamps, whose number varies according to the + size of the room. A moderately large chamber has three + lamps, the largest right opposite the entrance, the two + others on the cross walls. The lamps are often made of a + sort of stone, which is called by the natives _ukulschi_. + They have the form of a large ladle. The fuel consists of + train-oil, and moss is used for the wick. These lamps + besides require constant attention, because half-an-hour's + neglect is sufficient to make them smoke or go out. The + flame is at one corner of the lamp, whose moss wick is + trimmed with a piece of wood of the shape shown in the + drawing. The lamp rests on a foot, and it in its turn in a + basin. In this way every drop of oil that may be possibly + spilled is collected. If there is anything that this + people ought to save, it is certainly oil, for this + signifies to them both light and heat. In the roof of the + bedchamber some bars are fixed over the lamps on which + clothes and shoes are hung to dry. The lamps are kept + alight the whole day, during night they are commonly + extinguished, as otherwise they would require continual + attention. Some clothes and fishing implements, two or + three reindeer skins to rest upon--these are the whole + furniture of a Chukch tent. + +[Illustration: SECTION OF A CHUKCH LAMP. (After a drawing by G. Bove.) + _a._ The oil. + _b._ The wick. + _c._ The foot. + _d._ The basin under it. + _e._ Stick for trimming the wick. ] + + "Every tent is besides provided with some drums (_yarar_). + These are made of a wooden ring, about seventy centimetres + in diameter, on which is stretched a skin of seal or + walrus gut. The drum is beaten with a light stick of + whalebone. The sound thus produced is melancholy, and is + so in a yet higher degree when it is accompanied by the + natives' monotonous, commonly rhythmical songs, which + appear to me to have a strong resemblance to those we hear + in Japan and China. A still greater resemblance I thought + I observed in the dances of these peoples. Notti is a + splendid _yarar_-player. After some pressing he played + several of their songs with a feeling for which I had not + given him credit. The auditors were numerous, and by their + smiles and merry eyes one could see that they were + transported by the sounds which Notti knew how to call + from the drum. Notti was also listened to in deep silence, + with an admiration like that with which in a large room we + listen to a distinguished pianist. I saw in the tent no + other musical instrument than that just mentioned. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH SHAMAN DRUM. One eighth the natural size. ] + + "The day we arrived at Najtskaj we employed in viewing the + neighbourhood of the village. We accordingly ascended a + hill about thirty metres high to the south of the village + in order to get a clear idea of the region. From the + summit of the hill we had a view of the two lagoons west + and east of Najtskaj. The western appeared, with the + exception of some earthy heights, to embrace the whole + stretch of coast between Najtskaj, the hill at Yinretlen, + and the mountains which are visible in the south from the + Observatory. The lagoon east of Najtskaj is separated from + the sea by a high rampart of sand, and extends about + thirty kilometres into the interior, to the foot of the + chain of hills which runs along there. To the eastward the + lagoon extends along the coast to the neighbourhood of + Serdze Kamen. This cape was clearly seen and, according to + an estimate which I do not think was far from the truth, + was situated at a distance of from twenty-five to twenty-six + kilometres from Najtskaj. It sinks terracewise towards the + sea, and its sides are covered with stone pillars, like + those we saw in the neighbourhood of Cape Great Baranoff. + Serdze Kamen to the south is connected with mountain heights + which are the higher the farther they are from the sea. + Some of these have a conical form, others are table-shaped, + reminding us of the Ambas of Abyssinia. Ten or twelve miles + into the interior they appear to reach a height of + six hundred to nine hundred metres. + + "The fishing in the eastern lagoon takes place mainly in + the neighbourhood of Najtskaj, at a distance of about five + kilometres from the village. Hooks are exclusively used, + and no nets or other fishing implements. In a few minutes + I saw twenty cod (_urokadlin_) caught, and about as many + small fish, called by the natives _nukionukio_. For the + fishing the natives make a hole in the ice, a decimetre in + diameter. Round the hole they build, as a protection + against wind and drifting snow, a snow wall eighty + centimetres high, forming a circle with an inner diameter + of a metre and a half. The fish-hooks are of iron and are + not barbed. The line is about five metres long, and is + fixed to a rod nearly a metre in length. At the end of the + angling line hangs a weight of bone, and beside it the + hook. It is generally the women who fish, yet there are + generally two or three men about to open the holes, build + the walls, and keep the fishing-places clear. All the + holes with their shelter-walls lie in an arc, about a + kilometre in length, whose convex side is turned to the + east. The ice in the lagoon was 1.7 metre thick, the water + 3.2 metres deep, and the thickness of snow on the ice 0.3 + metre. + +[Illustration: THE COAST BETWEEN PADLJONNA AND ENJURMI. +To the west Idlidlja Island, in the background the village Tjapka, +to the right the great lagoon. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + + "The day after our arrival at Najtskaj we visited the + village Tjapka, which lies at a distance of six + kilometres. This village contains thirteen tents, some of + which are more roomy and better built than any Chukch tent + I have previously seen. We lodged in a tent which belonged + to Erere, a friendly man with a face that was always + cheerful. His sleeping-chamber was so large that it could + hold more than one family. We found the inmates there + completely naked, Erere's wife, Kedlanga, not excepted. + Kedlanga was well formed, her bosom full, her stomach + somewhat projecting, the thighs poor, the legs slender, + the feet small. The men appeared to have a greater + disposition to stoutness than the women. Some of the + children had disproportionately large stomachs. Both men + and women wore copper rings on the legs, the wrists, and + the upper arms. On festivals they decorate themselves with + iron rings, with which some reminiscence appears to be + connected, to judge by the fact that they will not part + with them. + + "Erere's family was very numerous, according to the + prevailing state of matters here. He had five children, + whose names, according to their age, were, Hatanga, + Etughi, Vedlat, Uai, and Umonga. In all the tents which I + visited I have inquired the number of children. Only two + or three wives had more than three; the average may be + estimated at two. + +[Illustration: BRACELET OF COPPER. Half the natural size. ] + + "The children are from their tenderest years set apart for + each other, thus Etughi, Erere's second son, who was + little more than eight, was set apart for Keipteka, a girl + of six or seven. Etughi and Keipteka slept under the same + roof, though apart. "When they grow bigger," said Erere to + me, "then sleeping-places will be put alongside each + other". At what age this takes place I have not + ascertained, but I suppose that it is very early, as is + common with all Oriental races. + + "Right opposite Tjapka lies a small island, by the natives + called Idlidlja, which is about 800 metres in + circumference. Its shores rise perpendicularly on all + sides except that which is opposite Tjapka, in which + direction it sinks with a steep slope. On the north end of + it we found three or four whales' bones and some pieces of + driftwood, but nothing to indicate that there had been any + Onkilon dwellings there. The island swarmed with hares, + which the inhabitants of Tjapka hunt with the bow. For + this hunting they are accustomed to build circular walls + of snow, pierced with loopholes, through which they shoot + the unsuspecting animals. + + "Regarding life in the tent I have still the following + notes. The most troublesome work is given to the older + women. They rise early to light and attend to the lamps, + yoke the dogs, and go fishing. The young women, on the + other hand, sleep far into the day. The housewives return + at noon, then work is then finished, if we do not consider + as work the constant motion of the tongue in talk and + gossip. The younger people have it assigned to them to sew + clothes, arrange the fishing-lines and nets, prepare + skins, &c. Sewing-thread is made from the back sinews of + the reindeer, which they procure by barter from the + reindeer-Chukches, giving for them fish and seal-blubber. + +[Illustration: THE NORTH END OF IDLIDLJA ISLAND. (After a drawing by +O. Nordquist.) ] + + "One cannot, without having seen it, form any idea of the + large quantity of food they can consume. One evening I saw + eight persons, including one child, eat about 30 lbs. of + food. The bill of fare was: 1, raw fish; 2, soup; 3, + boiled fish; 4, seal-blubber; 5, seal-flesh. The raw fish + commonly consists of frozen cod. The soup is made partly + of vegetables, partly of seal-blood; I saw both kinds. + Vegetable soup was prepared by boiling equal quantities of + water and vegetables, till the mixture formed a thick pap. + The blood soup is cooked by boiling the blood together + with water, fish, and fat. They are very fond of this + soup. The seal-blubber they eat by stuffing into the mouth + the piece which has been served to them, and then cutting + a suitable mouthful with the knife, which they bring close + to the lips. In the same way they do with the flesh. + + "With the exception of the old women's gossip the greatest + quietness prevails in the sleeping-chamber. It is not + uncommon for men to visit each other. Thus the first night + we spent at Najtskaj the tent where we lodged was full of + people, but without the least disturbance arising. If one + had anything to say he talked in quite a low tone, as if + he were shy. He was listened to attentively, without any + interruption. First when he had finished another began. + + "Affection between spouses and parents and children is + particularly strong. I have seen fathers kiss and caress + their children before they went to rest, and what I found + most remarkable was that the children never abused this + tender treatment. Whatever one gave them, it was their + first thought to divide it with their parents. In this + respect and in many others they were far in advance of a + large number of European children." + +_Lieutenant Bove's Report on an Excursion along with Dr. Almquist to +the Interior of the Chukch Peninsula, from the 13th to the 17th +June, 1879._ + + "We started from the vessel on the morning of the 13th June + with a view to penetrate as far as possible into the + interior of the Chukch peninsula. For the journey we had + hired, for a liberal payment, two sledges drawn by dogs + from Rotschitlen, a Chukch at Irgunnuk. The dogs and + sledges surpassed our expectation. In fourteen hours we + traversed a distance of nearly forty minutes, including + bends, which corresponds to a speed of three, perhaps four, + English miles an hour, if we deduct the rests which were + caused by the objects of the journey--scientific + researches. This speed strikes me as not inconsiderable, + if we consider the weight which the dogs must draw, and + the badness and unevenness of the way. For the ground was + undulating, like a sea agitated by a storm. But pleased as + we were with our sledges and dogs, we were as dissatisfied + with Rotschitlen, a faint-hearted youth, without activity + or experience. With another driver we might have been able + in a few days to penetrate as far as the bottom of + Kolyutschin Bay, which differs greatly in its form, from + that which Russian, English, and German maps give to it. + It is not improbable that it is almost connected by lakes, + lagoons, and rivers with St. Lawrence Bay or Metschigme + Bay, whose inner parts are not yet investigated. + + "After we left the lagoons at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen, the + coast began gradually to rise by escarpments, each about + five metres in height. The plains between the escarpments + are full of lagoons or marshes. Such a terrain continued + until, about five hours' way from the vessel, we came to a + height of twenty-seven metres. From this point the + terrace-formations cease, and the terrain then consists of + a large number of ranges of heights, intersected by + rivulets, which during the snow-melting season must be very + much flooded. Seven or eight hours' way from the vessel we + met with such a rivulet, which farther to the S.S.E. unites + with another which runs between two rocky escarpments + twenty metres high. On one of these we pitched our tent, in + order to draw and examine some hills which were already + divested of the winter dress they had worn for nine long + months. On the top of one of the hills we found marks of + two recently-struck tents, which probably belonged to a + reindeer Chukch, who had now settled halfway between + Pitlekaj and Table Mount upon a chain of heights which + appears to separate the Irgunnuk lagoon from the rocky + eastern shore of Kolyutschin Bay. At our resting place we + found a large number of reindeer horns and a heap of broken + bones. + + "After resuming our journey we came in a short time to the + foot of Table Mount, whose height I reckoned at 180 meters. + It slopes gently to the west and south (about 10 deg.), + but more steeply to the east and north (about 15 deg.). + The animal world there showed great activity. In less than + an hour we saw more than a dozen foxes that ran up and down + the hills and circled round us, as if they ran with a line. + Fortunately for them they kept at a respectful distance from + our doctor's sure gun. + + "On the other side of Table Mount the ground sinks + regularly towards Kolyutschin Bay. Here for a while we + sought in vain for Yettugin's tent, in which we intended to + pass the night, and which had been fixed upon as the + starting-point of future excursions, till at last reindeer + traces and afterwards the sight of some of these friendly + animals brought us to the right way, so that about 9 + o'clock P.M. we got sight of the longed-for dwelling in the + middle of a snow-desert. At the word _yaranga_ (tent) the + dogs pointed their ears, uttered a bark of joy, and ran at + full speed towards the goal. We arrived at 10.30 P.M. In + the tent we were hospitably received by its mistress, who + immediately made the necessary preparations for our + obtaining food and rest. Yettugin himself was not at home, + but he soon returned with a sledge drawn by reindeer. These + animals had scarcely been unharnessed when they ran back to + the herd, which according to Yettugin's statement was six + kilometres east of the tent. + + "I have never seen a family so afflicted with ailments as + Yettugin's. The sexagenarian father united in himself + almost all the bodily ailments which could fall to the lot + of a mortal. He was blind, leprous (?), and had no use of + the left hand, the right side of the face, and probably of + the legs. His body was nearly everywhere covered with the + scars of old sores from four to five centimetres in + diameter. As Dr. Almquist and I were compelled to pass the + night in the same confined sleeping-chamber with him, it + was therefore not to be wondered at that we drew ourselves + as much as possible into our corner. The sleeping-chamber + or inner tent of a reindeer-Chukch is besides much more + habitable than that of a coast-Chukch, the air, if not + exactly pure, may at least be breathed, and the thick layer + of reindeer skins which covers the tent floor may well + compare in softness with our beds on board. Yettugin, his + wife Tengaech, and his brother Keuto, slept out of doors in + order to give us more room and not to disturb us when + rising. Keuto had inherited no small portion of his + father's calamity. He was deaf, half idiotic, and on his + body there were already traces of such spots as on the old + man's. Keuto was however an obliging youth, who during our + stay in the tent did all that he could to be of use to us, + and constantly wandered about to get buds and plants for + us. He was a skilful archer; I saw him at a distance of + twenty or twenty-five paces kill a small bird with a blunt + arrow, and when I placed myself as a target he hit me right + in the middle of the breast at a distance of perhaps thirty + metres. + + "The 14th was employed by me in astronomical and geodetical + observations, and by Dr. Almquist in excursions in the + neighbourhood of Yettugin's tent in order to investigate + the fauna and flora of the neighbourhood. About 10 o'clock + P.M. he returned, quite exhausted after eight hours' + walking in deep water-drenched snow under a perceptible + solar heat. The results of the excursion were in all + respects exceedingly good, not only in consequence of a + number of _finds_ in natural history, but also through the + discovery that the shore of Kolyutschin Bay runs + three-quarters of a mile south-west of Yettugin's tent, + which was situated in 66 deg. 42' 4" North Lat, and 186 deg. + 24' 0" Long, east from Greenwich. Dr. Almquist had + walked four or five miles along the eastern shore of the + bay, which at most places is perpendicular with a height of + fifteen metres. In consequence of this discovery we + determined to continue our hydrographical observations as + far as the bottom of the bay, which, according to + Yettugin's account, was two days' march from the tent. + But we could not carry out our plan in consequence of our + guide's laziness, for he declared that on no conditions + would he accompany us farther. Neither entreaties nor + threats availed to disturb this his resolution. I + endeavoured myself to drive the sledges, but the dogs would + not move out of the spot, though, following Rotschitlen's + system, I thrashed them very soundly. + + "The place where Yettugin's tent was pitched offered us a + view of an extensive snow-plain, which was enclosed on all + sides by high hills. In the north and north-east Table + Mount and the Tenen hill keep off the north winds, and to + the south the encampment is protected by a long and high + mountain chain from the winds coming from that quarter. I + calculated the height of some of the mountains at from 1200 + to 1500 metres, and their azure-blue colour furrowed by + dark lines appeals to me to indicate the presence of ice on + the slopes. One of the summits of this mountain chain was + easily recognisable. It was a truncated cone, perhaps 1500 + metres high. Kolyutschin Bay lies between these mountains + and Yettugin's tent. Its western shore also appears to rise + perpendicularly from the sea, and it is higher than the + eastern. The bay, which appears to be much larger than it + is represented on the maps, was covered with level ice, + only here and there a piece of ice covered with snow was + seen sticking up. + + "As we were forced to desist from visiting the interior of + Kolyutschin Bay, we determined to go to the ground where + Yettugin's reindeer pastured. We therefore left the tent on + the evening of the 15th and travelled E.N.E. The warmth, + which had now commenced, began to make travelling over snow + fields difficult, the dogs sank to the stomach, and not + unfrequently we had to alight in order to help the poor + animals to climb the hills we were obliged to ascend. + Scarcely however had they come to the reindeer tracks + before even the most exhausted of them rushed along at the + top of their speed, which might be pleasant enough uphill, + but when they were coming down it was very dangerous, + because the slope nearly always ends with a steep + escarpment. We came once, without observing it, to the edge + of such a precipice, and if we had not succeeded in time in + slackening our speed a nice confused mass of men, dogs, + and sledges would have tumbled over it. In order to excite + their draught animals the Chukches avail themselves of + their dogs' inclination to run after the reindeer, and + during their journeys they endeavour to spur them on yet + more by now and then imitating the reindeer's cry. After + two or three hours travelling we fell in with the first + reindeer, and then by degrees with more and more, until + finally about 11 o'clock P.M. we came to a numerous herd, + tended by Yettugin. I applied to him, asking him to barter + a reindeer in good condition for a gun which I had brought + along with me. After various evasions Yettugin at length + promised to give us next day the reindeer for the gun. He + would not however himself, or with his own knife, kill the + reindeer, on which account I requested Dr. Almquist to give + it the _coup de grace_. + + "In consequence of the soft state of the snow we were + obliged to defer the commencement of our return journey to + the evening of the 16th. We now travelled over the chain of + hills which unites Table Mount with Tenen, and descended + their northern steep slope towards an extensive plain, + studded for the most part with bogs and marshes. The 17th + came in with mist and considerable warmth. The mist limited + the circle of vision to a distance of some few metres, and + the high temperature in a short time destroyed the crust + which had been formed in the course of the preceding night + on the surface of the snow, and melted the layers of snow + which still covered the northern slopes of these two hills. + The southern slopes on the other hand were almost quite + bare, and the valleys began to be filled with water. Four + or five days as warm as these and I believe there scarcely + would be any snow remaining round Kolyutschin Bay. The + illusions caused by the white fog illuminated by the + sunlight were very astonishing. Every small spot of ground + appeared as an extensive snow-free field, every tuft of + grass as a bush, and a fox in our immediate neighbourhood + was for a moment taken for a gigantic bear. Besides, during + such a fog the action of the sunlight on the eyes was + exceedingly painful even in the case of those who carried + preservers. During the return Rotschitlen lost his way in + consequence of the numerous different tracks. Fortunately I + had observed how we travelled, and could with the help of + the compass pilot our two small craft to a good haven. On + the 17th of June at 1.30 P.M. we were again in good + condition on board the _Vega_." + +In the society on board the prospects of an alteration in the +constant north winds, the perpetual snow-storms and the unceasing +cold, and the hope of a speedy release from the fetters of the ice, +were naturally constantly recurring topics of conversation. During +this time many lively word-battles were fought between the weather +prophets in the gunroom, and many bets made in jest between the +optimists and pessimists. The former won a great victory, when at +noon on the 8th February the temperature lose to + 0.1 deg. C., +but with the exception of this success fortune always went against +them. The north wind, the drifting snow and the cold, would never +cease. A blue water-sky indeed was often visible at the horizon to +the north and north-east, but the "clearing" first reached our +vessel a couple of hours before we left our winter haven for ever, +and up to the 15th June the thickness of the ice was almost +undiminished (1-1/2 metre) The sun rose higher and higher, but +without forming any crust upon the snow, although upon the black +hull of the _Vega_, perhaps with the help of the heat in the +interior, it had by the 14th March melted so much snow that small +icicles were formed at the gunwale. It was one of the many deceptive +prognostications of spring which were hailed with delight. However, +immediately after severe cold recommenced and continued during the +whole of the month of April, during which the temperature of the an +never rose above -4.6 deg., the mean temperature being -18.9 deg.. + +May began with a temperature of -20.1 deg.. On the 3rd the +thermometer showed -26.8 deg., and in the "flower-month" we had +only for a few hours mild weather with an air temperature +1.8 deg.. +Even the beginning of June was very cold, on the 3rd we +had -14.3 deg., with a mean temperature for the twenty-four hours +of -9.4 deg.. Still on the 13th the thermometer at midnight showed +-8.0 deg., but the same day at noon with a gentle southerly wind a +sudden change took place, and after that date it was only +exceptionally that the thermometer in the open air sank below the +freezing-point. The melting and evaporation of snow now began, and +went on so rapidly that the land in the end of the month was almost +free of snow. + +Under what circumstances this took place is shown by the following +abstract of the observations of temperature at Pitlekaj from the +13th June to the 18th July, 1879:-- + + Max Min Mean Max Min Mean + deg. deg. deg. deg. deg. deg. +June 13 +3.6 -8.0 -1.95 July 1 +0.8 -0.6 +0.07 + 14 +2.6 +0.2 +1.47 2 +1.1 -1.0 +0.40 + 15 +3.1 +1.7 +2.28 3 +5.0 +1.0 +2.28 + 16 +1.6 -0.6 +0.90 4 +3.8 +1.4 +2.68 + 17 +3.0 +0.2 +1.22 5 +5.2 +2.0 +3.60 + 18 +2.4 -0.6 +1.23 6 +8.6 +1.0 +2.28 + 19 +3.6 +1.4 +2.43 7 +5.0 +1.4 +2.68 + 20 +3.5 +1.7 +2.50 8 +8.6 +0.6 +4.82 + 21 +2.6 +1.5 +2.07 9 +1.8 +0.4 +0.97 + 22 +3.0 +1.5 +2.28 10 +1.4 +0.5 +0.90 + 23 +4.1 +1.8 +3.00 11 +1.4 +0.6 +1.00 + 24 +6.8 +0.9 +3.18 12 +9.0 +0.5 +4.73 + 25 +4.4 +0.4 +2.30 13 +6.5 +3.7 +5.03 + 26 +3.8 +0.6 +1.77 14 +5.4 +1.8 +3.68 + 27 +1.4 +0.7 +1.02 15 +1.6 +0.6 +1.13 + 28 +2.1 +0.2 +0.92 16 +3.0 +0.6 +1.52 + 29 +0.9 -1.0 +0.12 17 +11.5 +8.8 +7.80 + 30 +1.0 -1.8 -0.27 18 +9.2 +6.2 +7.52 + + +The figures in the maximum column, it will be seen, are by no means +very high. That the enormous covering of snow, which the north winds +had heaped on the beach, could disappear so rapidly notwithstanding +this low temperature probably depends on this, that a large portion +of the heat which the solar rays bring with them acts directly in +melting the snow without sun-warmed air being used as an +intermediate agent or heat-carrier, partly also on the circumstance +that the winds prevailing in spring come from the sea to the +southward, and before they reach the north coast pass over +considerable mountain heights in the interior of the country. They +have therefore the nature of _foehn_ winds, that is to say, the whole +mass of air, which the wind carries with it, is heated, and its +relative humidity is slight, because a large portion of the water +which it originally contained has been condensed in passing over the +mountain heights. Accordingly when the dry _foehn_ winds prevail, a +considerable evaporation of the snow takes place. The slight content +of watery vapour in the atmosphere diminishes its power of absorbing +the solar heat, and instead increases that portion of it which is +found remaining when the sun's rays penetrate to the snowdrifts, and +there conduce, not to raise the temperature, but to convert the snow +into water. [261] + + +The aurora is, as is well-known, a phenomenon at the same time +cosmic and terrestrial, which on the one hand is confined within the +atmosphere of our globe and stands in close connection with +terrestrial magnetism, and on the other side is dependent on certain +changes in the envelope of the sun, the nature of which is as yet +little known, and which are indicated by the formation of spots on +the sun; the distinguished Dutch physicist, VON BAUMHAUER, has even +placed the occurrence of the aurora in connection with cosmic +substances which fall in the form of dust from the interstellar +spaces to the surface of the earth. Thus splendid natural phenomenon +besides plays, though unjustifiably, a great _role_ in imaginative +sketches of winter life in the high north, and it is in the popular +idea so connected with the ice and snow of the Polar lands, that +most of the readers of sketches of Arctic travel would certainly +consider it an indefensible omission if the author did not give an +account of the aurora as seen from his winter station. The +scientific man indeed knows that this neglect has, in most cases, +been occasioned by the great infrequency of the strongly luminous +aurora just in the Franklin archipelago on the north coast of +America, where most of the Arctic winterings of this century have +taken place, but scarcely any journey of exploration has at all +events been undertaken to the uninhabited regions of the high north, +which has not in its working plan included the collection of new +contributions towards dealing up the true nature of the aurora and +its position in the heavens. But the scientific results have seldom +corresponded to the expectations which had been entertained. Of +purely Arctic expeditions, so far as I know, only two, the +Austrian-Hungarian to Franz Josef Land (1872-74) and the Swedish to +Mussel Bay (1872-73), have returned with full and instructive lists +of auroras[262] Ross, PARRY, KANE, McCLINTOCK, HAYES, NARES, and +others, have on the other hand only had opportunities of registering +single auroras; the phenomenon in the case of their winterings has +not formed any distinctive trait of the Polar winter night. It was +the less to be expected that the _Vega_ expedition would form an +exception in this respect, as its voyage happened during one of the +years of which we knew beforehand that it would be a minimum aurora +year. It was just this circumstance, however, which permitted me to +study, in a region admirably suited for the purpose, a portion of +this natural phenomenon under uncommonly favourable circumstances. +For the luminous arcs, which even in Scandinavia generally form +starting-points for the radiant auroras, have here exhibited +themselves undreamed by the more splendid forms of the aurora I have +thus, undisturbed by subsidiary phenomena, been able to devote +myself to the collection of contributions towards the ascertaining +of the position of these luminous arcs, and I believe that I have in +this way come to some very remarkable conclusions, which have been +developed in detail in a separate paper printed in _The Scientific +Work of the Vega Expedition_ (Part I. p. 400). Here space permits me +only to make the following statement. + +The appearance of the aurora at Behring's Straits in 1878-79 is shown in +the accompanying woodcuts. We never saw here the magnificent bands or +draperies of rays which we are so accustomed to in Scandinavia, but only +halo-like luminous arcs, which hour after hour, day after day, were +unaltered in position. When the sky was not clouded over and the faint +light of the aurora was not dimmed by the rays of the sun or the full +moon, these arcs commonly began to show themselves between eight and +nine o'clock P.M., and were then seen without interruption during +midwinter till six, and farther on in the year to three o'clock in +the morning. It follows from this that the aurora even during a minimum +year is a permanent natural phenomenon. The nearly unalterable position +of the arcs has further rendered possible a number of measurements of +its height, extent, and position from which I believe I may draw the +following inferences that our globe even during a minimum aurora year is +adorned with an almost constant, single, double, or multiple luminous +crown, whose inner edge is situated at a height of about 200 kilometres +or 0.03 radius of the earth above its surface, whose centre, "the +aurora-pole," lies somewhat under the earth's surface, a little north of +the magnetic-pole, and which, with a diameter of 2,000 kilometres or 0.3 +radius of the earth, extends in a plane perpendicular to the radius of +the earth, which touches the centre of the circle. + +[Illustration: THE COMMON AURORA ARC AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER +QUARTERS. ] + +[Illustration: AURORA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTERER QUARTERS, 3RD MARCH +1879, AT 9 P.M. ] + +[Illustration: DOUBLE AURORA ARCS SEEN 20TH MARCH 1879, +AT 9.30 P.M. ] + +[Illustration: ELLIPTIC AURORA SEEN 21ST MARCH, 1879, AT 2.15 A.M. ] + +[Illustration: ELLIPTIC AURORA SEEN 21ST MARCH, 1879, AT 3 A.M. ] + +I have named this luminous crown _the aurora glory_ on account of +its form and its resemblance to the crown of rays round the head of +a saint. It stands in the same relation to the ray and drapery +auroras of Scandinavia as the trade and monsoon winds in the south +to the irregular winds and storms of the north. The light of the +crown itself is never distributed into rays, but resembles the light +which passes through obscured glass. When the aurora is stronger, +the extent of the light-crown is altered double or multiple arcs are +seen, generally lying in about the same plane and with a common +centre, and rays are cast between the different arcs. Arcs are +seldom seen which lie irregularly to or cross each other. + +The area in which the common arc is visible is bounded by two circles +drawn upon the earth's surface, with the aurora-pole for a centre and +radii of 8 deg. and 28 deg. measured on the circumference of the globe. It +touches only to a limited extent countries inhabited by races of +European origin (the northernmost part of Scandinavia, Iceland, Danish +Greenland), and even in the middle of this area there is a belt passing +over middle Greenland, South Spitzbergen, and Franz Josef Land, where +_the common arc_ forms only a faint, very widely extended, luminous veil +in the zenith, which perhaps is only perceptible by the winter darkness +being there considerably diminished. This belt divides the regions where +these luminous arcs are seen principally to the south from those in +which they mainly appear on the northern horizon. In the area next the +aurora-pole only the smaller, in middle Scandinavia only the larger, +more irregularly formed luminous crowns are seen. But in the latter +region, as in southern British America, aurora storms and ray and +drapery auroras are instead common, and these appear to be nearer the +surface of the earth than the arc aurora. Most of the Polar expeditions +have wintered so near the aurora-pole that _the common aurora arc_ there +lay under or quite near the horizon, and as the ray aurora appears to +occur seldom within this circle, the reason is easily explained why the +winter night was so seldom illuminated by the aurora at the winter +quarters of these expeditions, and why the description of this +phenomenon plays so small a part in their sketches of travel. + +[Illustration: SONG BIRDS IN THE RIGGING OF THE "VEGA." May 1879. ] + + +Long before the ground became bare and mild weather commenced, +migratory birds began to arrive, first the snow-bunting on the 23rd +April, then large flocks of geese, eiders, long-tailed ducks, +gulls, and several kinds of waders and song-birds. First among the +latter was the little elegant _Sylvia Ewersmanni_, which in the +middle of June settled in great flocks on the only dark spot which +was yet to be seen in the quarter--the black deck of the _Vega_. +All were evidently much exhausted, and the first the poor things did +was to look out convenient sleeping places, of which there is +abundance in the rigging of a vessel when small birds are concerned. +I need scarcely add that our new guests, the forerunners of spring, +were disturbed on board as little as possible. + +We now began industriously to collect material for a knowledge of +the avi- and mammal-fauna of the region. The collections, when this +is being written, are not yet worked out, and I can therefore only +make the following statement on this point: + +From the acquaintance I had made during my own preceding journeys and +the study of others', with the bird-world of the high north, I had got +the erroneous idea that about the same species of birds are to be met +with everywhere in the Polar lands of Europe, Asia, and America. +Experience gained during the expedition of the _Vega_ shows that this is +by no means the case, but that the north-eastern promontory of Asia, the +Chukch peninsula, forms in this respect a complete exception. Birds +occur here in much fewer numbers, but with a very much greater variety +of types than on Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, and Greenland, in +consequence of which the bird-world on the Chukch peninsula has in its +entirety a character differing wholly from that of the Atlantic Polar +lands. We indeed meet here with types closely allied to the glaucous +gull (_Larus glaucus_, Bruenn), the ivory gull (_L. eburneus_, Gmel.), +the kittiwake (_L. tridactylus_, L.), the long-tailed duck (_Harelda +glacialis_, L.), the king duck (_Somateria spectabilis_, L.),[263] the +phalarope (_Phalaropus fulicarius_, Bonap.), the purple sandpiper +(_Tringa maritima_, Bruenn.), &c., of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, but +along with these are found here many peculiar species, for instance the +American eider (_Somateria V-nigrum_, Gray), a swanlike goose, wholly +white with black wing points (_Anser hyperboreus_, Pall.), a +greyish-brown goose with bushy yellowish-white feather-covering on the +head (_Anser pictus_, Pall), a species of Fuligula, elegantly coloured +on the head in velvet-black, white, and green, (_Fuligula Stelleri_, +Pall), the beautifully marked, scarce _Larus Rossii_, Richards, of +which Dr. Almquist on the 1st July, 1879, shot a specimen from the +vessel, a little brown sandpiper with a spoonlike widened bill-point +(_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, L.) and various song-birds not found in +Sweden, &c. Besides, a number of the Scandinavian types living here +also, according to Lieutenant Nordquist, are distinguished by less +considerable differences in colour-marking and size. The singular +spoon-billed sandpiper was at one time in spring so common that it was +twice served at the gunroom table, for which after our return home we +had to endure severe reproaches from animal collectors. This bird is +found only in some few museums. It was first described by LINNAEUS in +_Museum Adolphi Friderici, Tomi secundi predromus_, Holmiae 1764, and +then by C.P. THUNBERG in the _Transactions_ of the Swedish Academy of +Sciences for 1816 (p. 194), where it is stated that the homeland of this +bird is tropical America. It has since been caught a few times in +south-eastern Asia. Probably, like _Sylvia Ewersmanni_, it passes the +winter in the Philippine group of islands, but in summer visits the high +north. Like several other birds which appeared in spring with the first +bare spots it disappeared in July. Perhaps it retired to the interior to +breed in the bush, or, which is more probable, went farther north to the +islands or continents not yet discovered by Europeans, which in all +probability connect Wrangel Land with the Franklin Archipelago. + +[Illustration: SPOON BILLED SANDPIPER FROM CHURCH LAND. +_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, L. At the side the bird's bill seen from +above, of the natural size. ] + +The higher animal forms which, along with the Polar traveller, dare +to brave the cold and darkness of the Arctic night, exert on him a +peculiar attraction. Regarding these, Lieutenant Nordquist has given +me the following notes:-- + + "The mammal most common in winter on the north coast of the + Chukch peninsula is the _hare_. It differs from the fell + hare (_Lepus borealis_, Lillj.) by its larger size, and by + the bones of its nose not tapering so rapidly. It is + generally met with in flocks of five or six on the hills in + the neighbourhood of the tents, which are covered only with + a thin layer of snow, notwithstanding the large number of + hungry dogs which wander about there. + + "The _Arctic foxes_ (_Vulpes lagopus_, L.) are very + numerous. The common _fox_ (_Vulpes vulgaris_, Gray) + appears also to be common. A red fox, which Lieutenant + Brusewitz shot from the vessel in October, differed + considerably from the common fox, and approached the Arctic + fox. The food of the fox appears in winter to consist of + hares, ptarmigan, and lemmings. I have twice seen holes in + the snow about a metre deep and at the mouth not more than + thirty centimetres wide, which the Chukches said were + excavated by foxes searching for lemmings. + + "Of the _lemming_ I have seen three varieties, viz. _Myodes + obensis, M. torquatus_, and _Arvicola obscurus_. There is + found here, also, according to the statements of the + Chukches, a little mouse, in all probability a Sorex. + _Myodes torquatus_ were got the first time on the 12th + January, _Myodes obensis_ on the 13th February. Both + species were afterwards frequently brought on board by + Chukches, and during the winter lemmings were seen not + unfrequently running on the snow. _Myodes obensis_ appeared + to be more numerous than the other species. It is singular + that all the nine specimen of _Myodes torquatus_ I obtained + during the winter were males. Differing from both these + species, _Arvicola obscurus_ does not appear to show itself + above the snow during winter. Of the latter I got eight + specimens from the village Tjapka, lying between Yinretlen + and Behring's Straits. I afterwards got another from the + village Irgunnuk, situated five English miles east of + Yinretlen. + +[Illustration: MARMOTS FROM CHUKCH LAND. ] + + "The more uncommon land mammals wintering in these regions + are the _wolf_ and the _wild reindeer_. Footprints of the + latter were seen on the 23nd March, in the mountain region, + fifteen to twenty miles south of Yinretlen. According to + the Chukches' account some few reindeer remain on the hills + along the coast, while the greater number migrate + southwards towards winter. Besides these, two other mammals + live here during winter, though they are only seen during + summer and autumn, because they hibernate the rest of the + time. These are the _land bear_ and the _marmot_ (_Arctomys + sp._). We saw no land bear, but on the 8th October + Lieutenant Hovgaard and I found traces of this animal two + or three English miles from the coast. The Chukches say + that the land bear is not uncommon in summer. The marmot + occurs in large numbers. It was brought on board for the + first time by a Chukch, and the following day I myself saw + it sitting on the top of a little hill, where it had its + dwelling. + + "Besides the animals enumerated above the natives talked of + another, which is called by them _nennet_, and is said to + live by the banks of rivers. According to their description + it appears to be the common _otter_. As at most places + where the lemming is common the _weasel_ (_Mustela + vulgaris_, Briss.) is also found here. I got from the + Chukches two skins of this animal. Whether the beaver + occurs in the part of Chukch Land which we visited I cannot + say with certainty. It is probable, because the Chukches + informed me that there was found here a weasel which has + the point of the tail black. + + "Only two sea mammals have been seen in this region in the + course of the winter, viz. the _rough_ or _bristled seal_ + and the _Polar bear_. On two occasions traces of the latter + have been observed in the neighbourhood of land. They + appear, however, for the most part to keep by openings in + the ice farther out to sea, where during our stay two of + them were killed by Chukches from the neighbouring + villages. The rough seal is probably the only species that + occurs near the coast during winter. It is caught in great + numbers, and forms, along with fish and various vegetable + substances, the main food of the Chukches. + + "Of land birds there winter in the region only three + species, viz. an _owl_ (_Strix nyctea_, L.), a _raven_ + (_Corvus sp._), and a _ptarmigan_ (_Lagopus subalpina_, + Nilss.); the last-named is the most common. On the 14th + December, during a sledge journey into the country I saw, + about ten or twelve English miles from the coast, two large + coveys of ptarmigan, one of which probably numbered over + fifty. Nearer the coast, on the other hand, there were + found, especially during spring, for the most part only + single birds. The raven is common at the Chukch villages, + and builds its nest in the neighbouring cliffs. The first + egg was got on the 31st May. The mountain owl was seen for + the first time on the 11th March, but, according to the + statements of the Chukches, it is to be met with during the + whole winter. In April and May we also saw some mountain + owls, on the 21st May I saw two. + + "At open places in the sea there are found here in winter, + the Chukches say, two swimming birds, the _loom_ (_Uria + Bruennichii_, Sabine) and the _Black guillemot_ (_Uria + grylle_, L.) Of the former we obtained two specimens for + the first time on the 1st May, of the latter on the 19th of + the same month. Possibly there winter in open places of the + sea besides these birds a species of Mergulus, one of which + came to the winter quarters of the _Vega_ on the 3rd + November, and a Fuligula, a specimen of which was sold to + us on the 9th March by a Chukch, who said he had killed it + at a clearing off the coast." + +After the arrival of the migratory birds hunting excursions began to +form a welcome interruption in our monotonous winter life, and the +produce of the hunting a no less agreeable change from the preserved +provisions. The Chukches besides offered us daily a large number of +different kinds of birds, especially when they observed that we paid +a higher price for many rare kinds of birds, though small and of +little use for food, than for a big, fat goose. The Chukches killed +small birds either by throwing stones, or by shooting them with bow +and arrows, in connection with which it may be observed that most of +them were very poor archers. They also caught them with whalebone +snares set on bare spots on the beach, generally between two +vertebrae of the whale. For pebbles are very scarce, but the bones +of the whale are found, as has been already stated, at most places +in large numbers on the strand-banks where the tents are pitched. In +June we began to get eggs of the gull, eider, long-tailed duck, +goose, and loom, in sufficient number for table use. The supply, +however, was by no means so abundant as during the hatching season +on Greenland, Spitzbergen, or Novaya Zemlya. + + +A little way from the vessel there were formed, in the end of May, +two "leads," a few fathoms in breadth. On the 31st May I sent some +men to dredge at these places. They returned with an abundant yield, +but unfortunately the openings closed again the next day, and when I +and Lieutenant Bove visited the place there was a large, +newly-formed _toross_ thrown up along the edge of the former +channel. Another "lead" was formed some days after, but closed again +through a new disturbance of the position of the ice, a high +ice-rampart, formed of loose blocks, heaped one over another, +indicating the position of the former opening. Even the strongest +vessel would have been crushed in such a channel by the forcing +together of the ice. Of a different sort from both these occasional +leads was an extensive opening, which showed itself a kilometre or +two north of the vessel. It is probable that with few interruptions, +which, however, might have been difficult to pass, it extended as +far as Behring's Straits, where, according to the statements of the +Chukches, several whalers had already made their appearance. Round +the vessel itself, however, the ice still lay fast and unbroken. Nor +did the Chukches appear to expect that it would break up very soon, +to judge by the number of vehicles drawn by dogs or reindeer which +still passed us, both to the east and west. One of these travellers +must here be specially mentioned, as his journey has been talked +about as an expedition sent to our relief. + +[Illustration: STEGOCEPHALUS KESSLERI (STUXB). Natural size. ] + +[Illustration: SABINEA SEPTEMCARINATA (SABINE). Natural size. +EVERTEBRATES FROM THE SEA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. ] + +[Illustration: ACANTHOSTEPHIA MALMGRENI, (GOES). Magnified twice. ] + +[Illustration: OPHIOGLYPHA NODOSA, (LUeTKEN). Magnified twice +EVERTEBRATES FROM THE SEA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. ] + +It was the 19th June. A large number of Chukches travelling past us +as usual came on board, partly to receive the tribute of hospitality +to which they considered themselves entitled, partly to satisfy an +easily understood curiosity and gossip a little about the most +important occurrences of the preceding day. One of them, a +middle-aged man, whom we had not seen before, with a friendly and +self-satisfied bearing, whose face was a mere collection of +wrinkles, and over whose _pesk_ was drawn an old velvet shirt, +presented himself with a certain pretentiousness as the chief NOAH +ELISEJ. Since the mistake with the stately Chepurin, and since even +Menka's supposed slave declared himself to be at least as good as +Menka, we had begun to be rather indifferent to the rank of chief +among the Chukches. Noah Elisej however, notwithstanding he thus +brought forward his pretensions, was received like a common man, at +which he appeared to be a little offended. But our behaviour soon +changed, when Notti, or some other of our daily guests, who had +become quite familiar with our fancies, tastes weaknesses, informed +us that Noah Elisej had with him a large, a very large letter. Old +Noah thus carried a mail, perhaps a European mail. At once he became +in our eyes a man of importance. After being stormed for a time with +questions, he took from a bag which hung from his neck the ordinary +pieces of board fastened together, which here serve as a postbag. +They were found however to contain only a letter of a couple of +lines from a Russian official at Nischm Kolymsk, without any news +from Europe, but informing us that chief Noah Elisej was sent to us +to assist us, if necessary. Noah first patted his stomach to +indicate that he was hungry and wanted food, and hawked and pointed +with his finger at his throat to let us know that a _ram_ would +taste well. He then told us something which we did not then exactly +understand, but which we now have reason to interpret as a statement +that Noah was the leader of an expedition sent by the Siberian +authorities to our relief, and that he was therefore willing in +return for suitable compensation to give us some reindeer I availed +myself of the offer, and purchased three animals for sugar, tea, and +a little tobacco. Noah besides was a friendly and easy-going man, +who, Christian though he was, travelled about with two wives and a +large number of children, who all of course would see the vessel and +get their treat of tobacco, clay pipes, sugar, _ram_, &c. + +[Illustration: NOAH ELISEJ. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) ] + +So much flood water had now begun to collect on the ice, especially +near the land, that it was exceedingly difficult to walk from the +vessel to the shore and back. Many a proposed land excursion was +broken off by somebody, immediately after leaving the vessel, +sinking into some deep hole in the ice and thus getting a cold bath. +Excursions on land however began to be exceedingly interesting to +the botanists and zoologists, and therefore to avoid the +inconveniences mentioned I caused a tent to be pitched by the side +of the large lagoon between Pitlekaj and Yinretlen, and a light boat +to be carried thither. The bottom of the lagoon was still filled +with ice, above which however the water stood so high that the boat +floated in it. The naturalists settled by turns in the tent, and +from it made excursions in different directions, as I hope with the +result that the neighbourhood of Pitlekaj is now the best known +tract on the north of Asia, which after all is not saying much. The +first plant in flower (_Cochlearia fenestrata_, R. Br.) was seen on +the 23rd June.[264] A week after the ground began to grow green and +flowers of different kinds to show themselves in greater and greater +numbers.[265] Some flies were seen on a sunshiny day in May (the 27th) +in motion on the surface of the snow, but it was not until the end +of June that insects began to show themselves in any large numbers, +among them many Harpalids, two large species of Carabus, and a large +Curculionid. The insects occurring here however are not very +numerous either in respect of species or individuals, which is not +strange when we consider that the earth at a limited depth from the +surface is constantly frozen. As even the shallow layer, which thaws +in summer, is hard frozen in winter, all the insects which occur +here must in one or other phase of their development endure being +frozen solid for some time. But it may be remarked with reason with +reference to this, that if life in an organism may so to speak be +suspended for months by freezing stiff without being destroyed, what +is there to prevent this suspension being extended over years, +decades, or centuries? + +The common idea, that all animal life ceases, when the interior +animal heat sinks under the freezing-point of water, is besides not +quite correct. This is proved by the abundant evertebrate life which +is found at the bottom of the Polar Sea, even where the water all +the year round has a temperature of -2 deg. to -2.7 deg. C, and +by the remarkable observation made during the wintering at Mussel +Bay in 1872-73, that small Crustacea can live by millions in +water-drenched snow at a temperature of from -2 deg. to -10.2 deg. C. +On this point I say in my account of the expedition of 1872-73:--[266] + + [Illustration: BEETLES FROM PITLEKAJ. + _a._ _Carabus truncaticollis_ ESCHSCHOLTZ. + (One and a half the natural size.) + _b._ _Alophus sp._ (One find two-thirds the natural size.) ] + + "If during winter one walks along the beach on the snow + which at ebb is dry, but at flood tide is more or less + drenched through by sea-water, there rises at every step + one takes, an exceedingly intense, beautiful, bluish-white + flash of light, which in the spectroscope gives a + one-coloured labrador-blue spectrum. This beautiful flash + of light arises from the snow, before completely dark, when + it is touched. The flash lasts only a few moments after the + snow is left untouched, and is so intense, that it appears + as if a sea of fire would open at every step a man takes. + It produces indeed a peculiar impression on a dark and + stormy winter day (the temperature of the air was sometimes + in the neighbourhood of the freezing-point of mercury) to + walk along in this mixture of snow and flame, which at + every step one takes splashes about in all directions, + shining with a light so intense that one is ready to fear + that his shoes or clothes will take fire." + +[Illustration: PHOSPHORESCENT CRUSTACEAN FROM MUSSEL BAY. +_Metridia armata_, A. Boeck. + 1. A male magnified twelve times. + 2. A foot of the second pair. ] + +On a closer examination it appeared that this light-phenomenon proceeded +from a minute crustacean, which according to the determination of Prof +W. LILLJEBORG belongs to the species _Metridia armata_, A. Boeck, and +whose proper element appears to be snow-sludge drenched with salt water +cooled considerably under 0 deg. C. First when the temperature sinks below +-10 deg. does the power of this small animal to emit light appear to cease. +But as the element in which they live, the surface of the snow nearest +the beach, is in the course of the winter innumerable times cooled +twenty degrees more, it appears improbable that these minute animals +suffer any harm by being exposed to a cold of from -20 deg. to -30 deg., a very +remarkable circumstance, as they certainly do not possess in their +organism any means of raising the internal animal heat in any noteworthy +degree above the temperature of the surrounding medium. + +We did not see these animals at Pitlekaj, but a similar phenomenon, +though on a smaller scale, was observed by Lieut. BELLOT[267] during +a sledge-journey in Polar America. He believed that the light arose +from decaying organic matter. + +[Illustration: REITINACKA. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) ] + +After the Chukches had told us that an exceedingly delicious black +fish was to be found in the fresh-water lagoon at Yinretlen, which +is wholly shut off from the sea and in winter freezes to the bottom, +we made an excursion thither on the 8th July. Our friends at the +encampment were immediately ready to help us, especially the women, +Artanga, and the twelve-year-old, somewhat spoiled _Vega_-favourite +Reitinacka. They ran hither and thither like light-hearted and +playful children, to put the net in order and procure all that was +needed for the fishing. We had carried with us from the vessel a net +nine metres long and one deep. Along its upper border floats were +fixed, to the lower was bound a long pole, to which were fastened +five sticks, by which the pole was sunk to the bottom of the lagoon, +a little way from the shore. Some natives wading in the cold water +then pushed the net towards the land with sticks and the pole, which +glided easily forward over the bottom of the lake, overgrown as it +was with grass. In order to keep the fish from swimming away, the +women waded at the sides of the net with their _pesks_ much tucked +up, screaming and making noise, and now and then standing in order +to indicate by a violent shaking that the water was very cold. The +catch was abundant. We caught by hundreds a sort of fish altogether +new to us, of a type which we should rather have expected to find in +the marshes of the Equatorial regions than up here in the north. The +fish were transported in a dog sledge to the vessel, where part of +them was placed in spirits for the zoologists and the rest fried, +not without a protest from our old cook, who thought that the black +slimy fish looked remarkably nasty and ugly. But the Chukches were +right it was a veritable delicacy, in taste somewhat resembling eel, +but finer and more fleshy. These fish were besides as tough to kill +as eels, for after lying an hour and a half in the air they swam, if +replaced in the water, about as fast as before. How this species of +fish passes the winter is still more enigmatical than the winter +life of the insects. For the lagoon has no outlet and appears to +freeze completely to the bottom. The mass of water which was found +in autumn in the lagoon therefore still lay there as an unmelted +layer of ice not yet broken up, which was covered with a stratum of +flood water several feet deep, by which the neighbouring grassy +plains were inundated. It was in this flood water that the fishing +took place. + +After our return home the Yinretlen fish was examined by Professor F.A. +SMITT in Stockholm, who stated, in an address which he gave on it before +the Swedish Academy of Sciences, that it belongs to a new species to +which Professor Smitt gave the name _Dallia delicatissima_. A closely +allied form occurs in Alaska, and has been named _Dallia pectoralis_, +Bean. These fishes are besides nearly allied to the dog-fish (_Umbra +Krameri_, Fitzing), which is found in the Neusidler and Platten Lakes, +and in grottos and other water-filled subterranean cavities in southern +Europe. It is remarkable that the European species are considered +uneatable, and even regarded with such loathing that the fishermen throw +them away as soon as caught because they consider them poisonous, and +fear that their other fish would be destroyed by contact with it. They +also consider it an affront if one asks them for dog-fish.[268] If we +had known thus we should not now have been able to certify that _Dallia +delicatissima_, SMITT, truly deserves its name. + +[Illustration: DOG FISH FROM THE CHUKCH PENINSULA. _Dallia +delicatissima_, Smitt. Half the natural size. ] + +In the beginning of July the ground became free of snow, and we +could now form an idea of how the region looked in summer in which +we had passed the winter. It was not just attractive. Far away in +the south the land rose with terrace-formed escarpments to a hill, +called by us Table Mount, which indeed was pretty high, but did not +by any steep or bold cliffs yield any contribution to such a +picturesque landscape border as is seldom wanting on the portions of +Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the north part of Novaya Zemlya which I +have visited, south Novaya Zemlya has at least at most places bold +picturesque shore-cliffs. If I except the rocky promontory at +Yinretlen, where a cliff inhabited by ravens rises boldly out of the +sea, and some cliffs situated farther in along the beach of +Kolyutschin Bay, the shore in the immediate neighbourhood of our +wintering station consisted everywhere only of a low beach formed of +coarse sand. Upon this sand, which was always frozen, there ran +parallel with the shore a broad bank or dune, 50 to 100 metres +broad, of fine sand, not water-drenched in summer, and accordingly +not bound together by ice in winter. It is upon this dune that the +Chukches erect their tents. Marks of them are therefore met with +nearly everywhere, and the dune accordingly is everywhere bestrewed +with broken implements or refuse from the chase. Indeed it may be +said without exaggeration that the whole north-eastern coast of the +Siberian Polar Sea is bordered with a belt of sweepings and refuse +of various kinds. + +The coarse sand which underlies the dune is, as has been stated, +continually frozen, excepting the shallow layer which is thawed in +summer. It is here that the "frost formation" of Siberia begins, +that is to say, the continually frozen layer of earth, which, with +certain interruptions, extends from the Polar Sea far to the south, +not only under the treeless _tundra_, but also under splendid +forests and cultivated corn-fields.[269] To speak correctly, however, +the frozen earth begins a little from the shore _under the sea_.[270] +For on the coast the bottom often consists of hard frozen +sand--"rock-hard sand," as the dredgers were accustomed to report. +The frost formation in Siberia thus embraces not only terrestrial +but also marine deposits, together with pure clear layers of ice, +these last being formed in the mouths of rivers or small lakes by +the ice of the river or lake frozen to the bottom being in spring +covered with a layer of mud sufficiently thick to protect the ice +from melting during summer. The frozen sea-bottom again appears to +have been formed by the sand washed down by the rivers having +carried with it when it sank some adhering water from the warm and +almost fresh surface strata. At the sea-bottom the sand surrounded +by _fresh_ water freezing at 0 deg. C thus met a stratum of _salt_ +water whose temperature was two or three degrees under 0 deg., in +consequence of which the grains of sand froze fast together. That it +may go on thus we had a direct proof when in spring we sank from the +_Vega_ the bodies of animals to be skeletonised by the crustacea +that swarmed at the sea-bottom. If the sack, pierced at several +places, in which the skeleton was sunk was first allowed to fill +with the slightly salt water from the surface and then sink rapidly +to the bottom, it was found to be so filled with ice, when it was +taken up a day or two afterwards, that the crustacea were prevented +from getting at the flesh. We had already determined to abandon the +convenient cleansing process, when I succeeded in finding means to +avoid the inconvenience, this was attained by drawing the sack, +while some distance under the surface, violently hither and thither +so that the surface water carried down with it was got rid of. +Frozen clay and ooze do not appear to occur at the bottom of the +Polar Sea. Animal life on the frozen sand was rather scanty, but +algae were met with there though in limited numbers. + +From the shore a plain commences, which is studded with extensive +lagoons and a large number of small lakes. In spring this plain is +so water-drenched and so crossed by deep rapid snow-rivulets, that +it is difficult, often impossible, to traverse it. Immediately after +the disappearance of the snow a large number of birds at all events +had settled there. The Lapp sparrow had chosen a tuft projecting +from the marshy ground on which to place its beautiful roofed +dwelling, the waders in the neighbourhood had laid their eggs in +most cases directly on the water-drenched moss without trace of a +nest, and on tufts completely surrounded by the spring floods we met +with the eggs of the loom, the long-tailed duck, the eider and the +goose. Already during our stay, the water ran away so rapidly, that +places, which one day were covered with a watery mirror, over which +a boat of light draught could be rowed forward, were changed the +next day to wet marshy ground, covered with yellow grass-straws from +the preceding year. At many places the grassy sward had been torn up +by the ice and carried away, leaving openings sharply defined by +right lines in the meadows, resembling a newly worked off place in a +peat moss. + +In summer there must be found here green meadows covered with pretty +tall grass, but at the time of our departure vegetation had not +attained any great development, and the flowers that could be +discovered were few. I presume however that a beautiful Arctic +flower-world grows up here, although, in consequence of the exposure +of the coast-country to the north winds, poor in comparison with the +vegetation in sheltered valleys in the interior of the country. +There are found there too pretty high bushes, but on the other hand +trees are represented at Pitlekaj only by a low species of willow +which creeps along the ground. + +[Illustration: CRAB FROM THE SEA NORTH OF BEHRING'S STRAITS. +_Chionoecetes opilio_ Kroeyer. Half the natural size. ] + +[Illustration: TREE FROM PITLEKAJ. _Salix arctica_, PALLAS. +(Natural size.) ] + +We did not, however, see even this "wood" in full leaf. For in order +that full summer heat may begin it is necessary, even here, that the +ice break up, and this longed-for moment appeared to be yet far +distant. The ice indeed became clear of snow in the beginning of +July, and thus the slush and the flood water were lessened, which +during the preceding weeks had collected on its surface and made it +very difficult to walk from the vessel to land. Now, again pretty +dry-shod and on a hard blue ice-surface, we could make excursions in +the neighbourhood of the vessel. We had however to be cautious. The +former cracks had in many places been widened to greater or smaller +openings by the flood water running down, and where a thin black +object--a little gravel, a piece of tin from the preserved +provision-cases, &c.--had lain on the ice there were formed round +holes, resembling the seal-holes which I saw in spring laid bare +after the melting of the snow on the ice in the fjords of +Spitzbergen. The strength of the ice besides was nearly unaltered, +and on the 16th July a heavily loaded double sledge could still be +driven from the vessel to the shore. + +On the 17th the "year's ice" next the land at last broke up, so that +an extensive land clearing arose. But the ground-ices were still +undisturbed, and between these the "year's ice" even lay so fast, +that all were agreed that at least fourteen days must still pass +before there was any prospect of getting free. + +When on the 16th the reindeer-Chukch Yettugin came on board, and, +talking of the collection of whale-bones in which we had been +engaged some days before, informed us that there was a mammoth bone +at his tent, and that a mammoth tusk stuck out at a place where the +spring floods had cut into the bank of a river which flows from +Table Mount to Riraitinop, I therefore did not hesitate to undertake +an excursion to the place. Our absence from the vessel was reckoned +at five or six days. It was my intention to go up the river in a +skin boat belonging to Notti to the place where the mammoth tusk +was, and thence to proceed on foot to Yettugin's tent. Yettugin +assured us that the river was sufficiently deep for the +flat-bottomed boat. But when we had travelled a little way into the +country it appeared that the river had fallen considerably during +the day that Yettugin passed on the vessel. So certain was I however +that the ice-barrier would not yet for a long time be broken up, +that I immediately after my return from the excursion, which had +thus been rendered unsuccessful, made arrangements for a new journey +in order with other means of transport to reach the goal. + +While we were thus employed the forenoon of the 18th passed. We sat +down to dinner at the usual time, without any suspicion that the +time of our release was now at hand. During dinner it was suddenly +observed that the vessel was moving slightly Palander rushed on +deck, saw that the ice was in motion, ordered the boiler fires to be +lighted, the engine having long ago been put in order in expectation +of this moment, and in two hours, by 3:30 P.M. on the 18th July, the +_Vega_, decked with flags, was under steam and sail again on the way +to her destination. + +We now found that a quite ice-free "lead" had arisen between the +vessel and the open water next the shore, the ice-fields west of our +ground-ices having at the same time drifted farther out to sea, so that +the clearing along the shore had widened enough to give the _Vega_ a +sufficient depth of water. The course was shaped at first for the N.W. +in order to make a _detour_ round the drift-ice fields lying nearest us, +then along the coast for Behring's Straits. On the height at Yinretlen +there stood as we passed, the men, women, and children of the village +all assembled, looking out to sea at the fire-horse--the Chukches would +perhaps say fire-dog or fire-reindeer--which carried their friends of +the long winter months for ever away from their cold, bleak shores. +Whether they shed tears, as they often said they would we could not see +from the distance which now parted us from them. But it may readily have +happened that the easily moved disposition of the savage led them to do +this. Certain it is that in many of us the sadness of separation mingled +with the feelings of tempestuous joy which now rushed through the breast +of every _Vega_ man. + +The _Vega_ met no more ice-obstacles on her course to the Pacific. +Serdze Kamen was passed at 1:30 A.M. of the 19th, but the fog was so +dense that we could not clearly distinguish the contours of the +land. Above the bank of mist at the horizon we could only see that +this cape, so famous in the history of the navigation of the +Siberian Polar Sea, is occupied by high mountains, split up, like +those east of the Bear Islands, into ruin-like gigantic walls or +columns. The sea was mirror-bright and nearly clear of ice, a walrus +or two stuck up his head strangely magnified by the fog in our +neighbourhood, seals swam round us in large numbers, and flocks of +birds, which probably breed on the steep cliffs of Serdze Kamen, +swarmed round the vessel. The trawl net repeatedly brought up from +the sea bottom a very abundant yield of worms, molluscs, crustacea, +&c. A zoologist would here have had a rich working field. + +The fog continued, so that on the other side of Serdze Kamen we lost +all sight of land, until on the morning of the 20th dark heights +again began to peep out. These were the mountain summits of the +easternmost promontory of Asia, East Cape, an unsuitable name, for +which I have substituted on the map that of Cape Deschnev after the +gallant Cossack who for the first time 230 years ago circumnavigated +it. + +By 11 A.M. we were in the middle of the sound which unites the North +Polar Sea with the Pacific, and from this point the _Vega_ greeted +the old and new worlds by a display of flags and the firing of a +Swedish salute. + +[Illustration: A.L. PALANDER. ] + +Thus finally was reached the goal towards which so many nations had +struggled, all along from the time when Sir Hugh Willoughby, with +the firing of salutes from cannon and with hurrahs from the +festive-clad seamen, in the presence of an innumerable crowd of +jubilant men certain of success, ushered in the long series of +North-East voyages. But, as I have before related, then hopes were +grimly disappointed. Sir Hugh and all his men perished as pioneers +of England's navigation and of voyages to the ice-encumbered sea +which bounds Europe and Asia on the north. Innumerable other marine +expeditions have since then trodden the same path, always without +success, and generally with the sacrifice of the vessel and of the +life and health of many brave seamen. Now for the first time, after +the lapse of 336 years, and when most men experienced in sea matters +had declared the undertaking impossible, was the North-East Passage +at last achieved. This has taken place, thanks to the discipline, +zeal, and ability of our man-of-war's-men and their officers, +without the sacrifice of a single human life, without sickness among +those who took part in the undertaking, without the slightest damage +to the vessel, and under circumstances which show that the same +thing may be done again in most, perhaps in all years, in the course +of a few weeks. It may be permitted us to say, that under such +circumstances it was with pride we saw the blue-yellow flag rise to +the mast-head and heard the Swedish salute in the sound where the +old and the new worlds reach hands to each other. The course along +which we sailed is indeed no longer required as a commercial route +between Europe and China. But it has been granted to this and the +preceding Swedish expeditions to open a sea to navigation, and to +confer on half a continent the possibility of communicating by sea +with the oceans of the world. + + +[Footnote 258: And Hellant, _Anmaerkningar om en helt ovanlig koeld i +Torne (Remarks on a Quite Unusual Cold in Torne_), Vet.-akad. Handl. +1759, p. 314, and 1760, p. 312. In the latter paper Hellant himself +shows that the column of mercury in a strongly cooled thermometer +for a few moments _sinks farther_ when the ball is rapidly heated. +This is caused by the expansion of the glass when it is warmed +before the heat has had time to communicate itself to the +quicksilver in the ball, and therefore of course can happen only at +a temperature above the freezing-point of mercury. ] + +[Footnote 259: That mercury solidifies in cold was discovered by some +academicians in St. Petersburg on the 25th December, 1759, and caused +at the time a great sensation, because by this discovery various +erroneous ideas were rooted out which the chemists had inherited +from the alchemists, and which were based on the supposed property +of mercury of being at the same time a metal and a fluid. ] + +[Footnote 260: During the market the Russian priest endeavours to make +proselytes, he succeeds, too, by distributing tobacco to induce one +or two to subject themselves to the ceremony of baptism. No true +conversion, however, can scarcely come in question on account of the +difference of language. As an example of how this goes on, the +following story of Wrangel's may be quoted. At the market a young +Chukch had been prevailed upon, by a gift of some pounds of tobacco, +to allow himself to be baptised. The ceremony began in presence of a +number of spectators. The new convert stood quiet and pretty decent +in his place till he should step down into the baptismal font, a +large wooden tub filled with ice-cold water. In this, according to +the baptismal ritual, he ought to dip three times. But to this he +would consent on no condition. He shook his head constantly, and +brought forward a large number of reasons against it, which none +understood. After long exhortations by the interpreter, in which +promises of tobacco probably again played the principal part, he +finally gave way and sprang courageously down into the ice-cold +water, but immediately jumped up again trembling with cold; crying, +"My tobacco! my tobacco!" All attempts to induce him to renew the +bath were fruitless, the ceremony was incomplete, and the Chukch +only half baptised. ] + +[Footnote 261: In Lapland, too, the melting of the snow in spring is +brought about in no inconsiderable degree by similar causes, _i.e._ +by dry warm winds which come from the fells. On this point the +governor of Norbotten laen, H.A. Widmark, has sent me the following +interesting letter--"However warm easterly and southerly winds may +be in the parts of Swedish Lapland lying next the Joleen mountains, +they are not able in any noteworthy degree to melt the masses of +snow which fall in those regions during the winter months. On the +other hand there comes every year, if we may rely on the statements +of the Lapps, in the end of April or beginning of May, from the west +(_i.e._ from the fells), a wind so strong and at the same time so +warm, that in quite a short time--six to ten hours--it breaks up the +snow-masses, makes them shrink together, forces the mountain sides +from their snow covering, and changes the snow which lies on the ice +of the great fell lakes to water. I have myself been out on the +fells making measurements on two occasions when this wind came. On +one occasion I was on the Great Lule water in the neighbourhood of +the so-called Great Lake Fall. The night had been cold but the day +became warm. Up to 1 o'clock P.M. it was calm, but immediately after +the warm westerly wind began to blow, and by 6 o'clock P.M. all the +snow on the ice was changed to water, in which we went wading to the +knees. The Lapps in general await these warm westerly winds before +they go to the fells in spring. Until these winds begin there is no +pasture there for their reindeer herds." ] + +[Footnote 262: I do not include _La Recherche's_ wintering in 1838-39 +at Bosekop, in the northernmost part of Norway, as it took place in +a region which is all the year round inhabited by hundreds of +Europeans. During this expedition very splendid auroras were seen, +and the studies of them by LOITIN, BRAVAIS, LILLIEHOeOeK, and +SILJESTROeOeM, are among the most important contributions to a +knowledge of the aurora we possess, while we have to thank the +draughtsmen of the expedition for exceedingly faithful and masterly +representations of the phenomenon. ] + +[Footnote 263: The common eider (_S. mollissima_, L.) is absent +here, or at least exceedingly rare. ] + +[Footnote 264: During the expedition of 1861, when we were shut up by +ice in Treurenberg Bay on Spitzbergen (79 deg. 57' N.L.) the +first flower (_Saxifraga oppositifolia_, L.), was pulled on the 22nd +June. After the wintering in 1872-73, Palander and I during our +journey round North-east Land, saw the first flower on the same +species of saxifrage as early as the 15th June, in the bottom of +Wahlenberg Bay (79 deg. 46' N.L.) ] + +[Footnote 265: For the sake of completeness, I shall here also +enumerate the plants which Dr. Kjellman found at Pitlekaj. Those +marked with an * either themselves occur in Scandinavia or are +represented by nearly allied forms. + + Leucanthemum arcticum (L.) DC. + Artemisia arctica LESS. + * ,, vulgaris L. f. Tilesii LEDEB. + Cineraria frigida RICHARDS. + * ,, palustris L. f. congesta HOOK. + * Antennaria alpina (L.) R. BR. f. Friesiana TRAUTV. + * Petasites frigida. + * Saussurea alpina (L.) DC. f. angustifolia (DC.) + * Taraxacum officinale WEB. + Valeriana capitata PALL. + Gentiana glauca PALL. + Pedicularis sudetica WILLD. + ,, Langsdorffii FISCH. + ,, lanata WILLD. f. leiantha TRAUTV. + ,, capitata ADAMS. + * Polemonium coeruleum L. + * Diapensia lapponica L. + * Armeria sibirica TURCZ. + Primula nivalis PALL. f. pygmaea LEDEB. + ,, borealis DUBY. + * Loiseleuria procumbens (L.) DESV. + * Ledum palustre L. f. decumbens AIT. + * Vaccinium vitis idaea L. + * Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) SPRENG. + * Cassiope tetragona (L.) DON. + Hedysarum obscurum L. + Oxytropis nigrescens (PALL.) FISCH. f. pygmaea CHAM. + ,, species? + * Rubus Chamaemorus L. + * Comarum palustre L. + Potentilla fragiformis L. f. parviflora TRAUTV. f. villosa (PALL.) + * Sibbaldia procumbens L. + * Dryas octopetala L. + Spiraea betulaefolia PALL. f. typica MAXIM. + * Hippuris vulgaris L. + * Saxifraga stellaris L f. comosa POIR. + ,, punctata L. + * ,, cernua L. + * ,, rivularis L. + * Rhodiola rosea L. + * Empetrum nigrum L. + * Cardamine bellidifolia L. + Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. f. typica MALMGR. f. prostrata MALMGR. + Ranunculus Pallasii SEHLECHT. + * ,, nivalis L. + * ,, pygmaeus WG. + * ,, hyperboreus ROTTB. + * Aconitum Napellus L. f. delphinifolia REICHENB. + Claytonia acutifolia WILLD. + * Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR. + * Stellaria longipes GOLDIE. f. humilis FENZL. + * ,, humifusa ROTTB. + Cerastium maximum L. + * ,, alpinum L. f. hirsuta KOCH. + * Halianthus peploides (STEV.) FENZL. + Alsine artica (STEV.) FENZL. + * Sagina nivalis (LINDBL.) FR. + * Polygonum Bistorta L. + * ,, viviparum L. + * polymorphum L. f. frigida CHAM. + Rumex arcticus TRAUTV. + * Oxyria digyna (L.) HILL. + Salix boganidensis TRAUTV. f. latifolia. + Salix Chamissonis ANDERS. + ,, arctica PALL. + ,, euneata TURCZ. + * ,, reticulata L. + ,, species? + Betula glandulosa MICHX. f. rotundifolia REGEL. + Elymus mollis TRIN. + * Festuca rubra L. f. arenaria OSB. + * Poa flexuosa WG. + Arctophila effusa J. LGE. + Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR. + ,, vaginata J. LGE. f. contracta J. LGE. + * Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. + * Colpodium latifolium R. BR. + Dupontia Fischeri R. BR. + * Trisetum subspicatum (L.) P.B. + * Aira caespitosa L. f. borealis TRAUTV. + Alopecurus alpinus SM. + * Hierochloa alpina (LILJEBL.) ROEM. and SCH. + * Carex rariflora (WG.) SM. + * ,, aqvatilis f. epijegos LAEST. + * ,, glareosa WG. + * ,, lagopina WG. + * Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH. + * ,, vaginatum L. + * ,, russeolum FR. + * Luzula parviflora (EHRH.) DESV. + * ,, Wahlenbergii RUPR. + * ,, arcuata (WG.) SW. f. confusa LINDEB. + * Juncus biglumis L. + Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB. + ] + +[Footnote 266: _Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar_ +1872-73. Bihang till Vet.-Akad. Handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 52. ] + +[Footnote 267: _Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires._ Paris, 1854. +Pp. 177 and 223. ] + +[Footnote 268: Heckel and Kner, _Die Suesswasserfische Oesterreichs_, +p. 295. ] + +[Footnote 269: Even pretty far south, in Scandinavia, there occur +places with frozen earth which seldom thaws. Thus in Egyptinkorpi +mosses in Nurmi and Pjeli parishes in Finland pinewoods are found +growing over layers or "tufts" of frozen sand, but also, in other +places in Eastern Finland, we find layers containing stumps, roots, +&c., of different generations of trees, alternating with layers of +frozen mould, according to a communication from the agronomic Axel +Asplund. A contribution to the knowledge of the way, or one of the +ways, in which such formations arise, we obtain from the known fact +that mines with an opening to the air, so far south as the middle of +Sweden, are filled in a few years with a coherent mass of ice if the +opening is allowed to remain open. If it is shut the ice melts +again, but for this decades are required. ] + +[Footnote 270: Middendorff already states that the bottom of the sea +of Okotsk is frozen (_Sibirische Reise_, Bd. 4, 1, p. 502). ] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + The history, physique, disposition, and manners of the Chukches. + + +The north coast of Siberia is now, with the exception of its +westernmost and easternmost parts, literally a desert. In the west +there projects between the mouth of the Ob and the southern portion +of the Kara Sea the peninsula of Yalmal, which by its remote +position, its grassy plains, and rivers abounding in fish, appears +to form the earthly paradise of the Samoyed of the present day. Some +hundred families belonging to this race wander about here with their +numerous reindeer herds. During winter they withdraw to the interior +of the country or southwards, and the coast is said then to be +uninhabited. This is the case both summer and winter, not only with +Beli Ostrov and the farthest portion of the peninsula between the Ob +and the Yenisej (Mattesol), but also with the long stretch of coast +between the mouth of the Yenisej and Chaun Bay. During the voyage of +the _Vega_ in 1878 we did not see a single native. No trace of man +could be discovered at the places where we landed, and though for a +long time we sailed quite near land, we saw from the sea only a +single house on the shore, viz, the before-mentioned wooden hut on +the east side of Chelyuskin peninsula. Russian _simovies_ and native +encampments are indeed still found on the rivers some distance from +their mouths, but the former coast population has withdrawn to the +interior of the country or died out,[271] and the north coast of Asia +first begins again to be inhabited at Chaun Bay, namely, by the +tribe with whom we came in contact during the latter part of the +coast voyage of the _Vega_ in 1878 and during the wintering. + +I have already, it is true, given an account of various traits of +the Chukches' disposition and mode of life, but I believe at all +events that a more exhaustive statement of what the _Vega_ men +experienced in this region will be interesting to my readers, even +if in the course of it I am sometimes compelled to return to +subjects of which I have already treated. + +In West-European writings the race, which inhabits the +north-easternmost portion of Asia, is mentioned for the first time, +so far as I know, by WITSEN, who in the second edition of his work +(1705, p. 671) quotes a statement by VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, that the +inhabitants of the northernmost portions of Siberia are called +_Tsjuktsi_, without, however, giving any detailed description of the +people themselves. In maps from the end of the seventeenth century +names are still inscribed on this portion of land which were +borrowed from the history of High Asia, as "Tenduc," "Quinsai," +"Catacora," &c., but these are left out in VAN KEULEN'S atlas of +1709, and instead there stands here _Zuczari_. From about the same +time we fall in with some accounts of the Chukches in the narrative +of the distinguished painter CORNELIS DE BRUIN'S travels in Russia. +A Russian merchant, MICHAEL OSTATIOF, who passed fourteen years in +travelling in Siberia, gave de Bruin some information regarding the +countries he had travelled through; among others he spoke of +_Korakie_ and _Socgtsie_ The latter were sketched as a godless pack, +who worship the devil and carry with them then fathers' bones to be +used in their magical arts. The same Russian who made these +statements had also come in contact with "stationary" (settled) +Soegtsi, so called "because they pass the whole winter hibernating, +lying or sitting in their tents."[272] I have found the first +somewhat detailed accounts of the race in the note on p. 110 of the +under-quoted work, _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_, Leyden, +1726. They are founded on the statements of Swedish prisoners of +war in Siberia. + +The Russians, however, had made a much earlier acquaintance with the +Chukches; for during their conquest of Siberia they came in contact +with this race before the middle of the seventeenth century. A +company of hunters in 1646 sailed down the Kolyma river to the Polar +Sea. East of the Kolyma they fell in with the Chukches, with whom +they dealt in this way they laid down their goods on the beach and +then retired, on which the Chukches came thither, took the goods, +and laid furs, walrus tusks, or carvings in walrus ivory, in their +place.[273] How such journeys were repeated and finally led to the +circumnavigation of the north-easternmost promontory of Asia belongs +to a following chapter. + +During these journeys the Russians often came in contact with the +tribe which inhabited the north-eastern part of Asia, a contact +which in general was not of a friendly nature. The bold hunters who +contributed powerfully to the conquest of Siberia, and who even at +their own hand entered into conflicts with whole armies from the +heavenly empire, appear not to have behaved well when confronted +with the warriors of the Chukch race. Even the attempts that were +made with professional soldiers to conquer the land of the Chukches +were without result, less however, perhaps, on account of the armed +opposition which the Chukches made than from the nature of the +country and the impossibility of even a small body of troops +supporting themselves. The following may be quoted as examples of +these campaigns which throw light upon the former disposition and +mode of life of this tribe. + +In 1701 some Yukagires who were tributary to Russia determined to +make an attack on the Chukches, and requested from the commandant at +Anadyrsk assistance against these enemies. A body of troops +numbering twenty-four Russians and 110 Yukagires, was accordingly +sent on a campaign along the coast from Anadyrsk to Chukotskojnos. +By the way they fell in with thirteen tents, inhabited by Chukches +who owned no reindeer. The inhabitants were required to submit and +pay tribute. This the Chukches refused to do, on which the Russians +killed most of the men and took the women and children prisoners. +The men who were not cut down killed one another, preferring death +to the loss of freedom. Some days after there was another fight with +300 Chukches, which, however, was so unfortunate for the latter that +200 are said to have fallen. The rest fled, but returned next day +with a force ten times as strong, which finally compelled the +Russo-Yukagnean troop to return with their object unaccomplished. + +A similar campaign on a small scale was undertaken in 1711, but with +the same issue. On a demand for tribute the Chukches answered: "the +Russians have before come to us to demand tribute and hostages, but +this we have refused to give, and thus we also intend to do in +future."[274] + +About fifteen years after this resultless campaign the Cossack +colonel AFFANASSEJ SCHESTAKOV proposed to the Government again to +subdue this obstinate race, intending also to go over to the +American side, yet known only by report, in order to render the +races living there tributary to the Russians. The proposal was +accepted. A mate, JACOB HENS, a land-measurer, MICHAEL GVOSDEV, an +ore-tester, HERDEBOL, and ten sailors were ordered by the Admiralty +to accompany the expedition. At Yekaterinenburg Schestakov was +provided with some small cannon and mortars with ammunition, and at +Tobolsk with 400 Cossacks. In consequence of a great number of +misfortunes, among them shipwreck in the sea of Okotsk, there stood +however but a small portion of this force at his disposal when he +began his campaign by marching into the country from the bottom of +Penschina Bay. This campaign too was exceedingly unfortunate. After +only a few days' march he came unexpectedly on a large body of +Chukches, who themselves had gone to war with the Koryaeks. A fight +took place on the 25th/14th March, 1730, in which Schestakov himself +fell, hit by an arrow, and his followers were killed or put to +flight. + +Among those who were ordered to accompany Schestakov in this +unfortunate campaign was Captain DMITRI PAULUTSKI. Under his command +a new campaign was undertaken against the Chukches With a force of +215 Russians, 160 Cossacks and 60 Yukagires, Paulutski left Anadyrsk +on the 23rd/12th March, 1731, and marched east of the sources of the +Anadyr to the Polar Sea, which was only reached after two mouths' +march. Then he went along the coast, partly by land, partly on the +ice, to the eastward. After fourteen days he fell in with a large +Chukch army, and having in vain summoned it to surrender, he +delivered a blow on the 18/7th June, and obtained a complete victory +over the enemy. During the continuation of the campaign along the +coast he was compelled to fight on two other occasions, one on the +11th July/30th June and the other on the 26/11th July, at +Chukotskojnos itself, over which promontory he wished to march to +the mouth of the Anadyr. In both cases the victory lay with the +Russians, who, according to Mueller's account based on the official +documents, in all three engagements lost only three Cossacks, one +Yukagire and five Koryaeks. But notwithstanding all these defeats the +Chukches refused to submit and pay tribute to the Russians, on which +account the only gain of the campaign was the honour of avenging +Schestakov's defeat and of marching in triumph over Chukotskojnos. +For this, ten days were required. On the promontory, hills of +considerable height had to be passed. It appears as if Paulutski +followed the shore of Kolyutschin Bay to the south, and then marched +over the tongue of land which separates this bay from Anadyr Bay, or +to express it otherwise, which unites the Chukch peninsula to the +mainland of Siberia. + +Many mistakes in comprehending the accounts of old travels to these +regions have arisen from our ignorance of the great southern +extension of Kolyutschin Bay, and from the same name being +frequently used to distinguish different places on the coasts of +Siberia. Thus we find on the map by A. ARROW-SMITH annexed to +Sauer's account of Billings' travels a Seidze Kamen on the south +side of Chukch peninsula, and it was perhaps just this Seidze Kamen, +known and so named by the dwellers on the Anadyr, that is mentioned +in Mueller's account of Paulutski's campaign. + +On the 1st Nov./21st Oct. Paulutski returned to Anadyrsk, crowned +with victory indeed, but without having brought his adversaries to +lasting submission. No new attempt was made to induce the Chukches +to submit, perhaps because Paulutski's campaign had rendered it +evident that it was easier to win victories over the Chukches than +to subdue them, and that the whole treasures of walrus tusks and +skins belonging to the tribe would scarcely suffice to pay the +expenses of the most inconsiderable campaign. + +Perhaps too the accounts of Paulutski's victories may not be quite +correct, at least the old repute of Chukches as a brave and savage +race remained undiminished. Thus we read in a note already quoted at +page 110 of the _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_ [275] "The +north-eastern part of Asia is inhabited by two allied races, +_Tzuktzchi_ and _Tzchalatzki_, and south of them on the Eastern +Ocean by a third, called _Olutorski_. They are the most savage tribe +in the whole north of Asia, and will have nothing to do with the +Russians, whom they inhumanly kill when they fall in with them, and +when any of them fall into the hands of the Russians they kill +themselves". On the map of LOTTERUS (1765) the Chukch Peninsula is +coloured in a way differing from Russian Siberia, and there is the +following inscription _Tjukzchi natio ferocissima et bellicosa +Russorum inimica, qui capti se invicem interficiunt_. In 1777 +GEORGIUS says in his _Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen +Reichs_ (part ii., p. 350) of the Chukches "They are more savage, +coarse, proud, refractory, thievish, false, and revengeful, than the +neighbouring nomads the Koryaeks. They are as bad and dangerous as +the Tunguses are friendly. Twenty Chukches will beat fifty Koryaeks. +The _Ostrogs_ (fortified places) lying in the neighbourhood of their +country are even in continual fear of them, and cost so much that +the Government has recently withdrawn the oldest Russian settlement +in those regions, Anadyrsk". Other statements to the same effect +might be quoted, and even in our day the Chukches are, with or +without justification, known in Siberia for stubbornness, courage, +and love of freedom. + +But what violence could not effect has been completely accomplished +in a peaceful way.[276] The Chukches indeed do not pay any other +taxes than some small market tolls, but a very active traffic is now +carried on between them and the Russians, and many travellers have +without inconvenience traversed their country, or have sailed along +its pretty thickly inhabited coast. + +Among former travellers on the Chukch peninsula, who visited the +encampments of the coast Chukches, besides Behring, Cook, and other +seafarers, the following may be mentioned:-- + +The Cossack, PETER ILIIN SIN POPOV, was sent in 1711 with two +interpreters to examine the country of the Chukches, and has left +some interesting accounts of his observations there (MUeLLER, +_Sammlung Russischer Geschichten_, iii. p. 56).[277] + +BILLINGS, with his companions SAUER, SARYTSCHEV, &c., visited +Chukch-land in 1791. Among other things, accompanied by Dr. MERK, +two interpreters and eight men, he made a journey from Metschigme +Bay over the interior of Chukch-land to Yakutsk. Unfortunately the +account we have of this remarkable journey is exceedingly +incomplete.[278] + +FERDINAND VON WRANGEL during his famous Siberian travels was much in +contact with the Chukches, and among his other journeys travelled in +the winter of 1823 in dog sledges along the coast of the Polar Sea +from the Kolyma to Kolyutschin Island (Wrangel, _Reise_, ii. pp. +176-231). There are besides many notices of the Chukches at other +places in the same work (i. pp. 267-293, ii. pp. 156, 168, &c.). + +FRIEDRICH VON LUeTKE in the course of his circumnavigation of the +globe in 1826-29, came in contact with the population of the Chukch +peninsula, whom he described in detail in Erman's _Archiv_ (iii. pp. +446-464). Here it ought to be noted that, while the population on +the North coast consists of true Chukches, the coast population of +the region which Luetke visited, the stretch between the Anadyr and +Cape Deschnev consists of a tribe, _Namollo_, which differs from the +Chukches, and is nearly allied to the Eskimo on the American side of +Behring's Straits. + +The English Franklin Expedition in the _Plover_, commanded by +Captain MOORE, wintered in 1848-49 at Chukotskojnos, and, both at +the winter station and in the course of extensive excursions with +dogs along the coast and to the interior of the country, came much +into contact with the natives. The observations made during the +wintering were published in a work of great importance for a +knowledge of the tribes in question by Lieutenant W.H. HOOPER, _Ten +Months among the Tents of the Tuski_, London, 1853. + +C VON DITTMAR[279] travelled in 1853 in the north part of Kamchatka, +and there came in contact with the reindeer nomads, especially with +the Koryaeks. The information he gives us about the Chukches (p. 126) +he had obtained from the Nischni-Kolymsk merchant, TRIFONOV, who had +traded with them for twenty-eight years, and had repeatedly +travelled in the interior of the country. + +Interesting contributions to a knowledge of the mode of living of +the reindeer-Chukches were also collected by Baron G. VON MAYDELL, +who, in 1868 and 1869, along with Dr. CARL VON NEUMANN and others, +made a journey from Yakutsk by Sredni-Kolymsk and Anjui to +Kolyutschin Bay. Unfortunately, with regard to this expedition, I +have only had access to some notices in the _Proceedings of the +Royal Geographical Society_ (vol. 21, London 1877, p. 213), and _Das +Ausland_ (1880, p. 861). The proper sketch of the journey is to be +found in _Isvestija_, published by the Siberian division of the +Russian Geographical Society, parts 1 and 2. + +With reference to the other travellers whose writings are usually +quoted as sources for a knowledge of the Chukches, it may be +mentioned that STELLER and KRASCHENINNIKOV only touch in passing on +the true Chukches, but instead give very instructive and detailed +accounts of the Koryaeks, who are as nearly allied to the Chukches as +the Spaniards to the Portuguese, but yet differ considerably in +their mode of life, also that a part of these authors' statements +regarding the Chukches do not at all refer to that tribe, but to the +Eskimo. It appears indeed that recently, after the former national +enmity had ceased, mixed races have arisen among these tribes. But +it ought not to be forgotten that they differ widely in origin, +although the Chukches as coming at a later date to the coast of the +Polar Sea have adopted almost completely the hunting implements and +household furniture of the Eskimo; and the Eskimo again, in the +districts where they come in contact with the Chukches, have adopted +various things from their language. + +Like the Lapps and most other European and Asiatic Polar races, the +Chukches fall into two divisions speaking the same language and +belonging to the same race, but differing considerably in their mode +of life. One division consists of reindeer nomads, who, with their +often very numerous reindeer herds, wander about between Behring's +Straits, and the Indigirka and the Penschina Bays. They live by +tending reindeer and by trade, and consider themselves the chief +part of the Chukch tribe. The other division of the race are the +coast Chukches, who do not own any reindeer, but live in fixed but +easily moveable and frequently moved tents along the coast between +Chaun Bay and Behring's Status. But beyond East Cape there is found +along the coast of Behring's Sea another tribe, nearly allied to the +Eskimo. This is Wrangel's _Onkilon_, Luetke's _Namollo_. Now, +however, Chukches also have settled at several points on this line +of coast, and a portion of the Eskimo have adopted the language of +the superior Chukch race. Thus the inhabitants at St. Lawrence Bay +spoke Chukch, with little mixture of foreign words, and differed in +their mode of life and appearance only inconsiderably from the +Chukches, whom during the course of the winter we learned to know +from nearly all parts of the Chukch peninsula. The same was the case +with the natives who came on board the _Vega_ while we sailed past +East Cape, and with the two families we visited in Konyam Bay. But +the natives in the north-west part of St. Lawrence Island talked an +Eskimo dialect, quite different from Chukch. There were, however, +many Chukch words incorporated with it. At Port Clarence on the +contrary there lived pure Eskimo. Among them we found a Chukch woman +who informed us that there were Chukch villages also on the American +side of Behring's Strait, north of Prince of Wales Cape. These +cannot, however, be very numerous or populous, as they are not +mentioned in the accounts of the various English expeditions to +those regions, they die not noticed for instance in Dr. JOHN +SIMPSON'S instructive memoir on the Eskimo at Behring's Straits. + +We were unable during the voyage of the _Vega_ to obtain any data +for estimating the number of the reindeer-Chukches. But the number +of the coast Chukches may be arrived at in the following way. +Lieutenant Nordquist collected from the numerous foremen who rested +at the _Vega_ information as to the names of the encampments which +are to be found at present on the coast between Chaun Bay and +Behring's Straits, and the number of tents at each village. He thus +ascertained that the number of the tents in the coast villages +amounts to about 400. The number of inhabitants in every tent may +be, according to our experience, averaged at five. The population on +the line of coast in question may thus amount to about 2,000, at +most to 2,500, men, women, and children. The number of the +reindeer-Chukches appears to be about the same. The whole population +of Chukch Land may thus now amount to 4,000 or 5,000 persons. The +Cossack Popov already mentioned, reckoned in 1711 that all the +Chukches, both reindeer-owning and those with fixed dwellings, +numbered 2,000 persons. Thus during the last two centuries, if these +estimates are correct, this Polar race has doubled its numbers. + +In order to give the reader an idea of the language of the Chukches, +I have in a preceding chapter given an extract from the large +vocabulary which Nordquist has collected. There appear to be no +dialects differing very much from each other. Whether foreign words +borrowed from other Asiatic languages have been adopted in Chukch we +have not been able to make out. It is certain that no Russian words +are used. The language strikes me as articulate and euphonious. It +is nearly allied to the Koryaek, but so different from other, both +East-Asiatic and American, tongues, that philologists have not yet +succeeded in clearing up the relationship of the Chukches to other +races. + +Like most other Polar tribes, the Chukches now do not belong to any +unmixed race. This one is soon convinced of, if he considers +attentively the inhabitants of a large tent-village. Some are tall, +with tallowlike, raven-black hair, brown complexion, high aquiline +nose--in short, with an exterior that reminds us of the descriptions +we read of the North American Indians. Others again by their dark +hair, slight beard, sunk nose or rather projecting cheek-bones and +oblique eyes, remind us distinctly of the Mongolian race, and +finally we meet among them with very fair faces, with features and +complexion which lead us to suspect that they are descendants of +runaways or prisoners of war of purely Russian origin. The most +common type is--straight, coarse, black hair of moderate length, the +brow tapering upwards, the nose finely formed, but with its root +often flattened eyes by no means small, well-developed black +eyebrows, projecting cheeks often swollen by frostbite, which is +specially observable when the face is looked at from the side, +light, slightly brown complexion, which in the young women is often +nearly as red and white as in Europeans. The beard is always scanty. +Nearly all are stout and well grown, we saw no cripples among them. +The young women often strike one as very pretty if one can rid +oneself of the unpleasant impression of the dirt, which is never +washed away but by the drifting snow of winter, and of the nauseous +train-oil odour which in winter they carry with them from the close +tent-chamber. The children nearly always make a pleasant impression +by their healthy appearance, and their friendly and becoming +behaviour. + +[Illustration: TYPICAL CHUKCH FACES. + 1. Manschetsko a man from Pitlekaj. + 2. Young man from Irgunnuk. + 3. Chajdodlin a man from Irgunnuk. + 4. Reindeer Chukch. + 5. Old man from Irgunnuk. + 6. Man from Yinretlen. (After photographs by L. Palander.) ] + +[Illustration: TYPICAL CHUKCH FACES. + 1., 2. Nautsing, a woman from Pitlekaj. + 3., 4. Rotschitlen 5. Young man from Vankarema. + 6. Young man from Irgunnuk. (After photographs by L. Palander.) ] + +The Chukches are a hardy race, but exceedingly indolent when want of +food does not force them to exertion. The men during their hunting +excursions pass whole days in a cold of -30 deg. to -40 deg. out +upon the ice, without protection and without carrying with them food +or fuel. In such cases they slake their thirst with snow, and +assuage their hunger, if they have been successful in hunting, with +the blood and flesh of the animals they have killed. Women nearly +naked often during severe cold leave for a while the inner tent, or +tent-chamber, where the train-oil lamp maintains a heat that is at +times oppressive. A foreigner's visit induces the completely naked +children to half creep out from under the curtain of reindeer skin +which separates the sleeping chamber from the exterior tent, in +which, as it is not heated, the temperature is generally little +higher than that of the air outside. In this temperature the mothers +do not hesitate to show their naked children, one or two years of +age, to visitors for some moments. + +Diseases are notwithstanding uncommon, with the exception that in +autumn, before the severe cold commences, nearly all suffer from a +cough and cold. Very bad skin eruptions and sores also occur so +frequently that a stay in the inner tent is thereby commonly +rendered disgusting to Europeans. Some of the sores however are +merely frostbites, which most Chukches bring on themselves by the +carelessness with which during high winds they expose the bare neck, +breast and wrists to the lowest temperature. When frostbite has +happened it is treated, even though of considerable extent, with +extreme carelessness. They endeavour merely to thaw the frozen place +as fast as possible partly by chafing, partly by heating. On the +other hand we never saw anyone who had had a deep frostbite on the +hands or feet, a circumstance which must be ascribed to the +serviceable nature of their shoes and gloves. From the beginning of +October 1878 to the middle of July 1879 no death appears to have +happened at any of the encampments near us. During the same time the +number of the inhabitants was increased by two or three births. +During the wife's pregnancy the husband was very affectionate to +her, gave her his constant company in the tent, kissed and fondled +her frequently in the presence of strangers, and appeared to take a +pride in showing her to visitors. + +We had no opportunity of witnessing any burial or marriage. It +appears as if the Chukches sometimes burn their dead, sometimes +expose them on the _tundra_ as food for beasts of prey, with +weapons, sledges, and household articles. They have perhaps begun to +abandon the old custom of burning the dead, since the hunting has +fallen off so that the supply of blubber for burning has diminished. +I have before described the pits filled with burned bones which Dr. +Stuxberg found on the 9th September, 1878, by the bank of a dried-up +rivulet. We took them for graves, but not having seen any more at +our winter station, we began to entertain doubts as to the +correctness of our observation[280]. It is at least certain that the +inhabitants of Pitlekaj exclusively bury their dead by laying them +out on the _tundra_. + +Regarding the man, buried or exposed in this way, whom Johnsen found +on the 15th October, Dr. Almquist, who himself visited the place the +next day, makes the following statement-- + +[Illustration: PLAN OF A CHUKCH GRAVE. (After a drawing by A. +Stuxberg.) ] + + "The place was situated five to seven kilometres from the + village Yinretlen, near the bottom of the little valley + which runs from this village in a southerly direction into + the interior. The body was exposed on a little low knoll + only two fathoms across. It was covered with loose snow, + and was not frozen very hard. When it was loosened there + was no proper pit to be seen in the underlying snow and + ice. The corpse lay from true N.N.W. to S.S.E., with the + head to the former quarter. Under the head lay two black + rounded stones, such as the Chukches use in housekeeping. + Besides these there was no trace of anything underlying or + covering the corpse. The clothes had been torn by beasts of + prey from the body, the back was quite untouched, but the + face and breast were much wasted, and the arms and legs + almost wholly eaten up. On the knoll evident traces of the + wolf, the fox, and the raven were visible. Close to the + right side of the corpse had lain the weapons which Johnson + had brought home the day before. Near the feet was found a + sledge completely broken in pieces, evidently new and + smashed on the spot. Not far off, we found lying on the + snow pieces of a _pesk_ and of foot-coverings, both new and + of the finest quality. Beasts of prey had undoubtedly torn + them off and pulled them about. On the knoll there were + found besides five or six other graves, distinguished by + small stones or a wooden block lying on the even ground. + Two of the graves were ornamented by a collection of + reindeer horns. The severe cold prevented me from + ascertaining whether these stones concealed the remains of + buried corpses. I considered that I might take the Chukch's + head, as otherwise the wolves would doubtless have eaten it + up. It was taken on board and skeletonised." + + + In the spring of 1879, after the snow was melted, we had + further opportunities of seeing a large number of + burying-places, or more correctly of places where dead + Chukches had been laid out. They were marked by stones + placed in a peculiar way, and were measured and examined in + detail by Dr. Stuxberg, who gives the following description + of them:-- + +[Illustration: TENT FRAME AT PITLEKAJ. (After a drawing by G. Bove.) ] + + "The Chukch graves on the heights south of Pitlekaj and + Yinretlen, which were examined by me on the 4th and 7th + July, 1879, were nearly fifty in number. Every grave + consisted of an oval formed of large lying stones. At one + end there was generally a large stone raised on its edge, + and from the opposite end there went out one or two pieces + of wood lying on the ground. The area within the stone + circle was sometimes over-laid with small stones, sometimes + free and overgrown with grass. At all the graves, at a + distance of four to seven paces from the stone standing on + its edge in the longitudinal axis of the grave or a little + to the side of it, there was another smaller circle of + stones inclosing a heap of reindeer horns, commonly + containing also broken seals' skulls and other fragments of + bones. Only in one grave were found pieces of human bones. + The graves were evidently very old, for the bits of wood at + the ends were generally much decayed and almost wholly + covered with earth, and the stones were completely + overgrown with lichens on the upper side. I estimate the + age of these graves at about two hundred years." + +The Chukches do not dwell in snow huts, nor in wooden houses, +because wood for building is not to be found in the country of the +coast Chukches, and because wooden houses are unsuitable for the +reindeer nomad. They live summer and winter in tents of a peculiar +construction, not used by any other race. For in order to afford +protection from the cold the tent is double, the outer envelope +inclosing an inner tent or sleeping chamber. This has the form of a +parallelopiped, about 3.5 metres long, 2.2 metres broad, and 1.8 +metre high. It is surrounded by thick, warm, reindeer skins, and is +further covered with a layer of grass. The floor consists of a +walrus skin stretched over a foundation of twigs and straw. At night +the floor is covered with a carpet of reindeer skins, which is +taken away during the day. The rooms at the sides of the inner tent +are also shut off by curtains, and serve as pantries. The inner tent +is warmed by three train-oil lamps, which together with the heat +given off by the numerous human beings packed together in the tent, +raise the temperature to such a height that the inhabitants even +during the severest winter cold may be completely naked. The work of +the women and the cooking are carried on in winter in this +tent-chamber, very often also the calls of nature are obeyed in it. +All this conduces to make the atmosphere prevailing there +unendurable. There are also, however, cleanlier families, in whose +sleeping chamber the air is not so disgusting. + +In summer they live during the day, and cook and work, in the outer +tent. This consists of seal and walrus skins sewed together, which +however are generally so old, hairless, and full of holes, that they +appear to have been used by several generations. The skins of the +outer tent are stretched over wooden ribs, which are carefully bound +together by thongs of skin. The ribs rest partly on posts, partly on +tripods of driftwood. The posts are driven into the ground, and the +tripods get the necessary steadiness by a heavy stone or a seal-skin +sack filled with sand being suspended from the middle of them. +In order further to steady the tent a yet heavier stone is in the +same way suspended by a strap from the top of the tent-roof, or the +summit of the roof is made fast to the ground by thick thongs. +At one place a tackle from a wrecked vessel was used for this purpose, +being tightened with a block between the top of the roof and an +iron hook frozen into the ground. The ribs in every tent are besides +supported by T-formed cross stays. + +The entrance consists of a low door, which, when necessary, may be +closed with a reindeer skin. The floor of the outer tent consists of +the bare ground. This is kept very clean, and the few household +articles are hung up carefully and in an orderly manner along the +walls on the inner and outer sides of the tent. Near the tent are +some posts, as high as a man, driven into the ground, with cross +pieces on which skin boats, oars, javelins, &c., are laid, and from +which fishing and seal nets are suspended. + +In the neighbourhood of the dwellings the storehouse is placed. It +consists of a cellar excavated at some suitable place. The sites of +old Onkilon dwellings are often used for this purpose. The descent +is commonly covered with pieces of driftwood which are loaded with +stones, at one place the door, or rather the hatch, of the cellar +consisted of a whale's shoulder-blade. In consequence of the +unlimited confidence which otherwise was wont to prevail between the +natives and us, we were surprised to find them unwilling to give the +_Vega_ men admittance to their storehouses. Possibly the report of +our excavations for old implements at the sites of Onkilon dwellings +at Irkaipij had spread to Kolyutschin, and been interpreted as +attempts at plunder. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH OAR. One-sixteenth of the natural size. ] + +The tents were always situated on the sea shore, generally on the +small neck of land which separates the strand lagoons from the sea. +They are erected and taken down in a few hours. A Chukch family can +therefore easily change its place of residence, and does remove very +often from one village to another. Sometimes it appears to own the +wooden frame of a tent at several places, and in such cases at +removal there are taken along only the tent covering, the dogs, and +the most necessary skin and household articles. The others are left +without inclosure, lock, or watch, at the former dwelling-place, and +one is certain to find all untouched on his return. During short +stays at a place there are used, even when the temperature of the +air is considerably under the freezing-point, exceedingly defective +tents or huts made with the skin boats that may happen to be +available. Thus a young couple who returned in spring to Pitlekaj +lived happy and content in a single thin and ragged tent or conical +skin hut which below where it was broadest was only two and a half +metres across. An accurate inventory, which I took during the +absence of the newly married pair, showed that their whole household +furniture consisted of a bad lamp, a good American axe, some +reindeer skins, a small piece of mirror, a great many empty preserve +tins from the _Vega_, which among other things were used for +cooking, a fire-drill, a comb, leather for a pair of moccassins, +some sewing implements, and some very incomplete and defective +tools. + +The boats are made of walrus skin, sewed together and stretched over +a light frame-work of wood and pieces of bone. The different parts +of the frame-work are bound together with thongs of skin or strings +of whalebone. In form and size the Chukches' large boat, _atkuat_, +called by the Russians _baydar_, corresponds completely with the +Greenlander's _umiak_ or woman's boat. It is so light that four men +can take it upon their shoulders, and yet so roomy that thirty men +can be conveyed in it. One seldom sees _anatkuat_, or boats intended +for only one man; they are much worse built and uglier than the +Greenlander's _kayak_. The large boats are rowed with broad-bladed +oars, of which every man or woman manages only one. By means of +these oars a sufficient number of rowers can for a little raise the +speed of the boat to ten kilometres per hour. Like the Greenlanders, +however, they often cease rowing in order to rest, laugh, and +chatter, then row furiously for some minutes rest themselves again, +row rapidly, and so on. When the sea is covered with thin newly +formed ice they put two men in the fore of the boat with one leg +over in order to trample the ice in pieces. + +During winter the boats are laid up, and instead the dog-sledges are +put in order. These are of a different construction from the +Greenland sledges, commonly very light and narrow, made of some +flexible kind of wood, and shod with plates of whales' jawbones, +whales' ribs, or whalebone. In order to improve the running, the +runners before the start are carefully covered with a layer of ice +from two or three millimetres in thickness by repeatedly pouring +water over them.[281] The different parts of the sledge are not +fastened together by nails, but are bound together by strips of skin +or strings of whalebone. On the low uncomfortable seat there +commonly lies a piece of skin, generally of the Polar bear. The +number of dogs that are harnessed to each sledge is variable. I have +seen a Chukch riding behind two small lean dogs, who however +appeared to draw their heavy load over even hard snow without any +extraordinary exertion. At other sledges I have seen ten or twelve +dogs, and a sledge laden with goods was drawn by a team of +twenty-eight. The dogs are generally harnessed one pair before +another to a long line common to all,[282] sometimes in the case of +short excursions more than two abreast, or so irregularly that their +position in relation to the sledge appears to have depended merely +on the accidental length of the draught-line and the caprice of the +driver. The dogs are guided not by reins but by continual crying and +shouting, accompanied by lashes from a long whip. There is, besides, +in every properly equipped sledge a short and thick staff mounted +with iron, with a number of iron rings attached to the upper end. +When nothing else will do, this staff is thrown at the offending +animal. The staff is so heavy that the animal may readily get its +death by such a throw. The dogs know this, and in consequence are so +afraid of this grim implement that the rattling of the rings is +sufficient to induce them to put forth extreme efforts. During rests +the team is tied to the staff, which is driven into the snow. + +The dog harness is made of inch-wide straps of skin, forming a neck +or shoulder band, united on both sides by a strap to a girth, to one +side of which the draught strap is fastened. Thanks to the excellent +protection against the harness galling which the bushy coat of the +dogs affords, little attention is needed for the harness, and I have +never seen a single dog that was idle in consequence of sores from +the harness. On the other hand, their feet are often hurt by the +sharp snow. On this account the equipment of every sledge embraces a +number of dog shoes of the appearance shown in the accompanying +woodcut. They are used only in case of need. + +[Illustration: DOG SHOE. One-third of natural size. ] + +The Chukch dogs are of the same breed, but smaller, than the Eskimo +dogs in Danish Greenland. They resemble wolves, are long-legged, +long-haired, and shaggy. The ears are short, commonly upright, their +colour very variable, from black or white, and black or white +spotted, to grey or yellowish-brown. For innumerable generations +they have been used as draught animals, while as watch dogs they +have not been required in a country where theft or robbery appears +never to take place. The power of barking they have therefore +completely lost, or perhaps they never possessed it. Even a European +may come into the outer tent without any of the dogs there informing +their owners sleeping in the inner tent by a sound of the +foreigner's arrival. + +On the other hand, they are good though slow draught animals, being +capable of long-continued exertion. They are as dirty and as +peaceable as their owners. There are no fights made between +dog-teams belonging to different tents, and they are rare between +the dogs of an encampment and those of strangers. In Europe dogs are +the friends of their masters and the enemies of each other, here +they are the friends of each other and the slaves of their masters. +In winter they appear in case of necessity to get along with very +little food, they are then exceedingly lean, and for the most part +are motionless in some snow-drift. They seldom leave the +neighbourhood of the tent alone, not even to search for food or hunt +at their own hand and for their own account. This appears to me so +much the more remarkable, as they are often several days, I am +inclined to say weeks, in succession without getting any food from +their masters. A piece of a whale, with the skin and part of the +flesh adhering, washed out of frozen sandy strata thus lay untouched +some thousand paces from Pitlekaj, and the neighbourhood of the +tents, where the hungry dogs were constantly wandering about, +formed, as has been already stated, a favourite haunt for ptarmigan +and hares during winter. Young dogs some months old are already +harnessed along with the team in order that they may in time become +accustomed to the draught tackle. During the cold season the dogs +are permitted to live in the outer tent, the females with their +young even in the inner. We had two Scotch collies with us on the +_Vega_. They at first frightened the natives very much with their +bark. To the dogs of Chukches they soon took the same superior +standing as the European claims for himself in relation to the +savage. The dog was distinctly preferred by the female Chukch canine +population, and that too without the fights to which such favour on +the part of the fair commonly gives rise. A numerous canine progeny +of mixed Scotch-Chukch breed has thus arisen at Pitlekaj. The young +dogs had a complete resemblance to their father, and the natives +were quite charmed with them. + +When a dog is to be killed the Chukch stabs it with his spear, and +then lets it bleed to death. Even when the scarcity was so great +that the natives at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen lived mainly on the food +we gave them, they did not eat the dogs they killed. On the other +hand they had no objection to eating a shot crow. + +When the Chukch goes out on the ice to hunt seals he takes his dogs +with him, and it is these which take home the catch, commonly with +the draught-line fastened directly to the head of the killed seal, +which is then turned on its back and dragged over the ice without +anything under it. One of the inhabitants of Yinretlen returned from +the open water off the coast after a successful hunting expedition +with five seals, of which the smallest was laid on the sledge, the +others being fastened one behind the other in a long row. After the +last was drawn a long pole, which was used in setting the net. + +The dress of the Chukches is made of reindeer or seal-skin. The +former, because it is warmer, is preferred as material for the +winter dress. The men in winter are clad in two _pesks_, that which +is worn next the body is of thin skin with the hair inwards, the +outer is of thick skin with the hair outwards. Besides, they wear, +when it rains or wet snow falls, a great coat of gut or of cotton +cloth, which they call _calico_. On one occasion I saw such an +overcoat made of a kind of reindeer-chamois leather, which was of +excellent quality and evidently of home manufacture. It had been +originally white, but was ornamented with broad brown painted +borders. Some red and blue woollen shirts which we gave them were +also worn above the skin clothes, and by then showy colours awakened +great satisfaction in the owners. The Chukch _pesk_ is shorter than +the Lapp one. It does not reach quite to the knees, and is confined +at the waist with a belt. Under the _pesk_ are worn two pairs of +trousers, the inner pair with the hair inwards, and the outer with +the hair outwards. The trousers are well made, close fitting, and +terminate above the foot. The foot-covering consists of reindeer or +seal-skin moccasins, which above the foot are fastened to the +trousers in the way common among the Lapps. The soles are of +walrus-skin or bear-skin, and have the hair side inwards. On the +other parts of the moccasin the hair is outwards. Within the shoes +are seal-skin stockings and hay. The head covering consists of a +hood embroidered with beads, over which in severe cold is drawn an +outer hood bordered with dog-skin. The outer hood is often quite +close under the chin, and extends in a very well-fitting way over +the shoulders. To a complete dress there also belong a skin +neckerchief or boa, and a neck covering of multiple reindeer-skins, +or of different kinds of skins sewn together in chess-board-like +squares. In summer and far into the autumn the men go bareheaded, +although they clip the hair on the crown of the head close to the +root. + +During the warm season of the year a number of the winter wraps are +laid off in proportion to the increase of the heat, so that the +dress finally consists merely of a _pesk_, an overcoat, and a pair +of trousers. The summer moccassins are often as long in the leg as +our sea-boots. In the tent the men wear only short trousers reaching +to the hip, together with leather belts (health-belts) at the waist +and on the arms. The man's dress is not much ornamented. On the +other hand the men often wear strings of beads in the ears, or a +skin band set with large, tastefully arranged beads or a leather +band with some large beads on the brow. The leather band they will +not willingly part with, and a woman told us that the beads in it +indicate the number of enemies the wearer has killed. I am, however, +quite certain that this was only an empty boast. Probably our +informant referred to a tradition handed down from former warlike +periods to the present time, and thus we have here only a Chukch +form of the boasting about martial feats common even among civilised +nations. + +To the dress of the men there belongs further a screen for the eyes, +which is often beautifully ornamented with beads and silver mounting. +This screen is worn especially in spring as a protection from the strong +sunlight reflected from the snow-plains. At this season of the year +snow-blindness is very common, but notwithstanding this snow-spectacles +of the kind which the Eskimo and even the Samoyeds use are unknown here. + +The men are not tattooed, but have sometimes a black or red cross +painted on the cheek. They wear the hair cut close to the root, with +the exception of a short tuft right on the crown of the head and a +short fringe above the brow. The women have long hair, parted right +in the middle, and plaited along with strings of beads into plaits +which hang down by the ears. They are generally tattooed on the +face, sometimes also on the arms or other parts of the body. The +tattooing is done by degrees, possibly certain lines are first made +at marriage. + +The dress of the women, like that of the men, is double during winter. +The outer _pesk_, which is longer and wider than the man's, passes +downwards into a sort of very wide trousers. The sleeves too are +exceedingly wide, so that the arm may easily be drawn in and stuck out. +Under the outer _pesk_ there is an inner _pesk_, or skin-shirt, and +under them a pair of very short trousers is worn. Where the outer _pesk_ +ends the _moccassins_ begin. At the neck the _pesk_ is much cut away, so +that a part of the back is bare. I have seen girls go with the upper +part of the back exposed in this way even in a cold of -30 deg. or -40 deg.. The +stockings have the hair inwards, they are bordered with dog-skin, and go +to the knees. The moccasins, chin-covers, hoods, and neckerchiefs differ +little from the corresponding articles of men's dress The woman's dress +is in general more ornamented than the man's, and the skins used for it +appear to be more carefully chosen and prepared. In the inner tent the +women go nearly naked, only with quite short under-trousers of skin or +_calico_ or a narrow _cingulum pudicitiae_ On the naked body there are +worn besides one or two leather bands on one arm, a leather band on the +throat, another round the waist, and some bracelets of iron or less +frequently of copper on the wrists. The younger women however do not +like to show themselves in this dress to foreigners, and they therefore +hasten at their entrance to cover the lower part of the body with the +_pesk_, or some other piece of dress that may be at hand. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH FACE TATTOOING. (After a drawing by A. +Stuxberg.) ] + +[Illustration: CHUKCH CHILDREN. + _a._ Girl from Irgunnuk. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) + _b._ Boy from Pitlekaj, with his mother's hood on. + (After a drawing by the seaman Hansson.) ] + +When the children are some years old they get the same dress as +their parents, different for boys and girls. While small they are +put into a wide skin covering with the legs and arms sewed together +downwards. Behind there is a four-cornered opening through which +moss (the white, dead part of Sphagnum), intended to absorb the +excreta, is put in and changed. At the ends of the arms two loops +are fastened, through which the child's legs are passed when the +mother wishes to put it away in some corner of the tent. The dress +itself appears not to be changed until it has become too small. In +the inner tent the children go completely naked. + +[Illustration: SNOW SHOES. + _a._ The common kind. + _b._ Intended to be used in the way shown in the drawing on the + opposite page. (One-thirteenth of the natural size.) ] + +Both men and women use snow-shoes during winter. Without them they +will not willingly undertake any long walk in loose snow. They +consider such a walk so tiresome, that they loudly commiserated one +of my crew, who had to walk without snow-shoes after drifting +weather from the village Yinretlen to the vessel, about three +kilometres distant. Finally a woman's compassion went so far that +she presented him with a pair, an instance of generosity on the part +of our Chukch friends which otherwise was exceedingly rare. The +frame of the snow-shoes is made of wood, the cross-pieces are of +strong and well-stretched thongs. This snow-shoe corresponds +completely with that of the Indians, and is exceedingly serviceable +and easy to get accustomed to. Another implement for travelling over +snow was offered by a Chukch who drove past the vessel in the +beginning of February. It consisted of a pair of immensely wide +skates of thin wood, covered with seal-skin, and raised at both +sides. I had difficulty in understanding how these broad shapeless +articles could be used with advantage until I learned from the +accompanying drawing that they may be employed as a sort of sledges. +The drawing is taken from a Japanese work, whose title when +translated runs thus: A Journey to the north part of Japan (Yezo), +1804 (No. 565 of the Japanese library I brought home with me). + +[Illustration: AN AINO MAN SKATING AFTER A REINDEER. (Japanese +drawing.) ] + +In consequence of the difficulty which the Chukch has during winter +in procuring water by melting snow over the train-oil lamp, there +can be no washing of the body at that season of the year. Faces are +however whipped clean by the drifting snow, but at the same time are +generally swollen or sore from frostbite. On the whole, the +disposition of the Chukches to cleanliness is slight, and above all, +their ideas of what is clean or unclean differs considerably from +ours. Thus the women use urine as a wash for the face. At a common +meal the hand is often used as a spoon, and after it is finished, a +bowl filled with newly-passed urine instead of water is handed round +the company for washing the hands. Change of clothes takes place +seldom, and even when the outer dress is clean, new and well cut, of +carefully-chosen beautiful skins, the under-dress is very dirty, and +vermin numerous enough, though less so than might have been +expected. Food is often eaten in a way which we consider disgusting, +a titbit, for instance, is passed from mouth to mouth. The vessels +in which food is served are used in many ways and seldom cleaned. On +the other hand it may be stated that, in order not to make a stay in +the confined tent-chamber too uncomfortable, certain rules are +strictly observed. Thus, for instance, it is not permitted in the +interior of the tent to spit on the floor, but this must be done +into a vessel which in case of necessity is used as a night-utensil. +In every outer tent there lies a specially carved reindeer horn, +with which snow is removed from the clothes, the outer _pesk_ is +usually put off before one goes into the inner tent and the shoes +are carefully freed from snow. The carpet of walrus-skin, which +covers the floor of the inner tent, is accordingly dry and clean. +Even the outer tent is swept clean and free from loose snow, and the +snow is daily shovelled away from the tent doors with a spade of +whalebone. Every article both in the outer and inner tent is laid in +its proper place, and so on. + +[Illustration: _a._ HUNTING CUP (sucking tube) + (One-fourth of the natural size.) + _b._ SNOW SCRAPER. (One-eighth of the natural size.) ] + +As ornaments glass beads are principally used, some of them being +suspended from the neck and ears, others sewed upon the hood and +other articles of dress, or plaited into the hair embroidery of very +pleasing patterns is also employed. In order to embellish the +_pesks_ strips of skin or marmots' and squirrels' tails, &c., are +sewed upon them. Often a variegated artificial tail of different +skins is fixed to the hood behind, or the skin of the hood is so +chosen that the ears of the animal project on both sides of the +head. Along with the beads are fixed amulets, wooden tongs, small +bone heads or bone figures, pieces of metal, coins, &c. One child +had suspended from its neck an old Chinese coin with a square hole +in the middle, together with a new American five-cent piece. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH WEAPONS AND HUNTING IMPLEMENTS. + 1. Harpoon (one-fifteenth of the natural size). + 2. Spear found at a grave (one-fourth). + 3. Bird sling (one-eighth). + 4. Darts with whipsling for casting them (one-seventh). + 5. Bird Dart with wooden handle for throwing (one-twelfth). + 6. Leister of bone (one-fourth). + 7. Ivory coat of mail (one-ninth). ] + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BOW AND QUIVER. +(One-eighth of the natural size.) ] + +In former times beautiful and good weapons were probably highly +prized by so warlike a people as the Chukches, but now weapons are +properly scarce antiquities, which, however, are still regarded with +a certain respect, and therefore are not readily parted with. The +lance which was found beside the corpse (fig. 2 on p. 105) shows by +its still partially preserved gold decorations that it had been +forged by the hand of an artist. Probably it has formed part of the +booty won long ago in the fights with the Cossacks. I procured by +barter an ivory coat of mail (fig. 7 on p. 105), and remains of +another. The ivory plates of the coat of mail are twelve centimetres +in length, four in breadth, and nearly one in thickness, holes being +bored at their edges for the leather thongs by which the plates are +bound together. This binding has been so arranged that the whole coat +of mail, when not in use, may be rolled together. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH ARROWS. (One-ninth of the natural size.) +_a._ An arrowhead (one-half the natural size.) ] + +Along with the spear and the coat of mail the old Chukches used the +bow for martial purposes. Now this weapon is employed only for +hunting, but it appears as if even for this purpose it would soon go +out of use. Some of the natives, however, use the bow with great +accuracy of aim. The bows which I procured commonly consisted of a +badly worked, slightly bent, elastic piece of wood, with the ends +drawn together by a skin thong. Only some old bows had a finer form. +They were larger, and made with care, for instance, they were +covered with birch-bark, and strengthened by an artistic plaiting of +sinews on the outer side. The arrows are of many kinds, partly with +bone or wooden, and partly with iron, points. Feathers are generally +wanting. The shaft is a clumsily worked piece of wood. Crossbows are +occasionally used. We have even seen bows for playthings, with +carefully made, non-pointed arrows. At the encampments near the +winter station we found a couple of percussion-lock guns, with caps, +powder and lead. They were evidently little used, and my attempt to +induce the Chukches to undertake long journeys by promises of a gun +with the necessary supply of powder and lead completely failed. When +the Chukch, who carried our letters to Nischni Kolymsk, was after +his return rewarded with a red shirt, a gun, caps, powder and ball, +he wished to exchange the gun and ammunition for an axe. + +The principal livelihood of the Chukches is derived from hunting and +fishing. Both are very abundant at certain seasons of the year, but +are less productive during the cold season, in which case, in +consequence of the little forethought of the savage, there arises +great scarcity both of food and fuel and the means of melting snow. +Of their hunting and fishing implements I cannot give so complete +accounts as I should wish, because they very carefully avoided +taking any of the _Vega's_ hunters with them on their hunting +excursions. + +The rough seal is taken with nets, made of strong seal-skin thongs. +The nets are set in summer among the ground-ices along the shore. +The animal gets entangled in the net and is suffocated, as it can no +longer come to the surface to breathe. In winter the seal is taken +partly with nets in "leads" among the ice, partly with the harpoon +when it crawls out of its hole, it is also taken by means of a noose +of thongs placed over its hole. In order to avoid the loss of the +valuable seal-blood, which is considered an extraordinary delicacy +by the Chukches, the animal is never killed by an edged tool, if +that can be avoided, but by repeated blows on the head. The bear is +killed by the lance or knife, the latter, according to the statement +of a Chukch, being the surest weapon, the walrus and the largest +kind of seals with the harpoon (fig. 1, p. 105), or a lance +resembling the Greenlander's. Even the whale is harpooned, but with +a harpoon considerably larger than the common, and to which as many +as six inflated seal-skins are fastened. In order to kill a whale a +great many such harpoons must be struck into it. Birds are taken in +snares, or killed with bird-javelins, arrows, and slings. The last +mentioned (fig. 3, p. 105) consist of a number of round balls of +bone fastened to leather thongs, which are knotted together. Some +feathers are often fixed to the knot in order to increase the +resistance of the air to this part of the sling. When the sling is +thrown the bone balls are thereby scattered in all directions, and +the probability of hitting becomes greater. Every man and boy in +summer carries with him such a sling, often bound round his head, +and is immediately prepared to cast it at flocks of birds flying +past. Common slings are also used, consisting of two thongs and a +piece of skin fastened to them. The bird-dart (fig. 5, p. 105) +completely resembles that used by the Eskimo. A kind of snare was +used by the boys at Yinretlen to catch small birds for our +zoologist. They were made of whalebone fibres. + +Fish are caught partly with nets, partly with the hook or with a +sort of leister (fig. 6, p. 105). The nets are made of sinew-thread. +I procured several of these, and was surprised at the small value +which the natives set upon them, notwithstanding the hard labour +which must have been required for preparing the thread and making +the net. The nets are also sometimes used as drift-nets. The +fishing-rod consists of a shaft only thirty centimetres long, to +which is fixed a short line made of sinews. The extreme end of the +line passes through a large sinker of ivory, to which are attached +two or three tufts each with its hook of bone only, or of bone and +copper, or bone and iron. The hook has three or four points +projecting in different directions. I have before described how the +hook is used in autumn in fishing for roach, also how the productive +fishing goes on in the neighbourhood of Tjapka. + +Even for the coast Chukch reindeer flesh appears to form an +important article of food. He probably purchases his stock of it +from the reindeer-Chukches for train-oil, skin straps, walrus tusks, +and perhaps fish. I suppose that part of the frozen reindeer blood, +which the inhabitants of the villages at our winter station used for +soup, had been obtained in the same way. Wild reindeer, or reindeer +that had run wild, were hunted with the lasso. Such animals, +however, do not appear now to be found in any large numbers on the +Chukch peninsula. + +Besides fish and flesh the Chukches consume immense quantities of +herbs and other substances from the vegetable kingdom.[283] The most +important of these are the leaves and young branches of a great many +different plants (for instance Salix, Rhodiola, &c.) which are +collected and after being cleaned are preserved in seal-skin sacks. +Intentionally or unintentionally the contents of the sacks sour +during the course of the summer. In autumn they freeze together to a +lump of the form of the stretched seal-skin. The frozen mass is cut +in pieces and used with flesh, much in the same way as we eat bread. +Occasionally a vegetable soup is made from the pieces along with +water, and is eaten warm. In the same way the contents of the +reindeer stomach is used. Algae and different kinds of roots are +also eaten, among the latter a kind of wrinkled tubers, which, as +already stated (Vol. I., p. 450) have a very agreeable taste. + +In summer the Chukches eat cloud-berries, red bilberries, and other +berries, which are said to be found in great abundance in the +interior of the country. The quantity of vegetable matter which is +collected for food at that season of the year is very considerable, +and the natives do not appear to be very particular in their choice, +if the leaves are only green, juicy, and free from any bitter taste. +When the inhabitants, in consequence of scarcity of food, removed in +the beginning of February from Pitlekaj, they carried with them +several sacks of frozen vegetables, and there were still some left +in the cellars to be taken away as required. In the tents at St. +Lawrence Bay there lay heaps of leaf-clad willow-twigs and sacks +filled with leaves and stalks of Rhodiola. The writers who quote the +Chukches as an example of a race living exclusively on substances +derived from the animal kingdom thus commit a complete mistake. On +the contrary, they appear at certain seasons of the year to be more +"graminivorous" than any other people I know, and with respect to +this their taste appears to me to give the anthropologist a hint of +certain traits of the mode of life of the people of the Stone Age +which have been completely overlooked. To judge from the Chukches +our primitive ancestors by no means so much resembled beasts of prey +as they are commonly imagined to have done, and it may, perhaps, +have been the case that "bellum omnium inter omnes" was first +brought in with the higher culture of the Bronze or Iron Age. + +The cooking of the Chukches, like that of most wild races, is very +simple. After a successful catch all the dwellers in the tent +gormandise on the killed animal, and appear to find a special +pleasure in making their faces and hands as bloody as possible. +Alternately with the raw flesh are eaten pieces of blubber and +marrow, and bits of the intestines which have been freed from their +contents merely by pressing between the fingers. Fish is eaten not +only in a raw state, but also frozen so hard that it can be broken +in pieces. When opportunity offers the Chukches do not, however, +neglect to boil their food, or to roast pieces of flesh over the +train-oil lamp--the word _roast_ ought however in this case to be +exchanged for _soot_. At a visit which Lieutenant Hovgaard made at +Najtskaj, the natives in the tent where he was a guest ate for +supper first seal-flesh soup, then boiled fish, and lastly, boiled +seal-flesh. They thus observed completely the order of eating +approved in Europe. The Chukches are unacquainted with other forks +than their fingers, and even the use of the spoon is not common. +Many carry about with them a spoon of copper, tinned iron, or bone +(fig. 8, p. 117). The soup is often drunk directly out of the +cooking vessel, or sucked up through hollow bones (see the figure on +p. 104). Those are used as dunking cups, and like the spoons +are worn in the belt. As examples of Chukch dishes I may further +mention, vegetable soup, boiled seal-flesh, boiled fish, blood soup, +soup of seal-blood and blubber. To these we may add soup from finely +crushed bones, or from seal-flesh, blubber, and bones. For crushing +the bones there is in every tent a hammer, consisting of an oval +stone with a hollow round it for a skin thong, with which the stone +is fastened to the short shaft of wood or bone. The bones which are +used for food are finely crushed with this implement against a stone +anvil or a whale's vertebra, and then boiled with water and blood, +before being eaten. At first we believed that this dish was intended +for the dogs, but afterwards I had an opportunity of convincing +myself that the natives themselves ate it, and that long before the +time when they suffered from scarcity of provisions. The hammer is +further of interest as forming one of the stone implements which are +most frequently found in graves from the Stone Age. That the hammer +was mainly intended for kitchen purposes appears from the +circumstance that the women alone had it at their disposal, and were +consulted when it was parted with. Along with such hammers there was +to be found in every tent an anvil, consisting of a whale's vertebra +or a large round stone with a bowl-formed depression worn or cut out +in the middle of it. + +[Illustration: STONE HAMMERS AND ANVIL FOR CRUSHING BONES. +(One-sixth of the natural size.) ] + +During winter a great portion of the inhabitants of Yinretlen, +Pitlekaj, and as far as from Irgunnuk, came daily on board to beg or +buy themselves provisions, and during this period they were fed +mainly by us. They soon accustomed themselves to our food. They +appeared specially fond of pea-soup and porridge. The latter they +generally laid out on a snow-drift to freeze, and then took it in +the frozen form to the tents. Coffee they did not care for unless it +was well sugared. Salt they did not use, but with sugar they were +all highly delighted. They also drank tea with pleasure. Otherwise +water forms their principal drink. They were, however, often +compelled in winter, in consequence of the difficulty of melting +over the train-oil lamps a sufficient quantity of snow, to quench +their thirst with snow. On board they often asked for water, and +drank at once large quantities of it. + +Spirits, to which they are exceedingly addicted, they call, as has +been already stated, in conversation with Europeans, "ram," the +pronouncing of the word being often accompanied by a hawking noise, +a happy expression, and a distinctive gesture, which consisted in +carrying the open right hand from the mouth to the waist, or in +counterfeiting the unintelligible talk of a drunken man. Among +themselves they call it fire-water (_akmimil_). The promise of it +was the most efficient means of getting an obstinate Chukch to +comply with one's wishes. In case they undertook to drive us with +their dog-teams, they were never desirous of finding out whether any +stock of provisions was taken along, but warned by our parsimony in +dealing out spirituous liquor, they were unwilling to start until +they had examined the stock of "ram." That drunkenness, not the +satisfying of the taste, was in this case the main object, is shown +by the circumstance that they often fixed, as price for the articles +they saw we were anxious to have, such a quantity of brandy as would +make them completely intoxicated. When on one occasion I appeared +very desirous of purchasing a fire-drill, which was found in a tent +inhabited by a newly-wedded pair, the young and very pretty +housewife undertook the negotiation, and immediately began by +declaring that her husband could not part with the fire-producing +implement unless I gave him the means of getting quite drunk, for +which, according to her statement, which was illustrated by lively +gesticulations representing the different degrees of intoxication, +eight glasses were required. Not until the man had got so many would +he be content, that is, dead drunk. I have myself observed, however, +on several occasions that two small glasses are sufficient to make +them unsteady on the legs. Under the influence of liquor they are +cheerful, merry, and friendly, but troublesome by their excessive +caressing. When in the company of intoxicated natives, one must take +good care that he does not unexpectedly get a kiss from some old +greasy seal-hunter. Even the women readily took a glass, though +evidently less addicted to intoxicants than the men. They however +got their share, as did even the youngest of the children. When, as +happened twice in the course of the winter, an encampment was +fortunate enough to get a large stock of brandy sent it from +Behring's Straits, the intoxication was general, and, as I have +already stated, the bluish-yellow eyes the next day showed that +quarrelsomeness had been called forth even among this peace-loving +people by their dear _akmimil_. During our stay at the villages +nearer Behring's Straits two murders even took place, of which one +at least was committed by an intoxicated man. + +However slight the contact the Chukches have with the world that has +reached the standpoint of the brandy industry is, this means of +enjoyment, however, appears to be the object of regular barter. Many +of the Chukches who travelled past us were intoxicated, and shook +with pride a not quite empty keg or seal-skin sack, to let us hear +by the dashing that it contained liquid. One of the crew, whom I +asked to ascertain what sort of spirit it was, made friends with the +owner, and induced him at last to part with about a thimbleful of +it, more could not be given. According to the sailor's statement it +was without colour and flavour, clear as crystal, but weak. It was +thus probably Russian corn brandy, not gin. + +During a visit which Lieutenants Hovgaard and Nordquist made in the +autumn of 1878 to the reindeer-Chukches in the interior of the +country, much diluted American gin was on the contrary presented, +and the tent-owner showed his guests a tin drinking-cup with the +inscription, "Capt. Ravens, Brig _Timandra_, 1878". Some of the +natives stated distinctly that they could purchase brandy at +Behring's Straits all the year round. All the men in the tent +village, and most of the women, but not the children, had at the +time got completely intoxicated in order to celebrate the arrival of +the foreigners, or perhaps rather that of the stock of brandy. As +there are no Europeans settled at Behring's Straits, at least on the +Asiatic side, we learn from the traffic in brandy that there are +actually natives abstemious enough to be able to deal in it. + +Tobacco is in common use, both for smoking and chewing.[284] Every +native carries with him a pipe resembling that of the Tunguse, and a +tobacco-pouch (fig 7, p. 117). The tobacco is of many kinds, both +Russian and American, and when the stock of it is finished native +substitutes are used. Preference is given to the sweet, strong +chewing tobacco, which sailors generally use. In order to make the +tobacco sweet which has not before been drenched with molasses, the +men are accustomed, when they get a piece of sugar, to break it down +and place it in the tobacco-pouch. The tobacco is often first +chewed, then dried behind the ear, and kept in a separate pouch +suspended from the neck, to be afterwards smoked. The pipes are so +small that, like those of the Japanese, they may be smoked out with +a few strong whiffs. The smoke is swallowed. Even the women and +children smoke and chew, and they begin to do so at so tender an age +that we have seen a child, who could indeed walk, but still sucked +his mother, both chew tobacco, smoke, and take a "ram". + +Some bundles of Ukraine tobacco, which I took with me for barter +with the natives, put it into my power to procure a large number of +contributions to the ethnological collection, which in the absence +of other wares for barter I would otherwise have been unable to +obtain. For the Chukches do not understand money. This is so much +the more remarkable as they carry on a very extensive trade, and +evidently are good mercantile men. According to von Dittmar (_loc. +cit._ p. 129) there exists, or still existed in 1856, a steady, +slow, but regular transport of goods along the whole north coast of +Asia and America, by which Russian goods were conveyed to the +innermost parts of Polar America, and furs instead found their way +to the bazaars of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This traffic is carried +on at five market places, of which three are situated in America, +one on the islands at Behring's Straits, and one at Anjui near +Kolyma The last-mentioned is called by the Chukches "the fifth +beaver market."[285] + +[Illustration: CHUKCH IMPLEMENTS. + 1. Scraper for currying (one-seventh of the natural size). + 2. Awls (one-half). + 3. Ice-scraper intended for decoying the seal from its hole, + with bone amulet affixed (one-half). + 4. Bone knife (one-half). + 5., 6. Amulets of bone (natural size). + 7. Pipe and tobacco pouch (one-third). + 8. Metal spoons (one-third). ] + +The Chukches' principal articles of commerce consist of seal-skin, +train-oil, fox-skins and other furs, walrus tusks, whalebone, &c. +Instead they purchase tobacco, articles of iron, reindeer skin and +reindeer flesh, and, when it can be had, spirit. A bargain is +concluded very cautiously after long-continued consultation in a +whispering tone between those present. I employed spirit as an +article for barter only in the last necessity, but they soon +observed that the desire to become owner of an uncommon article of +art or antiquity overcame my determination, and they soon learned to +avail themselves of this, especially as in all cases I made full +payment for the article and gave the fire-water into the bargain. + +The lamp (see the figures at pp. 22, 23), with which light is +maintained in the tent, consists of a flat trough of wood, bone of +the whale, soap-stone or burned clay, broader behind than before, +and divided by an isolated toothed comb into two divisions. In the +front division wicks of moss (Sphagnum sp.) are laid in a long thin +row along the whole edge. Under the lamp there is always another +vessel intended to receive the train-oil which may possibly be +spilled. + +In summer the natives also cook with wood in the open air or in the +outer tent, in winter only in the greatest necessity in the latter. +For they find the smoke, which the wood gives off in the close tent, +unendurable. Although driftwood is to be found in great abundance on +the beach, scarcity of train-oil was evidently considered by the +natives as great a misfortune as scarcity of food. _Uinqa eek_, no +fuel (properly, no fire), was the constant cry even of those who +drew loads of driftwood on board to earn bread for themselves. The +circumstance that their fuel does not give off any smoke has the +advantage that the eyes of the Chukches are not usually nearly so +much attacked as those of the Lapps. + +In the tent the women have always a watchful eye over the trimming +of the lamp and the keeping up of the fire. The wooden pins she uses +to trim the wick, and which naturally are drenched with train-oil, +are used when required as a light or torch in the outer tent, to +light pipes, &c. In the same way other pins dipped in train-oil are +used.[286] Clay lamps are made by the Chukches themselves, the clay +being well kneaded and moistened with urine. The burning is +incomplete, and is indeed often wholly omitted. + +Train-oil and other liquid wares are often kept in sacks of +seal-skin, consisting of whole hides, out of which the body has been +taken through the opening made by cutting off the head, and in which +all holes, either natural or caused by the killing of the animal, +have been firmly closed. In one of the forepaws there is then +inserted with great skill a wooden air- and water-tight cock with +spigot and faucet. In sacks intended for dry wares the paws are also +cut off, and the opening through which the contents are put in and +taken out is made right across the breast immediately below the +forepaws. + +Fire is lighted partly in the way common in Sweden some decades ago +by means of flint and steel, partly by means of a drill implement. +In the former case the steel generally consists of a piece of a file +or some other old steel tool, or of pieces of iron or steel which +have been specially forged for the purpose. Commonly the form of +this tool indicates a European or Russian-Siberian origin, but I +also acquired clumsily hammered pieces of iron, which appeared to +form specimens of native skill in forging. A Chukch showed me a +large fire-steel of the last mentioned kind, provided with a special +handle of copper beautifully polished by long-continued use. He +evidently regarded it as a very precious thing, and I could not +persuade him to part with it. On the supposition that the metal of +the clumsily hammered pieces of iron might possibly be of meteoric +origin I purchased as many of them as I could. But the examination, +to which they were subjected after our return, showed that they +contain no traces of nickel. The iron was thus not meteoric. + +The flint consists of a beautiful chalcedony or agate, which has +been formed in cavities in the volcanic rocks which occur so +abundantly in north-eastern Asia, and which probably are also found +here and there as pebbles in the beds of the _tundra_ rivers. As +tinder, are used partly the woolly hair of various animals, partly +dry fragments of different kinds of plants. The steel and a large +number of pieces of flint are kept in a skin pouch suspended from +the neck. Within this pouch there is a smaller one, containing the +tinder. It is thus kept warm by the heat of the body, and protected +from wet by its double envelope. Along with it the men often carry +on their persons a sort of match of white, well-dried, and crushed +willows, which are plaited together and placed in even rolls. This +match burns slowly, evenly, and well. + +The other sort of fire-implement consists of a dry wooden pin, which +by a common bow-drill is made to rub against a block of dry +half-blackened wood. The upper part of this pin runs in a drill +block of wood or bone. In one of the tools which I purchased, the +astragalus of a reindeer was used for this purpose. In the +light-stock holes have been made to give support to the pin, and +perhaps to facilitate the formation of the half-carbonised wood-meal +which the drilling loosens from the light-stock and in which the red +heat arises. When fire is to be lighted by means of this implement, +the lower part of the drill pin is daubed over with a little +train-oil, one foot holds the light-stock firm against the ground, +the bowstring is put round the drill pin, the left hand presses the +pin with the drill block against the light-stock, and the bow is +carried backwards and forwards, not very rapidly, but evenly, +steadily, and uninterruptedly, until fire appears. A couple of +minutes are generally required to complete the process The women +appear to be more accustomed than the men to the use of this +implement. An improved form of it consisted of a wooden pin on whose +lower part a lense-formed and perforated block of wood was fixed. +This block served as fly-wheel and weight. Across the wooden pin ran +a perforated cross-bar which was fastened with two sinews to its +upper end. By carrying this cross-bar backwards and forwards the pin +could be turned round with great rapidity. The implement appears to +me the more remarkable as it shows a new way of using the stone or +brick lenses, which are often found in graves or old house-sites +from the Stone Age. + +[Illustration: FIRE DRILL. One-eighth of the natural size. ] + +Among the Chukches, as among many other wild races, lucifer matches +have obtained the honour of being the first of the inventions of the +civilised races that have been recognised as indisputably superior +to their own. A request for lucifer matches was therefore one of the +most common of those with which our friends at Behring's Straits +tormented us during winter, and they were willing for a single box +to offer things that in comparison were very valuable. Unfortunately +we had no superfluous supply of this necessary article, or perhaps I +ought to say fortunately, for if the Chukches for some years were +able to get a couple of boxes of matches for a walrus tusk, I +believe that with their usual carelessness they would soon +completely forget the use of their own fire-implements. + +Among household articles I may further mention the following:-- + +The _hide-scraper_ (fig. 1, p. 117) is of stone or iron and fastened +to a wooden handle. With this tool the moistened hide is cleaned +very particularly, and is then rubbed, stretched, and kneaded so +carefully that several days go to the preparation of a single +reindeer skin. That this is hard work is also shown by the woman who +is employed at it in the tent dripping with perspiration. While thus +employed she sits on a part of the skin and stretches out the other +part with the united help of the hands and the bare feet. When the +skin has been sufficiently worked, she fills a vessel with her own +urine, mixes this with comminuted willow bark, which has been dried +over the lamp, and rubs the blood-warm liquid into the reindeer +skin. In order to give this a red colour on one side, the bark of a +species of Pinus (?) is mixed with the tanning liquid. The skins are +made very soft by this process, and on the inner side almost +resemble chamois leather. Sometimes too the reindeer skin is tanned +to real chamois of very excellent quality. + +[Illustration: ICE MATTOCKS. One-ninth of the natural size. ] + +Two sorts of _ice mattocks_, the shaft is of wood, the blade of the +spade-formed one of whalebone, of the others of a walrus tusk, it is +fixed to the shaft by skin thongs with great skill. + +Sometimes both the shaft and blade are of bone, fastened together in +a somewhat different way. + +_Hones_ of native clay-slate. These are often perforated at one end +and carried along with the knife, the spoon, and the sucking-tube, +fastened with an ivory tongs in the belt. + +Home-made _vessels of wood, bone of the whale, whalebone, and skin_ +of different kinds. + +_Knives, boring tools, axes and pots_ of European, American, or +Siberian origin, and in addition casks, pieces of cable, iron scrap, +preserved-meat tins, glasses, bottles, &c., obtained from ships which +have anchored along the coast. Vessels have regularly visited the +sea north of Behring's Straits only during the latest decades, and +the contact between the sailors and the Chukches has not yet exerted +any considerable influence on the mode of life of the latter. The +natives, however, complain that the whalers destroy the +walrus-hunting, while on the other hand they see with pleasure +trading vessels occasionally visiting their coasts. + +During our stay off the considerable encampment, Irkaipij, we +believed, as I have already stated, that we had found a chief in a +native named Chepurin, who, to judge by his dress, appeared to be +somewhat better off than the others, had two wives and a stately +exterior. He was accordingly entertained in the gunroom, got the +finest presents, and was in many ways the object of special +attention. Chepurin took his elevation easily, and showed himself +worthy of it by a grave and serious, perhaps somewhat condescending +behaviour, which further confirmed our supposition and naturally +increased the number of our presents. Afterwards, however, we were +quite convinced that we had in this case committed a complete +mistake, and that now there are to be found among the Chukches +living at the coast neither any recognised chiefs nor any trace of +social organisation. During the former martial period of the history +of the race the state of things here was perhaps different, but now +the most complete anarchy prevails here, if by that word we may +denote a state of society in which disputes, crimes, and punishments +are unknown, or at least exceedingly rare. [287] A sort of +chieftainship appears, at all events, to be found among the +reindeer-Chukches living in the interior of the country. At least +there are among them men who can show commmissions from the Russian +authorities. Such a man was the starost Menka, of whose visit I have +already given an account. Everything, however, indicated that his +influence was exceedingly small. He could neither read, write, nor +speak Russian, and he had no idea of the existence of a Russian +Czar. All the tribute he had delivered for several years, according +to receipts which he showed to us, consisted of some few fox-skins, +which he had probably received as market-tolls at Anjui and Markova. +Menka was attended on his visit to the vessel by two ill-clad men +with a type of face differing considerably from that common among +the Chukches. Their standing appeared to be so inferior that we took +them for slaves, although mistakenly, at least with respect to one +of them--Yettugin. He afterwards boasted that he owned a much +larger reindeer-herd than Menka's, and talked readily, with a +certain scorn, of Menka's chieftain pretensions. According to +Russian authors there are actual slaves, probably the descendants of +former prisoners of war, among the Chukches in the interior of the +country. Among the dwellers on the coast, on the contrary, there is +the most complete equality. We could never discover the smallest +trace of any man exercising the least authority beyond his own +family or his own tent. + +The coast Chukches are not only heathens, but are also, so far as we +could observe, devoid of every conception of higher beings. There +are, however, superstitions. Thus most of them wear round the neck +leather straps, to which small wooden tongs, of wooden carvings, are +fixed. These are not parted with, and are not readily shown to +foreigners. A boy had a band of beads sewed to his hood, and in +front there was fastened an ivory carving, probably intended to +represent a bear's head (fig. 6, on p. 117). It was so small, and so +inartistically cut, that a man could undoubtedly make a dozen of +them in a day. I, however, offered the father unsuccessfully a +clasp-knife and tobacco for it, but the boy himself, having heard +our bargaining, exchanged it soon after for a piece of sugar. When +the father knew this he laughed good-naturedly, without making any +attempt to get the bargain undone. + +To certain tools small wooden images are affixed, as to the scraper +figured above (fig. 3, p. 117), and similar images are found in +large numbers in the lumber-room of the tent, where pieces of ivory, +bits of agate and scrap iron, are preserved. A selection from the +large collection of such images which I made is here reproduced in +woodcuts. If, also, these carvings may, in fact, be considered as +representations of higher beings, the religious ideas which are +connected with them, even judged from the Shaman standpoint, are +exceedingly indistinct, less a consciousness, which still lives +among the people, than a reminiscence from former times. Most of the +figures bear an evident stamp of the present dress and mode of life +of the people. It appears to me to be remarkable, that in all the +bone or wood carvings I have met with, the face has been cut flatter +than it is in reality in this race of men. Some of the carvings +appear to remind me of an ancient Buddhist image. + + +[Illustration: HUMAN FIGURES. + Nos. 1, 3 and 5, represent women with tattooed faces. + No. 4 is of wood. + No. 6 of wood with eyes of tin; the rest are of ivory. ] + +The drum, or more correctly, tambourine, so common among most of the +Polar peoples, European, Asiatic, and American, among the Lapps, the +Samoyeds, the Tunguses, and the Eskimo (see drawing on p. 24), is +found in every Chukch tent. A certain superstition is also attached +to it. They did not willingly play it in our presence, and they were +unwilling to part with it. If time permitted it was concealed on our +entrance into the tent. The drum consists of the peritoneum of a +seal, stretched over a narrow wooden ring fixed to a short handle. +The drumstick consists of a splinter of whalebone 300 to 400 +millimetres long, which towards the end runs into a point so fine +and flexible, that it forms a sort of whipcord. When the thicker +part of the piece of whalebone is struck against the edge of the +drum-skin, the other end whips against the middle, and the skin is +thus struck twice at the same time. The drum is commonly played by +the man, and the playing is accompanied by a very monotonous song. +We have not seen it accompanied by dancing, twisting of the +countenance, or any other Shaman trick. + +We did not see among the Chukches we met with any Shamans. They are +described by Wrangel, Hooper, and other travellers. Wrangel states +(vol. i. p. 284) that the Shamans in the year 1814, when a severe +epidemic broke out among the Chukches and their reindeer at Anjui, +declared that in order to propitiate the spirits they must sacrifice +Kotschen, one of the most highly esteemed men of the tribe. He was +so much respected that no one would execute the sentence, but +attempts were made to get it altered, first by presents to the +prophets, and then by flogging them. But when this did not succeed, +as the disease continued to ravage, and no one would execute the +doom, Kotschen ordered his own son to do it. He was thus compelled +to stab his own father to death and give up the corpse to the +Shamans. The whole narrative conflicts absolutely with the +disposition and manners of the people with whom we made acquaintance +at Behring's Straits sixty-five years after this occurrence, and I +would be disposed to dispute entirely the truthfulness of the +statement, had not the history of our own part of the world taught +us that blood has flowed in streams for dogmatic hair-splittings, +which no one now troubles himself about. Perhaps the breath of +indifferentism has reached even the ice-deserts of the Polar lands. + +The drum has besides also another use, which appears to have little +connection with its property of Shaman psychograph or church bell. +When the ladies unravel and comb their long black hair, this is done +carefully over the drum, on whose bottom the numerous beings which +the comb brings with it from the warm hearth of home out into the +cold wide world, are collected and cracked--in case they are not +eaten up. They taste well according to the Chukch opinion, and are +exceedingly good for the breast. Even _gorm_ (the large, fully +developed, fat larva of the reindeer fly, _Oestrus tarandi_) is +pressed out of the skin of the reindeer and eaten, as well as the +full-grown reindeer fly. + +Some more of the superstitious traits which we observed among the +Chukches may here be stated. After the good hunting in February we +endeavoured without success to induce the Chukches to give us a head +or a skull of some of the seals they had killed. Even brandy was +unsuccessfully offered for it, and it was only in the greatest +secrecy that Notti, one of our best friends from Irgunnuk, dared to +give us the foetus of a seal. A raven was once shot in the +neighbourhood of the ice-house. The shot then went to the magnetical +observatory, but before he entered, laid down the shot bird, the +gun, and other articles in the before-mentioned implement chest +placed in front of the observatory. A short time after there was +great excitement before the tent. Some men, women, and children +among the natives crowded round the chest screaming and shouting. +For the Chukches had observed that the raven, having been only +stunned by the shot, had begun to scream and flutter in the chest, +and they now indicated by word and gesture that a great misfortune +was about to happen. Pity is not, as is well known, one of the good +qualities of the savage. It was clear that in this case too it was +not this feeling, but fear of the evil which the wounded crow could +bring about, that caused this scene, and when a sailor immediately +after twisted the neck of the bird, the Chukches had no objection to +receive and eat it. + +The winter of 1878-1879 appears to have been uncommonly severe, and +hunting less productive than usual. This was ascribed to our +presence. The Chukches asked us anxiously several times, whether we +intended to raise the water so high that the sea would reach their +tents. When on the 11th February, after the hunting had failed for a +long time, they succeeded at last in catching a number of seals, +they threw water in their mouths before they were carried into the +tents. This was done, they said, in order that the open "leads" in +the ice should not close too soon. + +[Illustration: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. + 1. Whistle-pipe, natural size. + 2. Whistle-instrument, one-eighth of natural size; + _a._ mouth-hole. ] + +Besides the drum the Chukches also use as a musical instrument a +piece of wood, cloven into two halves, and again united after the +crack has been somewhat widened in the middle, with a piece of +whalebone inserted between the two halves. They also during the +course of the winter made several attempts to make violins after +patterns seen on board, and actually succeeded in making a better +sounding-box than could have been expected beforehand. On the +draught-strap of the dog sledge there was often a small bell bought +from the Russians, and the reindeer-Chukches are said sometimes to +wear bells in the belt. + +The dance I saw consisted in two women or children taking each other +by the shoulders, and then hopping now on the one foot now on the +other. When many took part in the dance, they placed themselves in +rows, sang a monotonous, meaningless song, hopped in time, turned +the eyes out and in, and threw themselves with spasmodic movements, +clearly denoting pleasure and pain, now to the right, now to the +left "La saison" for dance and song, the time of slaughtering +reindeer, however, did not happen during our stay, on which account +our experience of the Chukches' abilities in this way is exceedingly +limited. + +All sport they entered into with special delight, for instance, some +trial shooting which Palander set on foot on New Year's Day +afternoon, with a small rifled cannon on the _Vega_. At first the +women sat aft with the children, far from the dreadful shooting +weapon, and indicated their feelings by almost the same gestures as +on such occasions are wont to distinguish the weaker and fairer sex +of European race. But soon curiosity took the upper hand. They +pressed forward where they could see best, and broke out in a loud +"Ho, ho, ho!" when the shot was fired and the shells exploded in the +air. + +Of what sort is the art-sense of the Chukches? As they still almost +belong to the Stone Age, and as their contact with Europeans has +been so limited that it has not perhaps conduced to alter their +taste and skill in art, this question appears to me to have a great +interest both for the historian of art, who here obtains information +as to the nature of the seed from which at last the skill of the +master has been developed in the course of ages and millenniums, and +for the archaeologist, who finds here a starting point for forming a +judgment both of the Scandinavian rock-etchings and the palaeolithic +drawings, which in recent times have played so great a part in +enabling us to understand the oldest history of the human race. We +have therefore zealously collected all that we could of Chukch +carvings, drawings, and patterns. The most remarkable of these in +one respect or another are to be found delineated in the woodcuts on +the preceding pages.[288] + +[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ] + +[Illustration: DRAWINGS MADE BY CHUKCHES. ] + +Many of the ivory carvings are old and worn, showing that they have +been long in use, probably as amulets. Various of the animal images +are the fruit of the imagination, and as such may be instructive. In +general the carvings are clumsy, though showing a distinctive style. +If we compare them with the Samoyed images we brought home with us, +it appears that the genius of the Chukches for art has reached an +incomparably higher development than that of the Polar race which +inhabits the western portion of the north coast of Asia, on the +other hand, they are in this respect evidently inferior to the +Eskimo at Port Clarence. The Chukch drawings too are roughly and +clumsily executed, but many of them exhibit a certain power of +hitting off the object. These figures appear to me to show that the +objections which have been raised to the genuineness of various +palaeolithic etchings, just on the ground of the artist's +comparatively sure hand, are not justified. Even patterns and ivory +buckles show a certain taste. Embroidery is done commonly on +red-coloured strips of skin partly with white reindeer hair, partly +with red and black wool, obtained in small quantity by barter from +Behring's Straits. The supply of colouring material is not +particularly abundant. It is obtained partly from the mineral +kingdom (limonite of different colours, and graphite), partly from +the vegetable kingdom (bark of various trees). The mineral colours +are ground with water between flat stones. Bark is probably treated +with urine. Red is the Chukches' favourite colour. + +In order to make a contribution towards an answer to the disputed +question, in what degree is the colour-sense developed among +savages, Dr. Almquist during the course of the winter instituted +comprehensive researches according to the method worked out by +Professor FR. HOLMGREN. A detailed account of these is to be found +in _The Scientific Work of the Vega Expedition_, and in various +scientific journals. Here I shall only state that Dr. Almquist gives +the following as the final result of his investigation. "That the +Chukches in general possess as good an organ for distinguishing +colours as we Swedes. On the other hand, they appear not to be +accustomed to observe colours, and to distinguish sharply any other +colour than red. They bring together all reds as something special, +but consider that green of a moderate brightness corresponds less +with a green of less brightness than with a blue of the same +brightness. In order to bring all greens together the Chukches thus +require to learn a new abstraction". Of 300 persons who were +examined, 273 had a fully developed colour-sense, nine were +completely colour-blind, and eighteen incompletely colour-blind, or +gave uncertain indications. + + +From what has been stated above it appears that the coast Chukches +are without noteworthy religion, social organisation, or government. +Had not experience from the Polar races of America taught us +differently we should have believed that with such a literally +anarchic and godless crew there would be no security for life and +property, immorality would be boundless, and the weaker without any +protection from the violence of the stronger sex. This, however, is +so far from being the case that criminal statistics have been +rendered impossible for want of crimes, if we except acts of +violence committed under the influence of liquor. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BUCKLES AND HOOKS OF IVORY. Half the natural +size. ] + +During the winter the _Vega_ was visited daily, as has been stated +in the account of the wintering, by the people from the neighbouring +villages, while our vessel at the same time formed a resting-place +for all the equipages which travelled from the western tent-villages +to the islands in Behring's Straits, and _vice versa_. Not only our +neighbours, but people from a distance whom we had never seen +before, and probably would not see again, came and went without +hindrance among a great number of objects which in their hands would +have been precious indeed. We had never any cause to regret the +confidence we placed in them. Even during the very hard time, when +hunting completely failed, and when most of them lived on the food +which was served out on board, the large _depot_ of provisions, +which we had placed on land without special watch, in case any +misfortune should befall our vessel, was untouched. On the other +hand, there were two instances in which they secretly repossessed +themselves of fish they had already sold, and which were kept in a +place on deck accessible to them. And with the most innocent +countenance in the world they then sold them over again. This sort +of dishonesty they evidently did not regard as theft but as a +permissible commercial trick. + +This was not the only proof that the Chukches consider deception in +trade not only quite justifiable, but almost creditable. While their +own things were always made with the greatest care, all that they +did specially for us was done with extreme carelessness, and they +were seldom pleased with the price that was offered, until they +became convinced that they could not get more. When they saw that we +were anxious to get ptarmigan, they offered us from their winter +stock under this name the young of _Larus eburneus_, which is marked +in the same way, but of little use as food. When I with delight +purchased this bird, which in its youthful dress is rare, and +therefore valuable to the ornithologist, a self-satisfied smile +passed over the countenance of the seller. He was evidently proud of +his successful trick. Some prejudice, as has been already stated, +prevented the Chukches from parting with the heads of the seal, +though, in order to ascertain the species existing here, we offered +a high price for them "Irgatti" (to-morrow), or "Isgatti," if the +promise was given by a woman, was the usual answer. But the promise +was never kept. At last a boy came and gave us a skull, which he +said belonged to a seal. On a more minute examination, however, it +was found not to have belonged to a seal, but to an old dog, whose +head it was evidently thought might, without any damage to the +hunting, be handed over to the white magicians. This time it went +worse with the counterfeitor than in the case of the ptarmigan +bargain. For a couple of my comrades undertook to make the boy +ashamed in the presence of the other Chukches, saying with a laugh +"that he, a Chukch, must have been very stupid to commit such a +mistake," and it actually appeared as if the scoff had in this case +fallen into good ground. Another time, while I was in my watch in +the ice-house, there came a native to me and informed me that he had +driven a man from Irgunnuk to the vessel, but that the man had not +paid him, and asked me on that account to give him a box of matches. +When I replied that he must have been already well paid on the +vessel for his drive, he said in a whining tone, "only a very little +piece of bread." He was not the least embarrassed when I only +laughed at the, as I well knew, untruthful statement, and did not +give him what he asked. + +The Chukches commonly live in monogamy; it is only exceptionally +that they have two wives, as was the case with Chepurin, who has +been already mentioned. It appeared as if the wives were faithful to +their husbands. It was only seldom that cases occurred in which +women, either in jest or earnest, gave out that they wished a white +man as a lover. A woman not exactly eminent for beauty or +cleanliness said, for instance, on one occasion, that she had had +two children by Chukches, and now she wished to have a third by one +of the ship's folk. The young women were modest, often very pretty, +and evidently felt the same necessity of attracting attention by +small coquettish artifices as Eve's daughters of European race. We +may also understand their peculiar pronunciation of the language as +an expression of feminine coquetry. For when they wish to be +attractive they replace the man's _r_-sound with a soft _s_; thus, +_korang_ (reindeer) is pronounced by the women _kosang_, _tirkir_ (the +sun) _tiskis_, and so on. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS. + 1. Dog, natural size. + 2., 3. Hares, natural size. + 4. Woman carrying her child on her shoulders, two-thirds. + 5. Mollusc from the inland lakes (Branchypus?) natural size. + 6. Monster, natural size. + 7. Fox, natural size. + 8. Animal with three heads, two-thirds. + 9. Asterid, natural size, + 10. Fish, natural size. ] + +The women work very hard. Not only the management of the children, +the cooking, the melting of the ice, the putting the tent in order, +the sewing, and other "woman's work," lie to their hand, but they +receive the catch, in winter in the tent, in summer at the beach, +cut it in pieces, help with the fishing, at least when it is in the +neighbourhood of the tent, and carry out the exceedingly laborious +tanning of the hides, and prepare thread from sinews. In summer they +collect green plants in the meadows and hill-slopes in the +neighbourhood of the tents. They are therefore generally at home, +and always busy. The men have it for their share to procure for +their family food from the animal kingdom by hunting and fishing. +With this purpose in view they are often out on long excursions. In +the tent the man is for the most part without occupation, sleeps, +eats, gossips, chats with his children, and so on, if he does not +pass the time in putting his hunting implements in order in a quite +leisurely manner. + +Within the family the most remarkable unanimity prevails, so that we +never heard a hard word exchanged, either between man and wife, +parents and children, or between the married pair who own the tent +and the unmarried who occasionally live in it. The power of the woman +appears to be very great. In making the more important bargains, +even about weapons and hunting implements, she is, as a rule, +consulted, and her advice is taken. A number of things which form +women's tools she can barter away on her own responsibility, or in +any other way employ as she pleases. When the man has by barter +procured a piece of cloth, tobacco, sugar, or such like, he +generally hands it over to his wife to keep. + +The children are neither chastised nor scolded, they are, however, +the best behaved I have ever seen. Their behaviour in the tent is +equal to that of the best-brought-up European children in the +parlour. They are not, perhaps, so wild as ours, but are addicted to +games which closely resemble those common among us in the country. +Playthings are also in use, for instance, dolls, bows, windmills +with two sails, &c. If the parents get any delicacy they always give +each of their children a bit, and there is never any quarrel as to +the size of each child's portion. If a piece of sugar is given to +one of the children in a crowd it goes from mouth to mouth round the +whole company. In the same way the child offers its father and +mother a taste of the bit of sugar or piece of bread it has got. +Even in childhood the Chukches are exceedingly patient. A girl who +fell down from the ship's stair, head foremost, and thus got so +violent a blow that she was almost deprived of hearing, scarcely +uttered a cry. A boy, three or four years of age, much rolled up in +furs, who fell down into a ditch cut in the ice on the ship's deck, +and in consequence of his inconvenient dress could not get up, lay +quietly still until he was observed and helped up by one of the +crew. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH DOLL. One-eighth of the natural size. ] + +The Chukches' most troublesome fault is a disposition to begging +that is limited by no feeling of self-respect. This is probably +counterbalanced by their unbounded hospitality and great kindness to +each other, and is, perhaps, often caused by actual necessity. But +they thus became veritable torments, putting to a hard test the +patience, not only of the scientific men and officers, but also of +the crew. The good nature with which our sailors met their demands +was above all praise. + +There was never any trace of disagreement between the natives and +us, and I have every reason to suppose that our wintering will long +be held in grateful remembrance by them, especially as, in order not +to spoil their seal-hunting, I strictly forbade all unnecessary +interference with it. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS. Seals, walrusses, a sea-bear +(the lowest figure to the left). The four lowest are of the natural +size, the others two-thirds of the natural size. ] + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS. Fishes, larvae of flies (_gorm_), +molluscs and whales. Nos. 1 to 9 and 14, natural size. Nos. 10 to 13, +two-thirds of the natural size. ] + +It is probably impossible for a Chukch to take the place of a +European workman. It has, however, happened that Chukches have gone +with whalers to the Sandwich Islands, and have become serviceable +seamen. During our wintering two young men got accustomed to come on +board and there to take a hand, in quite a leisurely way, at work of +various kinds, as sawing wood, shovelling snow, getting ice on +board, &c. In return they got food that had been left over, and +thus, for the most part, maintained not only themselves, but also +their families, during the time we remained in their neighbourhood. + +If what I have here stated be compared with Sir EDWARD PARRY'S +masterly sketches of the Eskimo at Winter Island and Iglolik, and +Dr. SIMPSON'S of the Eskimo in North-western America, or with the +numerous accounts we possess of the Eskimo in Danish Greenland, a +great resemblance will be found to exist between the natural +disposition, mode of life, failings and good qualities of the +Chukches, the savage Eskimo, and the Greenlanders. This resemblance +is so much more striking, as the Chukch and the Eskimo belong to +different races, and speak quite different languages, and, as the +former, to judge by old accounts of this people, did not, until the +most recent generations, sink to the unwarlike, peace-loving, +harmless, anarchic, and non-religious standpoint which they have now +reached. It ought to be observed, however, that in the Eskimo of +Danish Greenland no considerable alteration has been brought about +by them all having learned to read and write and profess the +Christian religion--although with an indifference to the +consequences of original sin, the mysteries of redemption, and the +punishments of hell, which all imaginable missionary zeal has not +succeeded in overcoming. Their innocent natural state has not been +altered in any considerable degree by being subjected to these +conditions of culture. It is certain besides, that the blood which +flows in the veins of the Greenlander is not pure Eskimo blood, but +is mingled with the blood of some of the proudest martial races in +the world. When we consider how rapidly, even now, when Greenland is +in constant communication with the European mother-country, all +descendants of mixed blood become complete Eskimo in language and +mode of life, how difficult it often is, even for parents of pure +European descent, to get their children to speak any other language +than that of the natives, and how they, on their part, seldom borrow +a word from the Europeans, how common mixed marriages and natives of +mixed blood are even now--in view of all this it appears to me much +more probable that Erik the Red's colonists were quietly and +peacefully converted into Eskimo, than that they were killed by the +Eskimo. A single century's complete separation from Europe would be +sufficient to carry out thoroughly this alteration of the present +European population of Greenland, and by the end of that period the +traditions of Danish rule would be very obscure in that land. +Perhaps some trifling quarrel between a ruler of the colony and a +native would take the foremost place among the surviving traditions, +and be interpreted as a reminiscence from a war of extermination. + +[Illustration: CHUKCH BONE CARVINGS OF BIRDS. Size of the originals. ] + +Even the present Chukches form, without doubt, a mixture of several +races, formerly savage and warlike, who have been driven by foreign +invaders from south to north, where they have adopted a common +language, and on whom the food-conditions of the shore of the Polar +Sea, the cold, snow, and darkness of the Arctic night, the pure, +light atmosphere of the Polar summer, have impressed their +ineffaceable stamp, a stamp which meets us with little variation, +not only among the people now in question, but also--with the +necessary allowance for the changes, not always favourable, caused +by constant intercourse with Europeans--among the Lapps of +Scandinavia and the Samoyeds of Russia. + +It would be of great psychological interest to ascertain whether the +change which has taken place in a peaceful direction is progress or +decadence. Notwithstanding all the interest which the honesty, +peaceableness, and innocent friendliness of the Polar tribes have +for us, it is my belief that the answer must be--_decadence_. For it +strikes us as if we witness here the conversion of a savage, coarse, +and cruel man into a being, nobler, indeed, but one in whom just +those qualities which distinguish man from the animals, and to which +at once the great deeds and the crimes of humanity have been due, +have been more and more effaced, and who, if special protection or +specially favourable circumstances be absent, will not be able to +maintain the struggle for existence with new races that may seek to +force their way into the country. + + +[Footnote 271: The north coast of America still forms the haunt of a +not inconsiderable Eskimo population which, for a couple of +centuries, has extended to the 80th degree of latitude. As the +climate in the north part of the Old World differs little from that +which prevails in corresponding regions of the New, as at both +places there is an abundant supply of fish, and as the seal and +walrus hunting--at least between the Yenisej and the Chatanga--ought +to be as productive as on the north coast of America, this +difference, which has arisen only recently, is very striking. It +appears to me to be capable of explanation in the following way. +Down to our days a large number of small savage tribes in America +have carried on war with each other, the weaker, to escape +extermination by the more powerful races, being compelled to flee to +the ice deserts of the north, deeming themselves fortunate if they +could there, in peace from their enemies, earn a living by adopting +the mode of life of the Polar races, suitable as it is to the +climate and resources of the land. The case was once the same in +Siberia, and there are many indications that fragments of conquered +tribes have been in former times driven up from the south, not only +to the north coast of the mainland, but also beyond it to the +islands lying off it. In Siberia, however, for the last 250 years, +the case has been completely changed by the Russian conquest of the +country. The pressure of the new government has, notwithstanding +many single acts of violence, been on the whole less destructive to +the original population than the influence which the Europeans have +exerted in America. The Russian power has at least held a wholly +beneficial influence, inasmuch as it has prevented the continual +feuds between the native races. The tribes driven to the +inhospitable North have been enabled to return to milder regions, +and where this has not taken place they have, in the absence of new +migrations from the South, succumbed in the fight with cold, hunger, +and small-pox, or other diseases introduced by their new masters. ] + +[Footnote 272: Cornelis de Bruin, _Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie +en Indie_, &c., Amsterdam, 1711, p. 12. The author's name is also +written De Bruyn and Le Brun. ] + +[Footnote 273: Herodotus already states in book iv. chapter 196, that +the Carthagenians bartered goods in the same way with a tribe living +on the coast of Africa beyond the Gates of Hercules. The same mode +of barter was still in use nearly two thousand years later, when the +west coast of Africa was visited by the Venetian Cadamosto, in 1454 +(_Ramusio_, i., 1588, leaf 100). ] + +[Footnote 274: As security for the subjection of the conquered races, +the Russians were accustomed to take a number of men and women from +their principal families as hostages. These persons were called +_amanates_, and were kept in a sort of slavery at the fixed winter +dwellings of the Russians. ] + +[Footnote 275: The work is a translation made at Tobolsk by Swedish +officers, prisoners of war from the battle of Pultava, from a Tartan +manuscript by Abulgasi Bayadur Chan. The original manuscript (?) is +in the library at Upsala, to which it was presented in 1722 by +Lieutenant-Colonel Schoenstroem. The translation has notes by +Bentinck, a Dutchman by birth, who was also taken prisoner in the +Swedish service at Pultava. ] + +[Footnote 276: Luetke says (Erman's _Archiv_, iii. p. 464) that the +peaceful relations with the Chukches begin after the conclusion of a +peace which was brought about ten years after the abandonment of +Anadyrsk, where for thirty-six years there had been a garrison of +600 men, costing over a million roubles. This peace this formerly so +quarrelsome people has kept conscientiously down to our days with +the exception of some market brawls, which induced Treskin, +Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, to conclude with them, in 1817, +a commercial treaty which appears to have been faithfully adhered +to, to the satisfaction and advantage of both parties (_Dittmar_, p. +128). ] + +[Footnote 277: Mueller has likewise saved from oblivion some other +accounts regarding the Chukches, collected soon after at Anadyrsk. +When we now read these accounts, we find not only that the Chukches +knew the Eskimo on the American side, but also stories regarding the +Indians of Western America penetrated to them, and further, through +the authorities in Siberia, came to Europe, a circumstance which +deserves to be kept in mind in judging of the writings of Herodotus +and Marco Polo. ] + +[Footnote 278: Sauer, _An Account_, &c., pp. 255 and 319. Sarytschev, +_Reise, uebersetzt von Busse_, ii. p. 102. ] + +[Footnote 279: _Ueber die Koriaeken und die ihnen sehr nahe verwandten +Tschuktschen_ (Bulletin historico-philologique de l'Academie de St. +Petersbourg, t. xiii., 1856, p. 126.) ] + +[Footnote 280: That the Chukches burn their dead with various +ceremonies is stated by Sarytschev on the ground of communications +by the interpreter Daurkin, who lived among the reindeer-Chukches +from 1787 to 1791, in order to learn their language and customs, and +to announce the arrival of Billings' expedition (Sarytschev's +_Reise_, ii. p. 108). The statement is thus certainly quite +trustworthy. The coast population with whom Hooper came in contact, +on the other hand, laid out their dead on special stages, where the +corpses were allowed to be eaten up by ravens or to decay (_loc. +cit._ p. 88). ] + +[Footnote 281: If the runners are not shod with ice in this way the +friction between them and the hard snow is very great during severe +cold, and the draught accordingly exceedingly heavy. ] + +[Footnote 282: Nearly all the travellers from a great distance who +passed the _Vega_ had their dogs harnessed in this way. On the other +hand, Sarytschev says that at St. Lawrence Bay all the dogs were +harnessed abreast, and that this was the practice at Moore's winter +quarters at Chukotskojnos is shown by the drawing at p. 71 of +Hooper's work, already quoted. We ought to remember that at both +these places the population were Eskimos who had adopted the Chukch +language. The Greenland Eskimo have their dogs harnessed abreast, +the Kamchadales in a long row. Naturally dogs harnessed abreast are +unsuitable for wooded regions. The different methods of harnessing +dogs mentioned here, therefore, indicate that the Eskimo have lived +longer than the Chukches north of the limit of trees. ] + +[Footnote 283: An exhaustive treatise on the food-substances which +the Chukches gather from the vegetable kingdom, written by Dr. +Kjellman, is to be found in _The Scientific Work of the Vega +Expedition_. Popov already states that the Chukches eat many +berries, roots, and herbs (_Mueller_, iii. p. 59). ] + +[Footnote 284: Already, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, +all the Siberian tribes, men and women, old and young, smoked +passionately (_Hist. Genealog. des Tartares_, p. 66). ] + +[Footnote 285: Dr. John Simpson gives good information regarding the +American markets in his _Observations on the Western Esquimaux_. He +enumerates three market places in America besides that at Behring's +Straits. At the markets people are occupied also with dancing and +games, which are carried on in such a lively manner that the market +people scarcely sleep during the whole time. Matiuschin gives a very +lively sketch of the market at Anjui, to which, in 1821, the +Chukches still went fully armed with spears, bows, and arrows +(Wrangel's _Reise_, i. p. 270), and a visit to it in 1868 is +described by C. von Neumann, who took part as Astronomer in von +Maydell's expedition to Chukch Land (_Eine Messe im Hochnorden; Das +Ausland_ 1880, p. 861). ] + +[Footnote 286: I have seen such pins, also oblong stones, sooty at +one end, which, after having been dipped in train-oil, have been +used as torches, laid by the side of corpses in old Eskimo graves in +north-western Greenland. ] + +[Footnote 287: In the accounts which were collected regarding the +Chukches at Anadyrsk in the beginning of the eighteenth century, it +is also stated that they lived without any government On the +contrary, in M. von Krusenstern's _Voyage autour du monde, +1803-1806_ (Paris, 1821, ii. p. 151), a report of Governor +Koscheleff is given on some negotiations which he had with a "chief +of the whole Chukch nation". I take it for granted that the +chiefship was of little account, and Koscheleff's whole sketch of +his meeting with the supposed chief bears an altogether too lively +European romantic stamp to be in any degree true to nature. At the +same place it is also said that a brother of Governor Koscheleff, in +the winter of 1805-1806, made a journey among the Chukches, on +which, after his return, he sent a report, accompanied by a Chukch +vocabulary, to von Krusenstern. ] + +[Footnote 288: The originals of the drawings reproduced in the +woodcuts are made on paper, part with the lead pencil, part with red +ochre. The different groups represent _on the first page_--1, a +dog-team; 2, 3, whales; 4, hunting the Polar bear and the walrus; 5, +bullhead and cod; 6, man fishing; 7, hare-hunting; 8, birds; 9, +wood-chopper; 10, man leading a reindeer; 11, walrus hunt--7 and 9 +represent Europeans. _On the second page_--1, a reindeer train; 2, a +reindeer taken with a lasso by two men; 3, a man throwing a harpoon; +4, seal hunt from boat; 5, bear hunt; 6, the man in the moon; 7, man +leading a reindeer; 8, reindeer; 9, Chukch with staff and an archer; +10, reindeer with herd; 11, reindeer; 12, two tents, man riding on a +dog sledge, &c. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + The development of our knowledge of the north coast of Asia-- + Herodotus--Strabo--Pliny--Marco Polo--Herberstein's map-- + The conquest of Siberia by the Russians--Deschnev's voyages-- + Coast navigation between the Lena and the Kolyma--Accounts of + islands in the Polar Sea and old voyages to them-- + The discovery of Kamchatka--The navigation of the Sea of Okotsk + is opened by Swedish prisoners-of-war--The Great Northern + Expedition--Behring--Schalaurov--Andrejev's Land--The New + Siberian islands--Hedenstroem's expeditions--Anjou and Wrangel + --Voyages from Behring's Straits westward--Fictitious Polar + voyages. + + +Now that the north-eastern promontory of Asia has been at last +circumnavigated, and vessels have thus sailed along all the coasts +of the old world, I shall, before proceeding farther in my sketch of +the voyage of the _Vega_, give a short account of the development of +our knowledge of the north coast of Asia. + +Already in primitive times the Greeks assumed that all the countries +of the earth were surrounded by the ocean. STRABO, in the first +century before Christ, after having shown that HOMER favoured this +view, brings together in the first chapter of the First Book of his +geography reasons in support of it in the following terms:-- + + "In all directions in which man has penetrated to the + uttermost boundary of the earth, he has met the sea, that + is, the ocean. He has sailed round the east coast towards + India, the west coast towards Iberia and Mauritia, and a + great part of the south and north coast. The remaining + portion which has not yet been sailed round in consequence + of the voyages which have been undertaken from both sides + not having been connected, is inconsiderable. For those who + have attempted to circumnavigate the earth and have turned, + declare that their undertaking did not fail in consequence + of their having met with land, but in consequence of want + of provisions and of complete timidity. + + At sea they could always have gone further. This view (that + the earth is surrounded by water) also accords better with + the phenomena of the tides, for as the ebb and flow are + everywhere the same, or at least do not vary much, the + cause of this motion is to be sought for in a single + ocean."[289] + +But if men were thus agreed that the north coast of Asia and Europe +was bounded by the sea, there was for sixteen hundred years after +the birth of Christ no actual knowledge of the nature of the Asiatic +portion of this line of coast. Obscure statements regarding it, +however, were current at an early period. + +While HERODOTUS, in the forty-fifth chapter of his Fourth Book, +expressly says that no man, so far as was then known, had discovered +whether the eastern and northern countries of Europe are surrounded +by the sea, he gives in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters +of the same book the following account of the countries lying to the +north-east:-- + + "As far as the territory of the Scythians all the land + which we have described is an uninterrupted plain, with + cultivable soil, but beyond that the ground is stony and + rugged. And on the other side of this extensive stone-bound + tract there live at the foot of a high mountain-chain men + who are bald from their birth, both men and women, they are + also flat-nosed and have large chins. They speak a peculiar + language, wear the Scythian dress and live on the fruit of + a tree. The tree on which they live is called _Ponticon_, + is about as large as the wild fig-tree, and bears fruit + which resembles a bean, but has a kernel. When this fruit + is ripe, they strain it through a cloth, and the juice + which flows from it is thick and black and called _aschy_. + This juice they suck or drink mixed with milk, and of the + pressed fruits they make cakes which they eat, for they + have not many cattle because the pasture is poor. As far as + to these bald people the land is now sufficiently well + known, also the races on this side of them, because they + are visited by Scythians. From them it is not difficult to + collect information, which is also to be had from the + Greeks at the port of the Borysthenes and other ports in + Pontus. The Scythians who travel thither do business with + the assistance of seven interpreters in seven languages. So + far our knowledge extends. But of the land on the other + side of the bald men none can give any trustworthy account + because it is shut off by a separating wall of lofty + trackless mountains, which no man can cross. But these bald + men say--which, however, I do not believe--that men with + goat's feet live on the mountains, and on the other side of + them other men who sleep six months at a time. The latter + statement, however, I cannot at all admit. On the other + hand, the land east of the bald men, in which the Issedones + live, is well known, but what is farther to the north, both + on the other side of the bald men and of the Issedones, is + only known by the statements of these tribes. Above the + Issedones live the one-eyed men, and the gold-guarding + griffins. This information the Scythians have got from the + Issedones and we from the Scythians, and we call the + one-eyed race by the Scythian name Arimaspi, for in the + Scythian language _arima_ signifies one and _spou_ the eye. + The whole of the country which I have been speaking of has + so hard and severe a winter, that there prevails there for + eight months an altogether insupportable cold, so that if + you pour water on the ground you will not make mud, but if + you light a fire you will make mud. Even the sea freezes, + and the whole Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Scythians who + live within the trench travel on the ice and drive over it + in waggons. . . . Again, with reference to the feathers + with which the Scythians say the air is filled, and which + prevent the whole land lying beyond from being seen or + travelled through, I entertain the following opinion. In + the upper parts of this country it snows continually, but, + as is natural, less in summer than in winter. And whoever + has seen snow falling thick near him will know what I mean. + For snow resembles feathers, and on account of the winter + being so severe the northern parts of this continent cannot + be inhabited. I believe then that the Scythians and their + neighbours called snow feathers, on account of the + resemblance between them. This is what is stated regarding + the most remote regions." + +These and other similar statements, nowithstanding the absurdities +mixed up with them, are founded in the first instance on the +accounts of eye-witnesses, which have passed from mouth to mouth, +from tribe to tribe, before they were noted down. Still several +centuries after the time of Herodotus, when the Roman power had +reached its highest point, little more was known of the more remote +parts of north Asia. While Herodotus, in the two hundred and third +chapter of his First Book, says that "the Caspian is a sea by itself +having no communication with any other sea," Strabo, induced by +evidence furnished by the commander of a Greek fleet in that sea, +states (Book II. chapters i. and iv.) that the Caspian is a gulf of +the Northern Ocean, from which it is possible to sail to India PLINY +THE ELDER (_Historia Naturalis_, Book VI. chapters xiii. and xvii.) +states that the north part of Asia is occupied by extensive deserts +bounded on the north by the Scythian Sea, that these deserts run out +to a headland, _Promontorium Scythicum_, which is uninhabitable on +account of snow. Then there is a land inhabited by man-eating +Scythians, then deserts, then Scythians again, then deserts with +wild animals to a mountain ridge rising out of the sea, which is +called _Tabin_. The first people that are known beyond this are the +Seri. PTOLEMY and his successors again supposed, though perhaps not +ignorant of the old statement that Africa had been circumnavigated +under Pharaoh Necho, that the Indian Ocean was an inland sea, +everywhere surrounded by land, which united southern Africa with the +eastern part of Asia, an idea which was first completely abandoned +by the chartographers of the fifteenth century after the +circumnavigation of Africa by VASCO DA GAMA. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD, SAID TO BE OF THE TENTH CENTURY. +Found in a manuscript of the twelfth century in the Library at +Turin. (From Santarem's Atlas.) ] + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD SHOWING ASIA TO BE CONTINUOUS WITH +AFRICA. (From Nicolai Doni's edition of _Ptolemaei Cosmographia_, Ulm. +1482.) ] + +The knowledge of the geography of north Asia remained at this point +until MARCO POLO,[290] in the narrative of his remarkable journeys +among the peoples of Middle Asia, gave some information regarding +the most northerly lands of this quarter of the world also. The +chapters which treat of this subject bear the distinctive titles: +"On the land of the Tartars living in the north," "On another region +to which merchants only travel in waggons drawn by dogs," and "On +the region where darkness prevails" (_De regione tenebrarum_). From +the statements in these chapters it follows that hunters and traders +already inhabited or wandered about in the present Siberia, and +brought thence valuable furs of the black fox, sable, beaver, &c. +The northernmost living men were said to be handsome, tall and +stout, but very pale for want of the sun. They obeyed no king or +chief, but were coarse and uncivilised and lived as beasts[291]. +Among the products of the northern countries white bears are +mentioned, from which it appears that at that time the hunters had +already reached the coast of the Polar Sea. But Marco Polo nowhere +says expressly that Asia is bounded on the north by the sea. + +All the maps of North Asia which have been published down to the +middle of the sixteenth century, are based to a greater or less +extent on interpretations of the accounts of Herodotus, Pliny, and +Marco Polo. When they do not surround the whole Indian Ocean with +land, they give to Asia a much less extent in the north and east +than it actually possesses, make the land in this direction +completely bounded by sea, and delineate two headlands projecting +towards the north from the mainland. To these they give the names +_Promontorium Scythicum_ and _Tabin_, and they besides place in the +neighbourhood of the north coast a large island to which they give +the name that already occurs in Pliny, _Insula Tazata_, which +reminds us, perhaps by an accidental resemblance of sound, of the +name of the river and bay, Tas, between the Ob and the Yenisej. +Finally, the borders of the maps are often adorned with pictures of +wonderfully formed men, whose dwellings the hunters placed in those +regions, the names being at the same time given of a larger or +smaller number of peoples and cities mentioned by Marco Polo. + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE WORLD AFTER FRA MAURO FROM THE MIDDLE OF +THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. (From Il mappamondo di Fra Mauro Camaldolese +descritto ed illustrato da D. Placido Zurla, Venezia, 1806.) ] + +[Illustration: HERBERTSTERN'S MAP OF RUSSIA, 1550 (photo-lithographic +facsimile). ] + +On the whole, the voyages of the Portuguese to India and the Eastern +archipelago, the discovery of America and the first circumnavigation +of the globe, exerted little influence on the current ideas +regarding the geography of North Asia. A new period in respect of +our knowledge of this part of the old world first began with the +publication of HERBERSTEIN'S _Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii_, +Vindobonae 1549[292]. This work has annexed to it a map with the +title "Moscovia Sigismundi liberi baronis in Herberstein Neiperg et +Gutnhag. Anno MDXLIX. Hanc tabulam absolvit AUG. HIRSFOGEL Viennae +Austriae cum gra. et privi. imp.,"[293] which indeed embraces only a +small part of Siberia, but shows that a knowledge of North Russia +now began to be based on actual observations. A large gulf, marked +with the name Mare Glaciale (the present White Sea) here projects +into the north coast of Russia, from the south there falls into it a +large river, called the Dwina. On the banks of the Dwina there are +forts or towns with the names Solovoka (Solovets), Pinega, Colmogor, +&c. There are to be found on the map besides, the names Mesen, +Peczora, Oby,[294] Tumen, &c. Oby runs out of a large lake named +Kythay lacus. In the text, mention is made of Irtisch and +Papingorod, of walruses and white bears[295] by the coast of the +Polar Sea, of the Siberian cedar-tree, of the word Samoyed +signifying self-eaters, &c.[296] The walrus is described in great +detail. It is mentioned further that the Russian Grand Duke sent +out two men, SIMEON THEODOROVITSCH KURBSKI and Knes PIETRO UCHATOI, +to explore the lands east of the Petchora, &c. + +Herberstein's work, where the narrative of Istoma's circumnavigation +of the northern extremity of Europe, which has been already quoted, +is to be found, was published only a few years before the first +north-east voyages of the English and the Dutch, of which I have +before given a detailed account. Through these the northernmost part +of European Russia and the westernmost part of the Asiatic Polar Sea +were mapped, but an actual knowledge of the north coast of Asia in +its entirety was obtained through the conquest of Siberia by the +Russians. It is impossible here to give an account of the campaigns, +by which the whole of this enormous territory was brought under the +sceptre of the Czar of Moscow, or of the private journeys for sport, +trade, and the collecting of tribute, by which this conquest was +facilitated. But as nearly every step which the Russian invaders +took forward, also extended the knowledge of regions previously +quite unknown, I shall mention the years in which during this +conquest the most important occurrences in a geographical point of +view took place, and give a later more detailed account of the +exploratory or military expeditions which led directly to important +results affecting the extension of our knowledge of the geography of +the region now in question. + +The way was prepared for the conquest of Siberia through peaceful +commercial treaties[297] which a rich Russian peasant ANIKA, ancestor +of the STROGANOV family, entered into with the wild races settled in +Western Siberia, whom he even partially induced to pay a yearly +tribute to the Czar of Moscow. In connection with this he and his +sons, in the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained large grants +of land on the rivers Kama and Chusovaja and their tributaries, with +the right to build towns and forts there, whereby their riches, +previously very considerable, were much increased. The family's +extensive possessions, however, were threatened in 1577 by a great +danger, when a host of Cossack freebooters, six to seven thousand +strong, under the leadership of YERMAK TIMOFEJEV, took flight to the +country round Chusovaja in order to avoid the troops which the Czar +sent to subdue them and punish them for all the depredations they +had committed on the Don, the Caspian Sea and the Volga. In order to +get rid of the freebooters, MAXIM STROGANOV, Anika's grandson, not +only provided Yermak and his men with the necessary sustenance, but +supported in every way the bold adventurer's plan of entering on a +campaign for the conquest of Siberia. This was begun in 1579. In +1580 Yermak passed the Ural, and after several engagements marched +in particular against the Tartars living in Western Siberia, along +the rivers Tagil and Tura to Tjumen, and thence in 1581 farther +along the Tobol and Irtisch to Kutschum Khan's residence Sibir, +situated in the neighbourhood of the present Tobolsk. It was this +fortress, long since destroyed, which gave its name to the whole +north part of Asia. + +From this point the Russians, mainly following the great rivers, and +passing from one river territory to another at the places where the +tributaries almost met, spread out rapidly in all directions. Yermak +himself indeed was drowned on the 16th August, 1584, in the river +Irtisch, but the adventurers who accompanied him overran in a few +decades the whole of the enormous territory lying north of the +deserts of Central Asia from Ural to the Pacific, everywhere +strengthening their dominion by building _Ostrogs_, or small +fortresses, at suitable places. It was the noble fur-yielding +animals of the extensive forests of Siberia which played the same +part with the Russian _promyschleni_, as gold with the Spanish +adventurers in South America. + +At the close of the sixteenth century the Cossacks had already +possessed themselves of the greater part of the river territory of +the Irtisch-Ob, and sable-hunters had already gone as far +north-east[298] as the river Tas, where the sable-hunting was at one +time very productive and occasioned the founding of a town, +Mangasej, which however was soon abandoned. In 1610 the Russian +fur-hunters went from the river territory of the Tas to the Yenisej, +where the town Turuchansk was soon after founded on the Turuchan, a +tributary of the Yenisej. The attempt to row down in boats from this +point to the Polar Sea, with the view of penetrating farther along +the sea coast, failed in consequence of ice obstacles, but led to +the discovery of the river Pjaesina and to the levying of tribute +from the Samoyeds living there. To get farther eastward the +tributaries of the Yenisej were made use of instead of the sea +route. Following these the Russians on the upper course of the +Tunguska met with the mountain ridge which separates the river +territory of the Yenisej from that of the Lena. This ridge was +crossed, and on the other side of it a new stream was met with, +which in the year 1627 led the adventurers to the Lena, over whose +river territory the Cossacks and fur-hunters, faithful to then +customs, immediately spread themselves in order to hunt, purchase +furs, and above all to impose "jassak" upon the tribes living +thereabouts. But they were not satisfied with this. Already in 1636 +the Cossack ELISEJ BUSA was sent out with an express commission to +explore the rivers beyond, falling into the Polar Sea, and to render +tributary the natives living on their banks. He was accompanied by +ten Cossacks, to whose company forty fur-hunters afterwards attached +themselves. In 1637 he came to the western mouth-arm of the Lena, +from which he went along the coast to the river Olenek, where he +passed the winter. Next year he returned by land to the Lena, and +built there two "kotsches,"[299] in which he descended the river to +the Polar Sea. After five days' successful rowing along the coast to +the eastward he discovered the mouth of the Yana. After three days' +march up the river he fell in with a Yakut tribe, from whom he got a +rich booty of sable and other furs. Here he passed the winter of +1638-39, here too he built himself a new craft, and again starting +for the Polar Sea, he came to another river falling into the eastern +mouth-arm of the Yana, where he found a Yukagir tribe, living in +earth huts, with whom he passed two years more, collecting tribute +from the tribes living in the neighbourhood. + +At the same time IVANOV POSTNIK discovered by land the river +Indigirka. As usual, tribute was collected from the neighbouring +Yukagir tribes, yet not without fights, in which the natives at +first directed their weapons against the horses the Cossacks had +along with them, thinking that the horses were more dangerous than +the men. They had not seen horses before. A _simovie_ was +established, at which sixteen Cossacks were left behind. They built +boats, sailed down the river to the Polar Sea to collect tribute, +and discovered the river Alasej. + +Some years after the river Kolyma appears to have been discovered, +and in 1644 the Cossack, MICHAILO STADUCHIN, founded on that river a +_simovie_, which afterwards increased to a small town, Nischni +Kolymsk. Here Staduchin got three pieces of information which +exerted considerable influence on later exploratory expeditions, for +he acquired knowledge of the Chukches, at that time a military race, +who possessed the part of North Asia which lay a little further to +the east. Further, the natives and the Russian hunters, who swarmed +in the region before Staduchin, informed him that in the Polar Sea +off the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka there was a large +island, which in clear weather could be seen from land, and which +the Chukches reached in winter with reindeer sledges in one day from +Chukotska, a river debouching in the Polar Sea east of the Kolyma. +They brought home walrus tusks from the island, which was of +considerable size, and the hunters supposed "that it was a +continuation of Novaya Zemlya, which is visited by people from +Mesen." Wrangel is of opinion that this account refers to no other +than Krestovski Island, one of the Bear Islands. This, however, +appears to me to be improbable. It is much more likely that it +refers partly to the New Siberian Islands, partly to Wrangel Land, +and perhaps even to America. That the Russians themselves had not +then discovered Ljachoff's, or as it was then also called, Blischni +Island, which lies so near the mainland, and is so high that it is +impossible to avoid seeing it when one in clear weather sails past +Svjatoinos, which lies east of the Yana, is a proof that at that +time they had not sailed along the coast between the mouths of the +Yana and the Indigirka. Finally, a great river, the Pogytscha, was +spoken of, which could be reached in three or four days' sailing +eastward from the mouth of the Kolyma. This was the first account +which reached the conquerors of Siberia of the great river Anadyr +which falls into the Pacific. + +These accounts were sufficient to incite the Cossacks and hunters to +new expeditions. The beginning was made by ISAI IGNATIEV from Mesen, +who, along with several hunters, travelled down the Kolyma in 1646 +to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. The sea was +full of ice, but next the land there was an open channel, in which +the explorers sailed two days. They then came to a bay, near whose +shore they anchored. Here the Russians had their first meeting with +the Chukches, to which reference has already been made. Hence +Ignatiev returned to the Kolyma, and the booty was considered so +rich and his account of his journey so promising, that preparations +were immediately made in order next year to send off a new maritime +expedition fitted out on a larger scale to the coast of the Polar +Sea. + +This time FEODOT ALEXEJEV from Kolmogor was chief of the expedition, +but along with him was sent, at the request of the hunters, a +Cossack in the Russian service in order to guard the rights of the +crown. His name was SIMEON IVANOV SIN DESCHNEV; in geographical +writings he is commonly known under the name of DESCHNEV. It was +intended to search for the mouth of the great river lying towards +the east, regarding which some information had been obtained from +the natives, and which was believed to fall into the Polar Sea. The +first voyage in 1647, with four vessels, was unsuccessful, it is +said, because the sea was blocked with ice. But that this was not +the real reason is shown by the fact that a new and larger +expedition was fitted out the following year with full expectation +of success. The crews of the four boats had more probably been +considered too weak a force to venture among the Chukches, and the +ice had to bear the blame of the retreat. What man could not +reproach the conquerors of Siberia with, was pusillanimity and want +of perseverance in carrying out a plan which had once been sketched. +Resistance always increased their power of action; so also now. +Seven boats were fitted out the following year, 1648, all which were +to sail down to the Polar Sea, and then along the coast eastwards. +The object was to examine closely the unknown land and people there, +and to their own advantage and the extension of the Russian power, +to collect tribute from the tribes met with during the expedition. +Mueller states that every boat was manned with about thirty men--a +number which appears to me somewhat exaggerated, if we consider the +nature of the Siberian craft and the difficulty of feeding so large +a number either with provisions earned along with them or obtained +by hunting. + +Four of the boats are not mentioned further in the narrative; they +appear to have returned at an early period. The three others, on the +contrary, made a highly remarkable journey. The commanders of them +were the Cossacks, GERASIM ANKUDINOV and SIMEON DESCHNEV, and the +hunter FEODOT ALEXEJEV. Deschnev entertained such hopes of success +that before his departure he promised to collect a tribute of seven +times forty sable skins. The Siberian archives, according to Miller, +contain the following details.[300] + +On 30/20th June, 1648, a start was made from the Kolyma. The sea was +open, at least the boats came without any adventure which Deschnev +thought worth the trouble of noting in his narrative to Great +Chukotskojnos. Of this cape Deschnev says that it is quite different +from the cape at the river Chukotskaja. For it lies between north +and north-east, and bends with a rounding towards the Anadyr. On the +Russian side a rivulet runs into the sea, at which the Chukches had +raised a heap of whales' bones. Right off the cape lie two islands, +on which people of Chukch race with perforated lips were seen. From +this cape it is possible with a favourable wind to sail to the +Anadyr in three days, and the way is not longer by land, because the +Anadyr falls into a gulf of the sea. At Chukotskojnos or, according +to Wrangel at a "holy promontory," Svjatoinos (Serdze Kamen?) +previously reached, Ankudinov's craft was shipwrecked. The crew were +saved, and distributed on Deschnev's and Alexejev's boats. On the +30/20th September the Russians had a fight with the Chukches living +on the coast, in which fight Alexejev was wounded. Soon after +Deschnev's and Alexejev's "kotsches" were parted never to meet +again. + +Deschnev was driven about by storms and head-winds until past the +beginning of October. Finally his vessel stranded near the mouth of +the river Olutorsk, in 61 deg. N.L. Hence he marched with his +twenty-five men to the Anadyr. He had expected to meet with some +natives in its lower course, but the region was uninhabited, which +caused the invaders much trouble, because they suffered from want of +provisions. Although Deschnev could not obtain from the natives any +augmentation of the certainly very small supply of food which he +carried with him, he succeeded nevertheless in passing the winter in +that region. First in the course of the following summer did he fall +in with natives, from whom a large tribute was collected, but not +without fierce conflicts. A _simovie_ was built at the place where +afterwards Anadyrski Ostrog was founded. While Deschnev remained +here, at a loss as to how, when the boats were broken up, he would +be able to return to the Kolyma, or find a way thither by land, +there came suddenly on the 5th May/25th April 1650, a new party of +hunters to his winter hut. + +For the accounts of islands in the Polar Sea, and of the river +Pogytscha, which was said to fall into the sea three or four days' +journey beyond the Kolyma, had led to the sending out of another +expedition under the Cossack STADUCHIN. He started from Yakutsk in +boats on the 15th/5th June, 1647, wintered on the Yana, travelled +thence in sledges to Indigirka, and there again built boats in which +he rowed to the Kolyma. It is to be observed that Staduchin, just +because he preferred the land-route to the sea-route between the +Yana and the Indigirka, missed discovering the large island in the +Polar Sea, of which so much has been said. Next summer (1649) +Staduchin again sailed down the river Kolyma to the sea, and then +for seven days along its coast eastwards, without finding the mouth +of the river sought for by him. He therefore returned with his +object unaccomplished, carrying with him a heap of walrus-tusks, +which were sent to Yakutsk as an appendix to a proposal to send out +hunters to the Polar Sea to hunt for these animals. In the meantime +a true idea of the course of the Anadyr had been obtained through +statements collected from the natives, and a land-route had become +known between its territory and that of the Kolyma. Several Cossacks +and hunters now petitioned for the right to settle on the Anadyr, +and collect tribute from the tribes in that neighbourhood. This was +granted. Some natives were forced to act as guides. The party +started under the command of SIMEON MOTORA, and came finally to +Deschnev's _simovie_ on the Anadyr. Staduchin followed, and +traversed the way in seven weeks. He however soon quarrelled with +Deschnev and Motora, and parting from them on that account, betook +himself to the river Penschina. Deschnev and Motora built +themselves boats on the Anadyr in order to prosecute exploratory +voyages, but the latter was killed in 1651 in a fight with natives +called Anauls. They had been the first of all the natives of the +Pacific coast of North Asia to pay "jassak" to Deschnev, and he had +already at that time come into collision with them and extirpated +one of their tribes. + +In 1652 Deschnev travelled down the Anadyr to the river mouth, where he +discovered a walrus-bank, whence he brought home walrus-tusks. There +afterwards arose a dispute between Deschnev and Selivestrov[301] +regarding the rights founded on the discovery of this walrus bank, which +came before the authorities at Yakutsk, and it was from the documents +relating to it that Mueller obtained the information that enabled him to +give a narrative of Deschnev's expedition. Only in this way have the +particulars of this remarkable voyage been rescued from complete +oblivion.[302] + +In 1653 Deschnev gave orders to collect wood to build craft in which +he intended to carry home by sea the tribute he had collected to the +Kolyma, but he was compelled to desist from want of the necessary +materials for the building and equipment of the boats, comforting +himself with the statement of the natives that the sea was not +always so open as during his first voyage. Compelled by necessity, +he remained a year longer at the Anadyr, and in 1654 undertook a new +hunting voyage to the walrus-bank, where he met with the +before-mentioned Selivestrov. He here came in contact with the +natives (Koryaeks), and found among them a Yakut woman, who had +belonged to Ankudinov. On asking her where her master had gone to, +she answered that Feodot and Gerasim (Ankudinov) had died of scurvy, +and that their companions had been killed with the exception of some +few, who had saved themselves in boats. It appears as if the latter +had penetrated along the coast as far as to the river Kamchatka. For +when Kamchatka was conquered by Atlassov in 1697 the natives stated +that a long time before one FEODOTOV (probably a son of Feodot +Alexejev) had lived among them along with some companions, and had +married their women. They were venerated almost as gods. They were +believed to be invulnerable until they struck another, when the +Kamchadals saw their mistake and killed them.[303] + +By the expeditions of Deschnev, Staduchin, and their companions, the +Russians had by degrees become acquainted with the course of the +Anadyr and with the tribes living on its banks. But it still +remained for them to acquire a more complete knowledge of the +islands which were said to be situated in the Polar Sea, and one +must be surprised at the extreme difficulties which were encountered +in attempting the solution of this apparently very simple +geographical problem. The reason indeed was that the Siberian seamen +never ventured to leave the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, a +precaution which besides is very easily explained when the bad +construction of their craft is considered. Along the shore of the +Polar Sea on the other hand, a very active communication appears to +have taken place between the Lena and the Kolyma, though of those +voyages we only know such as in one way or another gave rise to +actions before the courts or were characterised by specially +remarkable dangers or losses. + +In 1650 ANDREJ GORELOJ was sent by sea from Yakutsk to impose +tribute on the tribes that lived at the sources of the Indigirka, +and on the Moma, a tributary of the Indigirka. He passed Svjatoinos +successfully, and reached the mouth of the Kroma, but was there +beset by ice, with which he drifted out to sea. After drifting about +ten days he was compelled to abandon the vessel, which was soon +after nipped, and go on foot over the ice to land. On the 22nd/12th +November he came to the _simovie_ Ujandino, where famine prevailed +during the winter, _because the vessels, that should have brought +provisions to the place, had either been lost or been compelled to +turn_; a statement which proves that at that time a regular +navigation took place between certain parts of the coast of the +Polar Sea. + +The same year, the Cossack, TIMOFEJ BULDAKOV travelled by sea from +the Lena to the Kolyma to take over the command of the neighbouring +region. He reached the Kroma successfully, but was beset there and +drifted out to sea. He then determined to endeavour to get to land +over the ice. But this was no easy matter. The ice, which already +was three feet thick, went suddenly into a thousand pieces, while +the vessel drove before a furious gale farther and farther from the +shore. This was repeated several times. When the sea at last froze +over, the vessel was abandoned, and the party finally succeeded, +worn out as they were by hunger, scurvy, work, and cold, in reaching +land at the mouth of the Indigirka. The narrative of Buldakov's +voyage is, besides, exceedingly remarkable, because a meeting is +there spoken of with twelve "kotsches," filled with Cossacks, +traders, and hunters, bound partly from the Lena to the rivers lying +to the eastward, partly from the Kolyma and Indigirka to the Lena, a +circumstance which shows how active the communication then was in +the part of the Siberian Polar Sea in question. This is further +confirmed by a narrative of NIKIFOR MALGIN. While Knes IVAN +PETROVITSCH BARJATINSKY was _vojvode_ at Yakutsk (1667-75), Malgin +travelled along with a trader, ANDREJ WORIPAJEV, by sea from the +Lena to the Kolyma. During this voyage the pilot directed the +attention of all on board to an island, lying far out at sea, west +of the mouth of the Kolyma. In course of a conversation regarding +it, after Malgin had succeeded in reaching the Kolyma, another +trader, JAKOB WIAeTKA, stated that on one occasion when he was +sailing with nine "kotsches" between the Lena and the Kolyma, three +of them had been driven by wind to this island, and that the men who +had been sent ashore there, found traces of unknown animals, but no +inhabitants. + +All these narratives, however, do not appear to have met with full +credence. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, accordingly, +new explorations and new expeditions were undertaken. A Cossack, +JAKOB PERMAKOV, stated that during a voyage between the Lena and the +Kolyma, he had seen off Svjatoinos an island, of which he knew not +whether it was inhabited or not, and likewise, that off the mouth of +the Kolyma there was an island which could be seen from land. In +order to make sure of the correctness of this statement, a Cossack, +MERCUREJ WAGIN, was sent out. He travelled along with Permakov, in +the month of May, in dog-sledges over the ice from Svjatoinos to the +island lying off it, that Permakov had seen. They landed there, +found it uninhabited and treeless, and fixed its circumference at +nine to twelve days' journey. Beyond this island Wagin saw another, +which, however, he could not reach for want of provisions. He +therefore determined to turn, in order to undertake the journey the +following year in a better state of preparation. During the return +journey the party suffered severely from hunger, and in order to +avoid a renewal of the dangerous and difficult journey of +exploration, the men at last murdered Permakov, Wagin, and his son. +The crime was discovered, and the knowledge we possess of this +expedition is founded on the confused information obtained during +the examination of the murderers. Mueller even throws doubts on the +truth of the whole narrative. + +The attempts which were afterwards made to reach those islands, +partly by sea in 1712, by WASILEJ STADUCHIN, partly by dog-sledges +in 1714 by ALEXEJ MARKOV and GRIGOREJ KUSAKOV, yielded no result. +Ten years afterwards, "the old saga" of the islands in the Polar +Sea, induced one SIN BAJORSKI FEODOT AMOSSOV to undertake an +expedition with a view to impose tribute on their inhabitants, but +he was prevented by ice from reaching his goal. On the way he met +with a hunter, IVAN WILLEGIN, who said, that along with another +hunter, GRIGOREJ SANKIN, he had travelled over the ice to these +islands from the mouth of the river Chukotskaja. He had seen neither +men nor trees, but some abandoned huts "Probably this land extends +all the way from the mouth of the Yana, past the Indigirka and +Kolyma to the region which is inhabited by the Schelags, a Chukch +tribe." He had learned this from a Schelag named Kopai, at whose +home he had been the preceding year. In order to reach this land by +sea it was necessary to start from the coast which the Schelags +inhabited, because the sea was less covered by ice there. + +As Amossov could not reach his goal by sea he travelled thither the +same year, in November, 1724, over the ice, but his description of +the land differs widely from that of his predecessor, and Mueller +appears to entertain great doubts of the truthfulness of the +narrative[304]. On the ground of a map constructed by the Cossack, +Colonel SCHESTAKOV, who, however, according to Mueller, could neither +read nor write, this new land was introduced into DELISLE and +BUACHE'S map, with the addition that the Schelag Kopai lived there, +and had there been taken prisoner by the Russians. This is so far +incorrect, as Kopai did not live on any island, but on the mainland, +and never was prisoner with the Russians, although after having paid +tribute to them, he tired of doing so, and killed some of Amossov's +people, after which no more was heard of him. Mueller complains +loudly of the incorrect statement regarding Kopai, but the learned +academician commits a much greater mistake, inasmuch as he considers +that he ought to leave the numerous accounts of hunters and Cossacks +about land and islands in the Siberian Polar Sea completely out of +account. All these lands are therefore left out of the map published +by the Petersburg Academy in the year 1758[305]. It is in this +respect much more incomplete than the map which accompanies +Strahlenberg's book.[306] + +Before I begin to sketch the explorations of the great northern +expedition, some account remains to be given of the discovery of +Kamchatka. It appears from the preceding that Kamchatka was already +reached by some of Deschnev's followers, but their important +discovery was completely unknown in Moscow. Kamchatka is, however, +already mentioned in the narrative of Evert Ysbrants Ides' embassy +to China in 1693-95,[307] accounts of it had probably been obtained +from the Siberian natives, who are accustomed to wander far and +near. These accounts, however, are exceedingly incomplete, and +therefore, VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, _piaetidesaetnik_ (_i.e._, commander of +fifty men) at Anadyrsk, is considered the proper discoverer of +Kamchatka. + +While Atlassov was commander at Anadyrsk, he sent out in 1696, the +Cossack LUCAS SEMENOV SIN MOROSKO with sixteen men to bring the +tribe living to the south under tribute. The commission was +executed, and on his return Morosko stated that he not only was +among the Koryaeks, but had also penetrated to the neighbourhood of +the river Kamchatka, and that he took a Kamchadal "ostrog," and +found in it some manuscripts in an unknown language, which, +according to information afterwards obtained, had belonged to some +Japanese who had stranded on the coast of Kamchatka.[308] It was the +first hint the conquerors of Siberia obtained of their being in the +neighbourhood of Japan. + +The year after Atlassov, with a larger force, followed the way which +Morosko had opened up, and penetrated to the river Kamchatka, where +as a sign that he had taken possession of the land, he erected a +cross with an inscription, which when translated runs thus: _In the, +year_ 7205 (i.e. 1697) _on the 13th July this cross was erected by +the piaetidesaetnik Volodomir Atlassov and his followers_, 55 _men_. +Atlassov then built on the Kamchatka river a _simovie_, which was +afterwards fortified and named Verchni Kamtschatskoj Ostrog. Hence +the Russians extended their power over the land, yet not without +resistance, which was first completely broken by the cruel +suppression of the rebellion of 1730. + +In 1700 Atlassov travelled to Moscow, carrying with him a Japanese, +who had been taken prisoner after being shipwrecked on the coast of +Kamchatka, and the collected tribute which consisted of the skins of +3,200 sables, 10 sea-otters, 7 beavers, 4 otters, 10 grey foxes and +191 red foxes. He was received graciously, and sent back as +commander of the Cossacks in Yakutsk with orders to complete the +conquest of Kamchatka. An interruption however happened for some +time in the path of Atlassov as a warrior and discoverer, in +consequence of his having during his return journey to Yakutsk +plundered a Russian vessel laden with Chinese goods, an accessory +circumstance which deserves to be mentioned for the light which it +throws on the character of this Pizarro of Kamchatka. He was not set +free until the year 1706, and then recovered his command in +Kamchatka, with strict orders to desist from all arbitrary +proceedings and acts of violence, and to do his best for the +discovery of new lands. The first part of this order he however +complied with only to a limited extent, which gave occasion to +repeated complaints[309] and revolts among the already unbridled +Cossacks. Finally, in 1711, Atlassov and several other officers were +murdered by their own countrymen. In order to atone for this crime, +and perhaps to get a little farther from the arm of justice, their +murderers, ANZIPHOROV and IVAN KOSIREVSKOJ,[310] undertook to subdue +the not yet conquered part of Kamchatka, and the two northernmost of +the Kurile Islands. Further information about the countries lying +farther south was obtained from some Japanese who were shipwrecked +in 1710 on Kamchatka. + +At first in order to get to Kamchatka the difficult detour by +Anadyrsk was taken. But in the year 1711 the commander at Okotsk, +SIN BOJARSKI PETER GUTUROV, was ordered, by the energetic promoter +of exploratory expeditions in Eastern Siberia, the Yakutsk +_voivode_, DOROFEJ TRAUERNICHT, to proceed by sea from Okotsk to +Kamchatka. But this voyage could not come off because at that time +there were at Okotsk neither seagoing boats, seamen, nor even men +accustomed to the use of the compass. Some years after the governor +Prince GAGARIN sent to that town IVAN SOROKAUMOV with twelve +Cossacks to make arrangements for this voyage. For want of ships and +seamen however this could not now be undertaken, and after +Sorokaumov had created great confusion he was imprisoned by the +authorities of the place, and sent back to the Governor. Peter I. +now commanded _that men acquainted with navigation should be sought +for among the Swedish prisoners of war and sent to Okotsk, that they +should build a boat there and, provided with a compass, go by sea +along with some Cossacks to Kamchatka and return_.[311] Thus +navigation began on the Sea of Okotsk Among the Swedes who opened +it, is mentioned HENRY BUSCH,[312] according to Strahlenberg a +Swedish corporal, who had previously been a ship-carpenter. +According to Mueller, who met with him at Yakutsk as late as 1736, he +was born at Hoorn in Holland, had served at several places as a +seaman, and finally among the Swedes as a trooper, until he was +taken prisoner at Viborg in 1706. He gave Mueller the following +account of his first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk. + +After arriving at Okotsk they had built a vessel, resembling the +_lodjas_ used at Archangel and Mesen for sailing on the White Sea +and to Novaya Zemlya. The vessel was strong; its length was eight +and a half fathoms, its breadth three fathoms, the freeboard, when +the vessel was loaded, three and a half feet. The first voyage took +place in June 1716. The voyagers began to sail along the coast +towards the north-east, but an unfavourable wind drove the vessel, +almost against the will of the seafarers, right across the sea to +Kamchatka. The first land sighted was a cape which juts out north of +the river Tigil. Being unacquainted with the coast the seafarers +hesitated to land. During the delay a change of wind took place, +whereby the vessel was driven back towards the coast of Okotsk. The +wind again becoming favourable, the vessel was put about and +anchored successfully in the Tigil. The men who were sent ashore +found the houses deserted. For the Kamchadales being terrified at +the large ship had made their escape to the woods. The seafarers +sailed on along the coast and landed at several places in order that +they might meet with the inhabitants, but for a long time without +success, until at last they fell in with a Kamchadal girl, who was +collecting edible roots. With her as a guide they soon found +dwellings, and even Cossacks, who had been sent out to collect +tribute. They wintered at the river Kompakova. During the winter the +sea cast up a whale, which had in its carcase a harpoon of European +manufacture and with Latin letters. The vessel left the winter haven +in the middle of May (new style) 1717, but meeting with ice-fields +was beset in them for five and a half weeks. This occasioned great +scarcity of provisions. In the end of July the seafarers were again +back at Okotsk. From this time there has been regular communication +by sea between this town and Kamchatka. The master of the vessel +during the first voyage across the Sea of Okotsk was the Cossack +SOKOLOV.[313] + +[Illustration: MAP OF ASIA. From on Atlas published, by the Russian +Academy of Sciences in 1737. ] + +From what I have stated it follows that, thanks to the fondness of +the hunters and Cossacks for adventurous, exploratory expeditions, +the current ideas regarding the distribution of the land and the +courses of the rivers in north-eastern Asia were in the main +correct. But, in consequence of want of knowledge of, or of doubts +regarding, Deschnev's discoveries, there prevailed an uncertainty +whether Asia at its north-east extremity was connected with America +by a small neck of land, in the same way as it is with Africa, or as +North and South America are connected with each other, a view which, +in consequence of the unscientific necessity of generalising +inherent in man, and the wish to have an explanation of how the +population extended from the old to the new world, was long +zealously defended[314]. No one, either European or native, had yet, +so far as we know, extended his hunting journeys to the northernmost +promontory of Asia, in consequence of which the position which it +was assumed to occupy only depended on loose suppositions. It was +possible for instance that Asia stretched with a cape as far as to +the neighbourhood of the Pole, or that a broad isthmus between the +Pjaesina and the Olenek connected the known portion of this quarter +of the world with an Asiatic Polar continent. Nor had geographers a +single actual determination of position or geographical measurement +from the whole of the immense stretch between the mouth of the Ob +and Japan, and there was complete uncertainty as to the relative +position of the easternmost possessions of the Russians on the one +side and of Japan on the other.[315] It was difficult to get the maps +of the Russians to correspond with those of the Portuguese and the +Dutch, at the point where the discoveries of the different nations +touched each other, which also was exceedingly natural, as at that +time too limited an extent east and west by 1700 kilometres was +commonly assigned to Siberia. In order to investigate this point, in +order to fill up the great blank which still existed in the +knowledge of the quarter of the world first inhabited by man, and +perhaps above all for the purpose of forming new commercial treaties +and of discovering new commercial routes, Peter the Great during the +latest years of his life arranged one of the greatest geographical +expeditions which the history of the world can show. It was not +until after his death, however, that it was carried out, and then it +went on for a series of years on so large a scale that whole tribes +are said to have been impoverished through the severe exactions of +transport that were on its account imposed on the inhabitants of the +Siberian deserts. Its many different divisions are now comprehended +under the name--_the Great Northern Expedition_. Through the +writings of Behring, Mueller, Gmelin, Steller, Krascheninnikov and +others, this expedition has acquired an important place for all time +in the history not only of geography but also of ethnography, +zoology, and botany, and even now the inquirer, when the natural +conditions of North Asia are in question, must return to these +works. I shall therefore, before drawing this chapter to a close, +give a brief account of its principal features. + +The Great Northern Expedition was ushered in by "the first +expedition to Kamchatka". The commander of this expedition was the +Dane VITUS BEHRING, who was accompanied by Lieutenant MORTON +SPANGBERG, also a Dane by birth, and ALEXEI CHIRIKOV They left St. +Petersburg in February 1725, and took the land route across Siberia, +carrying with them the necessary materials with which in Kamchatka +to build and equip the vessel with which they should make their +voyage of exploration. More than three years were required for this +voyage, or rather for this geographico-scientific campaign, in which +for the transport of the stores and the shipbuilding material that +had to be taken from Europe the rivers Irtisch, Ob, Ket, Yenisej, +Tunguska, Ilim, Aldan, Maja, Yudoma, and Urak were taken advantage +of. It was not until the 15th/4th April that a beginning could be +made at Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog of the building of the vessel, +which was launched on the 21st/10th July, and on the 31st/20th of +the same month Behring began his voyage. + +He sailed in a north-easterly direction along the coast of +Kamchatka, which he surveyed. On the 19th/8th August in 64 deg. +30' N.L. he fell in with Chukches, who had still a reputation among +the Russians for invincible courage and ferocity. First one of them +came to the vessel, swimming on two inflated seal-skins, "to inquire +what was intended by the vessel's coming thither," after which their +skin-boat lay to. Conversation was carried on with them by means of +a Koryaek interpreter. On the 21st/10th August St. Lawrence Islands +as discovered, and on the 26th/15th of the same month the explorers +sailed past the north-eastern promontory of Asia in 67 deg. 18' +and observed that the coast trends to the west from that point, as +the Chukches had before informed them. Behring on this account +considered that he had fulfilled his commission to ascertain whether +Asia and America were separated, and he now determined to turn, +"partly because if the voyage were continued along the coast ice +might be met with, from which it might not be so easy to get clear, +partly on account of the fogs, which had already begun to prevail, +and partly because it would be impossible, if a longer stay were +made in these regions, to get back the same summer to Kamchatka. +There could be no question of passing the winter off the coast of +the Chukch Peninsula, because that would have been to expose the +expedition to certain destruction, either by being wrecked on the +jagged rocks of the open unknown coast, or by perishing from want of +fuel, or finally by dying under the hands of the fierce unconquered +Chukches". On the 1st Oct/20th Sept the vessel returned to Nischni +Kamchatskoj Ostrog.[316] It was during this voyage that the sound, +which has since obtained the name of Behring's Straits, is +considered to have been discovered. But it is now known that this +discovery properly belongs to the gallant hunter Deschnev, who +sailed through these straits eighty years before. I suppose +therefore that the geographical world will with pleasure embrace the +proposal to attach the name of Deschnev along with that of Behring +to this part of our globe; which may be done by substituting Cape +Deschnev, as the name of the easternmost promontory of Asia, for +that of East Cape, an appellation which is misleading and unsuitable +in in many respects. Several statements by Kamchadales regarding a +great country towards the east on the other side of the sea, induced +Behring the following year to sail away in order to ascertain +whether this was the case. In consequence of unfavourable weather he +did not succeed in reaching the coast of America, but returned with +his object unaccomplished, after which he sailed to Okotsk, where he +arrived on the 3rd Aug/23rd July 1729. Hence he betook himself +immediately to St. Petersburg, which he reached after a journey of +six months and nine days. + +In maps published during Behring's absence, partly by Swedish +officers who had returned from imprisonment in Siberia,[317] +Kamchatka had been delineated with so long an extension towards the +south that this peninsula was connected with Yezo, the northernmost +of the large Japanese islands. The distance between Kamchatka and +Japan, rich in wares, would thus have been quite inconsiderable. +This nearness was believed to be further confirmed by another +Japanese ship, manned by seventeen men and laden with silk, rice, +and paper, having stranded in July 1729 on Kamchatka, south of +Avatscha Bay. In this neighbourhood there was, along with a number +of natives, a small party of Cossacks under the command of ANDREAS +SCHTINNIKOV. He at first accepted several presents from the +shipwrecked men, but afterwards withdrew from the place where the +wreck took place. When the Japanese on this account rowed on in +their boats along the coast, Schtinnikov gave orders to follow them +in a _baydar_ and kill them all but two. The cruel deed was carried +into execution, on which the malefactors took possession of the +goods, and broke in pieces the boats in order to obtain the iron +with which the boards were fastened together. The two Japanese who +were saved were carried to Nischni Kamchatskoj Ostrog. Here +Schtinnikov was imprisoned and hanged for his crime. The Japanese +were sent to St. Petersburg, where they learned the Russian language +and were converted to Christianity, while some Russians in their +turn learned Japanese. The Japanese died between 1736 and 1739. Both +were from Satsuma; the elder, SOSA, had been a merchant, and the +younger, GONSA, was a pilot's son. Their vessel had been bound for +Osaka, but having been carried out of its course by a storm, had +drifted about at sea for six months, stranding at last with so +unfortunate a result for the greater part of the crew. + +This sad occurrence further reminds us that much still remained +unaccomplished with respect to the geography of north-eastern Asia. +Behring's Kamchatka expedition had besides yielded no information +regarding the position of the northern extremity of Asia, or of the +part of America lying opposite to Kamchatka. A number of grave +doubts appear besides to have been started as to the correctness of +the observations during Behring's first voyage. All this induced him +to make proposals for a continuation of his explorations, offering, +along with his former companions, Spangberg and Chirikov, to take +the command of the maritime expedition which was to start from +Kamchatka to solve the questions proposed, both eastwards to +ascertain the position of the east coast of Asia in relation to the +west coast of America, and southwards to connect the areas which the +West-Europeans and the Russians were exploring. + +The Russian senate, the Board of Admiralty, and the Academy of +Sciences were commissioned to develop this plan and to carry it into +execution. With respect to the way in which the commission was +executed I may be allowed to refer to Mueller's oft-quoted work, and +to a paper by VON BAER; _Peters des Grossen Verdienste um die +Erweiterung der geographischen Kenntnisse (Beitraege zur Kenntniss +des Russischen Reiches_, B. 16, St. Petersburg, 1872). Here I can +only mention that it was principally through the untiring interest +which KIRILOV, the secretary of the senate, took in the undertaking, +that it attained such a development that it may be said to have been +perhaps the greatest scientific expedition which has ever been sent +out by any country. It was determined at the same time not only to +ascertain the extent of Siberia to the north and east, but also to +examine its hitherto almost unknown ethnographical and natural +conditions. For this purpose the Great Northern Expedition was +divided into the following divisions:-- + +1. _An expedition to start from Archangel for the Ob_[318]--For this +expedition two _kotsches_ were employed, the _Ob_ and the +_Expedition_ 52-1/2 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 8 feet deep, each +manned with 20 men. The vessels, which were under the command of +Lieutenants PAULOV and MURAVJEV, left Archangel on the 15th/4th +July, 1734. The first summer they only reached Mutnoi Saliv in the +Kara Sea, whence they returned to the Petchora and wintered at +Pustosersk. The following year they broke up in June, but did not +penetrate farther than in 1734. The unfavourable issue was ascribed +to the vessels' unserviceableness for voyages in the Polar Sea, in +consequence of which the Board of Admiralty ordered two other boats, +50 to 60 feet long, to be built for the expedition, which were +placed under the command of SKURATOV and SUCHOTIN, Muravjev being +besides replaced by MALYGIN who sailed with the old vessels on the +7th June/27th May 1736, down the Petchora river, at whose mouth the +_Expedition_ was wrecked. Without permitting himself to be +frightened by this, Malygin ordered his men to go on board the other +vessel, in which with great dangers and difficulties they penetrated +through the drift-ice to Dolgoi Island. Here on the 18th/7th August +they fell in with the new vessels sent from Archangel. Suchotin was +now sent back to Archangel on board the _Ob_; Malygin and Skuratov +sailed in the new vessels to the Kara river and wintered there. +During the winter 1736-1737 the men suffered only slightly from +scurvy, which was cured by anti-scorbutic plants growing in the +region. The ice in the Kara river did not break up until the +12th/1st June, but so much ice still drifted about in the sea that a +start could not be made until the 14th/3rd July. On the 4th Aug/24th +July the vessels anchored in the sound which I have named Malygin +Sound. Here they were detained by head winds 25 days. Then they +sailed on round a cape, which the Samoyeds call Yalmal, up the Gulf +of Ob to the mouth of the river, which was reached on the 22nd/11th +September, 1737, and then up the river to Soswa, where the vessels +were laid up in winter quarters. The crews were taken to Beresov. +Malygin returned to Petersburg, after having given Lieut. Skuratov +and the second mate Golovin a commission to carry the vessels back +to the Dwina the following year. They did not get back until August +1739. The return voyage thus also occupied two years, and was +attended with much difficulty and danger. + +Six years in all had thus gone to the voyage from Archangel to the +Ob and back, which now can be accomplished without difficulty in a +single summer. By means of Malygin's and Skuratov's voyages, and of +a land journey which the land-measurer Selifontov undertook during +July and August 1736 with reindeer along the west coast of Yalmal +and then by boat to Beli Ostrov, Yalmal and the south coast of this +large island were mapped, it would appear in the main correctly.[319] + +2. _An expedition to sail from the Ob to the Yenisej_--For this +Behring ordered a double sloop, the _Tobol_, 70 feet long, 15 feet +broad, and 8 feet deep, to be built at Tobolsk. The vessel had two +masts, was armed with two small cannon, and was manned with 53 men, +among whom were a land-measurer and a priest. The commander was +Lieut. OWZYN. They sailed in company with some small craft carrying +provisions from Tobolsk on the 26th/15th May, 1734, and came to the +Gulf of Ob through the easternmost mouth-arm of the river on the +30th/19th June. There a storm damaged the tender-vessels. Of the +timber of those which had sustained most damage, a storehouse was +erected in 66 deg. 36' N.L., in which the provisions landed from +the unserviceable craft were placed. When this was done they sailed +on, but slowly in consequence of unfavourable winds and shallow +water, so that it was not until the 17th/6th August that they +reached 70 deg. 4' N.L. Hence they returned to Obdorsk, arriving +there on the 15th/4th September. Seven days afterwards the Ob was +covered with ice. + +The following spring the voyage was resumed. On the 17th/6th June +they came to the depot formed the preceding year. At first ice +formed an obstacle, but on the 31st/20th July it broke up, and the +navigable water became clear. The crew had now begun to suffer so +severely from scurvy, that of 53 only 17 were in good health; Owzyn +therefore turned, that he might bring his sick men to Tobolsk. He +reached this town on the 17th/6th October, and the river froze over +soon after. Owzyn now travelled to St. Petersburg in order to give +in, in person, reports of his unsuccessful voyages and to make +suggestions as to the measures that ought to be taken to ensure +better success to next year's undertaking. His proposals on this +point were mainly in the direction of building at Tobolsk a new +vessel, which should accompany the _Tobol_ during the dangerous +voyage, and confer upon it greater safety. This was approved by the +Board of Admiralty, but the vessel could not be got ready till the +summer of 1736, on which account that year's voyage was undertaken +in the same way as that of the preceding year, and with the same +success. The new vessel was not ready until 1737. It came with the +shipbuilder KOSCHELEV and the mate MININ on the 16th/5th June to +Obdorsk, where Owzyn took command of it, handing over the old one to +Koschelev, and beginning his fourth voyage down the Gulf of Ob. This +time he had better success. After sailing past Gyda Bay, he came, +without meeting with any serious obstacles from ice, on the +27th/16th August to Cape Mattesol, and on the 12th/1st September to +a storehouse erected for the expedition by the care of the +authorities on the bank of the Yenisej in 71 deg. 33' N.L. The +Yenisej froze over on the 21st/10th October. + +Four years had thus gone to the accomplishment of Owzyn's purpose, +but it can scarcely be doubted that if he had not turned so early in +the season, and if he had had steam, or a sailing vessel of the +present day at his disposal he would have been able to sail from the +Ob to the Yenisej in a few weeks. It is at all events Owzyn's +perseverance to which we are in great measure indebted for the +mapping of the Gulf of Ob, and the Bays of Tas and Gyda[320]. + +3. _Voyages from the Yenisej towards Cape Taimur._--In the winter of +1738 Owzyn and Koschelev were called to St. Petersburg to answer for +themselves with reference to a complaint lodged against them by the +men under their command[321]. In their room Minin got the command of +the expedition which was to endeavour to penetrate farther eastwards +along the coast of the Polar Sea. The two first summers, 1738 and +1739, Minin could not get further than to the northernmost +_sumovies_ on the Yenisej. But in 1740 he succeeded, as it appears +in pretty open water, in reaching on the west coast of the Taimur +Peninsula the latitude of 75 deg. 15'. Here he turned on the 1st +Sept./21st Aug. on account of "impenetrable" ice, but mainly in +consequence of the late season of the year. The preceding winter +Minin had sent his mate STERLEGOV in sledges to examine the coast. +On the 25th/14th April he reached 75 deg. 26' N.L., and there +erected a stone cairn on a rock jutting out into the sea. Many open +places appear to have been seen in the offing. Minin and his party +returned on account of snow-blindness, and during the return voyage +rested for a time at a _sumovie_ on the river Pjaesina, whose +existence there shows how far the Russian hunters had extended their +journeys[322]. + +4. _Voyage from the Lena Westward_--On the 30th July/11th June 1735, +two expeditions started from Yakutsk, each with its double sloop, +accompanied by a number of boats carrying provisions. One of these +double sloops was to go in an easterly direction under the command +of Lieut. LASSINIUS. I shall give an account of his voyage farther +on. The other was commanded by Lieut. PRONTSCHISCHEV, whose object +was to go from the Lena westwards, if possible, to the Yenisej. +The voyage down the river was successful and pleasant. The river was +from four to nine fathoms deep, and on its banks, overgrown with birch +and pine, there were numerous tents and dwelling-houses whose +inhabitants were engaged in fishing, which gave the neighbourhood +of the river a lively and pleasant appearance[323]. On the 13th/2nd +August the explorers came to the mouth of the river, which here +divides into five arms, of which the easternmost was chosen for +sailing down to the Polar Sea. Here the two seafarers were to part. +Prontschischev staid at the river-mouth till the 25th/14th August. +He then sailed in 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 fathoms water along the shore of +the islands which are formed by the mouth-arms of the Lena. On the +6th Sept./26th Aug. he anchored in the mouth of the Olenek. +A little way up the river some dwelling-houses were met with, +which hunters had built for use during summer. These were put in +order for winter, which passed happily. On the 2nd July/21st June +the ice broke up at the winter quarters, but in the sea it lay still +until the 14th/3rd August, and it was only then that Prontschischev +could go to sea. The course was shaped for the north-east. +The Chatanga was reached on the 24th/13th August. On the beach, +in 74 deg. 48' N.L., a hut was met with in which were found newly +baked bread and some dogs, and which therefore appeared to belong to +some Russian hunters absent at the time. While sailing on along the +coast the explorers, after having passed two bays projecting into the +land, came to an inlet which they erroneously took for the mouth of +the Taimur river. Among the reasons for this supposition is mentioned +the immense number of gulls which swarmed round the vessel in that +region. The bay was covered with fast ice, "which probably never +breaks up," and broad ice-fields stretched out to sea from the coast, +on which Polar bears were seen. + +On the 31st/20th August, in 77 deg. 29' N.L., the vessel was +suddenly surrounded with so large masses of ice that it could make +no further progress, and was every instant in danger of being +nipped. Prontschischev therefore determined to turn, but this at +first was rendered impossible by a complete calm, a crust of ice +being formed at the same time in open places between the pieces of +drift-ice. If the latitude stated is correct, the turning point lay +quite close to the northernmost promontory of Asia. With a better +vessel, and above all with the help of steam, Prontschischev would +certainly have rounded it. The unbroken ice which he mentioned +several times in his narrative, ought probably to be interpreted as +belts of pretty closely packed drift-ice. Many times during my +Arctic voyages have I sailed through belts of ice which, when +observed from a boat some hundred yards from their borders, have +been reported as immense unbroken ice-fields. On the 5th Sept./25th +Aug. a high north wind began to blow which drove the vessel, with +the surrounding ice-fields, towards the south. The voyagers had +doubts as to then being saved, but the gusts of wind broke up the +ice so that the vessel got free and could sail to the mouth of the +Chatanga, which, however, was already frozen over. The explorers +were therefore compelled to continue their voyage towards the +Olenek, whose mouth was reached on the 8th Sept./28th Aug. In the +neighbourhood of the haven which they intended to make, they were +driven about by contrary winds and drift-ice about six days more, +exposed to cold and wet, and worn out by exertions and privations of +every description. Prontschischev, who before had been sick, died of +his illness on the 10th Sept./30th Aug. to the great sorrow of his +men, by whom he was held in great regard. The mate, CHELYUSKIN, now +took the command. On the 14th/3rd Sept. he succeeded in carrying his +vessel into the river Olenek. On its bank Prontschischev was buried +with all the solemnities which circumstances permitted. To +Prontschischev's melancholy fate there attaches an interest which is +quite unique in the history of the Arctic exploratory voyages. He +was newly married when he started. His young wife accompanied him on +his journey, took part in his dangers and sufferings, survived him +only two days, and now rests by his side in the grave on the +desolate shore of the Polar Sea. + +On the 9th Oct./28th Sept. the Olenek was frozen over and the winter +became very severe for Chelyuskin and his companions. The following +summer they returned to Yakutsk convinced of the impossibility of +sailing round the north point of Asia, and as Behring was no longer +to be found in that town, Chelyuskin started for St. Petersburg in +order to give an oral account of Prontschischev's voyages. The Board +of Admiralty, however, did not favour Chelyuskin's views, but +considered that another attempt ought to be made by land, but if +this, too, was unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by +land journeys. Lieut. CHARITON LAPTEV was appointed to carry out +this last attempt to reach the Yenisej by sea from the Lena. + +Laptev, accompanied by a number of small craft carrying provisions, +left Yakutsk on the 20th/9th July, 1739, and on the 31st/20th of the +same month reached the mouth-arm of the Lena called Krestovskoj, on +which he built, on a point jutting out into the sea, a high signal +tower, one of the few monuments that are to be found on the north +coast of Asia, and which is on that account mentioned by succeeding +travellers in those regions. He sailed hence along the coast past +the mouth of the Olenek and past a large bay to which, for what +reason I know not, he gave the purely Swedish name of Nordvik. This +bay was still covered with unbroken ice. After having been beset for +several days in Chatanga Bay, the voyagers on the 31st/20th August +reached Cape Thaddeus, where the vessel was anchored the following +day in 76 deg. 47' N.L. A signal tower was built on the extremity +of the cape, and the land-measurer CHEKIN was sent to examine the +neighbouring territory, and Chelyuskin to search for the mouth of +the river Taimur. Chekin could carry out no geodetic work on account +of mist. Chelyuskin again reported that the whole bay and the sea in +the offing were, as far as the eye could reach, covered with +unbroken ice This induced Laptev to turn. After many difficulties +among the ice, he came, on the 7th Sept./27th Aug. to the confluence +of the river Bludnaya with the Chatanga. Here the winter was passed +among a tribe of Tunguses Irving on the spot, who owned no reindeer, +and were therefore settled. They used dogs as draught animals, and +appear to have carried on a mode of life resembling that of the +coast Chukches. + +In spring Chekin was sent to map the coast between the Taimur and +the Pjaesina. With thirty dog-sledges and accompanied by a nomad +Tunguse with eighteen reindeer,[324] he travelled over land to the +Taimur river, followed its course to the sea, and then the coast +towards the west of a distance of 100 versts. Scarcity of provisions +and food for his dogs compelled him to turn. Laptev himself, +convinced as he was of the impossibility of rounding the north point +of Asia, now wished to carry back his vessel and the most of his +stores to the Lena. After having with great danger and difficulty +sailed down the river to the Polar Sea, reaching it on the 10th +Aug./30th July, the vessel on the 24th/13th was beset and nipped +between pieces of ice, according to a statement on a Russian map +published in 1876 by the Hydrographical Department in St. +Petersburg, on the east coast of the Taimur Peninsula in 75 deg. +30' N.L. Six days after there was a strong frost, so that thin ice +was formed between the blocks of drift-ice. Some foolhardy fellows +went over the weakly frozen together pieces of ice to land. Three +days after Laptev himself and the rest of the men could leave the +vessel. Several streams, still unfrozen, lying between them and +their old winter station, however, prevented them from going +further. They endeavoured to get protection from the cold by digging +pits in the frozen earth and lying down in them by turns one after +the other. The men were sent daily to the vessel to fetch as much as +possible of the provisions left behind, but on the 10th Sept./29th +Aug. the ice again broke up, and carried the abandoned vessel out to +sea. + +By the 2nd Oct./21st Sept. the streams at last had frozen so much +that the return journey could be begun to the former year's winter +station distant more than 500 kilometres. The journey through the +desolate _tundra_, perhaps never before trodden by the foot of man, +was attended with extreme difficulties, and it was twenty-five days +before Laptev and his men could again rest in a warmed hut and get +hot food. Twelve men perished of cold and exhaustion. Laptev now +determined to remain here during the winter and to go the following +spring over the _tundra_ to the Yenisej, where he hoped to find +depots with provisions and ammunition. Nor did he now remain +inactive. For he did not wish to return until the surveys were +complete. For want of vessels these were to be made by land. Such of +the men as were not required were therefore sent in spring over the +_tundra_ to the Yenisej and the rest divided into three parties +under Laptev himself, Chekin, and Chelyuskin, who were to survey +each his portion of the coast between the Chatanga and the Pjaesina +and then meet at the Yenisej. These journeys were successfully +accomplished, the explorers travelled several times without, it +would appear, excessive difficulty, over the desolate _tundra_ +between the Chatanga and the Taimur rivers, discovered Lake Taimur, +and surveyed considerable stretches of the coast. But when they were +all again assembled at Dudino, it was found that the north point of +Asia had not yet been travelled round and surveyed. This was done in +1742 by Chelyuskin in the course of a new sledge journey, of which +the particulars are only incompletely known, evidently because +Chelyuskin's statement, that he had reached the northernmost point +of Asia, was doubted down to the most recent times. After the voyage +of the _Vega_, however, there can be no more doubt on this +point.[325] + +5. _Voyages from the Lena Eastward_--During these Lieutenant +Lassinius and after his death Lieutenant DMITRI LAPTEV had the +command. A double sloop was built at Yakutsk for the voyage of +Lassinius. As I have already mentioned, he left this town, +accompanied by several cargo-boats, at the same time as +Prontschischev, and both sailed together down the Lena to its mouth. +Lassinius was able to sail to the eastward as early as the 20th/9th +August. Four days after he came upon so much drift-ice that he was +compelled to lie to at the mouth of the river, 120 versts to the +east of the easternmost mouth-arm of the Lena. Here abundance of +driftwood was met with, and the stock of provisions appears also to +have been large, but notwithstanding this, scurvy broke out during +the winter. Lassinius himself and most of his men died. On being +informed of this, Behring sent a relieving party, consisting of +Lieutenant CHERBININ and fourteen men to Lassinius' winter quarters. +On their arrival on the 15th/4th June they found only the priest, +the mate, and seven sailors alive of the fifty-three men who had +started with Lassinius the foregoing year from Yakutsk. These too +were so ill that some of them died during the return journey to +Yakutsk. Dmitri Laptev and a sufficient number of men, were sent at +the same time to take possession of the ship and renew the attempt +to sail eastwards. He went to sea on the 10th Aug./30th July. At +first he had to contend with serious obstacles from ice, and when at +last he reached open water he thought himself compelled to turn on +account of the advanced season of the year. On the 2nd Sept./22nd +Aug. he came again to the Bychov mouth-arm of the Lena, up which he +found it difficult to make his way on account of the many unknown +shoals. On the 19th/8th September the river was frozen over. He +wintered a little distance from the mouth, and now again scurvy made +its appearance, but was cured by constant exercise in the open air +and by a decoction of cedar cones. In a report sent from this place, +Dmitri Laptev declared that it was quite impossible to round the two +projecting promontories between the Lena and the Indigirka, Capes +Borchaja and Svjatoinos, because, according to the unanimous +statement of several Yakuts living in the region, the ice there +never melts or even loosens from the beach. With Behring's +permission he travelled to St. Petersburg to lay the necessary +information before the Board of Admiralty. The Board determined that +another attempt should be made by sea, and, if that was +unsuccessful, that the coast should be surveyed by means of land +journeys. + +It is now easy to see what was the cause of the unfortunate issue of +these two attempts to sail to the eastward. The explorers had +vessels which were unsuitable for cruising, they turned too early in +the season, and in consequence of their unwillingness to go far from +land they sailed into the great bays east of the Lena, from which no +large river carries away the masses of ice that have been formed +there during the winter, or that have been drifted thither from the +sea. Dmitri Laptev and his companions besides appear to have had a +certain dislike to the commission intrusted to them, and, differing +from Deschnev, they thus wanted the first condition of success--the +fixed conviction of the possibility of attaining their object. + +By order of the Board of Admiralty Dmitri Laptev at all events began +his second voyage, and now falsified his own prediction, by rounding +the two capes which he believed to be always surrounded by unbroken +ice. After he had passed them his vessel was frozen in on the +20th/9th September. Laptev had no idea at what point of the coast he +was, or how far he was from land. He remained in this unpleasant +state for eleven days, at the close of which one of the mates who +had been sent out from the vessel in a boat on the 11th Sept./31st +Aug. returned on foot over the ice and reported that they were not +far from the mouth of the Indigirka. Several Yakuts had settled on +the neighbouring coast, where was also a Russian _simovie_. Laptev +and his men wintered there, and examined the surrounding country. +The surveyor KINDAeKOV was sent out to map the coast to the Kolyma. +Among other things he observed that the sea here was very shallow +near the shore, and that driftwood was wanting at the mouth of the +Indigirka, but was found in large masses in the interior, 30 versts +from the coast. + +The following year, 1740, Laptev repaired as well as he could his +vessel, which had been injured during the voyage of the preceding +year, and then went again to sea on the 11th Aug./31st July. On the +14th/3rd August he passed one of the Bear Islands, fixing its +latitude at 71 deg. 0'. On the 25th/14th August, when Great Cape +Baranov was reached, the progress of the vessel was arrested by +masses of ice that extended as far as the eye could reach. Laptev +now turned and sought for winter quarters on the Kolyma. On the +19th/8th July, 1741, this river became open, and Laptev went to sea +to continue his voyage eastwards, but did not now succeed in +rounding Great Cape Baranov. He was now fully convinced of the +impossibility of reaching the Anadyr by sea, on which account he +determined to penetrate to that river by land in order to survey it. +This he did in the years 1741 and 1742. Thus ended the voyages of +Dmitri Laptev, giving evidence if not of distinguished seamanship, +of great perseverance, undaunted resolution, and fidelity to the +trust committed to him.[326] + +6. _Voyage for the purpose of exploring and surveying the coast of +America_--For this purpose Behring fitted out at Okotsk two vessels, +of which he himself took the command of one, _St. Paul_, while the +other, _St. Peter_, was placed under CHIRIKOV. They left Okotsk in +1740, and being prevented by shoal water from entering Bolschaja +Reka, they both wintered in Avatscha Bay, whose excellent haven was +called, from the names of the ships, Port Peter-Paul. On the +15th/4th June they left this haven, the naturalist GEORG WILHELM +STELLER having first gone on board Behring's and the astronomer +LOUIS DE L'ISLE DE LA CROYERE Chirikov's vessel. The course was +shaped at first for the S.S.E., but afterwards, when no land could +be discovered in this direction, for the N.E. and E. During a storm +on the 1st July/20th June the vessels were separated. On the +29th/18th July Behring reached the coast of America in 58 deg. to +59 deg. N.L. A short distance from the shore Steller discovered +here a splendid volcano, which was named St. Elias. The coast was +inhabited, but the inhabitants fled when the vessel approached. From +this point Behring wished to sail in a north-westerly direction to +that promontory of Asia which formed the turning-point of his first +voyage. It was however only with difficulty that in the almost +constant fog the peninsula of Alaska could be rounded and the vessel +could sail forward among the Aleutian island groups. Scurvy now +broke out among the crew, and the commander himself suffered +severely from it, on which account the command was mainly in the +hands of Lieut. WAXEL. At an island the explorers came into contact +with the natives, who at first were quite friendly, until one of +them was offered brandy. He tasted the liquor, and was thereby so +terrified that no gifts could calm his uneasiness. On this account +those of the crew who were on land were ordered to come on board, +but the savages wished to detain their guests. At last the Russians +were set free, but a Koryaek whom they had taken with them as an +interpreter was kept behind. In order to get him set at liberty, +Waxel ordered two musket salvos to be fired over the heads of the +natives, with the result that they all fell flat down from fright, +and the Koryaek had an opportunity of making his escape. Now the +fire-water is a liquor in great request among these savages, and +they are not frightened at the firing of salvos of musketry. + +During the following months Behring's vessel drifted about without +any distinct plan, in the sea between Alaska and Kamchatka, in +nearly constant fog, and in danger of stranding on some of the many +unknown rocks and islands which were passed. On the 5th November the +vessel was anchored at an island afterwards called Behring Island. +Soon however a great wave arose which threw the vessel on land and +crushed it against the rocky coast of the island. Of the wintering +there, which, through Steller's taking part in it, became of so +great importance for natural history, I shall give an account +further on in connection with the narrative of our visit to Behring +Island. Here I shall only remind the reader that Behring died of +scurvy on the 19th/8th December, and that in the course of the +voyage great part of his crew fell a sacrifice to the same disease. +In spring the survivors built a new vessel out of the fragments of +the old, and on the 27th/16th of August they sailed away from the +island where they had undergone so many sufferings, and came eleven +days after to a haven on Kamchatka. + +After parting from Behring, Chirikov on the 26th/15th July sighted +the coast of America in 56 deg. N.L. The mate ABRAHAM DEMENTIEV +was then sent ashore in the longboat, which was armed with a cannon +and manned by ten well-armed men. When he did not return, another +boat was sent after him. But this boat too did not come back. +Probably the boats' crews were taken prisoners and killed by the +Indians. After making another attempt to find his lost men, Chirikov +determined to return to Kamchatka. He first sailed some distance +northwards along the coast of America without being able to land, as +both the vessel's boats were lost. Great scarcity of drinking-water +was thus occasioned, which was felt the more severely as the return +voyage was very protracted on account of head-winds and fog. During +the voyage twenty-one men perished, among them de l'Isle de la +Croyere, who died, as is said often to be the case with scurvy +patients, on board ship, while he was being carried from his bed up +on deck to be put on land.[327] + +The voyages of Behring and Chirikov, attended as they were by the +sacrifice of so many human lives, gave us a knowledge of the +position of North-western America in relation to that of +North-eastern Asia, and led to the discovery of the long volcanic +chain of islands between the Alaska peninsula and Kamchatka. + +7. _Voyages to Japan_--For these Captain SPANGBERG ordered a +_hucker_, the _Erkeengeln Michael_, and a double sloop, the +_Nadeschda_, to be built at Okotsk, the old vessel _Gabriel_ being +at the same time repaired for the same purpose. Spangberg himself +took command of the _Michael_, that of the double sloop was given to +Lieutenant WALTON, and of the _Gabriel_ to Midshipman CHELTINGA. +Drift-ice prevented a start until midsummer, and on that account +nothing more could be done the first year (1738) than to examine the +Kurile Islands to the 46th degree of latitude. From this point the +vessels returned to Kamchatka, where they wintered at Bolschaja +Reka. On the 2nd June/22nd May, 1739, Spangberg with his little +fleet again left this haven. All the vessels kept together at first, +until in a violent storm attended with fog Spangberg and Cheltinga +were parted from Walton. Both made a successful voyage to Japan and +landed at several places, being always well received by the natives, +who appeared to be very willing to have dealings with the +foreigners. During the return voyage Spangberg landed in 43 deg. +50' N.L. on a large island north of Nippon. Here he saw the Aino +race, enigmatical as to its origin, distinguished by an exceedingly +abundant growth of hair and beard which sometimes extends over the +greater part of the body. Spangberg returned to Okotsk on the 9th +November/20th October. Walton sailed along the coast in a southerly +direction to 33 deg. 48' N.L. Here was a town with 1,500 houses, +where the Russian seafarers were received in a very friendly way +even in private houses. Walton subsequently landed at two other +places on the coast, returning afterwards to Okotsk, where he +anchored on the 1st September/21st August.[328] + +The very splendid results of Spangberg's and Walton's voyages by no +means corresponded with the maps of Asia constructed by the men who +were at that time leaders of the Petersburg Academy. Spangberg +therefore during his return journey through Siberia got orders to +travel again to the same regions in order to settle the doubts that +had arisen. A new vessel had to be built, and with this he started +in 1741 from Okotsk to his former winter haven in Kamchatka. Hence +he sailed in 1742 in a southerly direction, but he had scarcely +passed the first of the Kurile Islands when the vessel became so +leaky that he was compelled to turn. The second expedition of +Spangberg to Japan was thus completely without result, a +circumstance evidently brought about by the unjustified and +offensive doubts which led to it, and the arbitrary way in which it +was arranged at St. Petersburg. + +8 _Journeys in the interior of Siberia_ by Gmelin, Mueller, Steller, +Krascheninnikov, de l'Isle de la Croyere, &c.--The voyages of these +_savants_ have indeed formed an epoch in our knowledge of the +ethnography and natural history of North Asia, but the north coast +itself they did not touch. An account of them therefore lies beyond +the limits of the history which I have undertaken to relate here. + + +The Great Northern Expedition by these journeys both by sea and land +had gained a knowledge of the natural conditions of North Asia based +on actual researches, had yielded pretty complete information +regarding the boundary of that quarter of the globe towards the +north, and of the relative position of the east coast of Asia and +the west coast of America, had discovered the Aleutian Islands, and +had connected the Russian discoveries in the east with those of the +West-Europeans in Japan and China[329]. The results were thus very +grand and epoch-making. But these undertakings had also required +very considerable sacrifices, and long before they were finished +they were looked upon in no favourable light by the Siberian +authorities, on account of the heavy burden which the transport of +provisions and other equipment through desolate regions imposed upon +the country. Nearly twenty years now elapsed before there was a new +exploratory expedition in the Siberian Polar Sea worthy of being +registered in the history of geography. This time it was a private +person, a Yakutsk merchant, SCHALAUROV, who proposed to repeat +Deschnev's famous voyage and to gain this end sacrificed the whole +of his means and his life itself. Accompanied by an exiled +midshipman, IVAN BACHOFF, and with a crew of deserters and deported +men, he sailed in 1760 from the Lena out into the Polar Sea, but +came the first year only to the Yana, where he wintered. On the 9th +August/29th July, 1761, he continued his voyage towards the east, +always keeping near the coast. On the 17th/6th September he rounded +the dreaded Svjatoinos, sighting on the other side of the sound a +high-lying land, Ljachoff's Island. At the Bear Islands, whither he +was carried by a favourable wind over an open sea, he first met with +drift-ice, although, it appears, not in any considerable quantity. +But the season was already far advanced, and he therefore considered +it most advisable to seek winter quarters at the mouth of the +neigbouring Kolyma river. Here he built a spacious winter dwelling, +which was surrounded by snow ramparts armed with cannon from the +vessel, probably the whole house was not so large as a peasant's +cabin at home, but it was at all events the grandest palace on the +north coast of Asia, often spoken of by later travellers, and +regarded by the natives with amazed admiration. In the neighbourhood +there was good reindeer hunting and abundant fishing, on which +account the winter passed so happily, that only one man died of +scurvy, an exceedingly favourable state of things for that period. + +The following year Schalaurov started on the 1st August/21st July, +but calms and constant head-winds prevented him from passing Cape +Schelagskoj, until he was compelled by the late season of the year +to seek for winter quarters. For this he considered the neighbouring +coast unsuitable on account of the scarcity of forests and +driftwood, he therefore sailed back to the westward until after a +great many mishaps he came again at last on the 23rd/12th September +to the house which he had built the year before on the Kolyma. + +He proposed immediately to make a renewed attempt the following +spring to reach his goal. But now his stores were exhausted, and the +wearied crew refused to accompany him. In order to obtain funds for +a new voyage he travelled to Moscow, and by means of the assistance +he succeeded in procuring there, he commenced in 1766 a voyage from +which neither he nor any of his followers returned. COXE mentions +several things which tell in favour of his having actually rounded +Cape Deschnev and reached the Anadyr. But Wrangel believes that he +perished in the neighbourhood of Cape Schelagskoj. For in 1823 the +inhabitants of that cape showed Wrangel's companion Matiuschkin a +little ruinous house, built east of the river Werkon on the coast of +the Polar Sea. For many years back the Chukches travelling past had +found there human bones gnawed by beasts of prey, and various +household articles, which indicated that shipwrecked men had +wintered there, and Wrangel accordingly supposes that it was there +that Schalaurov perished a sacrifice to the determination with which +he prosecuted his self-imposed task of sailing round the +north-eastern promontory of Asia.[330] + + +In order to ascertain whether any truth lay at the bottom of the +view, generally adopted in Siberia, that the continent of America +extended along the north coast of Asia to the neighbourhood of the +islands situated there, CHICHERIN, Governor of Siberia, in the +winter of 1763 sent a sergeant, ANDREJEV with dog-sledges on an ice +journey towards the north. He succeeded in reaching some islands of +considerable extent, which Wrangel, who always shows himself very +sceptical with respect to the existence of new lands and islands in +the Polar Sea, considers to have been the Bear Islands. Now it +appears to be pretty certain that Andrejev visited a south-westerly +continuation of the land named on recent maps "Wrangel Land," which +in that case, like the corresponding part of America, forms a +collection of many large and small islands. Andrejev found +everywhere numerous proofs that the islands which he visited had +been formerly inhabited. Among other things he saw a large hut built +of wood without the help of iron tools. The logs were as it were +gnawed with teeth (hewed with stone axes), and bound together with +thongs[331]. Its position and construction indicated that the house +had been built for defence, it had thus been found impossible in the +desolate legions of the Polar Sea to avoid the discord and the +strife which prevail in more southerly lands. To the east and +north-east Andrejev thought he saw a distant land, he is also +clearly the true European discoverer of Wrangel Land, provided we do +not consider that even he had a predecessor in the Cossack, FEODOR +TATARINOV, who according to the concluding words of Andrejev's +journal appears to have previously visited the same islands. It is +highly desirable that this journal, if still in existence, be +published _in a completely unaltered form_. How important this is +appears from the following paragraph in the instructions given to +Billings--"One Sergeant Andrejev saw from the last of the Bear +Islands a large island to which they (Andrejev and his companions) +travelled in dog-sledges. But they turned when they had gone twenty +versts from the coast, because they saw fresh traces of a large +number of men, who had travelled in sledges drawn by reindeer."[332] + +In order to visit the large land in the north-east seen by Andrejev, +there was sent out in the years 1769, 1770, and 1771 another +expedition, consisting of the three surveyors, LEONTIEV, LUSSOV, and +PUSCHKAREV, with dog-sledges over the ice to the north-east, but +they succeeded neither in reaching the land in question, nor even +ascertaining with certainty whether it actually existed or not. Among +the natives, however, the belief in it was maintained very +persistently, and they even knew how to give names to the tribes +inhabiting it. + +The New Siberian Islands, which previously had often been seen by +travellers along the coast, were visited the first time in 1770 by +LJACHOFF, who besides Ljachoff's island lying nearest the coast, +also discovered the islands Maloj and Kotelnoj. On this account he +obtained an exclusive right to collect mammoth tusks there, a branch +of industry which since that time appears to have been earned on in +these remote regions with no inconsiderable profit. The importance +of the discovery led the government some years after to send thither +a land surveyor, CHVOINOV,[333] by whom the islands were surveyed, +and some further information obtained regarding the remarkable +natural conditions in that region. According to Chvoinov the ground +there consists at many places of a mixture of ice and sand with +mammoth tusks, bones of a fossil species of ox, of the rhinoceros, +&c. At many places one can literally roll off the carpet-like bed of +moss from the ground, when it is found that the close, green +vegetable covering has clear ice underlying it, a circumstance which +I have also observed at several places in the Polar regions. The new +islands were rich not only in ivory, but also in foxes with valuable +skins, and other spoils of the chase of various kinds. They +therefore formed for a time the goal of various hunters' +expeditions. Among these hunters may be named SANNIKOV, who in 1805 +discovered the islands Stolbovoj and Faddejev, SIROVATSKOJ, who in +1806 discovered Novaya Sibir, and BJELKOV, who in 1808 discovered +the small islands named after him. In the meantime disputes arose +about the hunting monopoly, especially after Bjelkov and others +petitioned for permission to establish on Kotelnoj Island _a hunting +and trading station_. (?)[334] This induced ROMANZOV, then Chancellor +of Russia, to order once more these distant territories to be +explored by HEDENSTROeM,[335] a Siberian exile, who had formerly been +secretary to some eminent man in St. Petersburg. He started in +dog-sledges on the 19th/7th March, 1809, from Ustjansk going over +the ice to Ljachoff's Island, and thence to Faddejev Island, where +the expedition was divided into two parts. Hedenstroem continued his +course to Novaya Sibir, the south coast of which he surveyed. Here +he discovered among other things the remarkable "tree mountain," +which I have before mentioned. His companions KOSCHEVIN and SANNIKOV +explored Faddejev, Maloj and Ljachoff's Islands. On Faddejev, +Sannikov found a Yukagir sledge, stone skin-scrapers, and an axe +made of mammoth ivory, whence he drew the conclusion that the island +was inhabited before the Russians introduced iron among the savage +tribes of Siberia. + +The explorations thus commenced were continued in 1810. The +explorers started on the 14th/2nd March from the mouth of the +Indigirka, and after eleven days' journey came to Novaya Sibir. It +had been Hedenstroem's original intention to employ reindeer and +horses in exploring the islands, but he afterwards abandoned this +plan, fearing that he would not find pasture for his draught +animals. Both Hedenstroem and Sannikov believed that they saw from +the north coast of the island bluish mountains on the horizon in the +north-east. In order to reach this new land the former undertook a +journey over the ice. It was so uneven, however, that in four days +he could only penetrate about seventy versts. Here on the 9th +April/28th March, he met with quite open water, which appeared to +extend to the Bear Islands, _i.e._ for a distance of about 500 +versts. He therefore turned southward, and reached the mainland +after forty-three days' very difficult travelling over the ice. +During the journey Hedenstroem was saved from famine by his success +in killing eleven Polar bears. A new attempt, which he made the same +spring to reach with dog-sledges the unknown land in the north-east, +was also without result in consequence of his meeting with broad, +impassable "leads" and openings in the ice, but even on this +occasion he believed that he found many indications of the existence +of an extensive land in the direction named. It was only with great +difficulty that on the 20th/8th May he succeeded in reaching the +mainland at Cape Baranov over very weak ice. + +The same year Sannikov explored Kotelnoj Island, where he fell in +with Bjelkov and several hunters, who had settled for the summer on +the west coast of the island to collect mammoth tusks and hunt foxes +there. He found also a Greek cross erected on the beach and the +remains of a vessel, which, to judge from its construction and the +hunting implements scattered about in the neighbourhood, appeared to +have belonged to an Archangel hunter, who had been driven by wind or +ice from Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya. + +Next summer "the Hedenstroem expeditions" were concluded with the +survey of the north coast of Novaya Sibir by CHENIZYN, and by a +repetition of the attempt to penetrate from Cape Kamennoj over the +ice in a north-easterly direction, this time carried out by the +Cossack TATARINOV, and finally by a renewed exploration of Faddejev +Island by Sannikov. Tatarinov found the ice, probably in the end of +March, so thin, that he did not dare to proceed farther, and beyond +the thin ice the sea was seen to be quite open. Sannikov first +explored Faddejev Island. He thought he saw from the hills of the +island a high land in the north-east, but when he attempted to reach +it over the ice, he came upon open water twenty-five versts from +land. He therefore returned the same spring to Ustjansk in order +there to equip a caravan consisting of twenty-three reindeer, which +started on the 14th/2nd May to go over the ice to Kotelnoj Island, +which could be reached only with great difficulty in consequence of +"leads" in the ice and the large quantity of salt water which had +accumulated upon it. The reindeer were exceedingly enfeebled, but +recovered rapidly on reaching land, so that Sannikov was able under +specially favourable circumstances to make a large number of +interesting excursions, among others one across the island. He +stated that on the heights in the interior of it there were found +skulls and bones of horses, oxen, "buffaloes" (Ovibos?) and sheep in +so large numbers, that it was evident that whole herds of gramimvora +had lived there in former times. Mammoth bones were also found +everywhere on the island, whence Sannikov drew the conclusions, that +all these animals had lived at the same time, and that since then +the climate had considerably deteriorated. These suppositions he +considered to be further confirmed by the fact that large, partially +petrified tree-stems were found scattered about on the island in +still greater numbers than on Novaya Sibir[336]. Besides he found +here everywhere remains of old "Yukagir dwellings"; the island had +thus once been inhabited. After Sannikov had fetched Chenitzyn from +Faddejev Island, where he had passed the summer in great want of +provisions, and ordered him, who was probably a greater adept at the +pen, to draw up a report of his own interesting researches, he +commenced his return journey on the 8th Nov./27th Oct. and arrived +at Ustjansk on the 24th/12th November. + +[Illustration: PETER FEODOROVITSCH ANJOU. Born in 1798 in Russia, +died in 1869 in St. Petersburg. ] + +[Illustration: FERDINAND VON WRANGEL. Born in 1790 at Pskov, died +in 1870 at Dorpat. ] + +It may be said that through Hedenstroem's and Sannikov's exceedingly +remarkable Polar journeys, the titles have been written of many +important chapters in the history of the former and recent condition +of our globe. But the inquirer has hitherto waited in vain for these +chapters being completed through new researches carried out with +improved appliances. For since then the New Siberian Islands have +not been visited by any scientific expedition. Only in 1823 ANJOU, +lieutenant in the Russian Navy, with the surgeon FIGURIN, and the +mate ILGIN, made a new attempt to penetrate over the ice to the +supposed lands in the north and north-east, but without success. +Similar attempts were made at the same time from the Siberian +mainland by another Russian naval officer, FERDINAND VON WRANGEL, +accompanied by Dr. KUeBER, midshipman MATIUSCHKIN, and mate KOSMIN. +They too were unsuccessful in penetrating over the ice far from the +coast. Wrangel returned fully convinced that all the accounts which +were current in Siberia of the land he wished to visit, and which +now bears the name of Wrangel Land, were based on legends, mistake, +and intentional untruths. But Anjou and Wrangel did an important +service to Polar research by showing that the sea, even in the +neighbourhood of the Pole of cold, is not covered with any strong +and continuous sheet of ice, even at that season of the year when +cold reaches its maximum. By the attempts made nearly at the same +time by Wrangel and Parry to penetrate farther northwards, the one +from the north coasts of Siberia, and the other from those of +Spitzbergen, Polar travellers for the first time got a correct idea +how uneven and impassable ice is on a frozen sea, how little the way +over such a sea resembles the even polished surface of a frozen +lake, over which we dwellers in the north are accustomed to speed +along almost with the velocity of the wind. Wrangel's narrative at +the same time forms an important source of knowledge both of +preceding journeys and of the recent natural conditions on the north +coast of Asia, as is only too evident from the frequent occasions on +which I have quoted his work in my sketch of the voyage of the +_Vega_. + +It remains for me now to enumerate some voyages from Behring's +Straits westward into the Siberian Polar Sea. + +1778 _and_ 1779--During the third of his famous circumnavigations of +the globe JAMES COOK penetrated through Behring's Straits into the +Polar Sea, and then along the north-east coast of Asia westwards to +Irkaipij, called by him Cape North. Thus the honour of having +carried the first seagoing vessel to this sea also belongs to the +great navigator. He besides confirmed Behring's determination of the +position of the East Cape of Asia, and himself determined the +position of the opposite coast of America.[337] The same voyage was +approximately repeated the year after Cook's death by his successor +CHARLES CLARKE, but without any new discoveries being made in the +region in question. + +1785-94.--The success which attended Cook in his exploratory voyages +and the information, unlooked for even by the Russian government, +which Coxe's work gave concerning the voyages of the Russian hunters +in the North Pacific, led to the equipment of a grand new +expedition, having for its object the further exploration of the sea +which bounds the great Russian Empire on the north and east. The +plan was drawn up by Pallas and Coxe, and the carrying out of it was +entrusted to an English naval officer in the Russian service, J. +BILLINGS, who had taken part in Cook's last voyage. Among the many +others who were members of the expedition, may be mentioned Dr. +MERK, Dr. ROBECK, the secretary MARTIN SAUER, and the Captains HALL, +SARYTCHEV, and BEHRING the younger, in all more than a hundred +persons. The expedition was fitted out on a very large scale, but in +consequence of Billings' unfitness for having the command of such an +expedition the result by no means corresponded to what might +reasonably have been expected. The expedition made an inconsiderable +excursion into the Polar Sea from the 30th/19th June to the 9th +Aug/29th July 1787, and in 1791 Billings sailed up to St. Lawrence +Bay, from which he went over land with eleven men to Yakutsk. The +rest of this lengthened expedition does not concern the regions now +in question.[338] + +Among voyages during the century it remains to give account of those +which have been made by OTTO VON KOTZEBUE, who during his famous +circumnavigation of the globe in 1815-18, among other things also +passed through Behring's Straits and discovered the strata, +remarkable in a geological point of view, at Eschscholz Bay; LUeTKE, +who during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1826-29, visited the +islands and sound in the neighbourhood of Chukotskoj-nos; MOORE, who +wintered at Chukotskoj-nos in 1848-49, and gave us much interesting +information as to the mode of life of the Namollos and Chukches; +KELLET, who in 1849 discovered Kellet Land and Herald Island on the +coast of Wrangel Land; JOHN RODGERS, who in 1855 carried out for the +American government much important hydrographical work in the seas +on both sides of Behring's Straits; DALLMANN, who during a trading +voyage in the Behring Sea landed at various points on Wrangel Land; +LONG, who in 1867, as captain of the whaling barque _Nile_, +discovered the sound between Wrangel Land and the mainland (Long +Sound) and penetrated from Behring's Straits westwards farther than +any of his predecessors, DALL, who, at the same time that we are +indebted to him for many important contributions to the knowledge of +the natural conditions of the Behring Sea, also anew examined the +ice-strata at Eschscholz Bay, and many others--but as the historical +part of the sketch of the voyage of the _Vega_ has already occupied +more space than was calculated upon, I consider myself compelled +with respect to the voyages of these explorers to refer to the +numerous and for the most part accessible writings which have +already been published regarding them.[339] + + +Was the _Vega_ actually the first, and is she at the moment when +this is being written, the only vessel that has sailed from the +Atlantic by the north to the Pacific? As follows from the above +narrative, this question may perhaps be answered with considerable +certainty in the affirmative, as it may also with truth be +maintained that no vessel has gone the opposite way from the Pacific +to the Atlantic.[340] But the fictitious literature of geography at +all events comprehends accounts of various voyages between those +seas by the north passage, and I consider myself obliged briefly to +enumerate them. + +The first is said to have been made as early as 1555 by a Portuguese, +MARTIN CHACKE, who affirmed that he had been parted from his companions +by a west wind, and had been driven forward between various islands to +the entrance of a sound which ran north of America in 59 deg. N.L.; finally +that he had come S.W. of Iceland, and thence sailed to Lisbon, arriving +there before his companions, who took the "common way," _i.e._ south of +Africa. In 1579 an English pilot certified that he had read in Lisbon in +1567 a printed account of this voyage, which however he could not +procure afterwards because all the copies had been destroyed by order of +the king, who considered that such a discovery would have an injurious +effect on the Indian trade of Portugal (_Purchas_, iii. p. 849). We now +know that there is land where Chacke's channel was said to be situated, +and it is also certain that the sound between the continent of America +and the Franklin archipelago lying much farther to the north was already +in the sixteenth century too much filled with ice for its being possible +that an account of meeting with ice could be omitted from a true sketch +of a voyage along the north coast of America. + +In 1588 a still more remarkable voyage was said to have been made by +the Portuguese, LORENZO FERRER MALDONADO. He is believed to have +been a cosomographer who among other tilings concerned himself with +the still unsolved problem, of making a compass free from variation, +and with the question, very difficult in his time, of finding a +method of determining the longitude at sea (see the work of AMORETTI +quoted below, p. 38). Of his imaginary voyage he has written a long +narrative, of which a _Spanish_ copy with some drawings and maps was +found in a library at Milan. The narrative was published in Italian +and French translations by the superintendent of the library, +Chevalier CARLO AMORETTI,[341] who besides added to the work a number +of his own learned notes, which however do not give evidence of +experience in Arctic waters. The same narrative has since been +published in English by J. BARROW (_A Cronological History of +Voyages into the Arctic Regions_, &c., London, 1818 App. p. 24.) The +greater part of Maldonado's report consists of a detailed plan as to +the way in which the new sea route would be used and fortified by +the Spanish-Portuguese government.[342] The voyage itself is referred +to merely in passing. Maldonado says that, in the beginning of March +he sailed from Newfoundland along the north coast of America in a +westward direction. Cold, storm, and darkness, were at first very +inconvenient for navigation, but at all events he reached without +difficulty "Anian Sound," which separates Asia from America. This is +described in detail. Here various ships were met with prepared to +sail through the sound, laden with Chinese goods. The crews appeared +to be Russian or Hanseatic. Conversation was carried on with them in +Latin. They stated that they came from a very large town, situated a +little more than a hundred leagues from the sound. In the middle of +June Maldonado returned by the way he came to the Atlantic, and on +this occasion too the voyage was performed without the least +difficulty. The heat at sea during the return journey was as great +as when it was greatest in Spain, and meeting with ice is not +mentioned. The banks of the river which falls into the haven at +Anian Sound (according to Amoretti, identical with Behring's +Straits) were overgrown with very large trees, bearing fruit all the +year round among the animals met with in the regions seals are +mentioned, but also two kinds of swine, buffaloes, &c. All these +absurdities show that the whole narrative of the voyage was +fictitious, having been probably written with the view of thereby +giving more weight to the proposal to send out a north-west +expedition from Portugal, and in the full belief that the supposed +sound actually existed, and that the voyage along the north coast of +America would be as easy of accomplishment as one across the North +Sea.[343] The way in which the icing down of a vessel is described +indicates that the narrator himself or his informant had been +exposed to a winter storm in some northern sea, probably at +Newfoundland, and the spirited sketch of the sound appears to have +been borrowed from some East Indian traveller, who had been driven +by storm to northern Japan, and who in a channel between the islands +in that region believed that he had discovered the fabulous Anian +Sound. + +Of a third voyage in 1660 a naval officer named DE LA MADELENE gave in +1701 the following short account, probably picked up in Holland or +Portugal, to Count DE PONTCHARTRIN: "The Portuguese, DAVID MELGUER, +started from Japan on the 14th March, 1660, with the vessel _le Pere +eternel_, and following the coast of Tartary, _i.e._ the east coast of +Asia, he first sailed north to 84 deg. N.L. Thence he shaped his course +between Spitzbergen and Greenland, and passing west of Scotland and +Ireland came again to Oporto in Portugal." M. de la Madelene's narrative +is to be found reproduced in M. BUACHE'S excellent geographical paper +"Sui les differentes idees qu'on a eues de la traversee de la Mere +Glaciale arctique et sur les communications ou jonctions qu'on a +supposees entre diverses rivieres." (_Historie de l'Academie, Annee +1754_, Paris, 1759, _Memoires_, p. 12) The paper is accompanied by a +Polar map constructed by Buache himself, which, though the voyage which +led to its construction was clearly fictitious, and though it also +contains many other errors--for instance, the statement that the Dutch +penetrated in 1670 to the north part of Taimur Land--is yet very +valuable and interesting as a specimen of what a learned and critical +geographer knew in 1754 about the Polar regions. That Melguer's voyage +is fictitious is shown partly by the ease with which he is said to have +gone from the one sea to the other, partly by the fact that _the only +detail_ which is to be found in his narrative, viz. the statement that +the coast of Tartary extends to 84 deg. N.L., is incorrect. + +All these and various other similar accounts of north-east, +north-west, or Polar passages achieved by vessels in former times +have this in common, that navigation from the one ocean to the other +across the Polar Sea is said to have gone on as easily as drawing a +line on the map, that meeting with ice and northern animals of the +chase is never spoken of, and finally that every particular which is +noted is in conflict with the known geographical, climatal, and +natural conditions of the Arctic seas. All these narratives +therefore can be proved to be fictitious, and to have been invented +by persons who never made any voyages in the true Polar Seas. + +The _Vega_ is thus the first vessel that has penetrated by the north +from one of the great world-oceans to the other. + + +[Footnote 289: I quote this because the movement of the tides is +still, in our own time, made use of to determine whether certain +parts of the Polar seas are connected with each other or not. ] + +[Footnote 290: Marco Polo, in 1271, at the age of seventeen or +eighteen, accompanied his father Nicolo, and his uncle Maffeo Polo, +to High Asia. He remained there until 1295 and during that time came +into great favor with Kubla Khan, who employed him, among other +things, in a great number of important public commissions, whereby +he became well acquainted with the widely extended lands which lay +under the sceptre of that ruler. After his return home he caused a +great sensation by the riches he brought with him, which procured +him the name _il Millione_, a name however which, according to +others, was an expression of the doubts that were long entertained +regarding the truthfulness of his, as we now know, mainly true +accounts of the number of the people and the abundance of wealth in +Kublai Khan's lands. "Il Millione," in the meantime, became a +popular carnival character, whose cue was to relate as many and as +wonderful "yarns" as possible, and in his narratives to deal +preferably with millions. It is possible that the predecessor of +Columbus might have descended to posterity merely as the original +of this character if he had not, soon after his return home, taken +part in a war against Genoa, in the course of which he was taken +prisoner, and, during his imprisonment, related his recollections of +his travels to a fellow-prisoner, who committed them to writing, in +what language is still uncertain. The work attracted great attention +and was soon spread, first in written copies, then by the press in a +large number of different languages. It has not been translated into +Swedish, but in the Royal Library in Stockholm there is a very +important and hitherto little known manuscript of it from the middle +of the fourteenth century, of which an edition is in course of +publication in photo-lithographic facsimile. ] + +[Footnote 291: Homines illius regionis sunt pulchri, magni, et +corpulenti, sed sunt multum pallidi. . . . et sunt homines inculti, +et immorigerati et bestialiter viventes. ] + +[Footnote 292: See note at page 54, vol i., for an account of von +Herberstein and his works. ] + +[Footnote 293: As the copy of the original map to which I have had +access, being coloured, is unsuitable for photo-lithographing, I +give here instead a photo-lithographic reproduction of the map in +the Italian edition printed in 1550. The map itself is unchanged in +any essential particular, but the drawing and engraving are better. +There is, besides, a still older map of Russia in the first edition +of Sebastian Munster's _Cosmographia Universalis_. I have not had +access to this edition, but have had to the third edition of the +same work printed at Basel in 1550. A very incomplete map of Russia +engraved on wood, on which, however, the Obi and the "Sybir" are to +be found, is inserted in this work at page 910. The Dwina here falls +not into the White Sea but into the Gulf of Finland, through a lake +to which the name Ladoga is now given; places like Astracan, Asof, +Viborg, Calmahori (Kolmogor), Solowki (Solovets), &c., are indicated +pretty correctly, and in the White Sea there is to be seen a very +faithful representation of a walrus swimming. ] + +[Footnote 294: The river Ob is mentioned the first time in 1492, in +the negotiations which the Austrian ambassador, Michael Snups, +carried on in Moscow in order to obtain permission to travel in the +interior of Russia (Adelung, _Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland_, +p. 157). ] + +[Footnote 295: As before stated, Marco Polo mentions Polar bears but +not walruses. ] + +[Footnote 296: Herodotus places Andropagi in nearly the same regions +which are now inhabited by the Samoyeds. Pliny also speaks of +man-eating Scythians. ] + +[Footnote 297: Arctic literature contains a nearly contemporaneous +sketch of the first Russian-Siberian commercial undertakings, +_Beschryvinghe vander Samoyeden Landt in Tartarien, nieulijcks +onder't ghebiedt der Moscoviten gebracht. Wt de Russche tale +overgheset_, Anno 1609. Amsterdam, Hessel Gerritsz, 1612; inserted +in Latin, in 1613, in the same publisher's _Descriptio ac Delineatio +Geographica Detectionis Freti_ (Photo-lithographic reproduction, by +Frederick Mueller, Amsterdam, 1878). The same work, or more +correctly, collection of small geographical pamphlets, contains also +Isak Massa's map of the coast of the Polar Sea between the Kola +peninsula and the Pjaesina, which I have reproduced. ] + +[Footnote 298: It is a peculiar circumstance that the vanguard of the +Russian stream of emigration which spread over Siberia, advanced +along the northernmost part of the country by the Tas, Turuchansk, +Yakutsk, Kolyma, and Anadyrsk. This depended in the first place +upon the races living there having less power of resistance against +the invaders, who were often very few in number, than the tribes +in the south, but also on the fact that the most precious and +most transportable treasures of Siberia--sable, beaver, and +fox-skins--were obtained in greatest quantity from these northern +regions. ] + +[Footnote 299: Flat-bottomed, half-decked boats, twelve fathoms in +length. The planks were fastened by wooden pins, the anchors were +pieces of wood with large stones bound to them, the rigging of +thongs, and the sails often of tanned reindeer hides (J.E. Fischer, +_Sibirische Geschichte_, St. Petersburg, 1768, i. p. 517). ] + +[Footnote 300: G.P. Mueller, _Sammlung Russischer Geschichte_, St. +Petersburg, 1758 Mueller asserts in this work that it was he who, in +1736, first drew from the repositories of the Yakutsk archives the +account of Deschnev's voyage, which before that time was known +neither at the court of the Czar nor in the remotest parts of +Siberia. This, however, is not quite correct, for long before +Mueller, the Swedish prisoner-of-war, Strahlenberg, knew that the +Russians travelled by sea from the Kolyma to Kamchatka, which +appears from his map of Asia, constructed during his stay in +Siberia, and published in _Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa +und Asia_, Stockholm, 1730. On this map there is the following +inscription in the sea north of the Kolyma--"Hie Rutheni ab initio +per Moles glaciales, quae flante Borea ad Littora, flanteque Anstro +versus Mare iterum pulsantur, magno Labore et Vitae Discrimine +transvecti sunt ad Regionem Kamtszatkam." ] + +[Footnote 301: Selivestrov had accompanied Staduchin during his Polar +Sea voyage, and had, at his instance, been sent out to collect +walrus tusks on account of the State. He appears to have come to +the Anadyr by land. ] + +[Footnote 302: Strahlenberg must have collected the main details of +this voyage by oral communications from Russian hunters and +traders. ] + +[Footnote 303: According to Mueller Krascheninnikov (_Histoire et +description du Kamtschatka_, Amsterdam, 1770, ii. p. 292) states, +evidently from information obtained in Kamchatka, that the river +Nikul is called Feodotovchina after Feodot Alexejev, who not only +penetrated thither, but also sailed round the southern promontory of +Kamchatka to the River Tigil where he and his followers perished in +the way described by Mueller. ] + +[Footnote 304: But we ought to remember that the oldest accounts of +islands in the Polar Sea relate to no fewer than four different +lands, viz, 1. The New Siberian Islands lying off the mouth of the +Lena and Svjatoinos; 2. The Bear Islands; 3. Wrangel Land; 4. The +north-western part of America. Contradictions in accounts of the +islands in the Polar Sea probably depend on the uninhabited and +treeless New Siberian islands being confused with America, which, in +comparison with North Siberia, is thickly peopled and well wooded, +with the small Bear Islands, with Wrangel Land, &c. ] + +[Footnote 305: _Nouvelle carte des decouvertes faites par des +vaisseaux russiens aux cotes inconnues de l'Amerique, Septentrionale +avec les pais adiacentes, dressee sur des memoires authentiques des +ceux qui ont assiste a ces decouvertes et sur d'autres connoissances +dont on rend raison dans un memoire separe_ St. Petersbourg, +l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1758. ] + +[Footnote 306: In this sketch of the discovery and conquest of +Siberia I have followed J.E. Fischer, _Sibirische Geschichte_, St. +Petersburg, 1768, and G.P. Mueller, _Sammlung Russischer +Geschichte_, St. Petersburg, 1758. ] + +[Footnote 307: In the twentieth chapter of _Dreyjaehrige Reise nach +China, &c._, Frankfort, 1707. The first edition came out at Hamburg +in 1698. ] + +[Footnote 308: Mueller, iii. p. 19. An account of Atlassov's conquest +of Kamchatka (_Bericht gedaen door zeker Moskovisch krygs-bediende +Wolodimer Otlasofd, hoofl-man over vyftig, &c._) is besides to be +found in Witsen (1705, _Nieuwe uitguaf_, 1785, p. 670) An account, +written from oral communication by Atlassov himself, is to be found +inserted in Strahlenberg's _Travels_, p. 431. Strahlenberg considers +Kamchatka and Yezo to be the same land. A history of the conquest of +Kamchatka, evidently written according to traditions current in the +country, is to be found in _Krascheninnikov_ (French edition of +1770, ii. p. 291). In this account 1698 and 1699 are given as the +years of Morosko's and Atlassov's expeditions. ] + +[Footnote 309: Complaints were made, among other things, that in +order to obtain metal for making a still, he ordered all the copper +belonging to the crown which he carried with him, to be melted down. +When the Cossacks first came to Kamchatka and were almost without a +contest, acknowledged as masters of the country, they found life +there singularly agreeable, with one drawback--there were no means +of getting drunk. Finally, necessity compelled the wild adventurers +to betake themselves to what we should now call chemico-technical +experiments, which are described in considerable detail by +Krascheninnikov (_loc. cit._ ii. p. 369). After many failures they +finally succeeded in distilling spirits from a sugar-bearing plant +growing in the country, and from that time this drink, or _raka_, as +they themselves call it, has been found in great abundance in that +country. ] + +[Footnote 310: He afterwards became a monk under the name of +Ignatiev, came to St. Petersburg in 1730, and himself wrote a +narrative of his adventures, discoveries, and services, which was +printed first in the St. Petersburg journals of the 26th March, +1730, and likewise abroad (_Mueller_, iii. p. 82) ] + +[Footnote 311: Von Baer, _Beitraege zur Kentniss des Russischen +Reiches_, xvi. p. 33. ] + +[Footnote 312: Ambjoern Molin, lieutenant in the Scanian cavalry +regiment, who was taken prisoner at the Dnieper in 1709, also took +part in these journeys. Compare _Beraettelse om de i Stora Tartariet +boende tartarer, som traeffats laengst nordost i Asien, pa aerkebiskop +E. Benzelii begaeran upsatt af Ambjoern Molin (Account of the Tartars +dwelling in Great Tartary who were met with at the north east +extremity of Asia, written at the request of Archbishop E. Benzelius +by Ambjoern Molin_), published in Stockholm in 1880 by Aug. +Strindberg, after a manuscript in the Linkoeping library. ] + +[Footnote 313: Mueller, iii. p. 102. According to an oral +communication by Busch, Strahlenberg's account (p. 17) of this +voyage appears to contain several mistakes. The year is stated as +1713, the return voyage is said to have occupied six days. ] + +[Footnote 314: As late as 1819, James Burney, first lieutenant on one +of Captain Cook's vessels during his voyage north of Behring's +Straits, afterwards captain and member of the Royal Society, +considered it not proved that Asia and America are separated by a +sound. For he doubted the correctness of the accounts of Deschnev's +voyage. Compare James Burney, _A Chronological History of North +eastern Voyages of Discovery_ London, 1819, p. 298; and a paper by +Burney in the _Transactions_ of the Royal Society, 1817. Burney was +violently attacked for the views there expressed by Captain John +Dundas Cochrane. _Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia +and Siberian Tartary_, 2nd ed. London, 1824, Appendix. ] + +[Footnote 315: The first astronomical determinations of position in +Siberia were, perhaps, made by Swedish prisoners of war; the first +in China by Jesuits (Cf. _Strahlenberg_, p. 14). ] + +[Footnote 316: A short, but instructive account of Behring's first +voyage, based on an official communication from the Russian +Government to the King of Poland, is inserted in t. iv. p. 561 of +_Description geographique de l'Empire de la Chine, par le P.J.B. +Du Halde_, La Haye, 1736. The same official report was probably the +source of Mueller's brief sketch of the voyage (_Mueller_, iii. p. +112). A map of it is inserted in the 1735 Paris edition of Du +Halde's work, and in _Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, par M. D'Anville_, +La Haye, 1737. ] + +[Footnote 317: _Histoire genealogique des Tartares_ (note, p. 107), +and Strahlenberg's oft-quoted work (map, text, pp. 31 and 384). ] + +[Footnote 318: This expedition was under the command of the +Admiralty; the others under that of Behring. In my account I have +followed partly Mueller and partly Wrangel, of whom the latter, in +his book of travels, gives a historical review of previous voyages +along the coasts of the Asiatic Polar Sea. The accounts of the +voyages between the White Sea and the Yenisej properly belong to a +foregoing chapter in this work, but I quote them first here in order +that I may treat of the different divisions of the Great Northern +Expedition in the same connection. ] + +[Footnote 319: Wrangel, i. p. 36. ] + +[Footnote 320: Wrangel, i. p. 38. ] + +[Footnote 321: According to P. von Haven (_Nye og forbedrede +Efterretningar om det Russiske Rige_, Kjoebenhavn, 1747, ii. p. 20), +"it was the custom in Petersburg to send away those whose presence +was inconvenient to help Behring to make new discoveries". It +also went very ill with many of the gallant Russian Polar travellers, +and many of them were repaid with ingratitude. Behring was received +on his return from his first voyage, so rich in results, with +unjustified mistrust. Steller was exposed to continual trouble, +was long prevented from returning from Siberia, and finally +perished during his journey home, broken down in body and soul. +Prontschischev and Lassinius succumbed to hardships and sufferings +during their voyages in the Polar Sea. Owzyn was degraded, among +other things, because he used to be too intimate at Obdorsk with +exiles formerly of distinction. A few years before the voyage of the +_Vega_, Chelyuskin's trustworthiness was still doubted. All the +accounts of discoveries of islands and land in the Polar Sea by +persons connected with Siberia, have till the most recent times, +been considered more or less fictitious, yet they are clearly in the +main true. ] + +[Footnote 322: Wrangel, i. p. 46. ] + +[Footnote 323: According to Wrangel (i., note at p. 38 and 48), +probably after a quotation from Prontschischev's journal. The Lena +must be a splendid river, for it has since made the same powerful +impression, as on the seamen of the Great Northern Expedition, on +all others who have traversed its forest-crowned river channel. ] + +[Footnote 324: These all perished "for want of fodder." This, +however, is improbable. For, in 1878, we saw numerous traces of +these animals as far to the northward as Cape Chelyuskin, and very +fat reindeer were shot both in 1861 and 1873, on the Seven Islands, +the northernmost of all the islands of the Old World, where +vegetation is much poorer than in the regions now in question. ] + +[Footnote 325: Wrangel, i. pp. 48 and 72. Of the journey round the +northernmost point of Asia, Wrangel says--"Von der Tajmur-Muendung +bis an das Kap des heiligen Faddej konnte die Kueste nicht beschifft +werden, und die Aufnahme, die der Steuermann Tschemokssin +(Chelyuskin) auf dem Eise in Narten vornahm, ist so oberflaechlich +und unbestimmt, dass die eigentliche Lage des nordoestlichen oder +Tajmur-Kaps, welches die noerdlichste Spitse Asiens ausmacht, noch +gar nicht ausgemittelt ist." ] + +[Footnote 326: Wrangel, i, p. 62. I have sketched the voyages +between the White Sea and the Kolyma, principally after Engelhardt's +German translation of Wrangel's Travels. It is, unfortunately, in +many respects defective and confused, especially with respect to the +sketch of Chariton Laptev and his followers, sledge journeys, +undertaken in order to survey the coast between the Chatanga and the +Pjaesina. Mueller mentions these journeys only in passing. Wrangel +gives as sources for his sketch (i. note at p. 38) _Memoirs of the +Russian Admiralty_, also the original journals of the journeys. +Chelyuskin he calls Chemokssin. ] + +[Footnote 327: In this account of Behring's and Chirikov's voyages, I +have followed Mueller (iii. pp. 187-268). More complete original +accounts of Behring's voyage are quoted further on in the sketch of +our visit to Behring Island. ] + +[Footnote 328: Mueller, iii. p. 164. ] + +[Footnote 329: It deserves to be noted as a literary curiosity that +the famous French _savant_ and geographer, Vivien do Saint Martin, +in his work, _Histoire de la Geographie et des Decouvertes +geographiques_, Paris, 1873, does not say a single word regarding +all those expeditions which form an epoch in our knowledge of the +Old World. ] + +[Footnote 330: An account of Schalaurov is given by COXE (_Russian +Discoveries_, &c., 1780, p. 323) and Wrangel (i. p. 73). That the hut +seen by Matiuschkin actually belonged to Schalaurov appears to me +highly improbable, for the traditions of the Siberian savages seldom +extend sixty years back. ] + +[Footnote 331: Wrangel, i. p. 79. ] + +[Footnote 332: Sauer, _An Account, &c._, Appendix, p. 48. ] + +[Footnote 333: Sauer, _loc. cit._ p. 103, according to an oral +communication by Ljachoff's follower Protodiakonov. ] + +[Footnote 334: Compare Wrangel, i. p. 98. ] + +[Footnote 335: Matthias Hedenstroem, Aulic Councillor, whose name +indicates that he was of Swedish birth, died at the village +Hajdukovo, seven versts from Tomsk, on the 2nd October (20th +September), 1845, at the age of sixty-five. Biographical notes +regarding Hedenstroem are to be found in the Calendar for the Irkutsh +government for the year 1865, pp. 57-60; I have not, however, +succeeded in procuring this work, or in finding any other notices of +Hedenstroem's birthplace and life. ] + +[Footnote 336: A very remarkable geological fact is the number of +tree-stems in all stages of decay and petrifaction, which are +embedded in the rocks and earthy strata of Siberia, having their +origin all along from the Jurassic age till now. It appears as if +Siberia, during the whole of this immense period of time, has not +been subjected to any great changes in a purely geographical +respect, whereas in Europe there have been innumerable alternations +of sea and land, and alps have been formed and disappeared. The +Siberians call the tree-stems found on the _tundra_ far from the sea +and rivers _Adam's wood_, to distinguish them from more recent sub +fossil trees, which they call _Noah's wood_. ] + +[Footnote 337: The first European who visited the part of America +lying right opposite to Asia was Schestakov's companion, the +surveyor Gvosdev. He crossed Behring's Straits to the American side +as early as 1730 (_Mueller_, iii. p. 131), and therefore ought +properly to be considered as the discoverer of this sound. The +north-westernmost part of America, Behring's Straits and the islands +situated in it, are besides shown in Strahlenberg's map, which was +made at least a decade before Gvosdev's voyage. There north-western +America is delineated as a large island, inhabited by a tribe, the +_Pucho-chotski_, who lived in a constant state of warfare with the +_Giuchieghi_, who inhabited the islands in the sound. Wrangel Land +is also shown in this remarkable map. In 1767, eleven years before +Cook's voyage in the Polar Sea, the American side of Behring's +Straits was also visited by Lieut. SYND with a Russian expedition, +that started from Okotsk in 1764. In the short account of the voyage +which is to be found in William Coxe's, _Account of the Russian +Discoveries, &c._, London, 1780, p. 300, it is said expressly that +Synd considered the coast on which he landed to belong to America. +On Synd's map, published by Coxe, the north part of the Behring Sea +is enriched with a number of fictitious islands (St. Agaphonis, St. +Myronis, St. Titi, St. Samuels, and St. Andreae). As Synd, according +to Sarytchev in the work quoted below, p. 11, made the voyage in a +boat, it is probable that by these names islands were indicated +which lay quite close to the coast and were not so far from land as +shown in the map, besides, the mountain-summits on St. Lawrence +Island, which are separated by extensive low lands, may perhaps have +been taken for separate islands. ] + +[Footnote 338: Billings' voyage is described in Martin Sauer's +_Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the +Northern Parts of Asia, &c., by Commodore Joseph Billings_, London, +1802, and Gavrila Sarychev's _Achtjaehrige Reise im noerdlichen +Siberien, auf dem Eismeere und dem nordoestlichen Ocean. Aus dem +Russischen uebersetzt von J.H. Busse_, Leipzig, 1805-1806. As +interesting to our Swedish readers it may be mentioned that the +Russian hunter Prybilov informed Sauer that a Swedish brigantine, +_Merkur_, coppered, carrying sixteen cannon, commanded by J.H. +Coxe, in 1788, cruised in the Behring Sea in order to destroy the +Russian settlements there. They however, according to Prybilov's +statement to Sauer, "did no damage, because they saw that we had +nothing worth taking away. They instead gave us gifts, because they +were ashamed to offer violence to such poor fellows as we" (Sauer, +p. 213). ] + +[Footnote 339: Otto von Kotzebue, _Entdeckungs-Reise in die Sud-See +und nach der Behrings Strasse_, Weimar, 1821 (Part III., +Contributions in Natural History, by Adelbert von Chamisso)--Louis +Choris, _Voyage pittoresque autour du monde_, Paris, 1822. + +Frederik Luetke, _Voyage autour du monde_, Paris, 1835-36.--F.H. von +Kittlitz, _Denkuuerdigkeiten einer Reise nach dem russischen Amerika, +nach Mikronesien und durch Kamtschatka_, Gotha, 1858. + +Kellet, _Voyage of H.M.S. "Herald,"_ 1845-51, London, 1853 +(Discovery of Herald Island and the east coast of Wrangel Land). + +W.H. Hooper, _Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski_, London, 1853 +(Moore's wintering at Chukotskoj-nos). + +John Rodgers, Behring's Sea and Arctic Ocean, from Surveys of the +North Pacific Surveying Expedition, 1855 (only charts).--W. Heine, +_Die Expedition in die Seen von China, Japan und Ochotsk, unter +Commando von Commodore Colin Ringgold und Commodore John Rodgers_, +Leipzig, 1858 (the expedition arrived at the result that Wrangel +Land did not exist). + +(Lindemann) _Wrangels Land im Jahre_ 1866, _durch Kapiten Dallmann +besucht (Deutsche Geograph. Blaetter_, B. iv. p. 54, 1881). + +Petermann, _Entdeckung eines neuen Polar-Landes durch den amerikan, +Capt Long_, 1867 (Mittheil. 1868, p. 1).--_Das neu-entdeckte +Polar-Land_, &c. (Mittheil 1869, p. 26). ] + +[Footnote 340: It ought to be remembered that the voyage of the +distinguished Arctic explorer, McClure, carried out with so much +gallantry and admirable perseverance, from the Pacific to the +Atlantic along the north coast of America, took place to no +inconsiderable extent _by sled journeys over the ice_, and that no +English vessel has ever sailed by this route from the one sea to the +other. The North-west Passage has thus never been accomplished by a +vessel. ] + +[Footnote 341: Amoretti, _Viaggio del mare Atlantico al Pasifico per +la via del Nord-Ovest, &c. Fatto del capitano Lorenzo Ferrer +Maldonado, l'anno MDLXXXVIII_. Milano, 1811. ] + +[Footnote 342: At the date of Maldonado's voyage Spain and Portugal +were united. ] + +[Footnote 343: The narratives of the Russian voyagers in the Polar +Seas bear a quite different stamp. Details are seldom wanting in +these, and they correspond with known facts, and the discoveries +made are of reasonably modest dimensions. I therefore consider, as I +have said already, that the doubts of the trustworthiness of +Deschnev, Chelyuskin, Andrejev, Hedenstroem, Sannikov, &c., are +completely unfounded, and it is highly desirable that all journals +of Russian explorers in the Polar Sea yet in existence be published +as soon as possible, and not in a mutilated shape, but in a complete +and unaltered form. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Passage through Behring's Straits--Arrival at Nunamo-- + Scarce species of seal--Rich vegetation--Passage to America-- + State of the ice--Port Clarence--The Eskimo--Return to Asia-- + Konyam Bay--Natural conditions there--The ice breaks up in + the interior of Konyam Bay--St. Lawrence Island--Preceding + visits to the Island--Departure to Behring Island. + + +After we had passed the easternmost promontory of Asia, the course +was shaped first to St. Lawrence Bay, a not inconsiderable fjord, +which indents the Chukch peninsula, a little south of the smallest +part of Behring's Straits. It was my intention to anchor in this +fjord as long as possible, in order to give the naturalists of the +_Vega_ expedition an opportunity of making acquaintance with the +natural conditions of a part of Chukch Land which is more favoured +by nature than the bare stretch of coast completely open to the +winds of the Polar Sea, which we hitherto had visited. I would +willingly have stayed first for some hours at Diomede Island, the +market-place famed among the Polar tribes, situated in the narrowest +part of the Straits, nearly half-way between Asia and America, and +probably before the time of Columbus a station for traffic between +the Old and the New Worlds. But such a delay would have been +attended with too great difficulty and loss of time in consequence +of the dense fog which prevailed here on the boundary between the +warm sea free from drift-ice and the cold sea filled with drift-ice. + +[Illustration: SEAL FROM THE BEHRING SEA. _Histriophoca fasciata_, +Zimm. ] + +Even the high mountains on the Asiatic shore were still wrapped in a +thick mist, from which only single mountain-summits now and then +appeared. Next the vessel large fields of drift-ice were visible, on +which here and there flocks of a beautifully marked species of seal +(_Histriophoca fasciata_, Zimm) had settled. Between the pieces of +ice sea-birds swarmed, mostly belonging to other species than those +which are met with in the European Polar seas. The ice was +fortunately so broken up that the _Vega_ could steam forward at full +speed to the neighbourhood of St. Lawrence Bay, where the coast was +surrounded by some more compact belts of ice, which however were +broken through with ease. First, in the mouth of the fjord itself +impenetrable ice was met with, completely blocking the splendid +haven of St. Lawrence Bay. The _Vega_ was, therefore, compelled to +anchor in the open road off the village Nunamo. But even here +extensive ice-fields, though thin and rotten, drifted about; and +long, but narrow, belts of ice passed the vessel in so large masses +that it was not advisable to remain longer at the place. Our stay +there was therefore confined to a few hours. + +During the course of the winter Lieutenant Nordquist endeavoured to +collect from the Chukches travelling past as complete information as +possible regarding the Chukch villages or encampments which are found +along the coast between Chaun Bay and Behring's Straits. His informants +always finished their list with the village Ertryn, situated west of +Cape Deschnev, explaining that farther east and south there lived +another tribe, with whom they indeed did not stand in open enmity, but +who, however, were not to be fully depended upon, and to whose villages +they therefore did not dare to accompany any of us.[344] This statement +also corresponds, as perhaps follows from what I have pointed out in the +preceding chapter, with the accounts commonly found in books on the +ethnography of this region. While we steamed forward cautiously in a +dense fog in the neighbourhood of Cape Deschnev, twenty to thirty +natives came rowing in a large skin boat to the vessel. Eager to make +acquaintance with a tribe new to us, we received them with pleasure. But +when they climbed over the side we found that they were pure Chukches, +some of them old acquaintances, who during winter had been guests on +board the _Vega_. "Ankali" said they, with evident contempt, are first +met with farther beyond St. Lawrence Bay. When we anchored next day at +the mouth of this bay we were immediately, as usual, visited by a large +number of natives, and ourselves visited their tents on land. They still +talked Chukch with a limited mixture of foreign words, lived in tents +of a construction differing somewhat from the Chukches', and appeared to +have a somewhat different cast of countenance. They themselves would not +allow that there was any national difference between them and the old +warrior and conqueror tribe on the north coast, but stated that the race +about which we inquired were settled immediately to the south. Some days +after we anchored in Konyam Bay (64 deg. 49' N.L., 172 deg. 53' W.L. from +Greenwich). We found there only pure reindeer-owning Chukches; there was +no coast population living by hunting and fishing. On the other hand, +the inhabitants near our anchorage off St. Lawrence Island consisted of +Eskimo and Namollo. It thus appears as if a great part of the Eskimo who +inhabit the Asiatic side of Behring's Straits, had during recent times +lost their own nationality and become fused with the Chukches. For it is +certain that no violent expulsion has recently taken place here. It +ought besides to be remarked that the name _Onkilon_ which Wrangel +heard given to the old coast population driven out by the Chukches +is evidently nearly allied to the word _Ankali_, with which the +reindeer-Chukch at present distinguishes the coast-Chukch, also that, in +the oldest Russian accounts of Schestakov's and Paulutski's campaigns in +these regions, there never is any mention of two different tribes living +here. It is indeed mentioned in these accounts that among the slain +Chukches there were found some men with perforated lips, but probably +these were Eskimo from the other side of Behring's Straits, previously +taken prisoners by the Chukches, or perhaps merely Eskimo who had been +paying a friendly visit to the Chukches and who had taken part as +volunteers in their war of freedom. It therefore appears to me to be on +the whole more probable that the Eskimo have migrated from America to +Asia, than that, as some authors have supposed, this tribe has entered +America from the west by Behring's Straits or Wrangel Land. + +The tent-village Nunamo, or, as Hooper writes, "Noonahmone," does +not lie low, like the Chukch villages we had formerly seen, on the +sea-shore, but pretty high up on a cape between the sea and a river +which debouches immediately to the south-west of the village, and +now during the snow-melting season was much flooded. At a short +distance from the coast the land was occupied by a very high chain +of mountains, which was split up into a number of summits and whose +sides were formed of immense stone mounds distributed in terraces. +Here a large number of marmots and lagomys had their haunt. The +lagomys, a species of rodent that does not occur in Sweden, of the +size of a large rat, is remarkable for the care with which in summer +it collects great stores for the winter. The village consisted of +ten tents built without order on the first high strand bank. The +tents differed somewhat in construction from the common Chukch +tents, and as drift-wood appears to be met with on the beach only in +limited quantity, whale-bones had been used on a very large scale in +the frame of the tent. Thus, for instance, the tent-covering of +seal-skin was stretched downwards over the ribs or lower jawbones of +the whale which were fixed in the ground like poles. These were +united above with slips of whale-bones, from which other slips of +the same sort of bones or of whalebone rose to the summit of the +tent, and finally, to prevent the blast from raising the +tent-covering from the ground, its border was loaded with masses of +large heavy bones. Eleven shoulder-blades of the whale were thus +used round a single tent. In the absence of drift-wood, whale and +seal bones drenched in train-oil are also used as fuel in cooking in +the open air during summer; a large curved whale rib was placed over +the fire-place to serve as a pot-holder; the vertebrae of the whale +were used as mortars; the entrances to the blubber-cellars were +closed with shoulder-blades of the whale; hollowed whale-bones were +used as lamps; shoes of whale-bone or pieces of the under-jaw and +the straighter ribs were used for shoeing the sledges, for spades +and ice-mattocks, the different parts of the implement being bound +together with whale-bone fibres, &c. [345] + +Masses of black seal-flesh, and long, white, fluttering strings of +inflated intestines, were hung up between the tents, and in their +interior there were everywhere to be seen bloody pieces of flesh, +prepared in a disgusting way or lying scattered about, whereby both +the dwellings and their inhabitants, who were occupied with hunting, +had a more than usually disagreeble appearance. A pleasant +interruption was formed by the heaps of green willow branches which +were placed at the entrance of nearly every tent, commonly +surrounded by women and children, who ate the leaves with delight. +At some places whole sacks of Rhodiola and various other plants had +been collected for food during winter. As distinctive of the +Chukches here it may be mentioned in the last place that they were +abundantly provided with European household articles, among them +_Remington guns_, and that none of them asked for spirits. + +Most of the seals which were seen in the tents were the common +_Phoca hispida_, but along with them we found several skins of +_Histriophoca fasciata_, Zimm., and I even succeeded, though with +great difficulty, in inducing the Chukches to part with the skin and +skull of this uncommon species, distinguished by its peculiar +marking. The natives appeared to set a special value on its skin, +and parted with it unwillingly. We had ourselves, as I have already +stated, seen during our passage from Behring's Straits a number of +these seals on the ice-floes drifting south, but the limited time at +our disposal did not permit us to hunt them. + +[Illustration: DRABA ALPINA L., FROM ST. LAWRENCE BAY. Natural size. ] + +When we left Pitlekaj, vegetation there was still far from having +reached its full development, but at Nunamo the strand-bank was gay +with an exceedingly rich magnificence of colour. On an area of a few +acres Dr. Kjellman collected here more than a hundred species of +flowering plants, among which were a considerable number that he had +not before seen on the Chukch Peninsula. Space does not permit me to +give another list of plants, but in order that the reader may have +an idea of the great difference in the mode of growth which the same +species may exhibit under the influence of different climatal +conditions, I give here a drawing of the Alpine whitlow grass +(_Draba alpina_, L.) from St. Lawrence Bay. It would not, perhaps, +be easy to recognise in this drawing the species delineated on page +341 of vol. i,; the globular form which the plant assumed on the +shore of Cape Chelyuskin exposed to the winds of the Polar Sea, has +here, in a region protected from them, completely disappeared. + +At the rocky headlands there were still, however, considerable +snowdrifts, and from the heights we could see that considerable +masses of ice were still drifting along the Asiatic side of +Behring's Straits. During an excursion to the top of one of the +neighbouring mountains, Dr. Stuxberg found the corpse of a native +laid out on a stone-setting of the form common among the Chukches. +Alongside the dead man lay a broken percussion gun, spear, arrows, +tinder-box, pipe, snow-shade, ice-sieve, and various other things +which the departed was considered to be in want of in the part of +the Elysian fields set apart for Chukches. The corpse had lain on +the place at least since the preceding summer, but the pipe was one +of the clay pipes that I had caused to be distributed among the +natives. It had thus been placed there long after the proper burial. + +Anxious as I was to send off soon from a telegraph station some +re-assuring lines to the home-land, because I feared that a general +uneasiness had already begun to be felt for the fate of the _Vega_, +I would willingly have remained at this place, so important and +interesting in a scientific point of view, at least for some days, +had not the ice-belts and ice-fields drifting about in the offing +been so considerable that if a wind blowing on land had risen +unexpectedly, they might readily have been dangerous to our vessel, +which even now was anchored in a completely open road, for the +splendid haven situated farther in in St. Lawrence Bay was still +covered with ice, and consequently inaccessible. On the afternoon of +21st July, accordingly, when all were assembled on board pleased and +delighted with the results of the morning visit to land, I ordered +the anchor to be weighed that the _Vega_ might steam across to the +American side of Behring's Straits. As in all the Polar seas of the +northern hemisphere, so also here, the eastern side of the Straits +was ice-bestrewn, the western, on the other hand, clear of ice. The +passage was at all events a rapid one, so that by the afternoon of +the 21st July we were able to anchor in Port Clarence, an excellent +haven south of the westernmost promontory of Asia, Cape Prince of +Wales. _It was the first time the Vega anchored in a proper haven, +since on the 18th August 1878 she left Actinia, Haven on Taimur +Island._ During the intermediate time she had been constantly +anchored or moored in open roads without the least land shelter from +sea, wind, and drift-ice. The vessel was, however, thanks to Captain +Palander's judgment and thoughtfulness, and the ability of the +officers and crew, still not only quite free from damage, but even +as seaworthy as when she left the dock at Karlskrona, and we had +still on board provisions for nearly a year, and about 4,000 cubic +feet of coal. + +Towards the sea Port Clarence is protected by a long low sandy reef, +between the north end of which and the land there is a convenient +and deep entrance. There a considerable river falls into the +interior of the harbour, the mouth of which widens to a lake, which +is separated from the outer harbour by a sandy neck of land. This +lake also forms a good and spacious harbour, but its entrance is too +shallow for vessels of any considerable draught. The river itself, +on the contrary, is deep, and about eighteen kilometres from its +mouth flows through another lake, from the eastern shore of which +rugged and shattered mountains rise to a height which I estimate at +800 to 1000 metres; but it is quite possible that their height is +twice as great, for in making such estimates one is liable to fall +into error. South of the river and the harbour the land rises +abruptly from the river bank, which is from ten to twenty metres +high. On the north side, on the other hand, the bank is for the most +part low, but farther into the interior the ground rises rapidly to +rounded hills from 300 to 400 metres high. Only in the valleys and +at other places where very large masses of snow had collected during +the winter, were snow-drifts still to be seen. On the other hand, we +saw no glaciers, though we might have expected to find them on the +sides of the high mountains which bound the inner lake on the east. +It was also clear that during the recent ages no widely extended +ice-sheet was to be found here, for in the many excursions we made +in different directions, among others up the river to the lake just +mentioned, we saw nowhere any moraines, erratic blocks, striated +rock-surfaces, or other traces of a past ice-age. Many signs, on the +other hand, indicate that during a not very remote geological period +glaciers covered considerable areas of the opposite Asiatic shore, +and contributed to excavate the fjords there--Kolyutschin Bay, St. +Lawrence Bay, Metschigme Bay, Konyam Bay, &c. + +When we approached the American side we could see that the shore +cliffs were formed of stratified rocks. I therefore hoped to be +able, at last, to make a rich collection of fossils, something that +I had no opportunity of doing during the preceding part of the +voyage. But I found, on reaching them, that the stratified rocks +only consisted of crystalline schists without any traces of animal +or vegetable remains. Nor did we find on the shore any whale-bones +or any of the remarkable mammoth-bearing ice-strata which were +discovered in the bay situated immediately north of Behring's +Straits, which was named after Dr. Eschscholz, medical officer +during Kotzebue's famous voyage.[346] + +Immediately after the anchor fell we were visited by several very +large skin boats and a large number of _kayaks_. The latter were +larger than the Greenlanders', being commonly intended for two +persons, who sat back to back in the middle of the craft. We even +saw boats from which, when the two rowers had stepped out, a third +person crept who had lain almost hermetically sealed in the interior +of the _kayak_, stretched on the bottom without the possibility of +moving his limbs, or saving himself if any accident should happen. +It appeared to be specially common for children to accompany their +elders in _kayak_ voyages in this inconvenient way. + +After the natives came on board a lively traffic commenced, whereby I +acquired some arrow-points and stone fishing-hooks. Anxious to procure +as abundant material as possible for instituting a comparison between +the household articles of the Eskimo and the Chukches, I examined +carefully the skin-bags which the natives had with them. In doing so I +picked out one thing after the other, while they did not object to me +making an inventory. One of them, however, showed great unwillingness to +allow me to get to the bottom of the sack, but this just made me curious +to ascertain what precious thing was concealed there. I was urgent, and +went through the bag half with violence, until at last, in the bottom, I +got a solution of the riddle--a loaded revolver. Several of the natives +had also breechloaders. The oldest age with stone implements, and the +most recent period with breechloaders, thus here reach hands one to the +other. + +[Illustration: HUNTING IMPLEMENTS AT PORT CLARENCE. + 1. Bird dart with wooden handle for throwing, one-ninth of the + natural size. + 2. Whale harpoon with flint point, one-twelfth. + 3. Harpoon-point of bone and nephrite, one-half. + 4. Bone leister, one-third. + 5. Awl, one-half. + 6. Harpoon, one-twelfth. + 7. Flint dart-point, one-half. + 8. Arrows or harpoon-ends with points of iron, stone or glass, + one-eighth. + 9. Quiver, one-eighth. ] + +[Illustration: ESKIMO FAMILY AT PORT CLARENCE. (After a photograph by +L. Palander.) ] + +Many natives were evidently migrating to more northerly +hunting-grounds and fishing places, perhaps also to the markets and +play-booths, which Dr. John Simpson describes in his well-known +paper on the West Eskimo.[347] Others had already pitched their +summer tents on the banks of the inner harbour, or of the river +before mentioned. On the other hand, there was found in the region +only a small number of winter dwellings abandoned during the warm +season of the year. The population consisted, as has been said, of +Eskimo. They did not understand a word of Chukch. Among them, +however, we found a Chukch woman, who stated that true Chukches were +found also on the American side, north of Behring's Straits. Two of +the men spoke a little English, one had even been at San Francisco, +another at Honolulu. Many of their household articles reminded us of +contact with American whalers, and justice demands the recognition +of the fact that in opposition to what we commonly see stated, +contact with men of civilised race appears to have been to the +advantage and improvement of the savage in an economical and moral +point of view. Most of them now lived in summer-tents of thin cotton +cloth, many wore European clothes, others were clad in trousers of +seal or reindeer-skin and a light, soft, often beautifully +ornamented _pesk_ of marmot skin, over which in rainy weather was +worn an overcoat made of pieces of gut sewn together. The +arrangement of the hair resembled that of the Chukches. The women +were tattooed with some lines on the chin. Many of the men wore +small moustaches, some even a scanty beard, while others had +attempted the American goatee. Most of them, but not all, had two +holes from six to seven millimetres in length, cut in the lips below +the corners of the mouth. In these holes were worn large pieces of +bone, glass, or stone (figure 9, page 237). But these ornaments were +often removed, and then the edges of the large holes closed so much +that the face was not much disfigured. Many had in addition a +similar hole forward in the lip. It struck me, however, that this +strange custom was about to disappear completely, or at least to be +Europeanised by the exchange of holes in the ears for holes in the +mouth. An almost full-grown young woman had a large blue glass bead +hanging from the nose, in whose partition a hole had been made for +its suspension, but she was very much embarrassed and hid her head +in a fold of mama's _pesk_, when this piece of grandeur attracted +general attention. All the women had long strings of beads in the +ears. They wore bracelets of iron or copper, resembling those of the +Chukches. The colour of the skin was not very dark, with perceptible +redness on the cheeks, the hair black and tallow-like, the eyes +small, brown, slightly oblique, the face flat, the nose small and +depressed at the root. Most of the natives were of average height, +appeared to be healthy and in good condition, and were marked +neither by striking thinness nor corpulence. The feet and the hands +were small. + +[Illustration: ESKIMO AT PORT CLARENCE. (After a photograph by L. +Palander.) ] + +[Illustration: ESKIMO AT PORT CLARENCE. (After photographs by L. +Palander.) ] + +A certain elegance and order prevailed in their small tents, the +floor of which was covered with mats of plaited plants. In many +places vessels formed of cocoa-nut shells were to be seen, brought +thither, like some of the mats, by whalers from the South Sea +Islands. For the most part their household and hunting implements, +axes, knives, saws, breechloaders, revolvers, &c., were of American +origin, but they still used or preserved in the lumber repositories +of the tent, bows and arrows, bird-darts, bone boat-hooks, and +various stone implements. The fishing implements especially were +made with extraordinary skill of coloured sorts of bone or stone, +glass beads, red pieces of the feet of certain swimming birds, &c. +The different materials were bound together by twine made of +whalebone in such a manner that they resembled large beetles, being +intended for use in the same way as salmon-flies at home. + +[Illustration: ESKIMO FISHING IMPLEMENTS, ETC. + 1-6. Salmon hooks of stone of different colours, and bone in the + form of beetles, one-half of the natural size. + 7. Fishing rod one-sixth. + 8. End of rod. + 9. Bone sinker with tufts and fish-hook, one-half. + 10. Fish-hook with bone points, one-half. + 11. Fish-hook with iron-wire points, one-half. + 12. Snow spectacles one-third. ] + +Fire was got partly with steel, flint, and tinder, partly by means +of the fire-drill. Many also used American lucifers. The bow of the +fire-drill was often of ivory, richly ornamented with hunting +figures of different kinds. Their tools were more elegant, better +carved and more richly coloured with graphite[348] and red ochre than +those of the Chukches; the people were better off and owned a larger +number of skin-boats, both _kayaks_ and _umiaks_. This undoubtedly +depends on the sea being here covered with ice for a shorter time +and the ice being thinner than on the Asiatic side, and the hunting +accordingly being better. All the old accounts however agree in +representing that in former times the Chukches were recognised as a +great power by the other savage tribes in these regions, but all +recent observations indicate that that time is now past. A certain +respect for them, however, appears still to prevail among their +neighbours. + +The natives, after the first mistrust had disappeared, were friendly +and accommodating, honourable in their dealings though given to +begging and to much haggling in making a bargain. There appeared to +be no chief among them, complete equality prevailed, and the +position of the woman did not appear to be inferior to that of the +man. The children were what we would call in Europe well brought up, +though they got no bringing up at all. All were heathens. The liking +for spirits appeared to be less strong than among the Chukches. We +learn besides that all selling of spirits to savages is not only +forbidden on the American side, but forbidden in such a way that the +law is obeyed. + +During our stay among the Chukches my supply of articles for barter +was very limited, for up to the hour of departure uncertainty +prevailed as to the time at which we would get free, and I was +therefore compelled to be sparing of the stores. I often found it +difficult on that account to induce a Chukch to part with things +which I wished to acquire. Here on the contrary I was a rich man, +thanks to the large surplus that was over from our abundant winter +equipment, which of course in warm regions would have been of no use +to us. I turned my riches to account by making visits like a pedlar +in the tent villages with sacks full of felt hats, thick clothes, +stockings, ammunition, &c., for which goods I obtained a beautiful +and choice collection of ethnographical articles. Among these may be +mentioned beautiful bone etchings and carvings, and several +arrow-points and other tools of a species of nephrite,[349] which is +so puzzlingly like the well-known nephrite from High Asia, that I am +disposed to believe that it actually comes originally from that +locality. In such a case the occurrence of nephrite at Behring's +Straits is important, because it cannot be explained in any other +way than either by supposing that the tribes living here have +carried the mineral with them from their original home in High Asia, +or that during the Stone Age of High Asia a like extended commercial +intercommunication took place between the wild races as now exists, +or at least some decades ago existed, along the north parts of Asia +and America. + +[Illustration: ESKIMO BONE-CARVINGS, ETC. + 1-5. Buttons to carrying straps, representing heads of the Polar bear, + seals &c., carved in walrus ivory, one-half of the natural size. + 6. Carrying strap with a similar button, carved, in the form + of a seal, one-third. + 7. Stone chisel, one-half. + 8. Comb one-third. + 9. Buttons of bone, glass, or stone, to be placed in holes in the lips, + natural size. + 10. Ivory diadem, two-thirds. ] + +On the north side of the harbour we found an old European or +American train-oil boiling establishment. In the neighbourhood of it +were two Eskimo graves. The corpses had been laid on the ground +fully clothed, without the protection of any coffin, but surrounded +by a close fence consisting of a number of tent poles driven +crosswise into the ground. Alongside one of the corpses lay a +_kayak_ with oars, a loaded double-barrelled gun with locks at +half-cock and caps on, various other weapons, clothes, tinderbox, +snow-shoes, drinking-vessels, two masks carved in wood and smeared +with blood (figures 1 and 2, page 241), and strangely-shaped animal +figures. Such were seen also in the tents. Bags of sealskin, +intended to be inflated and fastened to harpoons as floats, were +sometimes ornamented with small faces carved in wood (figure 3, page +241). In one of the two amulets of the same kind, which I brought +home with me, one eye is represented by a piece of blue enamel stuck +in, and the other by a piece of iron pyrites fixed in the same way. +Behind two tents were found, erected on posts a metre and a half in +height, roughly-formed wooden images of birds with expanded wings +painted red. I endeavoured without success to purchase these +tent-idols[350] for a large new felt hat--an article of exchange for +which in other cases I could obtain almost anything whatever. A +dazzlingly white _kayak_ of a very elegant shape, on the other hand, +I purchased without difficulty for an old felt hat and 500 Remington +cartridges. + +[Illustration: ESKIMO GRAVE. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ] + +As a peculiar proof of the ingenuity of the Americans when offering +their goods for sale, it may be mentioned in conclusion that an +Eskimo, who came to the vessel during our stay in the harbour, +showed us a printed paper, by which a commercial house at San +Francisco offered to "sporting gentlemen" at Behring's Straits +(Eskimo?) their stock of excellent hunting shot. + +As the west coast of Europe is washed by the Gulf Stream, there also +runs along the Pacific coast of America a warm current, which gives +the land a much milder climate than that which prevails on the +neighbouring Asiatic side, where, as on the east coast of Greenland, +there runs a cold northerly current. The limit of trees therefore in +north-western America goes a good way _north of_ Behring's Straits, +while on the Chukch Peninsula wood appears to be wholly wanting. +Even at Port Clarence the coast is devoid of trees, but some +kilometres into the country alder bushes two feet high are met with, +and behind the coast hills actual forests probably occur. Vegetation +is besides already luxuriant at the coast, and far away here, on the +coast of the New World, many species are to be found nearly allied +to Scandinavian plants, among them the _Linnaea_. Dr. Kjellman +therefore reaped here a rich botanical harvest, valuable for the +purpose of comparison with the flora of the neighbouring portion of +Asia and other High Arctic regions. + +[Illustration: ANIMAL FIGURE FROM AN ESKIMO GRAVE. + _a._ From above. + _b._ From the side (One-third of the natural size.) ] + +[Illustration: ETHNOGRAPHICAL OBJECTS FROM PORT CLARENCE. + 1-2. Wooden masks, found at a grave, one-sixth of the natural size. + 3. Amulet a face with one eye of enamel, the other of pyrites from + a harpoon-float of sealskin, one-third. + 4. Oars, one-nineteenth. + 5. Boathook, one-twelfth. + 6. The hook or carved ivory, one-fourth. + 7. Carved knife handle (?) ofivory, one-half. ] + +Dr. Almquist in like manner collected very extensive materials for +investigating the lichen-flora of the region, probably before very +incompletely known. The harvest of the zoologists, on the other +hand, was scanty. Notwithstanding the luxuriant vegetation +land-evertebrates appeared to occur in a much smaller number of +species than in northern Norway. Of beetles, for instance, only from +ten to twenty species could be found, mainly Harpalids and +Staphylinids, and of land and fresh-water mollusca only seven or +eight species, besides which nearly all occurred very sparingly. +Among remarkable fishes may be mentioned the same black marsh-fish +which we caught at Yinretlen. The avi-fauna was scanty for a high +northern land, and of wild mammalia we saw only musk-rats. Even the +dredgings in the harbour yielded, on account of the unfavourable +nature of the bottom, only an inconsiderable number of animals and +algae. + +On the 26th July, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we weighed +anchor and steamed back in splendid weather and with for the most +part a favourable wind to the shore of the Old World. In order to +determine the salinity and temperature at different depths, +soundings were made and samples of water taken every four hours +during the passage across the straits. Trawling was besides carried +on three times in the twenty-four hours, commonly with an +extraordinarily abundant yield, among other things of large shells, +as, for instance, the beautiful _Fusus deformis_, Reeve, with its +twist to the left, and some large species of crabs. One of the +latter (_Chionoecetes opilio_, Kroeyer) the dredge sometimes brought +up in hundreds. We cooked and ate them and found them excellent, +though not very rich in flesh. The taste was somewhat sooty. + +Lieutenant Bove constructed the diagram reproduced at page 244, +which is based on the soundings and other observations made during +the passage, from which we see how shallow is the sound which in the +northernmost part of the Pacific separates the Old World from the +New. An elevation of the land less than that which has taken place +since the glacial period at the well-known Chapel Hills at Uddevalla +would evidently be sufficient to unite the two worlds with each +other by a broad bridge, and a corresponding depression would have +been enough to separate them if, as is probable, they were at one +time continuous. The diagram shows besides that the deepest channel +is quite close to the coast of the Chukch Peninsula, and that that +channel contains a mass of cold water, which is separated by a ridge +from the warmer water on the American side. + +[Illustration: SHELL FROM BEHRING'S STRAITS. _Fusus deformis_, Reeve. ] + +If we examine a map of Siberia we shall find, as I have already +pointed out, that its coasts at most places are straight, and are +thus neither indented with deep fjords surrounded with high +mountains like the west coast of Norway, nor protected by an +archipelago of islands like the greater part of the coasts of +Scandinavia and Finland. Certain parts of the Chukch Peninsula, +especially its south-eastern portion, form the only exception to +this rule. Several small fjords here cut into the coasts, which +consist of stratified granitic rocks, and in the offing two large +and several small rocky islands form an archipelago, separated from +the mainland by the deep Senjavin Sound. The wish to give our +naturalists an opportunity of once more prosecuting their +examination of the natural history of the Chukch Peninsula, and the +desire to study one of the few parts of the Siberian coast which in +all probability were formerly covered with inland ice, led me to +choose this place for the second anchorage of the _Vega_ on the +Asiatic side south of Behring's Straits. The _Vega_ accordingly +anchored here on the forenoon of the 28th July, but not, as was at +first intended, in Glasenapp Harbour, because it was still occupied +unbroken ice, but in the mouth of the most northerly of the fjords, +Konyam Bay. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM, Showing the Temperature and Depth of the water +at Behring's Straits between Port Clarence and Senjavin Sound. By G. +BOVE. ] + +This portion of the Chukch Peninsula had been visited before us by +the corvette _Senjavin_, commanded by Captain, afterwards Admiral, +Fr. Luetke, and by an English Franklin Expedition on board the +_Plover_, commanded by Captain Moore. Luetke stayed here with his +companions, the naturalists MERTENS, POSTELS, and KITTLITZ, some +days in August 1828, during which the harbour was surveyed and +various observations in ethnography and the natural sciences made. +Moore wintered at this place in 1848-49. I have already stated that +we have his companion, Lieut. W.H. Hooper, to thank for very +valuable information relating to the tribes which live in the +neighbourhood. The region appears to have been then inhabited by a +rather dense population. Now there lived at the bay where we had +anchored only three reindeer-Chukch families, and the neighbouring +islands must at the time have been uninhabited, or perhaps the +arrival of the _Vega_ may not have been observed, for no natives +came on board, which otherwise would probably have been the case. + +The shore at the south-east part of Konyam Bay, in which the _Vega_ +now lay at anchor for a couple of days, consists of a rather +desolate bog, in which a large number of cranes were breeding. +Farther into the country several mountain summits rise to a height +of nearly 600 metres. The collections of the zoologists and +botanists on this shore were very scanty, but on the north side of +the bay, to which excursions were made with the steam-launch, grassy +slopes were met with, with pretty high bushy thickets and a great +variety of flowers, which enriched Dr. Kjellman's collection of the +higher plants from the north coast of Asia with about seventy +species. Here were found too the first land mollusca (Succinea, +Limax, Helix, Pupa, &c.) on the Chukch Peninsula.[351] + +We also visited the dwellings of the reindeer-Chukch families. They +resembled the Chukch tents we had seen before, and the mode of life +of the inhabitants differed little from that of the coast-Chukches, +with whom we passed the winter. They were even clothed in the same +way, excepting that the men wore a number of small bells in the +belt. The number of the reindeer which the three families owned was, +according to an enumeration which I made when the herd had with +evident pleasure settled down at noon in warm sunshine on a +snow-field in the neighbourhood of the tents, only about 400, thus +considerably fewer than is required to feed three Lapp families. The +Chukches have instead a better supply of fish, and, above all, +better hunting than the Lapps; they also do not drink any coffee, +and themselves collect a part of their food from the vegetable +kingdom. The natives received us in a very friendly way, and +offered to sell or rather barter three reindeer, a transaction which +on account of our hasty departure was not carried into effect. + +The mountains in the neighbourhood of Konyam Bay were high and split up +into pointed summits with deep valleys still partly filled with snow. No +glaciers appear to exist there at present. Probably however the fjords +here and the sounds, like St. Lawrence Bay, Kolyutschin Bay, and +probably all the other deeper bays on the coast of the Chukch Peninsula, +have been excavated by former glaciers. It may perhaps be uncertain +whether a true inland-ice covered the whole country; it is certain that +the ice-cap did not extend over the plains of Siberia, where it can be +proved that no Ice Age in a Scandinavian sense ever existed, and where +the state of the land from the Jurassic period onwards was indeed +subjected to some changes, but to none of the thoroughgoing mundane +revolutions which in former times geologists loved to depict in so +bright colours. At least the direction of the rivers appears to have +been unchanged since then. Perhaps even the difference between the +Siberia where Chikanovski's _Ginko_ woods grew and the mammoth roamed +about, and that where now at a limited depth under the surface +constantly frozen ground is to be met with, depends merely on the +isothermal lines having sunk slightly towards the equator. + +[Illustration: KONYAM BAY. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) ] + +The neighbourhood of Konyam Bay consists of crystalline rocks, +granite poor in mica, and mica-schist lowermost, and then grey +non-fossiliferous carbonate of lime, and last of all magnesian +schists, porphyry, and quartzites. On the summits of the hills the +granite has a rough trachytic appearance, but does not pass into +true trachyte. Here however we are already in the neighbourhood of +the volcanic hearths of Kamchatka, which for instance is shown by +the hot spring, which Hooper discovered not far from the coast +during a sledge journey towards Behring's Straits. In the middle of +the severe cold of February its waters had a temperature of +69 deg. C. +Hot steam and drifting snow combined had thrown over the +spring a lofty vault of dazzling whiteness formed of masses of snow +converted into ice and covered with ice-crystals. The Chukches +themselves appear to have found the contrast striking between the +hot spring from the interior of the earth and the cold, snow, and +ice on its surface. They offered blue glass beads to the spring, and +showed Hooper, as something remarkable, that it was possible to boil +fish in it, though the mineral water gave the boiled fish a bitter +unpleasant taste.[352] + +The interior of Konyam Bay was during our stay there still covered +by an unbroken sheet of ice. This broke up on the afternoon of the +30th July, and had almost, rotten as it was, suddenly brought the +voyage of the _Vega_ to a termination by pressing her ashore. +Fortunately the danger was observed in time. Steam was got up, the +anchor weighed, and the vessel removed to the open part of the +fjord. As on this account several cubic feet of coal had to be used +for getting up steam, as our hitherto abundant stock of coal must +now be saved, and as, in the last place I was still urged forward by +the fear that a too lengthened delay in sending home despatches +might not only cause much anxiety but also lead to a heavy +expenditure of money, I preferred to sail on immediately rather than +to enter a safer harbour in the neighbourhood from which the +scientific work might continue to be prosecuted. + +The course was now shaped for the north-west point of St. Lawrence +Island. A little off Senjavin Sound we saw drift-ice for the last +time. On the whole the quantity of ice which drifts down through +Behring's Straits into the Pacific is not very great, and most of +that which is met with in summer on the Asiatic side of the Behring +Sea, is evidently formed in fjords and bays along the coast South of +Behring's Straits accordingly I saw not a single iceberg nor any +large block of glacier-ice, but only even and very rotten fields of +bay-ice. + +The _Vega_ was anchored on the 31st July in an open bay on the +north-western side of St. Lawrence Island. This island, called by +the natives Enguae, is the largest one between the Aleutian Islands +and Behring's Straits. It lies nearer Asia than America, but is +considered to belong to the latter, for which reason it was handed +over along with the Alaska Territory by Russia to the United States. +The island is inhabited by a few Eskimo families, who have +commercial relations with then Chukch neighbours on the Russian +side, and therefore have adopted some words from their language. +Then dress also resembles that of the Chukches, with the exception +that, wanting reindeer-skin, they use _pesks_ made of the skins of +birds and marmots. Like the Chukches and Eskimo they use overcoats +of pieces of seal-gut sewed together. On St. Lawrence Island their +dress is much ornamented, chiefly with tufts of feathers of the +sea-fowl that breed in innumerable flocks on the island. It even +appears that gut clothes are made here for sale to other tribes; +otherwise it would be difficult to explain how Kotzebue's sailors +could in half an hour purchase at a single encampment 200 coats of +this kind. At the time of our visit all the natives went bareheaded, +the men with their black tallow-like hair clipped to the root, with +the exception of the common small border above the forehead. The +women wore their hair plaited and adorned with beads, and were much +tattooed, partly after very intricate patterns, as is shown by the +accompanying woodcuts. Like the children they mostly went barefooted +and barelegged. They were well grown, and many did not look ill, but +all were merciless beggars, who actually followed our naturalists on +their excursions on land. + +[Illustration: TATTOOING PATTERNS, FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND. + 1., 2. Face tattooing. + 3. Arm tattooing. (After drawings by A. Stuxberg.) ] + +[Illustration: TATTOOED WOMAN FROM ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND. +(After a drawing by A. Stuxberg.) ] + +The summer-tents were irregular, but pretty clean and light huts of +gut, stretched on a frame of drift-wood and whale-bones. The winter +dwellings were now abandoned. They appeared to consist of holes in +the earth, which were covered above, with the exception of a square +opening, with drift-wood and turf. + +During winter a sealskin tent was probably stretched over this +opening, but it was removed for the time, probably to permit the +summer heat to penetrate into the hole and melt the ice, which had +collected during winter on its walls. At several tents we found +large under-jaws of whales fixed in the ground. They were perforated +above, and I suppose that the winter-tent, in the absence of other +framework, was stretched over them. Masses of whale-bones lay thrown +up along the shore, evidently belonging to the same species as those +we collected at the shore-dunes at Pitlekaj. In the neighbourhood of +the tents graves were also found. The corpses had been placed, +unburned, in some cleft among the rocks which are split up by the +frost, and often converted into immense stone mounds. They had +afterwards been covered with stones, and skulls of the bear and the +seal and whale-bones had been offered or scattered around the grave. + +North-east of the anchorage the shore was formed of low hills rising +with a steep slope from the sea. Here and there ruinlike cliffs +projected from the hills, resembling those we saw on the coast of +Chukch Land. But the rock here consisted of the same sort of granite +which formed the lowermost stratum at Konyam Bay. It was principally +at the foot of these slopes that the natives erected their +dwellings. South-west of the anchorage commenced a very extensive +plain, which towards the interior of the island was marshy, but +along the coast formed a firm, even, grassy meadow exceedingly rich +in flowers. It was gay with the large sunflower-like _Arnica +Pseudo-Arnica_, and another species of Senecio (_Senecio frigidus_); +the _Oxytropis nigrescens_, close-tufted and rich in flowers, not +stunted here as in Chukch Land; several species of Pedicularis in +their fullest bloom (_P. sudetica, P. Langsdorfii, P. Oederi_ and +_P. capitata_); the stately snow auricula (_Primula nivalis_), and +the pretty _Primula borealis_. As characteristic of the vegetation +at this place may also be mentioned several ranunculi, an anemone +(_Anemone narcissiflora_), a species of monkshood with flowers few +indeed, but so much the larger on that account, large tufts of +_Silene acaulis_ and _Alsine macrocarpa_, studded with flowers, +several Saxifrages, two Claytoniae, the _Cl. acutifolia_, important +as a food-plant in the housekeeping of the Chukches, and the tender +_Cl. sarmentosa_ with its delicate, slightly rose-coloured flowers, +and, where the ground was stony, long but yet flowerless, slightly +green tendrils of the favourite plant of our homeland, the _Linnaea +borealis_ Dr. Kjellman thus reaped a rich harvest of higher plants, +and a fine collection of land and marine animals, lichens and algae +was also made here. The ground consisted of sand in which lay large +granite blocks, which we in Sweden would call erratic. They appeared +however not to have been transported hither, but to be lying _in +situ_, having along with the sand probably arisen through the +disintegration of the rocks. + +In the sea we found not a few algae and a true littoral +evertebrate-fauna, poor in species indeed, something which is +completely absent in the Polar seas proper. As I walked along +the coast I saw five pretty large self-coloured greyish-brown seals +sunning themselves on stones a short distance from land. They +belonged to a species which I had never seen in the Polar seas. +As there was no boat at hand, I forbade the hunters that accompanied +me, though the seals were within range, to test their skill +as shots upon them. Perhaps they were females of _Histriophoca +fasciata_, whose beautifully marked skin (of the male) I had seen +and described at St. Lawrence Bay. The natives had a few dogs +but no reindeer, which however might find food on the island in +thousands. No _kayaks_ were in use, but large _baydars_ of the +same construction as those of the Chukches. + +St. Lawrence Island was discovered during Behring's first +voyage, but the first who came into contact with the natives was +Otto von Kotzebue[353] (on the 27th June 1816, and the 20th July +1817). The inhabitants had not before seen any Europeans, and +they received the foreigners with a friendliness which exposed +Kotzebue to severe suffering. Of this he gives the following +account:-- + + "So long as the naturalists wandered about on the hills I + stayed with my acquaintances, who, when they found that I + was the commander, invited me into their tents. Here a + dirty skin was spread on the floor, on which I had to sit, + and then they came in one after the other, embraced me, + rubbed their noses hard against mine, and finished their + caresses by spitting in their hands and then stroking me + several times over the face. Although these proofs of + friendship gave me very little pleasure, I bore all + patiently; the only thing I did to lighten their caresses + somewhat was to distribute tobacco leaves. These the + natives received with great pleasure, but they wished + immediately to renew their proofs of friendship. Now I + betook myself with speed to knives, scissors, and beads, + and by distributing some succeeded in averting a new + attack. But a still greater calamity awaited me when in + order to refresh me bodily they brought forward a wooden + tray with whale blubber. Nauseous as this food is to a + European stomach I boldly attacked the dish. This, along + with new presents which I distributed, impressed the seal + on the friendly relation between us. After the meal our + hosts made arrangements for dancing and singing, which was + accompanied on a little tambourine."[352] + +As von Kotzebue two days after sailed past the north point of the +island he met three _baydars_. In one of them a man stood up, held +up a little dog and pierced it through with his knife, as Kotzebue +believed, as a sacrifice to the foreigners.[355] + +Since 1817 several exploring expeditions have landed on St. Lawrence +Island, but always only for a few hours. It is very dangerous to +stay long here with a vessel. For there is no known haven on the +coast of this large island, which is surrounded by an open sea. In +consequence of the heavy swell which almost constantly prevails +here, when the surrounding sea is clear of ice, it is difficult to +land on the island with a boat, and the vessel anchored in the open +road is constantly exposed to be thrown by a storm rising +unexpectedly upon the shore cliffs. This held good in fullest +measure of the _Vega's_ anchorage, and Captain Palander was on this +account anxious to leave the place as soon as possible. On the 2nd +August at three o'clock in the afternoon we accordingly resumed our +voyage. The course was shaped at first for Karaginsk Island on the +east coast of Kamchatka, where it was my intention to stay some days +in order to get an opportunity of making a comparison between the +natural conditions of middle Kamchatka and the Chukch Peninsula. But +as unfavourable winds delayed our passage longer than I had +calculated on, I abandoned, though unwillingly, the plan of landing +there. The Commander's Islands became instead the nearest goal of +the expedition. Here the _Vega_ anchored on the 14th August in a +very indifferent harbour completely open to the west, north-west, +and south, lying on the west side of Behring Island, between the +main island and a small island lying off it. + + +[Footnote 344: The enmity appeared, however, to be of a very passive +nature and by no means depending on any tribal dislike, but only +arising from the inhabitants of the villages lying farthest eastward +being known to be of a quarrelsome disposition and having the same +reputation for love of fighting as the peasant youths in some +villages in Sweden. For Lieut. Hooper, who during the winter 1848-9 +made a journey in dog-sledges from Chukotskoj-nos along the coast +towards Behring's Straits says that the inhabitants at Cape Deschnev +itself enjoyed the same bad reputation among their Namollo +neighbours to the south as among the Chukches living to the +westward. "They spoke another language." Possibly they were pure +Eskimo. ] + +[Footnote 345: There is still in existence a sketch of a tribe, +living far to the south on the coast of the Indian Sea, who at the +time of Alexander the Great used the bones of the whale in a similar +way. "They build their houses so that the richest among them take +bones of the whale, which the sea casts up, and use them as beams, +of the larger bones they make their doors." Arrian, _Historia +Indica_, XXIX. and XXX. ] + +[Footnote 346: These strata were discovered during Kotzebue's +cucumnavigation of the globe (_Entdeckungs Reise_, Weimar, 1821, i. +p. 146, and ii. p. 170). The strand-bank was covered by an +exceedingly luxuriant vegetable carpet, and rose to a height of +eighty feet above the sea. Here the "rock," if this word can be used +for a stratum of ice, was found to consist of pure ice, covered with +a layer, only six inches thick, of blue clay and turf-earth. The ice +must have been several hundred thousand years old, for on its being +melted a large number of bones and tusks of the mammoth appeared, +from which we may draw the conclusion that the ice-stratum was +formed during the period in which the mammoth lived in these +regions. This remarkable observation has been to a certain extent +disputed by later travellers, but its correctness has recently been +fully confirmed by Dall. On the other hand, the extent to which the +strong odour, which was observed at the place and resembled that of +burned horns, arose from the decaying mammoth remains, is perhaps +uncertain. Kotzebue fixed the latitude of the place at 66 deg. 15' +36". During Beechey's voyage in 1827 the place was thoroughly +examined by Mr. Collie, the medical officer of the expedition. He +brought home thence a large number of the bones of the mammoth, ox, +musk-ox, reindeer, and horse, which were described by the famous +geologist Buckland (F.W. Beechey, _Narrative of a Voyage to the +Pacific and Behring's Straits, 1825-28_. London, 1831, ii. +Appendix). ] + +[Footnote 347: _Further Papers relative to the recent Arctic +Expedition, etc._ Presented to both Houses of Parliament. London, +1855, p. 917. ] + +[Footnote 348: Graphite must be found in great abundance on the +Asiatic side of Behring's Straits. I procured during winter a number +of pieces, which had evidently been rolled in running water. +Chamisso mentions in Kotzebue's Voyages (iii. p. 169) that he had +seen this mineral along with red ochre among the inhabitants at St. +Lawrence Bay; and Lieut Hooper states in his work (p. 139), that +graphite and red ochre are found at the village Oongwysac between +Chukotskoj-nos and Behring's Straits. The latter colour was sold at +a high price to the inhabitants of distant encampments. These +minerals have undoubtedly been used in the same way from time +immemorial, and they are probably, like flint and nephrite, among +the few kinds of stone which were used by the men of the Stone Age. +So far as is known, graphite come first into use in Europe during +the middle ages. A black-lead pencil is mentioned and delineated for +the first time by Conrad Gessner in 1565. The rich but now exhausted +graphite seam at Borrowdale, in England, is mentioned for the first +time by Dr. Merret in 1667, as containing a useful mineral peculiar +to England. Very rich graphite seams have been found during recent +decades, both at the mouth of the Yenisej (Sidoroff's graphite +quarry) and at a spur of the Sayan mountains in the southern part of +Siberia (Alibert's graphite quarry), and these discoveries have +played a certain _role_ in the recent history of the exploration of +the country. ] + +[Footnote 349: Nephrite is a light green, sometimes grass-green, very +hard and compact species of amphibolite, which occurs in High Asia, +Mexico, and New Zealand. At all these places it has been employed +for stone implements, vases, pipes, &c. The Chinese put an immensely +high value upon it, and the wish to procure nephite is said often to +have determined their politics, to have caused wars, and impressed +its stamp on treaties of peace concluded between millions. I also +consider it probable that the precious Vasa Murrhina, which was +brought to Rome after the campaign against Mithridates, and has +given rise to so much discussion, was nephrite. Nephrite was also +perhaps the first of all stones to be used ornamentally. For we find +axes and chisels of this material among the people of the Stone Age +both in Europe (where no locality is known where unworked nephrite +is found) and in Asia, America, and New Zealand. In Asia implements +of nephrite are found both on the Chukch Peninsula and in old graves +from the Stone Age in the southern part of the country. They have +been discovered at Telma, sixty versts from Irkutsk, by Mr. J.N. +Wilkoffski, conservator of the East Siberian Geographical Society. +In scientific mineralogy nephrite is first mentioned under the name +of _Kascholong_ (_i.e._ a species of stone from the river Kasch). It +has been brought home under this name by Renat, a prisoner-of-war +from Charles XII.'s army, from High Asia, and was given by him to +Swedish mineralogists, who described it very correctly, though +kascholong has since been erroneously considered a species of +quarts. ] + +[Footnote 350: The Eskimo however, like the Chukches, do not appear +to have any proper religion or idea of a life after this. ] + +[Footnote 351: We have already found some land mollusca at Port +Clarence, but none at St. Lawrence Bay. The northernmost _find_ of +such animals now known was made by Von Middendorff, who found a +species of Physa on the Taimur Peninsula. ] + +[Footnote 352: That a fire-emitting mountain was to be found in +Siberia east of the Yenisej is already mentioned in a treatise by +Isaak Massa, inserted in Hessel Gerritz, _Detectio Freti_, +Amsterdam, 1612. The rumour about the volcanos of Kamchatka thus +appears to have reached Europe at that early date. ] + +[Footnote 353: Kotzebue says that he was the first seafarer who +visited the island. This however is incorrect. Billings landed there +on the 1st August (21st July), 1791. From the vessel some natives +was seen and a _baydar_ which was rowed along the coast. The +natives however were frightened by some gunshots fired as a signal +(Sarytchev's _Reise_, ii. p. 91, Sauer, p. 239). Billings says that +the place where he landed (the south-east point of the island) was +nearly covered with bones of sea-animals. It would be important to +have these thoroughly examined, as it is not impossible that +Steller's sea-cow (Rhytina) may in former times have occasionally +come to this coast. At all events important contributions to a +knowledge of the species of whales in Behring's Straits may be +gained here. ] + +[Footnote 354: Otto von Kotzebue _Entdeckungs-Reise an die Sud-See +und nach der Behring-Strasse, 1815-18_ Weimar, 1821, i. p. 135, ii. +p. 104, iii. pp. 171 and 178. ] + +[Footnote 355: On the days after our arrival at Pitlekaj several dogs +were killed. I then believed that this was done because the natives +were unwilling to feed them during winter, but it is not impossible +that they sacrificed them to avert the misfortunes which it was +feared the arrival of the foreigners would bring with it. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + The position of Behring Island--Its inhabitants--The discovery + of the island by Behring--Behring's death--Steller--The former + and present Fauna on the island: foxes, sea-otters, sea-cows, + sea-lions, and sea-bears--Collection of bones of the Rhytina + --Visit to a "rookery"--Toporkoff Island--Alexander Dubovski + --Voyage to Yokohama--Lightning-stroke. + + +Behring Island is situated between 54 deg. 40' and 55 deg. 25' N.L. and 165 deg. 40' +and 166 deg. 40' E.L. from Greenwich. It is the westernmost and nearest +Kamchatka of the islands in the long chain formed by volcanic action, +which bounds the Behring Sea on the south between 51 deg. and 56 deg. N.L. +Together with the neighbouring Copper Island and some small islands and +rocks lying round about, it forms a peculiar group of islands separated +from the Aleutian Islands proper, named, after the rank of the great +seafarer who perished here, Commander's or Commandirski Islands. They +belong not to America but to Asia, and are Russian territory. +Notwithstanding this the American Alaska Company has acquired the right +of hunting there,[356] and maintains on the main islands two not +inconsiderable commercial stations, which supply the inhabitants, +several hundreds in number, with provisions and manufactured goods, the +company buying from them instead furs, principally the skin of an eared +seal (the sea-cat or sea-bear), of which from 20,000 to 50,000[357] are +killed yearly in the region. Some Russian authorities are also settled +on the island to guard the rights of the Russian state and maintain +order. Half a dozen serviceable wooden houses have been built here as +dwellings for the officials of the Russian Government and the American +Company, for storehouses, shops, &c. The natives live partly in very +roomy and in the inside not uncomfortable turf houses, partly in small +wooden houses which the company endeavours gradually to substitute for +the former, by yearly ordering some wooden buildings and presenting them +to the most deserving of the population. Every family has its own house. +There is also a Greek-Catholic church and a spacious schoolhouse. The +latter is intended for Aleutian children. The school was unfortunately +closed at the time of our visit, but, to judge by the writing books +which lay about in the schoolroom, the education here is not to be +despised. The specimens of writing at least were distinguished by their +cleanness, and by an even and beautiful style. At "the colony" the +houses were collected at one place into a village, situated near the +sea-shore at a suitable distance from the fishing ground in a valley +overgrown in summer by a rich vegetation, but treeless and surrounded by +treeless rounded heights. From the sea this village has the look of a +northern fishing station. There are besides some scattered houses here +and there on other parts of the island, for instance on its +north-eastern side, where the potato is said to be cultivated on a small +scale, and at the fishing place on the north side where there are two +large sheds for skins and a number of very small earth-holes used only +during the slaughter season. + +[Illustration: THE COLONY ON BEHRING ISLAND. (After a photograph.) ] + +[Illustration: THE "COLONY" ON COPPER ISLAND. (After a photograph.) ] + +Behring Island, with regard both to geography and natural history, +is one of the most remarkable islands in the north part of the +Pacific. It was here that Behring after his last unfortunate voyage +in the sea which now bears his name, finished his long course as an +explorer. He was however survived by many of his followers, among +them by the physician and naturalist Steller, to whom we owe a +masterpiece seldom surpassed--a sketch of the natural conditions and +animal life on the island, never before visited by man, where he +involuntarily passed the time from the middle of November 1741, to +the end of August 1742.[358] + +It was the desire to procure for our museums the skins or skeletons +of the many remarkable mammalia occurring here, also to compare the +present state of the island which for nearly a century and a half +has been exposed to the unsparing thirst of man for sport and +plunder, with Steller's spirited and picturesque description, which +led me to include a visit to the island in the plan of the +expedition. The accounts I got at Behring Island from the American +newspapers of the anxiety which our wintering had caused in Europe +led me indeed to make our stay there shorter than I at first +intended. Our harvest of collections and observations was at all +events extraordinarily abundant. But before I proceed to give an +account of our own stay on the island, I must devote a few words to +its discovery and the first wintering there, which has a quite +special interest from the island having never before been trodden by +the foot of man. The abundant animal life, then found there, gives +us therefore one of the exceedingly few representations we possess +of the animal world as it was before man, the lord of the creation, +appeared. + +After Behring's vessel had drifted about a considerable time at +random in the Behring Sea, in consequence of the severe +scurvy-epidemic, which had spread to nearly all the men on board, +without any dead reckoning being kept, and finally without sail or +helmsman, literally at the mercy of wind and waves, those on board +on the 15th/4th November, 1741, sighted land, off whose coast the +vessel was anchored the following day at 5 o'clock P.M. An hour +after the cable gave way, and an enormous sea threw the vessel +towards the shore-cliffs. All appeared to be already lost. But the +vessel, instead of being driven ashore by new waves, came +unexpectedly into a basin 4-1/2 fathoms deep surrounded by rocks and +with quite still water, being connected with the sea only by a +single narrow opening. If the unmanageable vessel had not drifted +just to that place it would certainly have gone to pieces, and all +on board would have perished. + +[Illustration: NATIVES OF BEHRING ISLAND. (After a photograph.) ] + +It was only with great difficulty that the sick crew could put out a +boat in which Lieut. Waxel and Steller landed. They found the land +uninhabited, devoid of wood, and uninviting. But a rivulet with +fresh clear water purled yet unfrozen down the mountain sides, and +in the sand hills along the coast were found some deep pits, which +when enlarged and covered with sails could be used as dwellings. The +men who could still stand on their legs all joined in this work. On +the 19th/8th November the sick could be removed to land, but, as +often happens, many died when they were brought out of the cabin +into the fresh air, others while they were being carried from the +vessel or immediately after they came to land. All in whom the +scurvy had taken the upper hand to that extent that they were +already lying in bed on board the vessel, died. The survivors had +scarcely time or strength to bury the dead, and found it difficult +to protect the corpses from the hungry foxes that swarmed on the +island and had not yet learned to be afraid of man. On the 20th/9th +Behring was carried on land; he was already much reduced and +dejected, and could not be induced to take exercise. He died on the +19th/8th December. + +VITUS BEHRING was a Dane by birth, and when a young man had already +made voyages to the East and West Indies. In 1707 he was received +into the Russian navy as officer, and as such took part in all the +warlike enterprises of that fleet against Sweden. He was in a way +buried alive on the island that now bears his name, for at last he +did not permit his men to remove the sand that lolled down upon him +from the walls of the sand pit in which he rested. For he thought +that the sand warmed his chilled body. Before the corpse could be +properly buried it had therefore to be dug out of its bed, a +circumstance which appears to have produced a disagreeable +impression on the survivors. The two Lieutenants, Waxel and Chitrov, +had kept themselves in pretty good health at sea, but now fell +seriously ill, though they recovered. Only the physician of the +expedition, Georg Wilhelm Steller, was all the time in good health, +and that a single man of the whole crew escaped with his life was +clearly clue to the skill of this gifted man, to his invincible +energy and his cheerful and sanguine disposition. These qualities +were also abundantly tested during the wintering. On the night +before the 10th December/29th November, the vessel, on which no +watch was kept, because all the men were required on land to care +for the sick, was cast ashore by a violent E.S.E. storm. So great a +quantity of provisions was thus lost, that the remaining stock was +not sufficient by itself to yield enough food for all the men during +a whole winter. Men were therefore sent out in all directions to +inquire into the state of the land. They returned with the +information that the vessel had stranded, not, as was hoped at +first, on the mainland but on an uninhabited, woodless island. It +was thus clear to the shipwrecked men that in order to be saved they +could rely only on their judgment and strength. At the beginning +they found that if any provisions were to be reserved for the voyage +home, it was necessary that they should support themselves during +winter to a considerable extent by hunting. They did not like to use +the flesh of the fox for food, and at first kept to that of the +sea-otter. This animal at present is very scarce on Behring Island, +but at that time the shore was covered with whole herds of it. They +had no fear of man, came from curiosity straight to the fires, and +did not run away when any one approached. A dear-bought experience, +however, soon taught them caution; at all events, from 800 to 900 +head were taken, a splendid catch when we consider that the skin of +this animal at the Chinese frontier fetched from 80 to 100 roubles +each. Besides, in the beginning of winter two whales stranded on the +island. The shipwrecked men considered these then provision depots, +and appear to have preferred whale blubber to the flesh of the +sea-otter, which had an unpleasant taste and was tough as +leather.[359] + +In spring the sea-otters disappeared, but now there came to the +island in their stead other animals in large herds, viz sea-bears, +seals, and sea-lions. The flesh of the young sea-lion was considered +a great delicacy.[360] When the sea-otters became scarcer and more +shy and difficult to catch, the shipwrecked men found means also to +kill sea-cows, whose flesh Steller considered equal to beef. Several +barrels of their flesh were even salted to serve as provisions +during the return journey. As the land became clear of snow in the +middle of April, Waxel called together the forty-five men who +survived to a consultation regarding the steps that ought to be +taken in order to reach the mainland. Among many different +proposals, that was adopted of building a new vessel with the +materials supplied by the stranded one. The three ship-carpenters +who had been on board were dead. But fortunately there was among the +survivors a Cossack, SAVA STARODUBZOV, who had taken part as a +workman in shipbuilding at Okotsk, and now undertook to manage the +building of the new vessel. With necessity for a teacher he also +succeeded in executing his commission, so that a new _St. Peter_ was +launched on the 21st/10th August, 1742. The vessel was forty feet +long, thirteen feet beam, and six and a half feet deep, and sailed +as well as if built by an experienced master of his craft, but on +the other hand leaked seriously in a high sea. The return voyage at +all events passed successfully. On the 5th September/25th August +Kamchatka was sighted, and two days after the _St. Peter_ anchored +at Petropaulovsk, where the shipwrecked men found a storehouse with +an _abundant_ stock of provisions according to their ideas, which +probably were not pitched very high. Next year they sailed on with +their Behring-Island-built vessel to Okotsk. On then arrival there, +of the seventy-six persons who originally took part in the +expedition, thirty-two were dead. At Kamchatka they had all been +considered dead, and the effects they left behind them had been +scattered and divided. Steller voluntarily remained some time longer +in Kamchatka in order to carry on his researches in natural history. +Unfortunately he drew upon himself the ill-will of the authorities, +in consequence of the free way in which he criticised their abuses. +This led to a trial at the court at Irkutsk. He was, indeed, found +innocent, and obtained permission to travel home, but at Zolikamsk +he was overtaken by an express with orders to bring him back to +Irkutsk. On the way thither he met another express with renewed +permission to travel to Europe. But the powers of the strong and +formerly healthy man were exhausted by his hunting backwards and +forwards across the immeasurable deserts of Siberia. He died soon +after, on the 23rd/12th November, 1746, at Tjumen, only thirty-seven +years of age, of a fever by which he was attacked during the +journey.[361] + +The immense quantity of valuable furs brought home by the survivors +of Behring's so unfortunate third voyage affected the fur-dealers, +Cossacks, and hunters of Siberia much in the same way as the rumour +about Eldorado or about the riches of the Casic Dobaybe did the +Spanish discoverers of middle and southern America. Numerous +expeditions were fitted out to the new land rich in furs, where +extensive territories previously unknown were made tributary to the +Czar of Russia. Most of these expeditions landed on Behring Island +during the voyage out and home, and in a short time wrought a +complete change in the fauna of the island. Thanks to Steller's +spirited sketch of the animal life he observed there, we have also +an opportunity of forming an idea of the alteration in the fauna +which man brings about in a land in which he settles. + +Arctic foxes were found in incredible numbers on the island during +the wintering of the Behring expedition. They not only ate up +everything that was at all eatable that was left in the open air, +but forced their way as well by day as by night into the houses and +carried off all that they could, even such things as were of no use +whatever to them, as knives, sticks, sacks, shoes and stockings. +Even if anything had been never so well buried and loaded with +stones, they not only found the place but even pushed away the +stones with their shoulders like men. Though they could not eat what +they found, they carried it off and concealed it under stones. In +such a case some foxes stood on guard, and if a man approached all +assisted in speedily concealing the stolen article in the sand so +that no trace of it was left. When any of the men slept out of doors +at night the foxes carried off their caps and gloves, and made their +way under the covering. They nosed the noses of the sleepers to find +out whether they were dead or living, and attempted to nibble at any +who held their breath. As the female sea-lions and sea-bears often +suffocate their young during sleep, the foxes every morning made an +inspection of the place where these animals lie down in immense +herds, and if they found a dead young one they immediately helped +each other, like good scavengers, to carry away the carcase. When +men were employed out of doors they had to drive the foxes away with +sticks, and they became, in consequence of the slyness and cunning +with which they knew how to carry out their thefts and the skill +which they showed in combining to gain an end which they could not +compass as single animals, actually dangerous to the shipwrecked +men, by whom they were therefore heartily hated, pursued, tormented, +and killed. Since then thousands and thousands of foxes have been +killed on Behring Island by the fur-hunters. Now they are so scarce +that during our stay there we did not see one. Those that still +survive, besides, as the Europeans settled on the island informed +me, do not wear the precious dark blue dress formerly common but the +white, which is of little value. On the neighbouring Copper Island, +however, there are still dark blue foxes in pretty large +numbers.[362] + +Nine hundred sea-otters were killed here by Steller and his +companions in 1741-42. The following quotation is taken from +Steller's description of this animal which is now so shy at the +sight of man:-- + + "With respect to playfulness it surpasses every other + animal that lives either in the sea or on the land. When it + comes up out of the sea it shakes the water from its fur, + and dresses it as a cat its head with its fore-paws, + stretches its body, arranges its hair, throws its head this + way and that, contemplating itself and its beautiful fur + with evident satisfaction. The animal is so much taken up + with this dressing of itself, that while thus employed it + may easily be approached and killed. If one strikes a + sea-otter twenty times across the back, it bears it + patiently, but if its large beautiful tail be struck once + it turns its head to its pursuer, as if to offer it as a + mark for his club in place of the tail. If it eludes an + attack it makes the most laughable gestures to the hunter. + It looks at him, placing one foot above the head as if to + protect it from the sunlight, throws itself on its back, + and turning to its enemy as if in scorn scratches itself on + the belly and thighs. The male and female are much attached + to each other, embrace and kiss each other like men. The + female is also very fond of its young. When attacked she + never leaves it in the lurch, and when danger is not near + she plays with it in a thousand ways, almost like a + child-loving mother with her young ones, throws it + sometimes up in the air and catches it with her fore-feet + like a ball, swims about with it in her bosom, throws it + away now and then to let it exercise itself in the art of + swimming, but takes it to herself with kisses and caresses + when it is tired." + +According to recent researches the _sea-otter_, sea-beaver or +Kamchatka-beaver (_Enhydris lutris_, Lin.) is a species neither of +the otter nor the beaver, but belongs to a peculiar genus, allied to +a certain extent to the walrus. Even this animal, unsurpassed in the +beauty of its skin, has been long since driven away not only from +Behring Island but also from most of the hunting-grounds where it +was commonly killed by thousands, and if an effective law be not +soon put in force to keep the hunting in bounds, and check the war +of extermination which greed now carries on against it, no longer +with clubs and darts but with powder and breechloaders, the +sea-otter will meet the same fate which has already befallen +Steller's sea-cow. Of the sea-lion (_Eumetopias Stelleri_, Lesson), +which in Steller's time were found in abundance on the shore cliffs +of Behring Island, there are now only single animals there along +with the sea-bears (_Otaria ursina_, Lin.); and finally, the most +remarkable of all the old mammalia of Behring Island, the great +sea-cow, is completely extinct. + +_Steller's sea-cow_ (_Rhytina Stelleri_, Cuvier) in a way took the +place of the cloven-footed animals among the marine mammalia. The +sea-cow was of a dark-brown colour, sometimes varied with white +spots or streaks. The thick leathery skin was covered with hair +which grew together so as to form an exterior skin, which was full +of vermin and resembled the bark of an old oak. The full grown +animal was from twenty-eight to thirty-five English feet in length +and weighed about sixty-seven cwt. The head was small in proportion +to the large thick body, the neck short, the body diminishing +rapidly behind. The short fore-leg terminated abruptly without +fingers or nails, but was overgrown with a number of short thickly +placed brush-hairs, the hind-leg was replaced by a tail-fin +resembling a whale's. The animal wanted teeth, but was instead +provided with two masticating plates, one in the gum the other in +the under jaw. The udders of the female, which abounded in milk, +were placed between the fore-limbs. The flesh and milk resembled +those of horned cattle, indeed in Steller's opinion surpassed them. +The sea-cows were almost constantly employed in pasturing on the +sea-weed which grew luxuriantly on the coast, moving the head and +neck while so doing much in the same way as an ox. While they +pastured they showed great voracity, and did not allow themselves to +be disturbed in the least by the presence of man. One might even +touch them without them being frightened or disturbed. They +entertained great attachment to each other, and when one was +harpooned the others made incredible attempts to rescue it. + +When Steller came to Behring Island, the sea-cows pastured along the +shore, collected like cattle into herds. The shipwrecked men, for +want of suitable implements, did not hunt them at first. It was only +after a thoughtless love of slaughter had driven all other animals +suitable for food far from their winter quarters, that they began to +devise means to catch the sea-cow also. They endeavoured to harpoon +the animal with a strong iron hook made for the purpose, and then +drag it to land. The first attempt was made on the 1st June/21st May +1742, but it was unsuccessful. It was not until after many renewed +attempts that they at last succeeded in killing and catching a +number of animals, and dragging them at high water so near land that +they were dry at ebb. They were so heavy that forty men were +required to do this, we may conclude from these particulars that the +number of sea-cows killed during the first wintering on Behring +Island was not very large. For the first one was killed only six +weeks before the shipwrecked men left the island, and the hunting +thus fell at a time when they could leave the building of the vessel +to occupy themselves in that way only in case of necessity. Besides, +only two animals were required to yield flesh-food to all the men +for the period in question. + +It is remarkable that the sea-cow is so mentioned by later +travellers only in passing, that this large animal, still hunted by +Europeans in the time of Linnaeus, would scarcely have been +registered in the system of the naturalist if Steller had not +wintered on Behring Island. What Krascheninnikov says of the sea-cow +is wholly borrowed from Steller, and in the same way _nearly all_ +the statements of later naturalists as to its occurrence and mode of +life. That this is actually the case is shown by the following +abstract, _complete_ as far as I know, of what is said of the +sea-cow in the only original account of the first hunting voyages of +the Russians to the Aleutian Islands, which was published at Hamburg +and Leipzig in 1776 with the title, _Neue, Nachrichten von denen +neuentdeckten Insuln in der See zwischen Asien und Amerika, aus +mitgetheilten Urkunden und Auszuegen verfasset von J.L.S._** +(Scherer).[363] In this book the sea-cow is mentioned at the +following places:-- + + "Ivan Krassilnikoff's vessel started first in 1754 and + arrived on the 8th October at Behring Island, where all the + vessels fitted out for hunting the sea-otter on the remote + islands are wont to pass the winter, in order to provide + themselves with a sufficient stock of the flesh of the + sea-cow" (_loc. cit._ p. 38). + + "The autumn storms, or rather the wish to take on board a + stock of provisions, compelled them (a number of hunters + sent out by the merchant Tolstyk under command of the + Cossack Obeuchov) to touch at Commander's Island (Behring + Island) where, during the winter up to the 24th/13th June, + 1757, they obtained nothing else than sea-cows, sea-lions, + and large seals. They found no sea-otters this year." + (_ibid_ p. 40). + + "They (a Russian hunting vessel under Studenzov in 1758) + landed on Behring Island to kill sea-cows, as all vessels + are accustomed to do." (_ibid_ p. 45). + + "After Korovin in 1762 (on Behring Island) had provided + himself with a sufficient stock of the flesh and hides of + the sea-cow for his boats.... he sailed on" (_ibid_ p. 82). + +In 1772 DMITRI BRAGIN wintered on Behring Island during a hunting +voyage. In a journal kept at the request of Pallas, the large marine +animals occurring on the island are enumerated, but not a word is +said about the sea-cow (PALLAS, _Neue nordische Beytraege_, ii. p. +310). + +SCHELECHOV passed the winter 1783-84 on Behring Island, but during +the whole time he only succeeded in killing some white foxes, and in +the narrative of the voyage there is not a word about the sea-cow +(GRIGORI SCHELECHOV _russischen Kaufmanns erste und zweite Reise_, +&c., St. Petersburg, 1793). + +Some further accounts of the sea-cow have been obtained through the +mining engineer PET. JAKOVLEV, who visited Commander's Islands in +1755 in order to investigate the occurrence of copper on Copper +Island. In the account of this voyage which he gave to Pallas there +is not indeed one word about the sea-cow, but in 1867 PEKARSKI +published in the _Memoirs_ of the Petersburg Academy some extracts +from Jakovlev's journal, from which it appears that the sea-cow +already in his time was driven away from Copper Island. Jakovlev on +this account on the 27th November, 1755, laid a petition before the +authorities on Kamchatka, for having the hunting of the sea-cow +placed under restraint of law and the extermination of the animal +thus prevented, a thoughtful act honourable to its author, which +certainly ought to serve as a pattern in our times (J. FR. BRANDT, +_Symbolae Sirenologicae, Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg_, t. +xii. No. 1, 1861-68, p. 295). + +In his account of Behring's voyage (1785-94) published in 1802, +Sauer says, p. 181: "Sea-cows were very common on Kamchatka and the +Aleutian Islands,[364] when they were first discovered, but the last +was killed on Behring Island in 1768, and none has been seen since +then." + +On the ground of the writings of which I have given an account +above, and of various pieces of information collected during this +century from the Russian authorities in the region, by the skilful +conservator WOSNESSENSKI, the academicians von Baer and Brandt[365] +came to the conclusion that the sea-cow had scarcely been seen by +Europeans before the 19th/8th November, 1741, when Steller, the day +after his landing on Behring Island for the first time saw some +strange animals pasturing with their heads under water on the shores +of the island; and that the animal twenty-seven years afterwards, or +in 1768, was completely exterminated The latter statement however is +undoubtedly incorrect; for, in the course of the many inquiries I +made of the natives, I obtained distinct information that living +sea-cows had been seen much later. A _creole_ (that is, the +offspring of a Russian and an Aleutian), who was sixty-seven years +of age, of intelligent appearance and in the full possession of his +mental faculties, stated "that his father died in 1847 at the age of +eighty-eight. He had come from Volhynia, his native place, to +Behring Island at the age of eighteen, accordingly in 1777. The two +or three first years of his stay there, _i.e._ till 1779 or 1780, +sea-cows were still being killed as they pastured on sea-weed. The +heart only was eaten, and the hide used for _baydars_.[366] In +consequence of its thickness the hide was split in two, and the two +pieces thus obtained had gone to make a _baydar_ twenty feet long, +seven and a half feet broad, and three feet deep. After that time no +sea-cows had been killed." + +There is evidence, however, that a sea-cow had been seen at the +island still later. Two _creoles_, Feodor Mertchenin and Stepnoff, +stated, that about twenty-five years ago at Tolstoj-mys, on the east +side of the island, they had seen an animal unknown to them which +was very thick before, but grew smaller behind, had small fore-feet, +and appeared with a length of about fifteen feet above water, now +raising itself up, now lowering itself. The animal "blew," not +through blowholes, but through the mouth, which was somewhat drawn +out. It was brown in colour with some lighter spots. A back fin was +wanting, but when the animal raised itself it was possible, on +account of its great leanness, to see its backbone projecting. I +instituted a through examination of both my informants. Their +accounts agreed completely, and appeared to have claims to be +regarded as trustworthy. That the animal which they saw was actually +a sea-cow, is clearly proved both by the description of the animal's +form and way of pasturing in the water, and by the account of the +way in which it breathed, its colour, and leanness. In _Auesfurliche +Beschreibung von sonderbaren Meerthieren_, Steller says, p. 97, +"While they pasture, they raise every fourth or fifth minute their +nose from the water in order to blow out air and a little water;" p. +98, "During winter they are so lean that it is possible to count +their vertebrae and ribs;" and p. 54, "Some sea-cows have pretty +large white spots and streaks, so that they have a spotted +appearance." As these natives had no knowledge of Steller's +description of the animal, it is impossible that their statement can +be false. The death-year of the Rhytina race must therefore be +altered at least to 1854. With reference to this point it may be +remarked that many circumstances indicate that the Rhytina herds +were rather driven away from the rich pastures on Behring Island +than exterminated there, and that the species became extinct because +in their new haunt they were unable to maintain the struggle for +existence. The form of the sea-cow, varying from that of most recent +animals, besides indicates that, like the long-tailed duck on +Iceland, the dront on Mauritius, and the large ostrich-like birds on +New Zealand, it was the last representative of an animal group +destined to extinction. + +Mr. OSCHE, one of the Alaska Company's skin inspectors, a native of +Liffland and at present settled on Copper Island, informed me that +the bones of the sea-cow also occurred on the western side of that +island. On the other hand, such bones are said not to be found on +the small island described farther on lying off the colony on +Behring Island, although Rhytina bones are common on the +neighbouring shores of the main island. + +This is the scanty information I have been able to collect from the +natives and others resident in the quarter regarding the animal in +question. On the other hand, my endeavours to procure Rhytina bones +were crowned with greater success, and I succeeded in actually +bringing together a very large and fine collection of skeleton +fragments. + +When I first made the acquaintance of Europeans on the island, they +told me that there was little probability of finding anything of +value in this respect, for the company had offered 150 roubles for a +skeleton without success. But before I had been many hours on land, +I came to know that large or small collections of bones were to be +found here and there in the huts of the natives. These I purchased, +intentionally paying for them such a price that the seller was more +than satisfied and his neighbours were a little envious. A great +part of the male population now began to search for bones very +eagerly, and in this way I collected such a quantity that twenty-one +casks, large boxes, or barrels were filled with Rhytina bones; among +which were three very fine, complete skulls, and others more or less +damaged, several considerable collections of bones from the same +skeleton, &c. + +[Illustration: SKELETON OF RHYTINA SHOWN AT THE 'VEGA' EXHIBITION AT +THE ROYAL PALACE STOCKHOLM. (After a photograph.) ] + +[Illustration: ORIGINAL DRAWINGS OF THE RHYTINA. +1. Drawing in an old map of the Behring Sea, found by Middendorff + (_Sibir. Reise_ iv. 2 p. 839). +2. Sketch by Steller, given to Pallas + (Pallas, Icones ad zoographiam _Rosso-Asiaticam_, Fasc. ii.) ] + +The Rhytina bones do not lie at the level of the sea, but upon a +strand-bank thickly overgrown with luxuriant grass, at a height of +two or three metres above it. They are commonly covered with a layer +of earth and gravel from thirty to fifty centimetres in thickness. +In order to find them, as it would be too troublesome to dig the +whole of the grassy bank, one must examine the ground with a pointed +iron rod, a bayonet, or some such tool. One soon learns to +distinguish, by the resistance and nature of the sound, whether the +rod stuck into the ground has come into contact with a stone, a +piece of wood, or a fragment of bone. The ribs are used by the +natives, on account of their hard ivory-like structure, for shoeing +the runners of the sledges or for carvings. They have accordingly +been already used up on a large scale, and are more uncommon than +other bones. The finger-bone, which perhaps originally was +cartilaginous, appears in most cases to be quite destroyed, as well +as the outermost vertebrae of the tail. I could not obtain any such +bones, though I specially urged the natives to get me the smaller +bones too and promised to pay a high price for them. + +[Illustration: RECONSTRUCTED FORM OF THE SEA-COW. After J. Fr. Brandt +(_Symbolae Sirenologicae_, Fasc. iii. p. 282). ] + +The only large animal which is still found on Behring Island in +perhaps as large numbers as in Steller's time is the _sea-bear_. +Even it had already diminished so that the year's catch was +inconsiderable,[367] when in 1871 a single company obtained for a +payment to the Russian crown, if I recollect right, of two roubles +for every animal killed, and exclusive right to the hunting, which +was accordingly arranged in a more purposelike way. At certain times +of the year the killing of the sea-bear is wholly prohibited. The +number of the animals to be killed is settled beforehand, quite in +the same way as the farmer at the time of killing in autumn is wont +to do with his herd of cattle. Females and young are only killed +exceptionally. Even the married males, or more correctly the males +that can get themselves a harem and can defend it, commonly escape +being killed, if not for any other reason, because the skin is too +often torn and tattered and the hair pulled out. It is thus the +bachelors that have to yield up their skins. + +That a wild animal may be slaughtered in so orderly a way, depends on +its peculiar mode of life.[368] For the sea-bears are found year after +year during summer at certain points projecting into the sea +(rookeries), where, collected in hundreds of thousands, they pass +several months without the least food. The males (oxen) come first to +the place, most of them in the month of May or at the beginning of June. +Combats of excessive violence, often with a deadly issue for one of the +parties, now arise regarding the space of about a hundred square feet, +which each seal-ox considers necessary for its home. The strongest and +most successful in fight retain the best places near the shore, the +weaker have to crawl farther up on land, where the expectation of +getting a sufficient number of spouses is not particularly great. The +fighting goes on with many feigned attacks and parades. At first the +contest concerns the proprietorship of the soil. The attacked therefore +never follows its opponent beyond the area it has once taken up, but +haughtily lays itself down, when the enemy has retired, in order in the +aims of sleep to collect forces for a new combat. The animal in such a +case grunts with satisfaction, throws itself on its back, scratches +itself with its fore-feet, looks after its toilet, or cools itself by +slowly fanning with one of its hind-feet, but it is always on the alert +and ready for a new fight until it is tired out and meets its match, and +is driven by it farther up from the beach. One of the most peculiar +traits of these animals is that during their stay on land they +unceasingly use their hind-paws as fans, and sometimes also as parasols. +Such fans may on a warm day be in motion at the same time by the hundred +thousand at a "rookery." + +[Illustration: SEA-BEARS Male, Female, and Young. (From a water colour +painting by H.W. Elliott.) ] + +In the middle of June the females come up from the sea. At the +water's edge they are received in a very accommodating way by some +strong oxen that have succeeded in securing for themselves places +next the shore, and now are bent by fair means or foul on annexing +the fair for their harem. But scarcely is the female that has come +up out of the water established with seal-ox No. 1, when this ox +rushes towards a new beauty on the surface of the water. Seal-ox No. +2 now stretches out his neck and without ceremony lays hold of No. +1's spouse, to be afterwards exposed to a repetition of the trick by +No. 3. In such cases the females are quite passive, never fall out +with each other, and bear with patience the severe wounds they often +get when they are pulled about by the combatants, now in one +direction, now in another. All the females are finally distributed +in this way after furious combats among the males, those of the +latter who are nearest the beach getting from twelve to fifteen +consorts to their share. Those that have been compelled to settle +farther from the shore must be content with four or five. Soon after +the landing of the females they bring forth their young, which are +treated with great indifference and are protected by the adopted +father only within the boundaries of the harem. Next comes the +pairing season, and when it has passed there is an end to the +arrangement and distribution into families at first so strictly +maintained. The seal-oxen, rendered lean by three months absolute +fasting, by degrees leave the "rookery," which is taken possession +of by the sea-cows, the young, and a number of young males, that +have not ventured to the place before. In the middle of September, +when the young have learned to swim, the place is quite abandoned, +with the exception of single animals that have remained behind for +one reason or other. In long continued heavy rain many of the +animals besides seek protection in the sea, but return when the rain +ceases. Continuous heat and sunshine besides exert the same +influence, cold, moist air, with mist-concealed sun, on the other +hand draw them up on land by thousands. + +Males under six years of age cannot, like the older males, possess +themselves, by fighting, of spouses and a home of their own. They +therefore collect, along with young females, in herds of several +thousand to several hundred thousand, on the shores between the +rookeries proper, some of them close packed next the water's edge, +others scattered in small flocks a little farther from the shore on +the grass, where they by turns play with each other with a +frolicsomeness like that of young dogs, by turns he down to sleep at +a common signal in all conceivable positions. + +[Illustration: "SEAL ROOKERY" ON ST. PAUL'S ISLAND, ONE OF THE +PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. (After a drawing by H.W. Elliott.) ] + +It is these unfortunate useless bachelors which at the properly +managed hunting stations yield the contingent for slaughter. For +this purpose they are driven by the natives from the shore slowly, +about a kilometre an hour, and with frequent rests, to the place of +slaughter, situated a kilometre or two from the shore. Then the +females and the young ones are driven away, as well as the males +whose skins are unserviceable. The rest are first stunned with a +blow on the head, and afterwards stabbed with a knife. + +While the _Vega_ steamed down towards Behring Island we met, already +far from land, herds of sea-bears, which followed the vessel from +curiosity for long stretches. Being unacquainted with the sea-bear's +mode of life, I believed from this circumstance that they had +already left their summer haunts, but on our arrival at the colony I +was informed that this was not the case, but that a very great +number of animals still remained at the rookery on the north-eastern +point of the island. Naturally one of our first excursions was to +this place, situated about twenty kilometres from the village. Such +a journey cannot now be undertaken alone and unattended, because +even an involuntary want of caution might easily cause much economic +loss to the natives, and to the company that owns the right of +hunting. During the journey we were accordingly accompanied by the +chief of the village, a black-haired stammering Aleutian, and "the +Cossack," a young, pleasant, and agreeable fellow, who on solemn +occasions wore a sabre nearly as long as himself, but besides did +not in the least correspond to the Cossack type of the writers of +novels and plays. + +The journey was performed in large sledges drawn by ten dogs over +snow-free rounded hills and hill-plateaus covered with a rather +scanty vegetation, and through valleys treeless as the mountains, +but adorned with luxuriant vegetation, rich in splendid lilies, +syngenesia, umbellifera, &c. The journey was sometimes tedious +enough, but we now and then went at a whistling rate, especially +when the dog-team descended the steep mountain slopes, or went +through the morasses and the clay puddles formed in the constantly +used way. The driver was bespattered from top to toe with a thick +layer of mud, an inconvenience attending the unusual team, which was +foreseen before our departure from the colony, in consequence of +which our friends there urged that, notwithstanding the fine +weather, we should all take overcoats. The dog-team was kept pretty +far from the shore in order not to frighten the seals, and then we +went on foot to the place where the sea-bears were, choosing our way +so that we had the wind in our faces. We could in this way, without +disturbing them, come very near the animals, which, according to the +undoubtedly somewhat exaggerated statement made to us on the spot, +were collected at the time to the number of 200,000, on the +promontory and the neighbouring shores. We obtained permission to +creep, accompanied by our guide, close to a herd lying a little +apart. The older animals became at first somewhat uneasy when they +observed our approach, but they soon settled down completely, +and we had now the pleasure of beholding a peculiar spectacle. +We were the only spectators. The scene consisted of a beach +covered with stones and washed by foaming breakers, the background +of the immeasurable ocean, and the actors of thousands of +wonderfully-formed animals. A number of old males lay still and +motionless, heedless of what was going on around them. Others +crept clumsily on their small short legs between the stones of +the beach, or swam with incredible agility among the breakers, +played, caressed each other, and quarrelled. At one place two +old animals fought, uttering a peculiar hissing sound, and in +such a way as if the attack and defence had been carried out in +studied attitudes. At another place a feigned combat was going +on between an old and a young animal. It looked as if the latter +was being instructed in the art of fighting. Everywhere the small +black young ones crept constantly backwards and forwards among the +old sea-bears, now and then bleating like lambs calling on their +mothers. The young ones are often smothered by the old, when the +latter, frightened in some way, rush out into the sea. After such +an alarm hundreds of dead young are found on the shore. + +[Illustration: SLAUGHTER OF SEA-BEARS. (After a drawing by H.W. +Elliott.) ] + +[Illustration: SEA-BEARS ON THEIR WAY TO THE "ROOKERIES." +(After a drawing by H.W. Elliott.) ] + +"Only" thirteen thousand animals had been killed that year. Their +flayed carcases lay heaped on the grass by the shore, spreading far +and wide a disagreeable smell, which, however, had not frightened +away their comrades lying on the neighbouring promontory, because, +even among them, a similar smell prevailed in consequence of the +many animals suffocated or killed in fight with their comrades, and +left lying on the shore.[369] Among this great flock of sea-bears +sat enthroned on the top of a high stone a single sea-lion, the only +one of these animals we saw during our voyage. + +For a payment of forty roubles I induced the chief of the village to +skeletonise four of the half putrefied carcases of the sea-bear left +lying on the grass, and I afterwards obtained, by the good-will of +the Russian authorities, and without any payment, six animals, among +them two living young, for stuffing. Even the latter we were +compelled to kill, after in vain attempting to induce them to take +some food. One of them was brought home in spirits for anatomical +examination. + +The part of Behring Island which we saw forms a high plain resting +on volcanic rocks,[370] which, however, is interrupted at many +places by deep kettle valleys, the bottoms of which are generally +occupied by lakes which communicate with the sea by large or small +rivers. The banks of the lakes and the slopes of the hills are +covered with a luxuriant vegetation, rich in long grass and +beautiful flowers, among them an iris cultivated in our gardens, the +useful dark reddish-brown Sarana lily, several orchids, two species +of rhododendron with large flowers, umbellifera as high as a man, +sunflower-like synanthea, &c. Quite another nature prevailed on the +island lying off the haven, regarding which Dr. Kjellman and Dr. +Stuxberg make the following statements:-- + + "Toporkoff Island is formed of an eruptive rock, which + everywhere rises along the shore some scores of feet from + high-water mark, in the form of steep cracked walls from + five to fifteen metres in height, which is different at + different places. Above these steep rock-walls the surface + of the island forms an even plain; what lies below them + forms a gently sloping beach. + + "This gently sloping beach consists of two well-marked + belts; an outer devoid of all vegetation, an inner + overgrown with _Ammadenia peploides, Elymus mollis_, and + two species of umbellifera, _Heracleum sibiricum_, and + _Angelica archangelica_, the two last forming an almost + impenetrable thicket fifty metres broad and as high as a + man, along the slope. The steep rock-walls are coloured + yellow at some places by lichens, mostly _Calopaca murorum_ + and _Cal. crenulata_; at other places they are covered + pretty closely with _Cochlearia fenestrata_. The uppermost + level plain is covered with a close and luxuriant turf, + over which single stalks of the two species of umbellifera + named above raise themselves here and there. The vegetation + on this little island unites a very uncommon poverty in + species with a high degree of luxuriance. + + "Of the higher animals we saw only four kinds of birds, viz + _Fratercula cirrhata_, a black guillemot (_Una grylle_ var. + _columba_), a species of cormorant (Phalocrocorax) and a + sort of gull (Larus). _Fratercula cirrhata_ lived here by + millions. They haunted the upper plain, where they had + everywhere excavated short, deep, and uncommonly broad + passages to sleep in, provided with two openings. From + these on our arrival they flew in large flocks to the + neighbouring sea and back. Their number was nearly equal to + that of looms in the Arctic loomeries. The black guillemots + and cormorants kept to the cliffs near the shore. + + "The number of the evertebrate land animals amounted to + about thirty species. The most numerous were Machilis, + Vitrina, Lithobius, Talitrus, some Diptera and beetles. + They all lived on the inner belt of the shore, where the + ground was uncommonly damp." + +Behring Island might without difficulty feed large herds of cattle, +perhaps as numerous as the herds of sea-cows that formerly pastured +on its shores. The sea-cow besides had chosen its pasture with +discrimination, the sea there being, according to Dr. Kjellman, one +of the richest in algae in the world. The sea-bottom is covered at +favourably situated places by forests of seaweed from twenty to +thirty metres high, which are so dense that the dredge could with +difficulty force its way down into them, a circumstance which was +much against the dredging. Certain of the algae are used by the +natives as food. + +In the course of our journey to the hunting place we had an +opportunity, during a rest about halfway between it and the village, +of taking part in a very peculiar sort of fishing. The place where +we rested was in an even grassy plain, resembling a natural meadow +at home, crossed by a large number of small rivulets. They abounded +in several different kinds of fish, among them a Coregonus, a small +trout, a middle-sized long salmon with almost white flesh, though +the colour of its skin was a purplish-red, another salmon of about +the same length, but thick and hump-backed. These fish were easily +caught. They were taken with the hand, were harpooned with common +unshod sticks, were stabbed with knives, caught with the insect net, +&c. Other kinds of salmon with deep red flesh are to be found in the +large rivers of the island. We obtained here for a trifle a welcome +change from the preserved provisions of which we had long ago become +quite tired. The Expedition was also presented by the Alaska Company +with a fine fat ox, milk, and various other provisions, and I cannot +sufficiently value the goodwill shown to us not only by the Russian +official, N GREBNITSKI, a zealous and skilful naturalist, but also +by the officials of the Alaska Company and all others living on the +island with whom we came into contact. + +[Illustration: ALGA FROM THE SHORE OF BEHRING ISLAND. +_Thalassiophyllum Clathrus_ Post. and Rupr. +One-fourth of the natural size. ] + +It was my original intention to sail from Behring Island to +Petiopaulovsk, in order from thence to put a stop to the +undertakings which were possibly in contemplation for our relief. +This however became unnecessary, because a steamer, which was to +start for Petropaulovsk as soon as its cargo was on board, had +anchored by the side of the _Vega_ two days after our arrival. The +steamer belonged to the Alaska Company, was named the _Alexander_, +was commanded by Captain SANDMAN, and was manned almost exclusively +by Swedes, Danes, Fins, and Norwegians[371]. We found on the +_Alexander_ two naturalists, Dr. BENEDIKT DYBOVSKI and Dr. JULIAN +WIEMUT. The former is a Pole exiled to Siberia but now pardoned, +whose masterly zoological works are among the best contributions +which have been made during recent decades to our knowledge of the +natural conditions of Siberia. His researches have hitherto mainly +concerned the Baikal region. Now he wishes to extend them to +Kamchatka, and has therefore voluntarily taken a physician's post at +Petropaulovsk. Science has reason to expect very rich results from +his work and that of his companions in one of the most interesting, +most mis-known, and least known lands of the north. + +The _Vega_ left Behring Island on the afternoon of the 19th August, and +anchored at Yokohama on the evening of the 2nd September. The first part +of the passage, while we were still in the cold northerly Polar Sea +current, was favoured by fair winds and moderate heat. The surface +temperature of the sea was from +9 deg. to +10 deg.. On the 25th August in 45 deg. +15' N.L. and 156 deg. E.L. from Greenwich the temperature of the sea-water +began to rise so rapidly that the thermometer in 40 deg. Lat. and 147 deg. 41' +Long already showed +23.4 deg. at the surface. This indicated that we had +come from the cold current favourable to us into Kuro-sivo, the Gulf +Stream of the Pacific. The wind was now at times unfavourable and the +heat oppressive, notwithstanding the frequent rain showers accompanied +by lightning and heavy squalls. In such unfavourable weather on the 31st +August the mainmast of the _Vega_ was struck by lightning, the flash and +the report being of excessive violence. The vane was broken loose and +thrown into the sea along with some inches of the pole. The pole itself +was split pretty far down, and all on board felt a more or less violent +shaking, the man who felt it most standing at the time near the +hawse-hole. The incident was not attended by any further noteworthy +unpleasant consequences. + +On our arrival at Yokohama we were all in good health and the _Vega_ +in excellent condition, though, after the long voyage, in want of +some minor repairs, of docking, and possibly of coppering. Naturally +among thirty men some mild attacks of illness could not be avoided +in the course of a year, but no disease had been generally +prevalent, and our state of health had constantly been excellent. Of +scurvy we had not seen a trace. + + +[Footnote 356: In February 1871 the right of hunting on these islands +was granted by the Russian government to Hutchinson, Kohl, +Philippeus &c. Co., who have made over their rights to the Alaska +Commercial Company of San Francisco. ] + +[Footnote 357: According to a communication made to me by Mr. Henry +W. Elliot, who, in order to study the fur-bearing seals in the North +Behring Sea, lived a considerable time at the Seal Islands +(Pribylov's Islands, &c.) on the American side, and has given an +exceedingly interesting account of the animal life there in his +work, _A Report upon the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of +Alaska_, Washington, 1875, the statement in my report to Dr. +Dickson, founded on oral communications of Europeans whom I met with +at Behring Island, that from 50,000 to 100,000 animals are killed +yearly at Behring and Copper Island, is thus probably somewhat +exaggerated. ] + +[Footnote 358: Original accounts of the wintering on Behring Island +are to be found in Mueller's _Sammlung Russischen Geschichte_, St +Petersburg, 1768, iii, pp. 228-238 and 242-268, (Steller's) +_Topographische und physikalische Beschreibung der Beringsinsel_ +(Pallas' _Neue Nordische Beytraege_, St. Petersburg and Leipzig, +1781-83, ii. p. 225), G.W. Steller's _Tagebuch seiner Seereise aus +dem Petripauls Hafen. . . und seiner Begebenheiten auf der +Rueckreise_ (Pallas' _Neueste Nordische Beytraege_, St. Petersburg and +Leipzig, 1793-96, i. p. 130; ii. p. 1). ] + +[Footnote 359: According to Mueller, whose statements (based on +communications by Waxel?) often differ from those of Steller. The +latter says that the flesh of the sea-otter is better than that of +the seal, and a good antidote to scurvy. The flesh of the young +sea-otter might even compete with lamb as a delicacy. ] + +[Footnote 360: To judge by what is stated in Steller's description +of Behring Island (_Neue nord. Beytr._, ii, p. 290) no one would +have dared to attack "diese grimmigen Thiere," and the only sea-lion +eaten during the winter was an animal wounded at Kamchatka and +thrown up dead on the coast of Behring Island. The fin-like feet +were the most delicate part of the sea-lion. ] + +[Footnote 361: According to Mueller's official report, probably +written for the purpose of refuting the rumours regarding Steller's +fate current in the scientific circles of Europe. According to the +biography prefixed to Georg Wilhelm Steller's _Beschreibung von dem +Lande Kamtschatka, herausgegeben von J.B.S._ (Scheerer), Frankfurt +and Leipzig, 1774, Steller had in 1745 begun his return to St. +Petersburg, and was already beyond Novgorod, when he received orders +to appear before the court at Irkutsk. After a year he obtained +permission to travel to St. Petersburg, but when he came to the +neighbourhood of Moscow, he received a new order to return, and for +farther security he was placed under a guard. They had travelled a +good way into Siberia, when he froze to death while the guard went +into a public-house to warm themselves and quench their thirst. ] + +[Footnote 362: As early as Schelechov's wintering at 1783-84 the +foxes on Behring Island were principally white. During Steller's +wintering, over a third of the foxes on the island had a bluish fur +(_Neue nord. Beytr._, ii, p. 277). In the year 1747-48 a fur hunter, +Cholodilov, caught on Behring Island 1,481 blue foxes and 350 +sea-otters, and the following year another hunter returned with over +a thousand sea otters and two thousand blue foxes, which probably +were also caught on Behring and Copper Islands (_Neue Nachrichten +von denen neuentdeckten Insuln_, Hamburg u Leipzig, 1766, p. 20). In +the year 1751-53 Jugov caught on the same island 790 sea-otters, +6,844 black and 200 white foxes, and 2,212 sea-bears (_loc. cit._ p. +22). In 1752-53 the crew of a vessel belonging to the Irkutsk +merchant, Nikifor Trapeznikoff, caught on Behring Island 5 +sea-otters, 1,222 foxes (colour not stated), and 2,500 sea-bears +(_loc. cit._ p. 32). It thus appears as if the eager hunting had an +influence not only on the number of the animals but also on their +colour, the variety in greatest demand becoming also _relatively_ +less common than before. ] + +[Footnote 363: From this little work, compiled from the original +journals (Cf. Coxe, _Russian Discoveries_, 1780, p. vi.) we see that +the undaunted courage and the resolution which, matched with other +qualities not so praiseworthy, distinguished the _Promyschlenni_ +during their expeditions of exploration, tribute-collecting, and +plunder from the Ob to Kamchatka, did not fail them in the attempt +to force their way across the sea to America. It happens yearly that +a ship's crew save themselves from destruction in the most +extraordinary craft, for necessity has no law. But it is perhaps not +so common that an exploring expedition, wrecked on an uninhabited +treeless island, builds for itself of fragments from its own vessel, +indeed even of driftwood, a new one in order to sail out on the +ocean to discover new fishing-grounds or new wild tribes, willing to +pay "jassak" to the adventurers. This however happened very +frequently during the Russian voyages of discovery and hunting to +the Aleutian Islands from 1745 to 1770, and it was remarkable that +the craft built in this way were used for years, even after the +return from the first voyage. ] + +[Footnote 364: The sea-cow does not appear to have ever occurred on +the Aleutian Islands; on the other hand, according to Steller, dead +sea-cows have sometimes been cast ashore on Kamchatka, where they +even obtained from the Russians a peculiar name _kapustnik_, derived +from the large quantity of sea-weed found in their stomach. It +appears to me that this name, specially distinctive of a +graminivorous animal, appeals to indicate that on the first arrival +of the Russians at Kamchatka the sea-cow actually visited +occasionally the coasts of that peninsula. It is probable that in +former times the sea-cow was to be met with as far south as the +north part of Japan. Some scientific men have even conjectured that +the animal may have occurred north of Behring's Straits. This +however is improbable. Among the mass of subfossil bones of marine +animals which we examined at Pitlekaj the bones of the sea-cow did +not appear to be present. ] + +[Footnote 365: Von Baer's and Brandt's numerous writings on the +sea-cow are to be found in the publications of the St. Petersburg +Academy. ] + +[Footnote 366: That the hide of the sea-cow was used for _baydars_ +is evident from the short extract given from Korovin's voyage. On +hearing this "creole's" account I inquired whether there were not +to be found remaining on the island any very old sea-cow skins that +had been used for _baydars_, but the answer unfortunately was in the +negative. ] + +[Footnote 367: The number of these animals killed on Behring Island +is shown by the following statement given me by Mr. Henry. W. +Elliot: + +In the Year In the Year In the Year + 1867 27,500 1872 29,318 1877 21,532 + 1868 12,000 1873 30,396 1878 31,340 + 1869 24,000 1874 31,292 1879 42,752 + 1870 24,000 1875 36,274 1880 48,504 + 1871 3,614 1876 26,960 + + +During the eighteen years from 1862 to 1880 there have thus been +shipped from Behring Island 389,462 skins. The catch on the Pribylov +Islands has been still larger. These islands were discovered in +1786, but the number of animals killed there is not known for the +first ten years; it is only known that it was enormously large. In +the years 1797-1880--that is in eighty-four years--over +three-and-a-half millions of skins have been exported from these +islands. In recent years the catch has increased so that in each of +the years from 1872 to 1880, 99,000 animals might have been killed +without inconvenience. ] + +[Footnote 368: The traits here given of the sea-bear's mode of life +are mainly taken from Henry W. Elliot's work quoted above. ] + +[Footnote 369: Elliott (_loc. cit._ p. 150) remarks that not a +single self-dead seal is to be found in the "rookery," where there +are so many animals that they probably die of old age in thousands. +This may be explained by the seals, when they become sick, +withdrawing to the sea, and forms another contribution to the +question of the finding of self-dead animals to which I have already +referred (vol. i. p. 322). ] + +[Footnote 370: According to a statement by Mr. Giebnitski, tertiary +fossils and coal seams are also to be found on Behring Island, the +former north of the colony in the interior, the latter at the beach +south of Behring's grave. Also in the neighbourhood of the colony +the volcanic rock-masses are under-stratified by thick sandy beds. ] + +[Footnote 371: The first European who welcomed us after the +completion of the North-east passage was a Fin now settled in +California, from Bjoerkboda works in Kimito parish, in which I had +lived a great deal when a youth. He was sent by the Alaska Company +to do some work on Behring Island. As we steamed towards the +colony he rowed to meet us, and saluted us with the cry "ar det +Nordenskioeld?" ("Is it Nordenskioeld?") His name was Isak Andersson. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Arrival at Yokohama--A Telegram sent to Europe--The stranding + of the steamer _A.E. Nordenskioeld_--_Fetes_ in Japan-- + The Minister of Marine, Kawamura--Prince Kito-Shira-Kava-- + Audience of the Mikado--Graves of the Shoguns--Imperial Garden + at Tokio--The Exhibition there--Visit to Enoshima-- + Japanese manners and customs--Thunberg and Kaempfer. + + +Yokohama, the first harbour, telegraph station, and commercial town +at which the _Vega_ anchored after circumnavigating the north coast +of Asia, is one of the Japanese coast cities which were opened to +the commerce of the world after the treaty between the United States +of America and Japan negotiated by Commodore PERRY.[372] At this +place there was formerly only a little fishing village, whose +inhabitants had never seen Europeans and were forbidden under severe +punishments from entering into communication or trading with the +crews of the foreign vessels that might possibly visit the coast. +The former village is now, twenty years later, changed into a town +of nearly 70,000 inhabitants, and consists not only of Japanese, but +also of very fine European houses, shops, hotels, &c. It is also the +residence of the governor of Kanagava _Ken_. It is in communication +by rail with the neighbouring capital Tokio, by regular weekly +steamship sailings with San Francisco on the one hand, and Hong +Kong, India, &c., on the other, and finally by telegraph not only +with the principal cities of Japan but also with all the lands that +have got entangled in the threads of the world's telegraph net. + +The situation of the town on the western shore of the Yedo or Tokio +Bay, which is perhaps rather large for a haven, is not particularly +fine. But on sailing in we see in the west, if the weather be fine, +Fusiyama's snow-clad, incomparably beautiful volcanic cone raise +itself from a cultivated forest-clad region. When one has seen it, +he is no longer astonished that the Japanese reproduce with such +affection on their varnished wares, porcelain, cloth, paper, +sword-ornaments, &c., the form of their highest, stateliest, and also +grimmest mountain. For the number of the men who have perished by +its eruptions is reckoned by hundreds of thousands, and if tradition +speaks truth the whole mountain in a far distant antiquity was +formed in a single night. Before we enter Yedo Bay we pass a +volcano, active during last year, situated on the volcanic island +Oshima, known in Japanese history as the place of exile of several +of the heroes in the many internal struggles of the country. + +While we sailed, or more correctly, steamed--for we had still +sufficient coal remaining to permit the engine to be used--up the +Bay of Yedo, the coasts were for the most part concealed with mist, +so that the summit of Fusiyama and the contours of the shore only +now and then gleamed forth from the fog and cloud. The wind besides +was against us, on which account it was 9.30 in the evening of the +2nd September before we could anchor in the haven that had been +longed-for for such a length of time. I immediately hastened on +land, along with Captain Palander, in order to send home a telegram +across Siberia about the fortunate issue of the voyage of the +_Vega_. At the telegraph station I was informed that the Siberian +line was interrupted by inundations for a space of 600 versts, and +that the telegram must therefore be sent by India, whereby the cost +was nearly doubled. The telegraph officials also made difficulties +about taking the foreign gold coin of various kinds which I had +about me. Fortunately the latter difficulty was immediately removed +by the accidental presence of the Russian consul, Mr. PELIKAN, while +I was treating with the telegraph officials. When he heard that it +concerned the sending home of a telegram from the much-talked-of +_Vega_ expedition, he immediately offered to arrange the affair +until I had time to operate on the letter of credit I carried with +me from Messrs. James Dickson &c. Co. of Gothenburg. Soon after I met +with the Swedish consul, Mr. VAN OORDT, who gave us a large parcel +of letters from home. It was very gladly received by most of us, as, +so far as I know, it did not bring the thirty members of the +expedition a single unexpected sorrowful message. I got, however, +soon after landing, an unpleasant piece of news, viz that the +steamer _A.E. Nordenskioeld_, which Mr. Sibiriakoff had sent to +Behring's Straits and the Lena to our relief, had stranded on the +east coast of Yesso. The shipwreck fortunately had not been attended +with any loss of human life, and the vessel lay stranded on a +sandbank in circumstances which made it probable that it would be +got off without too great cost. + +As the report of our arrival spread, I was immediately waited upon +by various deputations with addresses of welcome, invitations to +_fetes_, clubs, &c. A series of entertainments and festivities now +began, which occupied a great part of the time we remained in this +splendid and remarkable country. Perhaps a sketch of these +festivities may yield a picture of Japan during the state of +transition, which still prevails there, and which in a decade or two +will undoubtedly belong to a past and to a great extent forgotten +period, a picture which to future writers may possibly form a not +unwelcome contribution to the knowledge of the Japan that now (1879) +is. Such a sketch would however carry me too far beyond the subject +of this narrative of travel, and require too much space, on which +account I must confine myself to an enumeration of the festivities +at the head of which were public authorities, learned societies, or +clubs. + +[Illustration: FUSIYAMA. ] + +On the 10th September a grand dinner was given at the Grand Hotel, +the principal European hotel--and very well kept--of Yokohama, by +the Dutch minister, Chevalier VAN STOETWEGEN, who at the same time +represents Sweden and Norway in Japan. + +[Illustration: THE STEAMER "A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD," STRANDED ON THE EAST +COAST OF YEZO. (After a Japanese photograph.) ] + +The members of the Expedition were here introduced to several +members of the Japanese Government. + +[Illustration: KAWAMURA SUMIYOSHI. Japanese Minister of Marine. ] + +We were invited to a _dejeuner a la fourchette_, at one o'clock P.M. +on the 11th September, at the Imperial summer palace Hamagoten, by +Admiral KAWAMURA, minister of marine. At this entertainment there +were present, besides the scientific men and officers of the _Vega_, +and our minister, Herr van Stoetwegen, several of the ministers and +highest officials of Japan. Some of them spoke one or other of the +European languages, others only Japanese, in which case officials of +lower rank acted as interpreter these however taking no part in the +entertainment along with the other guests. It was arranged after the +European pattern, with abundance of dishes and wines. The palace +consisted of a one-stoned wooden house in the Japanese style of +construction. The rooms, to which we were admitted, were provided +with European furniture, much the same as we would expect to find in +the summer residence of a well-to-do family in Sweden. It was +remarkable that the Japanese did not take the trouble to ornament +the loom or the table to any considerable extent with the beautiful +native bronzes or porcelain, of which there is such abundance in the +country. The summer palace was surrounded by a garden which the +Japanese consider something very extraordinary, and also on a very +large scale. We should call it a small, well and originally kept +miniature park, with carefully dressed turf, wonderful dwarf trees, +miniature stone bridges, small ponds and waterfalls. The +entertainment was very pleasant, and all, from our intelligent host +to the Premier, Daiyo-daiyin, and the Imperial Prince, SANYO +SANITOMI, showed us much friendliness. The latter looked a sickly +young man, some years past twenty. He was, however, much older, and +had taken a leading part in the most important political +transactions since the opening of the ports. Our host, Admiral +Kawamura, had more the appearance of a man of science than of a +warrior. The modest exterior, however, concealed a great and noble +man. For Kawamura, as commander of the Mikado's troops, had with +special distinction brought about the suppression of the revolt +under the brave Saigo Kichinosuke, who had at the restoration of the +power of the Mikado been its heart and sword, but soon after fell +before the government he himself contributed to create, and is now, +a couple of years after, admired and sung by former friends and by +former enemies as a national hero. All the Japanese present at the +_dejeuner_ were clad in European dress--in black dress coat and +white tie. Even the interpreters and attendants wore the European +dress. The people, the lower officials, and the servants in private +houses are still clothed in the Japanese dress, but do not wear a +sword, which is now prohibited. Many of the people have even +exchanged the old troublesome Japanese dressing of the hair for the +convenient European style. + +In the course of conversation after the _dejeuner_ the ministers +offered to do all they could to make our stay in the country +agreeable and instructive. Distinguished foreigners are always well +received in Japan, and we are informed that a special committee is +appointed to make arrangements for their reception. This has given +offence in certain quarters, and shortly before our arrival a +proclamation was issued by a secret society, which threatened, if no +change were made, to kill one of the ministers and one of the +foreigners who were entertained in this, in the opinion of the +secret society, extravagant way. One of my Japanese friends promised +me a copy of the proclamation, but did not keep his promise, +probably because it was impossible for the uninitiated to get hold +of the dangerous writing. + +On the 13th September a grand dinner was arranged for us by the +German Club, the photographer ANDERSEN being chairman. The hall was +adorned in a festive manner with flags, and with representations of +the _Vega_ in various more or less dangerous positions among the +ice, which had been got up for the occasion, the bill of fare had +reference to the circumstances of our wintering, &c. A number of +speeches were made, the feeling was cheerful and merry. + +On the 15th September there was a grand entertainment in Tokio, given by +the Tokio Geographical Society, the Asiatic Society of Japan, and the +German Asiatic Society. It was held in the great hall in Koku-Dai-Gaku, +a large stone building surrounded with beautiful trees, which were +lighted up for the occasion by a number of variegated paper lanterns. +Several Japanese ladies dressed in European style took part in the +entertainment. I sat by the side of the chairman, Prince +KITA-SHIRA-KAVA, a young member of the imperial house, who had served +some time in the German army and speaks German very well. During the +disturbances which were caused by the removal of the residence from +Kioto to Yedo (Tokio), a group of insurgents had seized the prince, then +a minor, who under the name of RINNOJINO-MIYA was chief priest in a +temple, and endeavoured to set him up in opposition to the Emperor. The +plan failed, and in consequence of the reconciliation at the end of the +conflict, which distinguished in so honourable a way the many involved +and bloody political struggles in Japan during recent years, this +adventure was attended with no other insult for him than that the former +chief priest was sent to a German military school. He was recalled +sooner than was intended because he wished to marry a European, which +was considered below the dignity of the family of the Mikado. After his +return he was declared nearest heir to the throne, in case the Mikado +should die without male heirs, and his name, KITA-SHIRA-KAVA-NO-MIYA, +was changed a second time to YOHI HISHA. The former name was at the +bottom of the speech he made for us at the dinner, and which he gave me, +and the latter, with the addition, "Prince of Japan," was on his calling +card. The dinner was quite European, with a large number of speeches, +principally in European languages, but also in Japanese. Before every +guest lay a map, of the form of a fan, with the course of the _Vega_ +marked upon it. As a memorial of the feast I received some days after a +large medal in silver inlaid in gold, of which a drawing is given on +pages 306, 307. We were conveyed back to the Tokio railway station in +European equipages, in the same way as we had been brought to the +dinner. During dinner musicians from the band of the imperial navy +played European pieces of music with great skill, to the evident +satisfaction of the Japanese. + +On the forenoon of the 17th September we were presented at the court +of the Mikado in Tokio by the Swedish-Dutch minister. We were +fetched from the railway station by imperial equipages, consisting +of simple but ornamental and convenient _suflett_ carriages, each +drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses of no great size. As is +common in Japan, a running groom, clad in black, accompanied each +carriage. The reception took place in the imperial palace, a very +modest wooden building. The rooms we saw were furnished, almost +poorly, in European fashion. We first assembled in an antechamber, +the only remarkable ornament of which was a large piece of nephrite, +which was a little carved and had a Chinese inscription on it. Here +we were met by some of the ministers and the interpreter. After a +short conversation, in the course of which the interpreter got a +sight of the written speech, or more correctly the words of +salutation, I was to speak, we were conducted into an inner +apartment where the Emperor, clad in a uniform of European style and +standing in front of a throne, received us. The only thing unusual +at our reception was that we were requested at our departure not to +turn our backs to the Emperor, and on entering and departing to make +three bows, one at the door, another when we had come forward a +little on the floor, and one at the place where we were to stand. +After we had been presented the Emperor read a speech in Japanese, +which was translated into French by the interpreter, and of which, +before we left the place, a beautiful copy was given me, I then read +my salutation, on which our minister, van Stoetwegen, said a few +words, and got some words in reply. After leaving the imperial +chamber, we were entertained in the anteroom with Japanese tea and +cigars. The two princes who had taken part in the entertainment of +the 15th came and talked a little with us, as did the minister of +foreign affairs. The Emperor MUTSUHITO, in whose name reforms have +been carried out in Japan to an extent to which history can scarcely +show anything equal, was born the 3rd November, 1850. He is +considered the 121st Mikado of the race of Jimmu Tenno, the members +of which have reigned uninterruptedly in Japan for nearly two +thousand years, with varying fates and with varying power--now as +wise lawgivers and mighty warriors, now for long periods as weak and +effeminate rulers, emperors only in seeming, to whom almost divine +homage was paid, but who were carefully freed from the burden of +government and from all actual power. In comparison with this race, +whose first ancestor lived during the first century after the +foundation of Rome, all the royal houses now reigning in Europe are +children of yesterday. Its present representative does not look to +be very strong. During the whole audience he stood so motionless +that he might have been taken for a wax figure, if he had not +himself read his speech. Prince Kita-Shira-Kava has the appearance +of a young lieutenant of hussars. Most of the ministers have sharply +marked features,[373] which remind one of the many furious storms +they have survived, and the many personal dangers to which they have +been exposed, partly in honourable conflict, partly through +murderers' plots. For, unfortunately, a political murder is not yet +considered in Japan an infamous crime, but the murderer openly +acknowledges his deed and takes the consequences. Repeated murderous +attempts have been made against the men of the new time. In order to +protect themselves from these, ministers, when they go out, +generally have their carriages surrounded by an armed guard on +horseback. + +[Illustration: THE FIRST MEDAL WHICH WAS STRUCK AS A MEMORIAL OF THE +VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA." Size of the original. ] + +[Illustration: THE FIRST MEDAL WHICH WAS STRUCK AS A MEMORIAL OF THE +VOYAGE OF THE "VEGA." Size of the original. ] + +On the 18th September several of the members of the _Vega_ +expedition were invited to a _dejeuner a la fourchette_ by Admiral +Kawamura, minister of marine. This entertainment had an interest for +us because we were here for the first time received into a Japanese +home. I sat at table by the side of Lady Kawamura. Even the children +were present at the entertainment. Lady Kawamura was dressed in the +Japanese fashion, tastefully but very plainly, if we except a heavy +gold chain encircling the waist. In other respects the entertainment +was arranged according to the European mode, with a succession of +dishes and wines, both in abundance, according to the laws of +gastronomy. When it was over our host offered us an airing in a +carriage, during which I rode with the lady and one of the children, +a little girl about ten years of age, who would have been very +beautiful if she had not been disfigured, in the eyes of Europeans, +by the thick white paint that was evenly spread over her whole face, +and gave it a sickly appearance. Lady Kawamura herself was not +painted, nor was she disfigured with blackened teeth. Most of the +married women of Japan are accustomed after marriage to blacken +their formerly dazzlingly white teeth, but it is to be hoped that +this unpleasant custom will soon disappear, as the women of +distinction have begun to abandon it. During this excursion we +visited, among other places, the graves of the Tycoons, the imperial +garden, and a very remarkable exhibition in the capital. + +A number of the Tycoons, or, as they are more correctly called, +Shoguns, are buried in Tokio. Their place of sepulture is one of the +most remarkable memorials of Old Japan. The graves are in a temple +which is divided into several courts, surrounded by walls and +connected with each other by beautiful gates. The first of these +courts is ornamented with more than two hundred stone lanterns, +presented to the temple by the feudal princes of the country, the +name of the giver and the date at which it was given being inscribed +on each. Some of these peculiar memorials are only half-finished, +perhaps an evidence of the sudden close of the power of the Shoguns +and the feudal princes in Japan. In another of the temple courts are +to be seen lanterns of bronze, partly gilt, presented by other +feudal princes. A third court is occupied by a temple, a splendid +memorial of the old Japanese architecture, and of the antique method +of adorning their sanctuaries with wooden carvings, gilding, and +varnishing. The temple abounds in old book-rolls, bells, drums, +beautiful old lacquered articles, &c. The graves themselves lie +within a separate enclosure. + +The common Japanese gardens are not beautiful according to European +taste. They are often so small that they might without inconvenience, +with trees, grottos, and waterfalls, be accommodated in a small State's +department in one of the crystal palaces of the international +exhibitions. All, passages, rocks, trees, ponds, yea, even the fishes in +the dams, are artificial or artificially changed. The trees are, by a +special art which has been very highly developed in Japan, forced to +assume the nature of dwarfs, and are besides so pruned that the whole +plant has the appearance of a dry stem on which some green clumps have +been hung up here and there. The form of the gold fish swimming in the +ponds has also been changed, so that they have often two or four +tail-fins each, and a number of growths not known in their natural +state. On the walks thick layers of pebbles are placed to keep the feet +from being dirtied, and at the doors of dwelling-houses there is nearly +always a block of granite with a cauldron-like depression excavated in +it, which is kept filled with clean water. Upon this stone cauldron is +placed a simple but clean wooden scoop, with which one can take water +out of the vessel to wash himself with. + +The imperial garden in Tokio is distinguished from these miniature +gardens by its greater extent, and by the trees, at least at most +places, bearing fruit. There is here a veritable park, with +uncommonly large, splendid, and luxuriantly-growing trees. + +[Illustration: STONE LANTERN AND STONE MONUMENT. In a Japanese Temple +Court. ] + +The public is generally excluded from the garden. At our visit we +were entertained in one of the imperial summer-houses with Japanese +tea, sweetmeats, and cigars. + +Last of all we visited the Exhibition. It had been closed for some +time back on account of cholera. We saw here a number of beautiful +specimens of Japanese art, from the flint tools and pottery of the +Stone Age to the silks, porcelain, and bronzes of the present. In no +country is there at this day such a love for exhibitions as in +Japan. There are small exhibitions in most of the large towns. Many +were exceedingly instructive; in all there were to be seen beautiful +lacquered wares, porcelain, swords, silk, cloths, &c. In one I saw a +collection of the birds and fishes of Japan, in another I discovered +some vegetable impressions, by means of which I became acquainted +with the remarkable locality for fossil plants at Mogi, of which I +shall give an account farther on. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE HOUSE IN TOKIO. ] + +On the evening of the 18th September I was invited by the Danish +consul, Herr BAVIER, to a boat excursion up the river which +debouches at Tokio. At its mouth it is very broad and deep, and it +branches somewhat farther up into several streams which are +navigable by the shallow boats of the Japanese. With the present +limited development of roads and railways in Japan, this river and +its tributaries form the most important channels of communication +between the capital and the interior of the country. During our row +we constantly met with boats laden with provisions on their way to, +or with goods on their way from, the town. The pleasant impression +of these and of the remarkable environs of the river is sometimes +disturbed by a bad odour coming from a passing boat, and reminding +us of the care with which the Japanese remove human excreta, the +most important manure of their well-cultivated land. Along the banks +of the river there are numerous restaurants and tea-houses. At long +intervals we see a garden on the banks, which has belonged to some +of the former Daimio palaces. The restaurants and tea-houses are +generally intended only for the Japanese; and Europeans, although +they pay many times more than the natives, are not admitted. The +reason of this is to be found in our manners, which are coarse and +uncultivated in the eyes of the natives. "The European walks with +his dirty boots on the carpets, spits on the floor, is uncivil to +the girls, &c." Thanks to the letters of introduction from natives +acquainted with the restaurant-keepers, I have been admitted to +their exclusive places, and it must be admitted that everything +there was so clean, neat, and orderly, that even the best European +restaurants cannot compare with them. When a visitor enters a +Japanese restaurant which is intended exclusively for the Japanese, +he must always take off his boots at the stair else he gets +immediately into disfavour. He is received with bended knee by the +host and all the attendants, male, but principally female, and then +he is almost always surrounded by a number of young girls constantly +laughing and chattering. These girls have commonly sold themselves +to the restaurant-keeper for a certain time, during which they carry +on a life which, according to European standards of morality, is not +very commendable. When the time fixed in the agreement has passed, +they return to their homes and marry, without having sunk in any way +in the estimation of their relatives. But those are unfortunate who, +in any of the towns that are not yet opened to foreigners, carry on +a love intrigue with a European. They are then openly pointed out, +even in the newspapers, as immoral, and their respectability is +helplessly gone. Formerly they were even in such cases severely +punished. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE LADY AT HER TOILETTE. ] + +All women of the lower classes, and even most of the higher, wear +the Japanese dress. The more distinguished ladies are often +exceedingly beautiful, they have in particular beautiful necks. +Unfortunately they are often disfigured by paint, for which the +ladies here appear to have a strong liking. The dress of the younger +women, even among the poor, is carefully attended to; it is not +showy but tasteful, and nearly the same for all classes. Their +manners are very attractive and agreeable. The women of the upper +classes already begin to take part in the social life of the +Europeans, and all European gentlemen and ladies with whom I have +conversed on this point agree in stating that there is no difficulty +in the way of a Japanese woman leaving the narrow circle to which +she was formerly confined, and entering with pleasure and womanly +dignity into European society. She appears to be born "a lady." + +On the 20th and 21st September the Governor of Yokohama had arranged +an excursion for me, Dr. Stuxberg, and Lieut. Nordquist, to the +sacred island or peninsula Enoshima, situated at a short distance +from the town. We first travelled some English miles along the +excellent road Tokaido, one of the few highways in Japan passable in +carriages. Then we travelled in _jinrikishas_ to the famous image of +Buddha (Daibutsu) at Kamakura[374], and visited the Shinto chief +priest living in the neighbourhood and his temple. + +The priest was fond of antiquities, and had a collection, not very +large indeed, but composed almost entirely of rarities. Among other +things he showed us sabres of great value, a head ornament +consisting of a single piece of nephrite which he valued at 500 +_yen_,[373] a number of old bronzes, mirrors, &c. We were received +as usual with Japanese tea and sweetmeats. The priest himself took +us round his temple. No images were to be seen here, but the walls +were richly carved and ornamented with a number of drawings and +gildings. The innermost wall of the temple was fenced by heavy doors +provided with secure locks and bolts, within which "the divine +spirit dwelt," or within which "there was nothing else," as the +priest phrased it on another occasion. + +Enoshima is a little rocky peninsula, which is connected with the +mainland by a low, sandy neck of land. Occasionally this neck of +land has been broken through or overflowed, and the peninsula has +then been converted into an island. It is considered sacred, and is +studded with Shinto temples. On the side of the peninsula next the +mainland there is a little village, consisting of inns, tea-houses, +and shops for pilgrims' and tourists' articles, among which are +beautiful shells, and the fine siliceous skeleton of a sponge, +_Hyalonema mirabilis_, Gray. Here I lived for the first time in a +Japanese inn of the sort to which Europeans in ordinary +circumstances are not admitted. I was accompanied by two officials +from the governor's court at Yokohama, and it was on their assurance +that I did not belong to the common sort of uncultivated and +arrogant foreigners that the host made no difficulty in receiving +us. + +After we had at our entrance saluted the people of the inn and +passed some time in the exchange of civilities, there came a girl, +and, in a kneeling posture, offered the foreigners Japanese tea, +which is always handed round in very small cups only half full. Then +we took off our shoes and went into the guest-chamber. Such chambers +in the Japanese inns are commonly large and dazzlingly clean. +Furniture is completely wanting but the floor is covered with mats +of plaited straw. The walls are ornamented with songs suitable for +the place, or mottoes, and with Japanese paintings. The rooms are +separated from each other by thin movable panels, which slide in +grooves, which can be removed or replaced at will. One may, +therefore, as once happened to me, lay himself down to sleep in a +very large room, and, if he sleeps sound, awake in the morning in a +very small one. The room generally looks out on a Japanese +garden-inclosure, or if it is in the upper story, on a small +balcony. Immediately outside there is always a vessel filled with +water and a scoop. Generally on one side of the room there is a +wall-press, in which the bed-clothes are kept. Those, the only +household articles in the room, consist of a thick mat, which is +spread on the floor, a round cushion for the head, or instead of it +a wooden support, stuffed on the upper side, for the neck during +sleep, and a thick stuffed night-shirt which serves at covering. + +[Illustration: A JINRIKISHA. ] + +[Illustration: JAPANESE BEDROOM. ] + +As soon as one comes in the female attendants distribute +four-cornered cushions for sitting on, which are placed on the floor +round a wooden box, on one corner of which stands a little brazier, +on the other a high clay vessel of uniform breadth, with water in +the bottom, which serves as a spittoon and tobacco-ash cup. At the +same time tea is brought in anew, in the small cups previously +described, with saucers, not of porcelain, but of metal. Pipes are +lighted, and a lively conversation commences. Along with the tea +sweetmeats are brought in, of which, however, some cannot be +relished by Europeans. The brazier forms the most important +household article of the Japanese. Braziers are very variable in +size and shape, but are often made in an exceedingly beautiful and +tasteful way, of cast-iron or bronze, with gilding and raised +figures. Often enough, however, they consist only of a clay crock. +The Japanese are very skilful in keeping up fire in them without the +least trace of fumes being perceptible in the room. The fuel +consists of some well-burned pieces of charcoal, which lie imbedded +in white straw-ashes, with which the fire-pan is nearly filled to +the brim. When some glowing coals are laid in such ashes they retain +their heat for hours, until they are completely consumed. In every +well-furnished house there are a number of braziers of different +sizes, and there are often four-cornered hatches in the floor, which +conceal a stone foundation intended as a base for the large brazier, +over which the food is cooked. + +At meal-times all the dishes are brought in at the same time on +small lacquered tables, about half a foot high, and with a surface +of four square feet. The dishes are placed in lacquered cups, less +frequently in porcelain cups, and carried to the mouth with +chop-sticks, without the help of knife, fork, or spoon. For fear of +the fish-oils, which are used instead of butter, I never dared to +test completely the productions of the Japanese art of cookery; but +Dr. Almquist and Lieut. Nordquist, who were more unprejudiced, said +they could put up with them very well. The following _menu_ gives an +idea of what a Japanese inn of the better class has to offer:-- + + Vegetable soup. + Boiled rice, sometimes with minced fowl. + Boiled fish or raw fish with horse-radish. + Vegetables with fish-sauce. + Tea. + +Soy is used to the fish. The rice is brought in hot in a wooden +vessel with a lid, and is distributed in abundance, but the other +dishes in extremely small portions. After meals, especially in the +evening, the Japanese often drink warm _saki_, or rice-brandy, out +of peculiar porcelain bottles and small cups set apart for that +purpose alone. + +During the meal one is commonly surrounded by a numerous _personnel_ +of female attendants, squatted down on the floor, who keep up with +the guest, if he understands their language, a lively conversation, +interrupted by salvoes of hearty laughter. The girls remain while +the man undresses in the evening, and permit themselves to make +remarks on the difference of the _physique_, of the Europeans and +Japanese, which are not only, in our way of thinking, unsuitable for +young girls, but even impertinent towards the guest. The male +attendants are seldom seen, at least in the inner apartments. In the +morning one washes himself in the yard or on the balcony, and if he +wishes to avoid getting into disfavour, the guest will be careful +not to spill anything or spit on the mat. + +The Japanese tobacco-pipe now in use resembles that of the Chukches, +is very small, and is smoked out in a couple of whiffs. A Japanese +smokes without stopping a score of pipes in succession. +Tobacco-smoking is now very general among high and low of both +sexes. It was introduced at the close of the sixteenth century, it +is uncertain whether from Corea or from the Portuguese possessions +in Asia, and spread with great rapidity. As among us, it here too at +first gave occasion to stringent prohibitions, and a lively exchange +of writings for and against. In a work by the learned Japanologist, +Mr. E.M. SATOW ("The Introduction of Tobacco into Japan," +_Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_, vol vi. part i. p. +68), the following statements among others are made on this +subject:-- + + "In 1609 there were in the capital two clubs whose main + delight was to contrive quarrels with peaceful citizens. + Upwards of fifty of the members of these clubs were + suddenly arrested and thrown into prison; but justice was + satisfied when four or five of the leaders were executed, + the rest were pardoned. As these societies were originally + smoking clubs, the tobacco-plant came by the bad behaviour + of their members into disrepute, and its use was + prohibited. At that time tobacco was smoked in long pipes, + which were stuck in the belt like a sword, or carried after + the smoker by an attendant. In 1612 a proclamation was + published in which tobacco-smoking and all trade in tobacco + were prohibited, under penalty of forfeiture of estate. The + prohibition was repeated several times, with as little + success as in Europe." + +[Illustration: TOBACCO SMOKERS. Japanese drawing. ] + +Mr. Satow further gives the following peculiar extracts +from a Japanese work, which enumerates the advantages and +disadvantages that are connected with tobacco-smoking:-- + + +"_A_--ADVANTAGES. + +"1. It dispels the vapours and increases the energies." + +"2. It is good to produce at the beginning of a feast." + +"3. It is a companion in solitude." + +"4. It affords an excuse for resting now and then from +work, as if in order to take breath." + +"5. It is a storehouse of reflection, and gives time for the +fumes of wrath to dispense." + + +"_B_--DISADVANTAGES + +"1. There is a natural tendency to hit people over the head +with one's pipe in a fit of anger."[376] + +"2. The pipe comes sometimes to be used for arranging the +burning charcoal in the brazier." + +"3. An inveterate smoker has been known to walk about +among the dishes with his pipe in his mouth." + +"4. People knock the ashes out of their pipes while still +alight and forget to extinguish the fire." + +"5. Hence clothing and mats are frequently scorched by +burning tobacco ash." + +"6. Smokers spit indiscriminately in braziers, foot-warmers, +and kitchen fires." + +"7. Also in the crevices between the floor-mats." + +"8. They rap the pipe violently on the edge of the brazier." + +"9. They forget to have the ash-pot emptied till it is full +to overflowing." + +"10. They use the ash-pot as nose-paper (_i.e._ they blow their +nose into the ash-pot)". + +As during our stay at Enoshima as the governor's guests we were +constantly attended by two officials from his court, I considered it +my duty to show myself worthy of the honour by a liberal +distribution of drink-money. This is not given to the attendants, +but is handed, wrapped up in paper, and accompanied by some choice +courteous expressions, to the host himself. He on his part makes a +polite speech with apologies that all had not been so well arranged +as his honoured guest had a right to expect. He accompanies the +traveller on his departure a shorter or longer distance in +proportion to the amount of drink-money and the way in which his +guest has behaved. + +[Illustration: ITO-KESKE. A Japanese Editor of Thunberg's writings. ] + +It is a specially praiseworthy custom among the Japanese to +allow the trees in the neighbourhood of the temples to stand +untouched. Nearly every temple, even the most inconsiderable, +is therefore surrounded by a little grove, formed of the most +splendid pines, particularly Cryptomeria and Ginko, which often +wholly conceal the small, decayed, and ill-kept wooden hut which +is dedicated to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto. + +On the 23rd September the Europeans and Japanese of Yokohama gave a +dinner and ball for us in the hall of the English club. It was +beautifully lighted and decorated. Among other things there were to +be seen on a wall portraits of Berzelius and Thunberg, surrounded by +garlands of greenery. The latter has a high reputation in Japan. His +work on the flora of the country has lately been published in a +Japanese edition with a wood-cut portrait, by no means bad, of the +famous Swedish naturalist,[377] engraved in Japan; and a monument to +his and Kaempfer's memory is to be found at Nagasaki, erected there +at the instance of von Siebold.[378] The chairman of the feast was +Dr. GEERTZ, a Dutchman, who had lived a long time in the country and +published several valuable works on its natural productions. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THUNBERG AND KAEMPFER AT NAGASAKI. ] + +On the 26th September I started for Tokio, in order thence to +undertake a journey proposed and arranged by the Danish consul, Herr +Bavier, to Asamayama, a yet active volcano in the interior of the +country. In consequence of an unexpected death among the European +consuls at Yokohama, Herr Bavier, however, could not join us until +the day after that which had been fixed for our departure. The 27th +accordingly was passed in Tokio among other things, in seeing the +beautiful collections of antiquities made by the _attache_ of the +Austrian legation, Herr H. VON SIEBOLD, son of the famous naturalist +of the same name. Japan has also, like most other lands, had its +Stone Age, from which remains are found at several places in the +country, both on Yezo and on the more southerly islands. Implements +from this period are now collected assiduously both by natives and +Europeans, and have been described by H. von Siebold in a work +accompanied by photographic illustrations. In general the implements +of the Japanese stone folk have a resemblance to the stone tools +still in use among the Eskimo, and even in this fruitful land the +primitive race, as the bone remains in the kitchen-middens show, +lived at first mainly by hunting and fishing. + + +[Footnote 372: The Dutch had permission in former times to send some +vessels annually to Nagasaki. By Perry's treaty, signed on the 31st +March, 1854, Shimoda and Hakodate were opened to the Americans. +Finally, by new treaties with the United States and various European +powers, the harbours Kanagava (Yokohama), Nagasaki, Hakodate, +Niigata, Hiogo, and Osaka, were assigned for commerce with +foreigners. ] + +[Footnote 373: At first it strikes a European as if all the Japanese +had about the same appearance, but when one has got accustomed to +the colour of the skin and the traits of the race, the features of +the Japanese appear as various in form and expression as those of +Europeans. ] + +[Footnote 374: At the close of the twelfth century this now +inconsiderable town was the residence of Joritomo, the founder of +the Shogun power, and the arranger of the Japanese feudal system. ] + +[Footnote 375: Five _yen_ are about equal to 1 pound sterling. ] + +[Footnote 376: The Japanese pipes are now so small that no serious +results from this disadvantage are to be dreaded. In former times +the pipes used were long and probably heavy. The Dyaks of Borneo +still use pipes so heavy that they may be used as weapons. ] + +[Footnote 377: The work bears the title _Tai-sei-hon-zo-mei-so_ +(short list of European plant-names), by Ito-Keske, 1829, 3 vols. ] + +[Footnote 378: Carl Peter Thunberg, born at Joenkoeping in 1743, famed +for his travels in South Africa, Japan, &c., and for a number of +important scientific works, finally Professor at Upsala, died in +1828. Engelbert Kaempfer, born in Westphalia in 1651, was secretary +of the embassy that started from Sweden to Persia in 1683. Kaempfer, +however, did not return with the embassy, but continued his travels +in the southern and eastern parts of Asia, among them, even to +Japan, which he visited in 1690-92, he died in 1716. Kaempfer's and +Thunberg's works, together with the great work of von Siebold, who +erected the monument to them, form the most important sources of the +knowledge of the Japan that once was. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Excursion to Asamayama--The Nakasendo road--Takasaki-- + Difficulty of obtaining quarters for the night--The Baths + at Ikaho--Massage in Japan--Swedish matches--Travelling + in _Kago_--Savavatari--Criminals--Kusatsu--The Hot Springs + and their healing power--Rest at Rokuriga-hara--The summit + of Asamayama--The descent--Journey over Usui-toge-- + Japanese actors--Pictures of Japanese folk-life-- + Return to Yokohama. + + +On the 28th September, early in the morning, accompanied by Lieut. +Hovgaard, Herr Bavier, an interpreter, and a Japanese cook skilled +in European cookery, I started on a journey to Asamayama. At first +we travelled in two very rattling and inconvenient carriages, drawn +each by a pair of horses, to the town Takasaki, situated on the +great road "Nakasendo," which passes through the interior of the +country and connects Tokio and Kioto. This road is considered +something grand by the Japanese. In Sweden it would be called an +indifferently kept district road. On this road _jinrikishas_ are met +in thousands, and a great many horses, oxen, and men, _bearing_ +heavy burdens, but with the exception of the posting carriages, by +which, for some years back, a regular communication between Tokio +and Takasaki has been kept up, not a single wheeled vehicle drawn by +horses or oxen, and though the road passes through an unbroken +series of populous villages, surrounded by well cultivated rice +fields and small gardens, there is not a single workhorse or work-ox +to be seen. For all the ground in Japan is cultivated by the hand, +and there are few cattle. + +Most of the roads in the country consist of foot-paths, so narrow +that two laden horses can pass each other only with difficulty. +Goods are therefore carried, where there is no canal or river, for +the most part by men. The plains are extraordinarily well +cultivated, and we must specially admire the industry with which +water-courses have been cut and the uneven slopes changed into level +terraces. + +The post-horses on Nakasendo were so poor and wretched that in +Sweden one would have been liable to punishment for cruelty to +animals for using them. They went, however, at a pretty good speed. +There were places for changing horses at regular distances of +fifteen to twenty kilometres. The driver besides halted often on the +way at some dwelling-house to take a couple of scoopfuls of water +out of the water-vessel standing before it and throw them into the +horses' mouths and between their hind-legs. The opportunity was +always taken advantage of by the girls of the house to come out and +offer the travellers a small cup of Japanese tea, an act of courtesy +that was repaid with some friendly words and a copper coin. + +When we visited any of the peasants' gardens by the wayside we were +always received with extreme friendliness, either on a special dais +in the common room looking to the road, or in an inner room whose +floor was covered with a mat of dazzling whiteness, and on whose +walls hung pictures, with songs and mottoes. The brazier was brought +forward, tea and sweetmeats were handed round, all with lively +conversation and frequent bows. The difference between the palace of +the rich (if we may distinguish with the name any building in Japan) +and the dwelling of the less well-to-do is much smaller here than in +Europe. We did not see any beggars in our journey into the interior +of the country.[379] Nor did the distraction of class appear to be +so sharp as might be expected in a land where the evils of rank had +been so great as in Old Japan. We several times saw in the inns by +the roadside, people of condition who were travelling in +_jinrikishas_ eat their rice and drink their _saki_ together with +the coolies who were drawing their vehicles. + +To judge by the crowds of children who swarmed everywhere along the +roads the people must be very prolific. A girl of eight or ten years +of age was seldom to be seen without another young one bound on her +back. This burden did not appear to trouble the sister or attendant +very much. Without giving herself any concern about the child or +thinking of its existence, she took part actively in games, ran +errands, &c. + +Even in the interior of the country foreigners are received with +great friendliness. The lower classes in Japan have also reason for +this, for whatever influence the latest political changes may have +had on the old _kuge_, _daimio_, and _samurai_ families of Japan, the +position of the cultivator of the soil is now much more secure than +before, when he was harmed by hundreds of small tyrants. His dress +is the same as before, with the exception, however, that a great +proportion of the male population, even far into the interior, have +laid aside the old troublesome way of collecting the hair in a knot +over a close shaven spot on the crown of the head. Instead, they +wear their thick raven-black hair cut short in the European style. +How distinctive of the new period this change is may be seen from +the eagerness with which the Japanese authorities questioned GOLOVIN +about the religious and political revolutions which they assumed to +have been connected with the change in the European mode of wearing +the hair during the commencement of the nineteenth century, for the +Russian ambassador LAXMAN, who was highly esteemed by the Japanese, +had worn a pig-tail and powdered hair, while Golovin and his +companions had their hair unpowdered and cut short.[380] When it is +warm the workmen wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle +round the waist and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked. +They are thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the +greater part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked. +They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At least they +do not refrain from undressing completely while bathing right in +the midst of a crowd of men known and unknown, a state of things +which at first, in consequence of the power of prejudice, shocks +the European, but to which even the former prude gets accustomed +sooner than one would suppose. We even frequently see European +ladies drawn in a _jinrikisha_ by a youth completely naked with the +exception of the blue girdle. Many, especially of the younger men, +have besides so well-formed a body, that the sculptor who could +accurately reproduce it in marble would at once attain a reputation +co-extensive with the globe. + +Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population of about +20,000; but, like most of the towns of Japan, it differs little +from many of the villages we passed through. We arrived late in the +evening, and there had our first and last experience of an +inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travelling in +Japan, and to which they have themselves given occasion by the +offensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. We knocked at +the door of one inn after another without being received. At one +place "the house was full," at another "the rooms were under +repair," at a third "the inn people were out," &c. At last we had +to apply to the police. When we had shown them our passport, we +succeeded with their help in getting a night's lodging with an +elderly host, who received us with a countenance which clearly +indicated that he would rather have hewn us in pieces with one of +the two swords he had formerly as _samurai_ been entitled to wear, +than received us under his roof. After our entrance he still turned +to the police official with the cry of lamentation: "Must I then +actually receive these barbarians?" But we had our revenge in a +noble way. We took off our boots before we entered the room, were so +profuse with talk, civilities, and bows, and on the whole behaved in +such a courteous fashion, that our previously distracted host not +only bade us welcome back, but also gave us a letter of introduction +to the innkeepers at an inn where we were to stay next, declaring +that if we showed this letter we need not fear any such disagreeable +adventure as that just described. + +Most of the houses in the Japanese towns are built of pretty thin, +carefully joined timbers. But besides these there are to be seen +here and there small houses with very thick walls, windows provided +with heavy iron gratings, and doors that could be fastened with +large locks and bolts. These houses are fire-resisting, and are used +as storehouses for valuables and household articles when there is +danger of fire. Fires are so common in Japan that it is supposed +that a tenth part of every town is burned down yearly. The fireman +corps is numerous, well ordered from old times, its members bold and +daring. During our stay overnight at Takasaki we were lodged in such +a fireproof house, in very large clean apartments with the floor +partly covered with carpets after the European pattern. The walls +were very thick and of brick, the interior fittings and stairs on +the other hand of wood. + +I have just mentioned that we were compelled to resort to the police +in order to obtain quarters for the night. Policemen are numerous in +Japan, both in town and country. For the most part they are taken +from the former _samurai_ class. They are clothed in the European +style, and walk, with a long stick in a certain position under the +arm, quietly and calmly on the streets and roads, without, except in +cases of necessity, making any show of their authority. Commonly +they are, or appear to be, young, and all have a gentlemanlike +appearance. In a word, they appear to be equal to the best European +police of the present day, and stand immeasurably above the guardian +of the peace, or rather the raiser of dispeace, as he appeared some +decades ago on the European continent. During the latest revolt the +police were employed by the Government as infantry, and elicited +general admiration by the fire, the gallantry, and the contempt of +death with which they went into action with their old favourite +weapon, the Japanese sword. + +A passport is still required for travelling in the interior of the +country, but this is easily obtained at the request of the consul if +health or the wish to prosecute researches be given as the reason, +it being possible perhaps to include common love of travelling under +the latter head. Commercial travelling is not yet permitted in the +interior, nor is the right of settling for the purpose of carrying +on business granted to Europeans. The foreign ambassadors have often +entered into negotiations in order to bring about a change on this +point, but hitherto without success, because the Government, as a +condition for the complete opening of the country, require the +abrogation of the unreasonable "extraterritorial" arrangement which +is in force, and by which the foreigner is not subject to the common +laws and courts of Japan, but to the laws of his own country, +administered by consular courts. An alteration in this point may +however be brought about in a short time, as Japan will soon be +sufficiently powerful to be able to abrogate all the injurious +paragraphs in her treaties with the civilised countries of Europe. +Now, besides, the ambassadors of the foreign powers, who in former +times all acted together, have divided into two parties, of which +one--Russia and America--wishes, or at least feigns to wish, +gradually to free Japan from all tutelage and to place it on an +equality with other civilised countries, the other again--England, +Germany, Holland, and France--wishes still to retain the +guardianship, which was established by violence, and confirmed by +treaty several years ago. + +Shortly before our arrival a quarrel took place between Japan and +the European powers about, as the Japanese themselves said, a breach +of international law, which caused much irritation in the country. A +German vessel coming from Nagasaki, where the cholera was raging, on +the advice of the German minister broke the quarantine prescribed by +the Government, and without further precautions discharged her cargo +in the harbour of Yokohama. That the cholera in this town was +thereby _made worse_ is indeed not only unproved but also +undoubtedly incorrect, though many Japanese in their irritation +positively affirmed that this was the case, but the words that were +uttered by Japan's _feted_ guest, ex-President General GRANT,[381] +that the Japanese Government had the right without more ado to sink +the vessel, have left a memory in the minds both of the Government +and of the people, which may in the future lead them to a perhaps +unwise but fully justified exertion of their strength were such a +deed to be repeated. + +The first impression of the Japanese, both men and women, is +exceedingly pleasant, but many Europeans who have lived a +considerable time in the country say that this impression is not +maintained, a circumstance which in my belief depends more on the +Europeans themselves than on the Japanese. For the European +merchants are said not to find it so easy to cut gold here with a +case-knife as before, and the ambassadors of the Great Powers find +it day by day more difficult to maintain their old commanding +standpoint towards a government which knows that a great future is +before the country, if inconsiderate ambition or unlooked-for +misfortune do not unexpectedly hinder its development. Another +reproach, that the Japanese can imitate what another has done, but +is unable himself to invent anything new, appears on the other hand +to be justified in the meantime. But it is unreasonable to demand +that a nation should not only in a few decades pass through a +development for which centuries have been required in Europe, but +also immediately reach the summit of the knowledge of our time so as +to be at the same time creative. But it would be wonderful, if the +natural science, literature, and art of the nineteenth century, +transplanted among a gifted people, with a culture so peculiar and +so pervasive, and with an art-sense so developed as those of Japan, +did not in time produce new, splendid, and unexpected fruit. The +same irresistible necessity which now drives the Japanese to learn +all that the European and the American know, will, when he has +reached that goal, spur him on to go further up the Nile river of +research. + +A short distance beyond Takasaki the road to the volcano to which we +were on our way, was no longer along Nakasendo, and we could +therefore no longer continue our journey in carriages drawn by +horses, but were compelled to content ourselves with _jinrikishas_. +In these, on the 29th of September, we traversed in five and a half +hours the very hilly road to Ikaho, noted for its baths, situated at +a height of 700 metres above the sea. The landscape here assumes a +quite different stamp. The road which before ran over an unbroken +plain, thickly peopled, and cultivated like a garden, now begins to +pass between steep uncultivated hills, overgrown with tall, uncut, +withered grass, separated by valleys in which run purling rivulets, +nearly concealed by exceedingly luxuriant bushy thickets. Ikaho is +celebrated for the warm, or more correctly hot, springs which well +up from the volcanic hills which surround the little town, which is +beautifully situated on a slope. As at the baths of Europe, invalids +seek here a remedy for their ailments, and the town therefore +consists almost exclusively of hotels, baths, and shops for the +visitors. The baths are situated, partly in large open wooden sheds, +where men and women bathe together without distinction, partly in +private houses. In every bath there is a basin one metre in depth, +to which a constant stream of water is conducted from some of the +hot springs. The spring water has of course cooled very much before +it is used, but is still so hot notwithstanding that I could only +with difficulty remain in it a couple of seconds. + +In the streets of the town we often met blind persons who walked +about very safely without any attendant, only feeling their way with +a long bamboo. They blew a short pipe now and then to warn +passers-by of their presence. I thought at first that these +unfortunates were trying to regain the sight of the eye at the hot +springs, but on inquiring whether the water was beneficial in that +respect, I was informed that they were not there as seekers after +health, but as "massageurs" (shampooers). Massage has been in use in +Japan for several centuries back, and therefore persons are often to +be met with in the streets offering their services as massageurs, +crying in the streets in about the same way as the fruit-sellers in +Russia. + +The inn where we lodged for the night, consisted as usual of a +number of very clean rooms covered with mats, without furniture, but +ornamented with songs and mottoes on the walls. One would live here +exceedingly well, if like the Japanese he could manage to live +wholly on the floor and conform carefully to the indispensable +rules, an observance which besides is necessary, because otherwise +the inmate is exposed to a very unfriendly reception not only from +his host but also from the attendants. An inconvenience in +travelling in Japan is the difficulty a European has in accustoming +himself to the dietary of the Japanese. Bread they do not use, nor +meat, but their food consists mainly of rice and fish, with fowls, +fruit, mushrooms, sweetmeats, Japanese tea, &c., in addition. Fish +is generally eaten raw, and in that case is said to differ little in +taste from our pickled salmon. The food is not unfrequently cooked +with fish oils of anything but an agreeable taste. If a traveller +wishes to avoid this dietary, he must have his own cook with him on +the journey. In this capacity there attended us a Japanese, whose +name was Senkiti-San, but who was commonly called by his companions +Kok-San (Mr. Cook). He had learned European (French) cooking at +Yokohama, and during the journey devoted himself with so great zeal +to his calling, that even in the deserts at the foot of Asamayama he +gave himself no rest until he could offer us a dinner of five +dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak, +fowl _fricasse_, and omelette _aux confitures_, all thus consisting +only of fowls and hens' eggs, cooked in different ways. + +For some years back lucifer matches have been an article of +necessity in Japan, and it was pleasing to us Swedes to observe that +the Swedish matches have here a distinct preference over those of +other countries. In nearly every little shop, even in the interior +of the country, are to be seen the well-known boxes with the +inscription "Saekerhets taendstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." But if +we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many of them, +along with the magic sentence unintelligible to the Japanese, an +inscription indicating that they have been made by some Japanese +manufacturer. On other boxes this is completely wanting, but the +falsification is shown by an unfortunate error in the inscription. +It thus appears that the Swedish matches are not only introduced +into Japan on a large scale, but are also counterfeited, being made +with the Swedish inscription on the box and with a cover resembling +that used at home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as +the original, and my Japanese servant bade me therefore, when I +purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one of the +right (Swedish) sort. + +Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at many +places in small towns and villages in the interior Japanese +photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by no +means bad work. The Japanese appear to have a great liking for +having their by no means remarkable dwellings photographed. On +several occasions, when we left a place we received from our host as +a parting gift a photograph of his house or inn. Perhaps this was +done with the same view as that which induces his European +brother-in-trade to advertise at great expense. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE KAGO. ] + +Between Ikaho and Savavatari, our next resting-place, the road was +so bad that the _jinrikisha_ could no longer be used, we accordingly +had to use the _kago_, a Japanese sedan-chair made of bamboo, of the +appearance of which the accompanying wood-cut gives an idea. It is +exceedingly inconvenient for Europeans, because they cannot like the +Japanese sit with their legs crosswise under them, and in course of +time it becomes tiresome to let them dangle without other support by +the side of the _kago_. Even for the bearers this sedan chair +strikes me as being of inconvenient construction, which is shown +among other things by their halting an instant every two hundred, or +in going up a hill, every hundred paces, in order to shift the +shoulder under the bamboo pole. We went up-hill and down-hill with +considerable speed however, so that we traversed the road between +Ikaho and Savavatari, 6 _ri_ or 23.6 kilometres in length, in ten +hours. The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery +banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, and +many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round the old +temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be seen ancient +tall Cryptomeria and Ginko trees. The burying places were commonly +situated, not as at home, in the neighbourhood of the larger +temples, but near the villages. They were not inclosed, but marked +out by stone monuments from a third of a metre to half a metre in +height, on one side of which an image of Buddha was sometimes +sculptured. The recent graves were often adorned with flowers, and +at some of them small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of +wooden pins. + +Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The streets +between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. Here too +there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous springs, at which +invalids seek to regain health. The watering-place, however, is of +less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu. + +While we walked about the village in the evening we saw at one place +a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a competition going on +there. Two young men, who wore no other clothes than a narrow girdle +going round the waist and between the legs, wrestled within a circle +two or three metres across drawn on a sandy area. He was considered +the victor who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond +the circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The beginning +of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants kneeling in the +middle of the circle and sharply eying each other in order to make +the attack at a signal given by the judge, when a single push might +at once make an end of the contest. In this competition there took +part about a dozen young men, all well grown, who in their turn +stepped with some encouraging cries or gestures into the circle in +order to test their powers. The spectators consisted of old men and +women, and boys and girls of all ages. Most of them were clean and +well-dressed, and had a very attractive appearance. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE WRESTLERS. ] + +Here it was the youth of the village themselves that took part in +the contest. But there are also in Japan persons who carry on these +games as their occupation, and exhibit themselves for money. They +are in general very fat, as appears from the accompanying drawing, +which represents the beginning of the contest, when both the +combatants are still watching to get a good hold. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE BRIDGE. After a Japanese drawing. ] + +Next day, the 1st October, we continued our journey to Kusatsu. The +road was uphill for a distance of 550 metres, downhill for nearly as +far, then up again, and ran often without any protecting fence past +deep abysses, or over high bridges of the most dangerous +construction. It was, therefore, impossible for any wheeled vehicle +to traverse it, so that we had to use in some cases _kagos_, in +others riding-horses. Unfortunately the Japanese high saddle does +not suit the European, and if the traveller prefers a riding-horse +to a _kago_, he must, if he does not carry a saddle with him, +determine to ride on an unsaddled horse, which, with the wretched +steeds that are only available here, soon becomes so unpleasant that +he at last prefers to let his legs hang benumbed from the _kago_. A +peculiarity in Japan is that the rider seldom himself guides his +horse. It is commonly led by a halter by a groom running alongside +the rider. These grooms are very light-footed and enduring, so that +even at a rapid pace they are not left behind. Running footmen also +attend the carriages of people of distinction in the towns and the +mail-coaches on Nakasendo. When there is a crowd before the carriage +they jump down and drive away the people by a dreadful shouting. +From the mail-coach they also blow the post-horn, not just to the +advantage of the ear-drums of the travellers. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE. ] + +The scenery by the roadside was exceedingly beautiful. Now it +consisted of wild valleys, filled with luxuriant vegetation which +completely concealed the crystal-clear streams purling in the +bottoms; now of level grassy plains or hill-slopes, thickly studded +with solitary trees, chiefly chestnuts and oaks. The inhabitants +were fully occupied with the chestnut harvest. Before every hut mats +were spread out, on which chestnuts lay drying in thick layers. +Grain and cotton were being dried in the same small way, as it +appeared to us Europeans. On the plains there stood besides in the +neighbourhood of the cabins large mortars, by which the grain was +reduced to groats. On the hills these tramp-stamps are partly +replaced by small mills of an exceedingly simple construction, +introduced by the Dutch. + +We passed the 2nd October at Kusatsu, the Aix-la-Chapelle of Japan, +famed like that place for its hot sulphurous springs. Innumerable +invalids here seek an alleviation of their pains. The town lives +upon them, and accordingly consists mainly of baths, inns, and shops +for the visitors. + +The inns are of the sort common in Japan, spacious, airy clean, +without furniture, but with good braziers, miniature tea-services, +clean matting, screens ornamented with poetical mottoes, which even +when translated were almost unintelligible to us, friendly hosts, +and numerous female attendants. If the traveller brings his own cook +with him, as we did, he can live very comfortably, as I have before +stated, at such an inn. + +[Illustration: INN AT KUSATSU. ] + +The hot springs which have conferred on Kusatsu its importance rise +at the foot of a pretty high hill of volcanic origin. The rocks in +the surrounding country consist exclusively of lava and volcanic +tuffs, and a short distance from the town there is an extinct +volcano in whose crater there are layers of sulphur.[382] In the +immediate neighbourhood of the place where the main spring rises +there is a thick solidified lava stream, surrounded by tuffs, which +near the surface is cleft into a number of large vesicular blocks. +From this point the hot water is conducted in long open wooden +channels to the bath-house of the town, and to several evaporating +pools, some by the wayside, others in the town, intended for +collecting the solid constituents of the water, which are then sold +in the country as medicine. The great evaporation from these pools, +from the open channels and the hot baths, wraps the town almost +constantly in a cloud of watery vapour, while a very strong odour of +sulphuretted hydrogen reminds us that this is one of the +constituents of the healing waters. + +The road between the wells and the town appears to form the +principal promenade of the place. Along this are to be seen +innumerable small monuments, from a half to a whole metre in height, +consisting of pieces of lava heaped upon each other. These miniature +memorials form by their littleness a peculiar contrast to the +_bauta_ stones and _jettekast_ of our Swedish forefathers, and are +one of the many instances of the people's fondness for the little +and the neat, which are often to be met in Japan. They are said to +be erected by visitors as thank-offerings to some of the deities of +Buddha or Shinto. + +I received from a Japanese physician the following information +regarding the wells at Kusatsu and their healing power. In and near +the town there are twenty-two wells, with water of about the same +quality, but of different uses in the healing of various diseases. +In the hottest well the water where it rises has a temperature of +162 deg. F (= 72.2 deg. C.). The largest number of the sick who +seek health at the baths, suffer from syphilis. This disease is now +cured according to the European method, with mercury, iodide of +potassium, and baths. The cure requires a hundred days, from seventy +to eighty per cent. of the patients are cured completely, though +purple spots remain on the skin. The disease does not break out +anew. A large number of leprous patients also visit the baths. The +leprosy is of various kinds; that with sores is alleviated by the +baths, and is cured possibly in two years; that without sores but +with the skin insensible is incurable, but is also checked by +frequent bathing. All true lepers come from the coast provinces. A +similar disease is produced also among the hills by the eating of +tainted fish and fowl. This disease consists in the skin becoming +insensible, the nerves inactive, and the patient, who otherwise +feels well, finding it impossible to walk. It is also cured +completely in very severe cases, by baths, ammonia applied inwardly, +castor-oil, Peruvian bark, &c. A third type of this ailment is the +bone-disease, _kak'ke'_, which is exceedingly common in Japan, and +is believed to be caused by unvarying food and want of exercise. It +is very obstinate, but is often cured in two or three years with +chloride of iron, albumen, change of diet from the common Japanese +to the European, with red wine, milk, bread, vegetables, &c. This +disease begins with a swelling in the legs, then the skin becomes +insensible, first on the legs, next on the stomach, the face, and +the wrists. Then the swelling falls, fever comes on, and death takes +place. There are besides, certain wells for curing rheumatism, for +which from two to three years are required; for eye-diseases and for +headache, the latter playing an important part among the illnesses +that are cured at Kusatsu. It principally attacks women between +twenty and thirty years of age. One of the Kusatsu wells acts very +beneficially in this case. Its water is conducted to a special +bathing-shed open to the street, intended exclusively for the men +and women who suffer from this disease. + +Many of the baths at Kusatsu are taken so hot that special +precautions must be adopted before one steps down into the water. +These consist in winding cotton cloths round those parts of the body +which are most sensitive, and in causing the body to perspire +strongly before the bath is taken, which is done by the bathers with +cries and shouts and with certain movements stirring the water in +the basin with large heavy boards. They then all step down into the +bath and up again simultaneously at a sign given by the physician +sitting at the back of the bathing shed. Without this arrangement it +would perhaps be difficult to get the patients to go into the bath, +for agreeable it could not be, to judge from the grave faces of the +bathers and the fire-red colour of their bodies when they come out. + +The baths are under open sheds. Men and women all bathe in common, +and in presence of both male and female spectators. They make their +remarks without reserve on the diseases of the patients, even if +they are of that sort about which one would not speak willingly even +to his physician. Often the bath-basin is not fenced off in any way, +except that it is protected from rain and sunshine by a roof resting +on four posts. In such cases the bathers dress and undress in the +street. + +[Illustration: BATH AT KUSATSU. ] + +In consequence of the situation of Kusatsu at a height of 1050 +metres above the sea, the winter there is very cold and windy. The +town is then abandoned not only by the visitors to the baths, but +also by most of the other inhabitants. Already, at the time of our +visit, the number of bathers remaining was only inconsiderable. Even +these were preparing to depart. During the second night that we +passed at Kusatsu, our night's rest was disturbed by a loud noise +from the next room. It was a visitor who was to leave the place the +following morning, and who now celebrated his recovery with _saki_ +(rice-brandy) and string music. + +The environs of Kusatsu are nearly uncultivated, though the +vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant. It consists partly of bamboo +thickets, partly of a high rich grass, above which rise solitary +pines, mixed with a few oaks or chestnuts. + +On the 3rd October we continued our journey to the foot of +Asamayama. The road was very bad, so that even the _kago_ bearers +had difficulty in getting along. It first ran across two valleys +more than 300 feet deep, occupied with close, luxuriant, bushy +thickets. We then came to an elevated plain of great extent covered +with unmown grass, studded with beautiful oaks and chestnuts. The +plain was not turned to any account, though thousands of the +industrious population could find an abundant living there by +tending cattle. Farther up the oaks and chestnuts were mixed with a +few birches, resembling those at home, and we came next to complete +deserts, where the ground consisted of lava blocks and lava gravel, +scarcely covered by any grass, and yielding nourishment only to +solitary pines. This continued to the place--Rokuriga-hara--where we +were to pass the night, and from which the next day we were to +ascend the summit of Asamayama. + +Rokuriga-hara is situated at a height of 1270 metres above the sea. +There was no inn here, nor any place inhabited all the year round, +but only a large open shed. This was divided into two by a passage +in the middle. We settled on one side of this, making our bed as +well as we could on the raised floor, and protecting ourselves from +the night air with coverings which our thoughtful host at Kusatsu +had lent us. On the other side of the passage our _kago_ bearers and +guide passed the night crowding round a log fire made on a stone +foundation in the middle of the floor. The _kago_ bearers were +protected from the very perceptible night cold only by thin cotton +blouses. In order to warm them I ordered an abundant distribution of +_saki_, a piece of generosity that did not cost very much, but which +clearly won me the undivided admiration of all the coolies. They +passed the greater part of the night without sleep, with song and +jest, with their _saki_ bottles and tobacco pipes. We slept well and +warmly after partaking of an abundant supper of fowl and eggs, +cooked in different ways by Kok-San with his usual talent and his +usual variety of dishes. + +We had been informed that at this place we would hear a constant +noise from the neighbouring volcano, and that hurtful gases +(probably carbonic acid) sometimes accumulated in such quantities in +the neighbouring woods that men and horses would be suffocated if +they spent the night there. We listened in vain for the noise, and +did not observe any trace of such gases. All was as peaceful as if +the glowing hearth in the interior of the earth was hundreds of +miles away. But we did not require the evidence of the column of +smoke which was seen to use from the mountain top, which formed the +goal of our visit, or of the inhabitants who survived the latest +eruption, to come to the conclusion that we were in the +neighbourhood of an enormous, still active volcano. Everywhere round +our resting-place lay heaps of small pieces of lava which had been +thrown out of the volcano (so-called lapilli), and which had not yet +had time to weather sufficiently to serve as an under-stratum for +any vegetation, and a little from the hut there was a solidified +lava stream of great depth. + +Next day, the 4th October, we ascended the summit of the mountain. +At first we travelled in _kago_ over a valley filled with pretty +close wood, then the journey was continued on foot up the steep +volcanic cone, covered with small lava blocks and lapilli. The way +was staked out with small heaps of stones raised at a distance of +about 100 metres apart. Near the crater we found at one of these +cairns a little Shinto shrine, built of sticks. Its sides were only +half a metre in length. Our guide performed his devotions here. One +of them had already at a stone cairn situated farther down with +great seriousness made some conjurations with reference to my +promise to make an extra distribution of red wine, if we got good +weather at the top. + +As on Vesuvius, we can also on Asamayama distinguish a large +exterior crater, originating from some old eruption, but now almost +completely filled up by a new volcanic cone, at whose top the +present crater opens. This crater has a circumference of about two +kilometres, the old crater, or what the old geologists called the +elevation-crater, has been much larger. The volcano is still active. +For it constantly throws out "smoke," consisting of watery vapour, +sulphurous acid, and probably also carbonic acid. Occasionally a +perceptible smell of sulphuretted hydrogen is observed. It is +possible without difficulty to crawl to the edge of the crater and +glance down into its interior. It is very deep. The walls are +perpendicular, and at the bottom of the abyss there are to be seen +several clefts from which vapours arise. In the same way "smoke" +forces its way at some places at the edge of the crater through +small imperceptible cracks in the mountain. Both on the border of +the crater, on its sides and its bottom there is to be seen a yellow +efflorescence, which at the places which I got at to examine it +consisted of sulphur. The edge of the crater is solid rock, a +little-weathered augiteandesite differing very much in its nature at +different places. The same or similar rocks also project at several +places at the old border of the crater, but the whole surface of the +volcanic cone besides consists of small loose pieces of lava, +without any trace of vegetation. Only at one place the brim of the +old crater is covered with an open pine wood. The volcano has also +small side craters, from which gases escape. The same coarse +fantasy, which still prevails in the form of the hell-dogma among +several of the world's most cultured peoples, has placed the home of +those of the followers of Buddha who are doomed to eternal +punishment in the glowing hearths in the interior of the mountain, +to which these crater-openings lead; and that the heresies of the +well-meaning Bishop Lindblom have not become generally prevalent in +Japan is shown among other things by this, that many of these +openings are said to be entrances to the "children's hell." Neither +at the main crater nor at any of the side craters can any true lava +streams be seen. Evidently the only things thrown out from them have +been gases, volcanic ashes, and lapilli. On the other hand, +extensive eruptions of lava have taken place at several points on +the side of the mountain, though these places are now covered with +volcanic ashes. + +After having eaten our breakfast in a cleft so close to the smoking +crater that the empty bottles could be thrown directly into the +bottomless deeps, we commenced our return journey. At first we took +the same way as during the ascent, but afterwards held off to the +right, down a much steeper and more difficult path than we had +traversed before. The mountain side had here a slope of nearly +forty-five degrees, and consisted of a quite loose volcanic sand, +not bound together by any vegetable carpet. It would therefore have +been scarcely possible to ascend to the summit of the mountain this +way, but we went rapidly downwards, often at a dizzy speed, but +without other inconvenience than that one now and then fell flat and +rolled head-foremost down the steep slopes, and that our shoes were +completely torn to tatters by the angular lava gravel. Above the +mountaintop the sky was clear of clouds, but between it and the +surface of the earth there spread out a thick layer of cloud which +seen from above resembled a boundless storm-tossed sea, full of +foaming breakers. The extensive view we would otherwise have had of +the neighbouring mountain ridges from the top of Asamayama was thus +concealed. Only here and there an opening was formed in the cloud, +resembling a sun-spot, through which we got a glimpse of the +underlying landscape. When we came to the foot of the mountain we +long followed a ridge, covered with greenery, formed of an immense +stream of lava, which had issued from an opening in the mountain +side now refilled. This had probably taken place during the +tremendous eruption of 1783, when not only enormous lava-streams +destroyed forests and villages at the foot of the mountain, but the +whole of the neighbouring region between Oiwake and Usui-toge, +previously fertile, was changed by an ash-rain into an extensive +waste. Across this large plain, infertile and little cultivated, +situated at a height of 980 metres above the sea, we went without a +guide to the village Oiwake, where we lodged for the night at an inn +by the side of the road Nakasendo, one of the cleanest and best kept +of the many well-kept inns I saw during our journey in the interior +of the country. + +Hence I sent a messenger on foot to Takasaki to order a carriage to +Tokio. A former _samurai_ undertook for a payment of three _yen_, +(about 12_s_) to carry the message. Oiwake is indeed situated on the +great road Nakasendo, but it can here only with difficulty be +traversed by carriages, because between this village and Takasaki it +is necessary to go over the pass Usui-toge, where the road, though +lowered considerably of late, rises to a height of 1200 metres. We +therefore here used _jinrikishas_, a mode of conveyance very +agreeable to tourists, which, though introduced only recently, has +already spread to all parts of the country. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE LANDSCAPE. ] + +Every one with an open eye for the beauties of nature and interest +in the life and manners of a foreign people, must find a journey in +_jinrikisha_ over Usui-toge pleasant in a high degree. The landscape +here is extraordinarily beautiful, perhaps unmatched in the whole +world. The road has been made here with great difficulty between +wild, black, rocky masses, along deep clefts, whose sides are often +covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. No fence protects the +_jinrikisha_ in its rapid progress down the mountains from the +bottomless abysses by the wayside. A man must therefore not be weak +in the nerves if he is to derive pleasure from the journey. He must +rely on the coolie's keen eye and sure foot. On all sides one is +surrounded by a confused mass of lofty shattered mountain tops, and +deep down in the valleys mountain streams rush along, whose +crystal-clear water is collected here and there into small lakes +confined between heights covered with greenery. Now the traveller +passes a dizzy abyss by a bridge of the most defective construction, +now he sees a stream of water rushing down from an enormous height +by the wayside. Thousands of foot-passengers, crowds of pilgrims, +long rows of coolies, oxen and horses bearing heavy burdens meet the +traveller, who during frequent rests at the foot of the steep slopes +has an opportunity of studying the variegated life of the people. He +is always surrounded by cheerful and friendly faces, and the +pleasant impression is never disturbed by the expressions of +coarseness in speech and behaviour which so often meet us in Europe. + +It is not until the traveller has passed the mountain ridge and +descended to a height of only 300 metres above the sea that the road +becomes passable for a carriage. While we exchanged, not without +regret, our clean, elegant _jinrikishas_ for two inferior vehicles +drawn by horses, I saw two men wandering from shop to shop, standing +some moments at each place, ringing a bell and passing on when they +were not attended to. On my inquiry as to what sort of people they +were, I was informed that they were wandering players. For me of +course they did not ring in vain. For a payment of fifty cents they +were ready immediately to show in the street itself a specimen of +their art. One of them put on a well-made mask, representing the +head of a monster, with a movable jaw and terrible teeth. To the +mask was fastened a cloak, in which the player wrapt himself during +the representation. He then with great skill and supple tasteful +gestures, which would have honoured a European _danseuse_, +represented the monster now creeping forward fawningly, now rushing +along to devour its prey. A numerous crowd of children collected +around us. The small folks followed the representation with great +glee, and gave life to the play, or rather formed its proper +background, by the feigned tenor with which they fled when the +monster approached with open mouth and rolling eyes, and the +eagerness with which they again followed and mocked it when its back +was turned. + +[Illustration: BURDEN BEARERS ON A JAPANESE ROAD. Japanese drawing. ] + +In few countries are dramatic representations of all kinds so much +thought of as in Japan. Playhouses are found even in small towns. +The play is much frequented, and though the representations last the +whole day, they are followed by the spectators with the liveliest +interest. There are playbills as at home, and numerous writings on +subjects relating to the theatre. Among the Japanese books which I +bought, there was for instance a thick one, with innumerable +woodcuts, devoted to showing how the first Japanese artists +conceived the principal scenes in their _roles_, two volumes of +playbills bound up together, &c. + +The Japanese pieces indeed strike a European as childish and +monstrous, but one must admire many praiseworthy traits in the play +itself, for instance the naturalness with which the players often +declaim monologues lasting for a quarter or half an hour. The +extravagances which here shock us are perhaps on the whole not more +absurd than the scenes of the opera of to-day, or the buskins, +masks, and peculiar dresses, which the Greeks considered +indispensable in the exhibition of then great dramatic masterpieces. +When the Japanese have been able to appropriate what is good in +European culture, the dramatic art ought to have a grand future +before it among them, if the development now going on is carried out +cautiously so that the peculiarities of the people are not too much +effaced. For, in many departments, and not least in that of art, +there is much to be found here which when properly developed will +form a new and important addition to the culture of the West, of +which we are so proud. + +The large Japanese theatres, besides, often resemble the European +ones in their interior arrangement. The partition between the stage +and the space occupied by the spectators is the same as among us. +Between the acts the former is concealed by a curtain. The stage is +besides provided with painted scenes representing houses, woods, +hills, &c., supported on wheels, so that a complete change of scene +can be effected in a few moments. The music has the same place +between the stage and the spectators as at home. The latter, as at +home, are distributed partly in a gently rising amphitheatre, partly +in several tiers of boxes rising one above another, the lowest tier +being considered the principal one. The Japanese do not sit in the +same way as we do. Neither the amphitheatre nor the boxes +accordingly are provided with chairs or benches, but are divided +into square compartments one or two feet deep, each intended for +about four persons. They sit on cushions, squatting cross-legged in +the common Japanese fashion. The compartments are divided by broad +cross beams, which form the passages by which the spectators get to +their places. During the play we saw attendants running about with +tea, _saki_, tobacco pipes, and small braziers. For every one smokes +during the acts, and places himself in his crib as comfortably as +possible. The piece is followed with great attention, favourite +actors and favourite passages being saluted with lively applause. +Even women and children visit the theatre, and I have seen the +former give their children suck without the least discomposure among +thousands of spectators. Besides the plays intended for the public, +there are given also a number of other dramatic representations, as +society plays, peculiar family plays intended for the homes of the +old feudal princes, spectacles got up for the Mikado, and some which +have a half religious significance, &c. + +On the evening of the 5th October we came to Takasaki, prepared to +start immediately for Tokio. But though the messenger we sent had +duly executed his commission, horses could not be procured before +midnight. We passed the evening with our former host, who at our +first visit received us so unwillingly, but now with great +friendliness. We would easily have reconciled ourselves to the +delay, for a Japanese small town such as Takasaki has much worth +seeing to offer a European, but a great part of the time was wasted +in fruitless attempts to get the horse-hirer to let us have the +horses a few hours earlier. In spending time in long conversations +mixed with civilities and bows the Japanese are masters. Of this bad +habit, which still often makes the European desperate, it will not +perhaps be long necessary to complain, for everything indicates that +the Japanese too will soon be carried along at the endlessly roaring +speed of the Steam Age. + +When we had at last got horses we continued our journey, first in a +carriage to Tokio, then by rail to Yokohama, arriving there on the +afternoon of the 6th October. From this journey I shall only relate +an incident which may form a little picture throwing light on life +in Japan. + +While we halted for a short time in the morning of the 6th October +at a large inn by the roadside, we saw half a dozen young girls +finishing their toilets in the inn-yard. In passing we may say, that +a Japanese peasant girl, like girls in general, may be pretty or the +reverse, but that she generally is, what cannot always be said of +the peasant girls at home, cleanly and of attractive manners. They +washed themselves at the stream of water in the inn-yard, smoothed +their artistically dressed hair, which, however, had been but little +disturbed by the cushions on which they had slept, and brushed their +dazzlingly white teeth. Soap is not used for washing, but a cotton +bag filled with bran. The teeth were brushed with a wooden pin, one +end of which was changed by beating into a brush-like collection of +wooden cords. The tooth-powder consisted of finely powdered shells +and corals, and was kept in small, neat wooden boxes, which, along +with tooth-brushes and small square bundles of a very strong and +cheap paper, all clearly intended for the use of the peasants, were +sold for a trifle in most of the innumerable shops along the road. +For such stupid regulations as in former times in Europe rendered +traffic in the country difficult, and often obliged the countryman +to betake himself to the nearest town to buy some horse-shoes or a +roll of wire, appear not to be found in Japan, on which account most +of the peasants living on a country road seek a subsidiary way of +making a living by trafficking in small articles in request among +the country people. + +Incidents of the sort referred to we had seen so many times before +that on this occasion it would not have attracted any further +attention on our part, if we had not thereby been reminded that we +must look after our own exterior, before we could make our entrance +into the capital of Japan. We therefore took from the carriage our +basket with linen, shaving implements, and towels, settled down +around the stream of water at which the girls stood, and immediately +began to wash and shave ourselves. There was now general excitement. +The girls ceased to go on with their own toilet, and crowded round +us in a ring in order to see how Europeans behave in such cases, and +to give us the assistance that might be required. Some ran laughing +and bustling about, one on the top of another, in order immediately +to procure us what we wanted, one held the mirror, another the +shaving-brush, a third the soap, &c. Round them gathered other elder +women, whose blackened teeth indicated that they were married. A +little farther off stood men of all ages. Chance had here quite +unexpectedly shown us a picture from folk-life of the most agreeable +kind. This pleasant temper continued while we immediately after, in +the presence of all, ate our breakfast in the porch of the +ground-floor, surrounded by our former ministering spirits, now +kneeling around us, continually bowing the head to the ground, +laughing and chattering. The same fun went on when a little after I +bought some living fresh-water fishes and put them in spirit, yet +with the difference that the girls now, with some cries, to show +their fear of handling the living animals--though fish-cleaning was +one of their ordinary occupations--handed over to the men the +trouble of taking the fishes and putting them into the spirit-jars. +For a worm placed in spirit they feigned the greatest terror, +notwithstanding its covering of spirit and glass, and ran shrieking +away when any one suddenly brought the jar with the worm near their +faces. It ought to be noted to the honour of the Japanese, that +although we were by no means surrounded by any select circle, there +was not heard during the whole time a single offensive word among +the closely-packed spectators, a fact which gives us an idea of the +excellent tone of society which prevails here, even among the lowest +of the population, and which shows that the Japanese, although they +have much to learn from the Europeans, ought not to imitate them in +all. In Japan there is much that is good, old, and national to take +note of, perhaps more than the Japanese at present have any idea of, +and undoubtedly more than many of the European residents will allow. + + +[Footnote 379: On the contrary, we saw a number of beggars on the +country roads in the neighbourhood of Yokohama. ] + +[Footnote 380: _Voyage de M. Golovin_, Paris, 1818, i. p. 176. +Golovin, who was captain in the Russian navy, passed the years +1811-13 in imprisonment in Japan. He and his comrades in misfortune +were received with great friendliness by the people, and very well +treated by the authorities, if we except the exceedingly tedious +examinations to which they were subjected to extract from them the +most minute particulars regarding Europe, and particularly Russia. ] + +[Footnote 381: General Grant, as is well known, visited Japan in the +autumn of 1879. He left Yokohama the day after the _Vega_ anchored +in its harbour. ] + +[Footnote 382: According to the statement of the inhabitants, I had +not time to visit the place. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Farewell dinner at Yokohama--The Chinese in Japan--Voyage + to Kobe--Purchase of Japanese Books--Journey by rail to Kioto + --Biwa Lake and the Legend of its Origin--Dredging there-- + Japanese Dancing-Girls--Kioto--The Imperial Palace--Temples + --Swords and Sword-bearers--Shintoism and Buddhism-- + The Porcelain Manufacture--Japanese Poetry--Feast in a + Buddhist Temple--Sailing across the Inland Sea of Japan + --Landing at Hirosami and Shimonoseki--Nagasaki--Excursion + to Mogi--Collection of Fossil Plants--Departure from Japan. + + +The last days at Yokohama were taken up with farewell visits there +and at Tokio. An afternoon's leisure during the last day I spent in +the capital of Japan I employed in making an excursion in order to +dredge from a Japanese boat in the river debouching at the town. The +Japanese boats differ from the European in being propelled not by +rowing but by sculling. They have usually a deck above the level of +the water, which is dazzlingly white and laid with matting, like the +rooms in a Japanese house. The dredging yielded a great number of +Anodonta, large Paludina, and some small shells. + +During our stay in Japan I requested Lieutenant Nordquist to make as +complete a collection of the land and fresh-water crustacea of the +country as the short time permitted. In consequence of the unusual +poverty of the country in these animal forms the result was much +smaller than we had hoped. During a preceding voyage to the Polar +Sea I had assisted in making a collection of land crustacea on +Renoe, an island north of the limit of trees in the outer +archipelago of northern Norway. It is possible to collect there in a +few hours as many annuals of this group as in fertile Japan in as +many days. There are parts of Japan, covered with thick woods and +thickets of bushes, where during a forenoon's excursion one can +scarcely find a single crustacean, although the ground is full of +deep, shady clefts in which masses of dried leaves are collected, +and which therefore ought to be an exceedingly suitable haunt for +land mollusca. The reason of this poverty ought perhaps to be sought +in the want of chalk or basic calcareous rocks, which prevails in +the parts of Japan which we visited. + +After the Swedish-Dutch minister had further given us a splendid +farewell dinner at the Grand Hotel, to which, as before, the +Japanese minsters and the representatives of the foreign powers in +Japan were invited, we at last weighed anchor on the 11th October to +prosecute our voyage. At this dinner we saw for the first time the +Chinese embassy which at the time visited Japan with the view of +settling the troublesome Loo-Choo affair which threatened to lead to +a war between the two great powers of Eastern Asia. The Chinese +ambassadors were, as usual, two in number, being commissioned to +watch one over the other. One of them laughed immoderately at all +that was said during dinner, although he did not understand a word. +According to what I was told by one who had much experience in the +customs of the heavenly empire, he did this, not because he heard or +understood anything worth laughing at, but because he considered it +good manners to laugh. + +Remarkable was the interest which the Chinese labourers settled at +Yokohama took in our voyage, about which they appeared to have read +something in their own or in the Japanese newspapers. When I sent +one of the sailors ashore to execute a commission, and asked him how +he could do that without any knowledge of the language, he replied, +"There is no fear, I always meet with some Chinaman who speaks +English and helps me." The Chinese not only always assisted our +sailors as interpreters without remuneration, but accompanied them +for hours, gave them good advice in making purchases, and expressed +their sympathy with all that they must have suffered during our +wintering in the high north. They were always cleanly, tall, and +stately in their figures, and corresponded in no particular to the +calumnious descriptions we so often read of this people in European +and American writings. + +From Yokohama the course was shaped for Kobe, one of the more +considerable Japanese ports which have been opened to Europeans. +Kobe is specially remarkable on account of its having railway +communication with Osaka, the most important manufacturing town of +Japan, and with Kioto, the ancient capital and seat of the Mikado's +court for centuries. + +I had already begun at Yokohama to buy Japanese books, particularly +such as were printed before the opening of the ports to Europeans. +In order to carry on this traffic with greater success, I had +procured the assistance of a young Japanese very familiar with +French, Mr. OKUSCHI, assistant in Dr. Geertz' chemico-technical +laboratory at Yokohama. But because the supply of old books in this +town, which a few years ago had been of little importance, was very +limited, I had at first, in order to make purchases on a large +scale, repeatedly sent Mr. Okuschi to Tokio, the seat of the former +Shogun dynasty, and from that town, before the departure of the +_Vega_ from Yokohama, to Kioto, the former seat of learning in +Japan. The object of the _Vega's_ call at the port of Kobe was to +fetch the considerable purchases made there by Mr. Okuschi[383] + +Kobe, or Hiogo, as the old Japanese part of the town is called, is a +city of about 40,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated at the +entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan, _i.e._, the sound which +separates the main island from the south islands, Shikoku and +Kiushiu. Mountain ridges of considerable height here run along the +sea-shore. Some of the houses of the European merchants are built on +the lower slopes of these hills, with high, beautiful, forest-clad +heights as a background, and a splendid view of the harbour in +front. The Japanese part of the town consists, as usual, of small +houses which, on the side next the street, are occupied mainly with +sale or work-shops where the whole family lives all day. The streets +have thus a very lively appearance, and offer the foreigner an +endless variety of remarkable and instructive pictures from the +life of the people. The European part of the town, on the other +hand, is built with stately houses, some of which are situated on +the street that runs along the shore. Here, among others, are to be +found splendid European hotels, European clubs, counting-houses, +shops, &c. + +Not far from Kobe, and having railway communication with it, is +Osaka, the largest manufacturing town of Japan, famed for its +theatres and its dancing-girls. Unfortunately I had not time to +visit it, for I started for the old capital, Kioto, a few hours +after the _Vega_ anchored, and after I had waited on the governor in +order to procure the passport that is still required for travelling +in the interior. He received me, thanks to a letter of introduction +I had with me from one of the ministers at Tokio, in an exceedingly +agreeable way. His reception-room was part of a large European stone +house, the vestibule of which was tastefully fitted up in European +style with a Brussels carpet gay with variegated colours. At our +visit we were offered Japanese tea, as is customary everywhere in +Japan, both in the palace of the Emperor and the cabin of the poor +peasant. The Governor was, as all the higher officials in Japan now +are, dressed like a European of distinction, but he could not speak +any European language. He showed himself, however, to be much +interested in our voyage, and immediately ordered an official in his +court, who was well acquainted with English, Mr. YANIMOTO, to +accompany me to Kioto. + +We travelled thither by a railway constructed wholly in the European +style. At Kioto my companion, at my special request, conducted me +not to the European hotel there, but to a Japanese inn, remarkable +as usual for cleanliness, for a numerous crowd of talkative female +attendants, and for the extreme friendliness of the inn people to +then guests as soon as they indicated, by taking off then boots at +the door, that it was their intention not to break Japanese customs +and usages in any offensive way. A calling card and a letter from +Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine, which I sent from the hotel to +the Governor of Kioto, procured me an adjutant No. 2, a young, +cheerful, and talkative official, Mr. KOBA-YASCHI, whose eyes +sparkled with intelligence and merry good humour. One would sooner +have taken him for a highly-esteemed student president at some +northern university, than for a Japanese official. It was already +late in the day, so that before nightfall I had time only to take +the bath which, at every Japanese inn not of too inferior a kind, is +always at the traveller's call, and arrange the dreding excursion +which, along with Lieut. Nordquist, I intended to make next day on +Lake Biwa. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE SHOP. ] + +The road between Kioto and Biwa we travelled the following morning +in _jinrikishas_. In a short time there will be communication +between these two places by a railway constructed exclusively by +native workmen and native engineers. It will be, and is intended to +be, an actual Japanese railway. For a considerable distance it +passes through a tunnel, which, however, as some of the Europeans at +Kobe stated, might easily have been avoided "if the Japanese had not +considered it desirable that Japan, too, should have a railway +tunnel to show, as such are found both in Europe and America." It is +probable, in any case, that the bends which would have been required +if the tunnel was to be avoided, would have cost more by the +additional length than the tunnel, and that therefore the procedure +of the Japanese was better considered than their envious European +neighbours would allow. There appears to prevail among the European +residents in Japan a certain jealousy of the facility with which +this country, till recently so far behind in an industrial respect, +assimilates the skill in art and industry of the Europeans, and of +the rapidity with which the people thereby make themselves +independent of the wares of the foreign merchants. + +When we reached Lake Biwa we were conducted by Mr. Koba-Yaschi to an +inn close by the shore, with a splendid view of the southern part of +the lake. We were shown into beautiful Japanese rooms, which had +evidently been arranged for the reception of Europeans, and in which +accordingly some tables and chairs had been placed. On the tables we +found, on our arrival, bowls, with fruit and confections, Japanese +tea, and braziers. The walls were formed partly of tastefully gilt +paper panels ornamented with mottoes, reminding visitors of the +splendid view. + +A whole day of the short time which was allowed me to study the +remarkable things of Kioto I devoted to Lake Biwa, because lakes are +exceedingly uncommon in the south, for they occur only in the +countries which have either been covered with glaciers in the most +recent geological periods, or, in consequence of the action of +volcanic forces, have been the scene of violent disturbances of the +surface of the earth. I believed that Lake Biwa would form an +exception to this, but I was probably mistaken, for tradition +relates that this lake was formed in a single night at the same time +that the high volcanic cone of Fusiyama was elevated. This +tradition, in its general outline, corresponds so closely with the +teaching of geology, that scarcely any geologist will doubt its +truth. + +After our arrival at the inn we had to wait a very long time for the +steamer I had ordered. On this account I thoughtlessly enough broke +out in reproaches on my excellent Japanese adjutants, who, however, +received my hard words only with friendly smiles, which increased +still further my impatience at the loss of time which was thus +occasioned. It was not until far on in the day, when I was already +out dredging from a small steamer, that I was informed as to the +cause of the delay. The Biwa Steamship Company had, at the request +of the Governor, intended to place at my disposal a very large boat +well provided with coal, but after taking the coal on board it had +sunk so deep that it grounded in the mud of the harbour. We had +already got far out with the little steamer when the large one at +last got off. I was now obliged to exchange vessels in order to be +received "in a more honourable way." It was not until this took +place that I was informed that I was guest and not master, on which +account I was obliged to employ the rest of the afternoon in +excusing my former violent behaviour, in which, with the help of +friendly words, beer, and red wine, I succeeded pretty well, to +judge by the mirth which soon began to prevail among my now very +numerous Japanese companions. + +On the little steamer I had ordered two of my crew whom I had +brought with me from the _Vega_ to prepare a meal for the Japanese +and ourselves. In this way the dinner that had been arranged for us, +without my knowledge, became superfluous. I was obliged instead to +receive as a gift the provisions and liquors purchased for the +dinner, consisting of fowls, eggs, potatoes, red wine and beer, +giving at the same time a receipt as a matter of form. + +During our excursion on the lake we met with various boats laden +with sea-weed, which had been taken up from the bottom of the lake +to be used as manure for the neighbouring cultivated fields. Partly +among these algae, partly by dredging, Lieut. Nordquist collected +various interesting fresh-water crustacea (Paludina, Melania, Unio, +Planorbis &c.,) several sorts of shrimps (a Hippolyte) small fishes, +&c. Lake Biwa abounds in fish, and harbours besides a large +clumsily-formed species of lizard. In order to make further +collections of the animal forms occurring there, Lieut. Nordquist +remained at the lake till next day. I, on the other hand, went +immediately back to Kioto, arriving there in the evening after +nightfall. + +After having eaten, along with my two Japanese companions, an +unexceptionable European dinner at the inn of the town, kept by +Japanese, but arranged in European style, we paid a visit to a +company of Japanese dancing-girls. + +Kioto competes with Osaka for the honour of having the prettiest +dancing-girls. These form a distinct class of young girls, marked by +a peculiar variegated dress. They wear besides a peculiar +hair-ornament, are much painted, and have their lips coloured black +and gold. At the dancing places of greatest note a European is not +received, unless he has with him a known native who answers for his +courteous behaviour. After taking off his shoes on entering, the +visitor is introduced to a separate room with its floor covered with +matting and its walls ornamented with Japanese drawings and mottoes, +but without other furniture. A small square cushion is given to each +of the guests. After they have settled themselves in Japanese +fashion, that is to say, squatting cross-legged, pipes and tea are +brought in, on which a whole crowd of young girls come in and, +chatting pleasantly, settle themselves around the guests, observing +all the while complete decency even according to the most exacting +European ideas. There is not to be seen here any trace of the +effrontery and coarseness which are generally to be found in similar +places in Europe. One would almost believe that he was among a crowd +of school-girls who had given the sour moral lessons of their +governess the slip, and were thinking of nothing else than +innocently gossiping away some hours. After a while the dance +begins, accompanied by very monotonous music and singing. The slow +movements of the legs and arms of the dancers remind us of certain +slow and demure scenes from European ballets. There is nothing +indecent in this dance, but we learn that there are other dances +wilder and less decorous. + +The dancing-girls are recruited exclusively from the poorer classes, +pretty young girls, to help their parents or to earn some styvers +for themselves, selling themselves for a certain time to the owners +of the dancing-places, and when the time agreed upon has come to an +end returning to their homes, where notwithstanding this they marry +without difficulty. All the dancing-girls therefore are young, many +of them pretty even according to European ideas, though their +appearance is destroyed in our eyes by the tasteless way in which +they paint themselves and colour their lips. Unfortunately I had not +time to avail myself of the opportunity which Kioto offers the +foreigner of judging with certainty regarding the Japanese taste in +female beauty. For here, as at various other Japanese towns, there +are a number of girls who have been officially selected as the most +beautiful among the youth of the place. The Japanese may visit them +for a certain payment, but to Europeans they do not show themselves +willingly, and only for a large sum. When this takes place at any +time, it is only a dumb show for a few moments, during which no +words are exchanged. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE COURT DRESS. ] + +The Governor had promised to carry me round next day to see whatever +was remarkable in the town. I was not much delighted at this, +because I feared that the whole day would be taken up with +inspecting the whole or half-European public offices and schools, +which had not the slightest interest for me. My fear however was +quite unjustified. The Governor was a man of genius, who, according +to the statements of my companions, was reckoned among the first of +the contemporary poets of Japan. He immediately declared that he +supposed that the new public offices and schools would interest me +much less than the old palaces, temples, porcelain and _faience_ +manufactories of the town, and that he therefore intended to employ +the day I spent under his guidance in showing me the latter. + +[Illustration: NOBLE IN ANTIQUE DRESS. ] + +We made a beginning with the old imperial palace Gosho, the most +splendid dwelling of Old Japan. It is not however very grand +according to European ideas. A very extensive space of ground is +here covered with a number of one-story wooden houses, intended for +the Emperor, the imperial family, and their suite. The buildings +are, like all Japanese houses, divided by movable panels into a +number of rooms, richly provided with paintings and gilded +ornamentation, but otherwise without a trace of furniture. For the +palace now stands uninhabited since the Mikado overthrew the Shogun +dynasty and removed to Tokio. It already gives a striking picture of +the change which has taken place in the land. Only the imperial +family and the great men of the country were formerly permitted to +enter the sacred precincts of Gosho. Now it stands open to every +curious native or foreigner and it has even as an exhibition +building been already pressed into the service of industry. +Alongside the large buildings there are several small ones, of which +one was intended to protect the Emperor-deity during earthquakes, +the others formed play-places for the company of grown children who +were then permitted to govern the country. + +[Illustration: BUDDHIST PRIEST. ] + +Much more remarkable and instructive than the now deserted imperial +palace are the numerous temples at Kioto, of which we visited +several. We were generally received by the priests in a large +vestibule, whose floor was covered with a fine woollen carpet and +was provided with tables and chairs of European patterns. The +priests first offered us Japanese tea, cigars, and sweetmeats, then +we examined some valuable articles exhibited in the room, consisting +of bronzes, works in the noble metals, splendid old lacquer work, +and a number of famous swords dedicated to the temple. These were +the only things that our freethinking Governor treated with +reverence, for the rest neither the priests nor their reliques +seemed to inspire him with any particular respect. + +[Illustration: A SAMURAI. ] + +When a valuable Japanese sword is exhibited one touches neither the +hilt nor the scabbard, and of course still less the blade, with the +bare hand, but it is taken hold of either with a gloved hand, or +with the hand with a handkerchief or piece of cloth wrapped round +it. The blade is only half bared, the steel setting is looked at +against the light and admired; on the often exceedingly valuable +blades which are not mounted, but only provided with a wooden case +to protect them from rust, the maker's mark is examined, and so on. +As among us in former times, the swordsmith's is the only handicraft +which in old times was held in high esteem in Japan, and immense +sums were often paid for sword-blades forged by famous masters of +the art. Among old Japanese writings are to be found many works +specially treating of the making of weapons. But since the swordsmen +(_samurai_) have now been forbidden to show themselves armed, old +Japanese swords are sold in all the towns by hundreds and thousands, +often for a trifle. During our stay in the country I purchased for a +comparatively limited sum a fine collection of such weapons. Even +those who cannot appreciate the artistic forging of the blade, the +steel-setting, and tempering, must admire the exceedingly tasteful +casting and embossing of the ornamentation, especially of the +guard-plates of the sword. They are often veritable works of art, +unsurpassed in style and execution. + +It is not very many years ago since the men who belonged to the +_samurai_ class never showed themselves abroad without being armed +with two swords. Even schoolboys went armed to the first European +schools that were established in the country. This gave occasion to +several acts of violence during the time which succeeded the opening +of the ports, for which reason the European ambassadors some years +after requested that carrying the sword in time of peace should be +prohibited. To this the Japanese government answered that it would +make short work with the minister who should publish such a +prohibition. Soon after, however, it gave _permission_ to those who +desired it to go without weapons, and the carrying of arms soon +became so unfashionable that one of the authorities did dare at last +to issue a distinct prohibition of it. During our stay in Japan, +accordingly, we did not see a single man armed with the two swords +formerly in use. + +After we had seen and admired the treasures in the temple vestibule, +we visited the temple itself. This is always of wood, richly +ornamented with carvings and gilding. If it is dedicated to Shinto, +there are no images in it, and very few ornaments, if we except a +mirror and a large locked press with the doors smashed in, which +sometimes occupies the wall opposite the entrance, and in which, as +I have already stated, the spirit of the deity is said to dwell. The +Shinto temples are in general poor. Many are so inconsiderable as to +look almost like dovecotes. They are often completely deserted, so +that it is difficult to discover them among the magnificent trees by +which they were surrounded. The entrance to the temple is indicated +by a gate (_torryi_) of wood, stone, or copper, and here and there +are ropes, stretched over the way, to which written prayers and vows +are affixed. + +Even those who have long studied Japan and its literature have very +little knowledge of the inner essence of Shintoism. This religion is +considered by some a pure deism, by others a belief with political +aims, the followers of which worship the departed heroes of the +country. Of a developed morality this religion is wholly devoid. In +the same way it appears to be uncertain whether Shintoism is a +survival of the original religion of the country or whether it has +been brought from abroad. + +[Illustration: GATE ACROSS THE ROAD TO A SHINTO TEMPLE. ] + +Buddhism was introduced from China by Corea. Its temples are more +ornamented than the Shinto temples, and contain images of deities, +bells, drums, holy books, and a great quantity of altar ornaments. +The transmigration of souls, and rewards and punishments in a life +after this, are doctrines of Buddhism. Outside the temples proper +there are to be found in many places large or small images in stone +or bronze of the deities of Buddha. The largest of these consist of +colossal statues in bronze (_Daibutsu_), representing Buddha in a +sitting position, and themselves forming the screen to a temple with +smaller images. A similar statue is also to be found at Kamakura, +another at Tokio, a third at Nara near Kioto, and so on. Some have +of late years been sold for the value of the metal, one has in this +way been brought to London, and is now exhibited in the Kensington +Museum. The metal of the statues consists of an alloy of copper with +tin and a little gold, the last named constituent giving rise to the +report that their value is very considerable. To give an idea of the +size of some _Daibutsu_ statues it may be mentioned that the one at +Nara is fifty-three and a half feet high, and that one can crawl +into the head through the nose orifices. + + +[Illustration: BUDDHIST TEMPLE AT KOBE. ] + +Nearly all the _Daibutsu_ images are made after nearly the same +design, which has been improved from generation to generation until +the countenance of the image has received a stamp of benevolence, +calm, and majesty, which has probably never been surpassed by the +productions of western art. _Daibutsu_ images evidently stand in +the same relation to the works of private sculptors as folk-poetry +to that of individual bards. + +As I have before pointed out, the Western taste for the gigantic was +not prevalent in Old Japan. It was evidently elegance and neatness, +not grandeur, that formed the object towards which the efforts of +the artist, the architect, and the gardener were directed. Only the +_Daibutsu_ images, some bells, and other instruments of worship form +exceptions to this. During our excursion at Kioto we passed an +inclosure where the walls were built of blocks of stone so colossal, +that it was difficult to comprehend how it had been possible to lift +and move them with the means that were at the disposal of the +Japanese in former times. In the neighbourhood of that place there +was a grave, probably the only one of its kind. It is described in +the following way in an account of the curiosities of Kioto written +by a native:-- + + "Mimisuka, or the grave of the noses and the ears, was + erected by Hideyoshi Taiko, who lived about A.D. 1590. When + the military chiefs of this famous man attacked Corea with + a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, he gave orders that + they should bring home and show him all the ears and noses + of the enemies who were killed in the contest, for it was + an old practice in Japan to cut off the enemies' heads to + show them to the king or the commander of the army. But it + was now impossible to bring the heads of the dead Corean + warriors to Japan, because the distance was too great. + Hideyoshi therefore gave the above order, and the ears and + noses, which were brought to Japan, were buried together at + that place. The grave is 730 feet in circumference, and is + 30 feet high." + +Kioto is one of the principal places for the manufacture of +_faience_, porcelain, and _cloisonne_. The productions of the +ceramic art are, as is well-known, distinguished by their tasteful +forms and beautiful colours, and are highly valued by connoisseurs, +on which account they are exported on a large scale to Europe and +America. The works are numerous and small, and are owned for the +most part by families that for a long succession of generations have +devoted themselves to the same occupation. The articles are burned +in very small furnaces, and are commonly sold in a shop which is +close to the place where they are made. The making of porcelain in +Japan, therefore, bears the stamp rather of handicraft than of +manufacturing industry. The wares gain thereby in respect of art to +an almost incredible degree. They have the same relation to the +productions of the great European manufactories that the drawing of +an artist has to a showily coloured lithograph. But the price is +high in proportion, and the Japanese porcelain is too dear for +every-day use even in its own country. Nearly all the large sets of +table porcelain that I saw in Japan were, therefore, ordered from +abroad. The cups which the natives themselves use for rice, tea, and +_saki_ are, however, of native manufacture; but even in a +well-provided Japanese household there is seldom so much porcelain +as would be required for a proper coffee-party at home. + +In the evening the Governor had invited us to a dinner, which was +given in a hall belonging to a literary society in the town. The +rooms were partly furnished in European style with tables, chairs, +Brussels carpets, &c. The dinner was European in the arrangement of +dishes, wines, and speeches. The dishes and wines were abundant and +in great variety. The company were very merry, and the host appeared +to be greatly pleased, when I mentioned that at one of the places +which I had seen that day I saw a wall adorned by a motto of his +composition. He immediately promised to write a similar one on me +with reference to my visit to the town, and when a few moments after +he had the first line ready, he invited his Japanese guests to write +the second. They tried for a good while with merry jests to hit upon +some suitable conclusion, but in vain. Early the following morning +Mr. Koba-Yaschi came to me, bringing with him a broad strip of silk +on which the following was pencilled in bold, nobly-formed +characters: + + Umi hara-no-hate-made + Akiva-Sumi-watare, + +which when translated runs thus: + + "As far as the sea extends + The autumn moon spreads her beneficent light." + +According to the explanation which I received the piece points out +that the autumn moon spreads her beneficent rays as far as to that +place in the high north where we wintered. After the above-quoted +verse came the following addition in Japanese: "Written by Machimura +Masanavo, Governor of Kioto-Fu, to Professor Nordenskioeld, on the +occasion of a dinner given to him during the autumn of 1879." The +whole besides was signed with the author's common, as well as his +poetical, name, and had his seal attached. His poetical name was +RIO-SAN, which may be literally translated "Dragon-Mountain." + +The poetry of the Japanese is so unlike that of the Western nations +that we find it difficult to comprehend the productions of the +Japanese poets. Perhaps they ought more correctly to be called +poetical mottoes. They play a great part in the intellectual life of +the Japanese. Their authors are highly esteemed, and even in the +homes of the poorer classes the walls are often ornamented with +strips of silk or paper on which poems are written in large, bold, +pencil characters. Among the books I brought home with me are many +which contain collections of the writings of private poets and +poetesses, or selections from the most famous of the productions of +Japanese literature in this department. A roll of drawings which +turned up very often represents the sorrowful fate of a famous +poetess. First of all she is depicted as a representative Japanese +beauty, blooming with youth and grace, then she is represented in +different stages of decay, then as dead, then as a half-decayed +corpse torn asunder by ravens, and finally as a heap of bones. The +series ends with a cherry-tree in splendid bloom, into which the +heroine, after her body had passed through all the stages of +annihilation, has been changed. The cherry-tree in blossom is +considered by the Japanese the ideal of beauty in the vegetable +kingdom, and during the flowering season of this tree excursions are +often undertaken to famous cherry-groves where hour after hour is +passed in tranquil admiration of the flower-splendour of the tree. +Unfortunately I was so late in getting the explanation of the +beautiful poetical idea that ran through this series of pictures, +some of which were executed with execrable truth to nature, that I +missed the opportunity of purchasing it. + +[Illustration: RIO SAN'S SEAL. ] + +I was obliged to leave Kioto too early in order to be present at a +_fete_, which was given to us at Kobe by the Japanese, Europeans, +and Chinese who were interested in our voyage. The entertainment was +held in a Buddhist temple without the town, and was very pleasant +and agreeable. The Japanese did not seem at all to consider that +their temple was desecrated by such an arrangement. In the course of +the afternoon for instance there came several pilgrims to the +temple. I observed them carefully, and could not mark in their +countenances any trace of displeasure at a number of foreigners +feasting in the beautiful temple grove whither they had come on +pilgrimage. They appeared rather to consider that they had come to +the goal of their wanderings at a fortunate moment, and therefore +gladly accepted the refreshments that were offered them. + +On the morning of the 18th October the _Vega_ again weighed anchor, +to proceed on her voyage. The course was shaped through the Inland +Sea of Japan for Nagasaki. When I requested of the Governor of Kobe +permission to land at two places on the way, he not only immediately +granted my request, but also sent on the _Vega_ the same +English-speaking official from his court who had before attended me +to Kioto. The weather was clear and fine, so that we had a good +opportunity of admiring the magnificent environs of the Inland Sea. +They resemble much the landscape in a northern archipelago. The +views here are however more monotonous in consequence of their being +less variety in the contours of the mountains. Here as at Kobe the +hills consist mainly of a species of granite which is exposed to +weathering on so large a scale that the hard rocks are nearly +everywhere decomposed into a yellow sand unfavourable for +vegetation. The splendid wild granite cliffs of the north +accordingly are absent here. All the hill-tops are evenly rounded, +and everywhere, except where there has been a sand-slip, covered +with a rich vegetation, which in consequence of the evenness of +height of the trees gives little variety to the landscape, which +otherwise is among the most beautiful on the globe. + +[Illustration: BURYING PLACE AT KIOTO. ] + +We landed at two places, on the first occasion at Hirosami. Here +some fishermens' cabins and some peasants' houses formed a little +village at the foot of a high, much-weathered granite ridge. The +burying-place was situated near one of the houses, close to the +shore. On an area of some hundred square yards there were numerous +gravestones, some upright, some fallen. Some were ornamented with +fresh flowers, at one was a Shinto shrine of wooden pins, at another +stood a bowl with rice and a small _saki_ bottle. Our zoologists +here made a pretty rich collection of littoral animals, among which +may be mentioned a cuttle-fish which had crept down amongst the wet +sand, an animal that is industriously searched for and eaten by the +natives. Among the cultivated plants we saw here, as many times +before in the high-lying parts of the country, an old acquaintance +from home, namely buckwheat. + +The second time the _Vega_ anchored at a peasant village right +opposite Shimonoseki. When we landed there came an official on +board, courteously declaring that we had no right to land at that +place. But he was immediately satisfied and made no more +difficulties when he was informed that we had the permission of the +Governor, and that instead of the usual passport an official from +Kobe accompanied the vessel. Shimonoseki has a melancholy reputation +in European-Japanese history from the deeds of violence done here by +a united English, French, Dutch, and American fleet of seventeen +vessels on the 4th and 5th September, 1864, in order to compel the +Japanese to open the sound to foreigners, and the unreasonably heavy +compensation which after the victory was won they demanded from the +conquered. Although only fifteen years have passed since this +occurred, there appears to be no trace of bitter feeling towards +Europeans among the inhabitants of the region. At least we were +received at the village in the neighbourhood of which we landed with +extraordinary kindness. The village was situated at the foot of a +rocky ridge, and consisted of a number of houses arranged in a row +along a single street, the fronts of the houses being as usual +occupied as shops, places for selling _saki_, and workshops for home +industry. The only remarkable things besides that the village had to +offer consisted of a Shinto temple surrounded by beautiful trees and +a considerable salt-work, which consisted of extensive, shallow, +well-planned ponds now nearly dry, into which the sea-water is +admitted in order to evaporate, and from which the condensed salt +liquid is afterwards drawn into salt-pans in order that the +evaporation may be completed. It was remarkable to observe that +several crustacea throve exceedingly well in the very strong brine. + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO NAGASAKI. ] + +On the surrounding hills we saw thickets of the Japanese wax tree, +_Rhus succedaneus_. The wax is pressed out of the berries of this +bush with the help of heat. It is used on a large scale in making +the lights which the natives themselves burn, and is exported +bleached and refined to Europe, where it is sometimes used in the +manufacture of lights. Now, however, these wax lights are +increasingly superseded by American kerosene oil. The price has +fallen so much that the preparation of vegetable wax is now said +scarcely to yield a profit.[384] + +We left this place next morning, and on the 21st October the _Vega_ +anchored in the harbour of Nagasaki. My principal intention in +visiting this place was to collect fossil plants, which I supposed +would be found at the Takasima coal-mine, or in the neighbourhood of +the coal-field. In order to find out the locality without delay, I +reckoned on the fondness of the Japanese for collecting remarkable +objects of all kinds from the animal, vegetable, and mineral +kingdoms. I therefore hoped to find in some of the shops where old +bronzes, porcelain, weapons, &c., were offered for sale, fossil +plants from the neighbourhood, with the locality given. The first +day, therefore, I ran about to all the dealers in curiosities, but +without success. At last one of the Japanese with whom I conversed +told me that an exhibition of the products of nature and art in the +region was being arranged, and that among the objects exhibited I +might possibly find what I sought for. + +Of course I immediately availed myself of the opportunity to see one +of the many Japanese local exhibitions of which I had heard so much. +It was yet in disorder, but I was, at all events, willingly +admitted, and thus had an opportunity of seeing much that was +instructive to me, especially a collection of rocks from the +neighbourhood. Among these I discovered at last, to my great +satisfaction, some beautiful fossil plants from Mogi, a place not +far from Nagasaki. + +Immediately the following morning I started for Mogi, accompanied by +the Japanese attendant I had with me from Kobe, and by another +adjutant given me by the very obliging governor of Nagasaki. We were +to travel across the hills on horseback. I was accompanied, besides +my Japanese assistants and a man from the _Vega_, all on horseback, +by a number of coolies carrying provisions and other equipment. The +Governor had lent me his own horse, which was considered by the +Japanese something quite grand. It was a yellowish-brown stallion, +not particularly large, but very fine, resembling a Norwegian horse, +very gentle and sure-footed. The latter quality was also quite +necessary, for the journey began with a ride up a hundred smooth and +not very convenient stone steps. Farther on, too, the road, which +was exceedingly narrow and often paved with smooth stones, went +repeatedly up and down such stairs, not very suitable for a man on +horseback, and close to the edge of precipices several hundred feet +deep, where a single false step would have cost both the horse and +its rider their lives. But as has been said, our horses were +sure-footed and sure-eyed, and the riders took care in passing such +places not to pull the reins. + +None of the mountain regions I have seen in Japan are so well +cultivated as the environs of Nagasaki. Every place that is somewhat +level, though only several hundred square yards in extent, is used +for growing some of the innumerable cultivated plants of the +country, principally rice but as such easily cultivated places occur +in only limited numbers, the inhabitants have by industry and hard +labour changed the steep slopes of the mountains into a succession +of level terraces rising one above the other, all carefully watered +by irrigating conduits. + +Mogi is a considerable fishing village lying at the seaside twenty +kilometres south of Nagasaki in a right line, on the other side of a +peninsula occupied by lava beds and volcanic tuffs, which projects +from the island Kiushiu, which at that place is nearly cut asunder +by deep fjords. No European lives at the place, and of course there +is no European inn there. But we got lodgings in the house of one of +the principal or richest men in the village, a maker and seller _of +saki_, or as we would call him in Swedish, a brandy distiller and +publican. Here we were received in a very friendly manner, in clean +and elegant rooms, and were waited on by the young and very pretty +daughter of our host at the head of a number of other female +attendants. It may be supposed that our place of entertainment had +no resemblance to a public-house in Sweden. We did not witness here +the tipsy behaviour of some human wrecks, and as little some other +incidents which might have reminded us of public-house life in +Europe. All went on in the distillery and the public-house as calmly +and quietly as the work in the house of a well-to-do country squire +in Sweden who does not swear and is not quarrelsome. + +_Saki_ is a liquor made by fermenting and distilling rice. It is +very variable in taste and strength, sometimes resembling inferior +Rhine wine, sometimes more like weak grain brandy. Along with _saki_ +our host also manufactured vinegar, which was made from rice and +_saki_ residues, which with the addition of some other vegetable +substances were allowed to stand and acidify in large jars ranged in +rows in the yard. + +When my arrival became known I was visited by the principal men of +the village. We were soon good friends by the help of a friendly +reception, cigars and red wine. Among them the physician of the +village was especially of great use to me. As soon as he became +aware of the occasion of my visit he stated that such fossils as I +was in search of did indeed occur in the region, but that they were +only accessible at low water. I immediately visited the place with +the physician and my companions from Nagasaki, and soon discovered +several strata containing the finest fossil plants one could desire. +During this and the following day I made a rich collection, partly +with the assistance of a numerous crowd of children who zealously +helped me in collecting. They were partly boys and partly girls, the +latter always having a little one on their backs. These little +children were generally quite bare-headed. Notwithstanding this they +slept with the crown of the head exposed to the hottest sun-bath on +the backs of their bustling sisters, who jumped lightly and securely +over stocks and stones, and never appeared to have any idea that the +burdens on their backs were at all unpleasant or troublesome. + +According to Dr. A.G. NATHORST'S examination, the fossil plants which I +brought home from this place belong to the more recent Tertiary +formation. Our distinguished and acute vegetable paleontologist fixes +attention on the point, that we would have expected to find here a +fossil flora allied to the recent South Japanese, which is considered to +be derived from a Tertiary flora which closely resembles it. There is, +however, no such correspondence, for impressions of ferns are almost +completely wanting at Mogi, and even of pines there is only a single +leaf-bearing variety which closely resembles the Spitzbergen form of +_Sequoia Langsdorfii_, Brag. On the other hand, there are met with, in +great abundance, the leaves of a species of beech nearly allied to the +red beech of America, _Fagus ferruginea_, Ait., but not resembling the +recent Japanese varieties of the same family. There were found, besides, +leaves of Quercus, Juglans, Populus, Myrica, Salix, Zelkova, +Liquidambar, Acer, Prunus, Tilia, &c., resembling leaves of recent types +from the forests of Japan, from the forest flora of America, or from the +temperate flora of the Himalayas. But as the place where they were found +is situated at the sea-shore, quite close to the southern extremity of +Japan, it is singular that the tropical or sub-tropical elements of the +flora of Japan are here wanting. From this Dr. Nathorst draws the +conclusion that these are not, as has been hitherto supposed, the +remains of a flora originating in Japan, but that they have since +migrated thither from a former continent situated further to the south, +which has since disappeared. Dr. Nathorst's examination is not yet +completed, but even if this were the case, want of space would not +permit me to treat of this point at greater length. I cannot, however, +omit to mention that it was highly agreeable to be able to connect with +the memory of the _Vega_ expedition at least a small contribution from +more southerly lands to vegetable palaeontology, a branch of knowledge to +which our preceding Arctic expeditions yielded new additions of such +importance through the fossil herbaria from luxuriant ancient forests +which they brought to light from the ice-covered cliffs of Spitzbergen +and from the basalt-covered sandstones and schists of the Noui-soak +Peninsula in Greenland, now so bleak. + +[Illustration: FOSSIL PLANTS FROM MOGI. +1, 2. Beech Leaves (_Fagus ferruginea_ Ait., var. _pliocena_, Nath.). +3. Maple Leaf (_Acer Mono_, Max., var. _pliocena_, Nath.). ] + +[Illustration: FOSSIL PLANT FROM MOGI. Leaf of _Zelkova Keakii_ +Sieb., var. _pliocena_, Nath. ] + +After our return from Mogi I made an excursion to the coal-mine at +Takasami, situated on an island some kilometres from the town. Even +here I succeeded in bringing together some further contributions to +the former flora of the region. + +After the inhabitants of Nagasaki, too, had given us a grand parting +feast, at which speeches were spoken in Japanese, Chinese, English, +French, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Danish, and Swedish, a +proof of the mixture of nationalities which prevailed there, the +_Vega_ again weighed anchor on the 27th October, in order to +continue her voyage. We now left Japan to commence in earnest our +return, and on our departure we were saluted by the crews of two +English gun-boats anchored in the harbour, the _Hornet_ and the +_Sylvia_, manning the yards and bulwarks. It was natural that the +hour of departure, after fifteen months' absence from home, should +be looked forward to with joy. But our joy was mixed with a +regretful feeling that we were so soon compelled to leave--without +the hope of ever returning--the magnificent country and noble people +among whom a development is now going on which probably will not +only give a new awakening to the old cultured races of Eastern Asia, +but will also prepare a new soil for European science, industry, and +art. It is difficult to foresee what new undreamed-of blossoms and +fruit this soil will yield. But the Europeans are perhaps much +mistaken who believe that the question here is only that of clothing +an Asiatic feudal state in a modern European dress. Rather the day +appears to me to dawn of a time in which the countries round the +Mediterranean of eastern Asia will come to play a great part in the +further development of the human race. + + +[Footnote 383: The number of the works which the collection of +Japanese books contains is somewhat over a thousand. The number of +volumes amounts to five or six thousand, most of the volumes, +however, are not larger than one of our books of a hundred pages. So +far as can be judged by the Japanese titles, which are often little +distinctive, the works may be distributed among the various branches +of knowledge in the following way: + + Number + of Works + + History 176 + On Buddhism and Education 161 + On Shintoism 38 + On Christianity (printed in 1715) 1 + Manners and Customs 33 + The Drama 13 + Laws 5 + Politics, Political argumentative writings, partly new + and privately printed against the recent statues 24 + Poetry and Prose fiction 137 + Heraldry, Antiquities, Ceremonies 27 + The Art of War and the Use of Weapons 41 + Chess 1 + Coining 4 + Dictionaries, Grammars 18 + Geography, Maps 76 + Natural History 68 + The Science of Medicine 13 + Arithmetic, Astronomy, Astrology 39 + Handicrafts, Agriculture 43 + Notebooks 73 + The art of making bouquets (Horticulture?) 16 + Bibliography 9 + Various 20 + ----- + Total 1036 ] + +[Footnote 384: Further information on this point is given by Henry +Gribble in "The Preparation of Vegetable Wax" (_Transactions of the +Asiatic Society of Japan_, vol. iii. part. i. p. 94. Yokohama, +1875). ] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + Hong Kong and Canton--Stone-polishing Establishments at + Canton--Political Relations in an English Colony-- + Treatment of the Natives--Voyage to Labuan--Coal Mines there + --Excursion to the shore of Borneo--Malay Villages--Singapore + --Voyage to Ceylon--Point de Galle--The Gem Mines at Ratnapoora + --Visit to a Temple--Purchase of Manuscripts--The Population + of Ceylon--Dr. Almquist's Excursion to the Interior of the Island. + + +Some days after our arrival at Yokohama the _Vega_ was removed to +the dock at Yokosuka, there to be protected by coppering against the +boring mussels of the warm seas, so injurious to the vessel's hull; +the opportunity being also taken advantage of by me to subject the +vessel to some trifling repairs and alterations in the fitting up, +which were desirable because during the remainder of our voyage we +were to sail not in a cold but in a tropical climate. The work took +somewhat longer time than was reckoned on, so that it was not until +the 21st September that the _Vega_ could leave the dock and return +to Yokohama. It had originally been my intention to remain in Japan +only so long as was necessary for the finishing of this work, during +which time opportunity could be given to the officers and crew of +the _Vega_ to rest after the labours and sufferings of the long +winter, to receive and answer letters from home, and to gather from +the newspapers the most important occurrences that had taken place +during our fourteen months' absence from the regions which are +affected by what takes place in the world. But as appears from the +foregoing narrative, the delay was longer than had been intended. +This indeed was caused in some degree by the difficulty of tearing +ourselves away after only a few days' stay from a people so +remarkable, so lovable, and so hospitable as the Japanese, and from +a land so magnificently endowed by nature. Besides, when the _Vega_ +was again ready for sea, it was so near the time for the change of +the monsoon, that it was not advisable, and would not have been +attended with any saving of time, to sail immediately. For at that +season furious storms are wont to rage in these seas, and the wind +then prevailing is so unfavourable for sailing from Japan to the +southward, that a vessel with the weak steam-power of the _Vega_ +cruising between Japan and Hong Kong in a head-wind might readily +have lost the days saved by an earner departure. On the other hand, +in the end of October and the beginning of November we could, during +our passage to Hong Kong, count on a fresh and always favourable +breeze. This took place too, so that, leaving Nagasaki on the 27th +October, we were able to anchor in the harbour of Hong Kong as early +as the 2nd November. + +There was of course no prospect of being able to accomplish anything +for the benefit of science during a few days' stay in a region which +had been examined by naturalists innumerable times before, but I at +all events touched at this harbour that I might meet the expressed +wish of one of the members of the expedition not to leave eastern +Asia without having, during the voyage of the _Vega_, seen something +of the so much talked of "heavenly kingdom" so different from all +other lands. + +For this purpose, however, Hong Kong is an unsuitable place. This +rich and flourishing commercial town, which has been created by +England's Chinese politics and opium trade, is a British colony with +a European stamp, which has little to show of the original Chinese +folk-life, although the principal part of its population consists of +Chinese. But at the distance of a few hours by steamer from Hong +Kong lies the large old commercial city of Canton, which, though it +has long been open to Europeans, is still purely Chinese, with its +peatstack-like architecture, its countless population, its temples, +prisons, flower-junks, mandarins, pig-tailed street-boys, &c. Most +of the members of the expedition made an excursion thither, and were +rewarded with innumerable indescribable impressions from Chinese +city life. We were everywhere received by the natives in a friendly +way,[385] and short as our visit was, it was yet sufficient to +dissipate the erroneous impressions which a number of European +authors have been pleased to give of the most populous nation. One +soon saw that he has to do with an earnest and industrious people, +who, indeed, apprehend much--virtue and vice, joy and sorrow--in +quite a different way from us, but towards whom we, on that account, +by no means have the right to assume the position of superiority +which the European is so ready to claim towards coloured races. + +The greater portion of my short stay in Canton I employed in +wandering about, carried in a sedan-chair--horses cannot be used in +the city itself--through the streets, which are partly covered and +are lined with open shops, forming, undoubtedly, the most remarkable +of the many remarkable things that are to be seen here. The +recollection I have of these hours forms, as often happens when one +sees much that is new at once, a variegated confusion in which I can +now only with difficulty distinguish a connected picture or two. But +even if the impressions were clearer and sharper it would be out of +the question to occupy space with a statement of my own superficial +observations. If any one wishes to acquire a knowledge of Chinese +manners and customs, he will not want for books on the country, his +studies will rather be impeded by their enormous number, and often +enough by the inferior nature of their contents. Here I shall only +touch upon a single subject, because it especially interested me as +a mineralogist, namely, the stone-polishing works of Canton. + +It is natural that in a country so populous and rich as China, in +which home and home life play so great a _role_, much money should +be spent on ornaments. We might therefore have expected that +precious stones cut and polished would be used here on a great +scale, but from what I saw at Canton, the Chinese appear to set much +less value on them than either the Hindoo or the European. It +appears besides as if the Chinese still set greater value on stones +with old "oriental polishing," _i.e._ with polished _rounded_ +surfaces, than on stones formed according to the mode of polishing +now common in Europe with plane facets. Instead the Chinese have a +great liking for peculiar, often very well executed, carvings in a +great number of different kinds of stones, among which they set the +greatest value on nephrite, or, as they themselves call it, "Yii." +It is made into rings, bracelets, ornaments of all kinds, vases, +small vessels for the table, &c. In Canton there are numerous +lapidaries and merchants, whose main business is to make and sell +ornaments of this species of stone, which is often valued higher +than true precious stones. It was long so important an article of +commerce that the place where it was found formed the goal of +special caravan roads which entered China by the Yii gate. Amber +also appears to have a high value put upon it, especially pieces +which inclose insects. Amber is not found in China, but is brought +from Europe, is often fictitious, and contains large Chinese beetles +with marks of the needles on which they have been impaled. Other +less valuable minerals, native or foreign, are also used, among +others, compact varieties of talc or soap-stone and of pyrophyllite. +But works executed in these minerals do not fetch a price at all +comparable to that of nephrite. In the same shop in which I +purchased pieces of nephrite carefully placed in separate boxes, I +found at the bottom of a dusty chest, along with pieces of quartz +and old refuse of various kinds, large crystals, some of which were +exceedingly well formed, of translucent topaz. They were sold as +quartz for a trifle. I bought besides two pieces of carved topaz, +one of which was a large and very fine natural crystal, with a +Chinese inscription engraved on its terminal surface, which when +translated runs thus: "Literary studies confer honour and +distinction and render a man suitable for the court." The other was +a somewhat bluish inch-long crystal, at one end of which a human +figure, perhaps some Buddhist saint, was sculptured. The polishing +of stones is carried on as a home industry, principally in a special +part of the town. The workshop is commonly at the side of a small +sale counter, in a room on the ground-floor, open to the street. The +cutting and polishing of the stones is done, as at home, with metal +discs and emery or comminuted corundum, which is said to be found in +large quantities in the neighbourhood of Canton. + +Large, commodious, well fitted up, but in their exterior very +unwieldy river steamers, built after American designs, now run +between Hong Kong and Canton. They are commanded by Europeans. The +dietary on board is European, and exceedingly good. There are +separate saloons for Europeans and Chinese. All over the poop and +the after-saloon weapons are hung up so as to be at hand, in case +the vessel should be attacked by pirates, or, as happened some years +ago, a number of them should mix themselves up with the Chinese +passengers with the intention of plundering the vessel. + +Hong Kong was ceded to England in consequence of the war of 1842. +The then inconsiderable fishing village is now one of the most +important commercial cities of the globe. The harbour is spacious, +affording good anchorage, and is well protected by a number of large +and small granite islands. The city is built on the largest of these +on slopes which rise from the shore towards the interior of the +island. On the highest points the wealthiest foreign residents have +built their summer houses which are surrounded by beautiful gardens. +In winter they live in the city. We here met with a very gratifying +reception both from the Governor, Mr. POPE HENNESSY, and from the +other inhabitants of the town. The former invited Captain Palander +and me to live in the beautiful Governor's residence, gave a dinner, +arranged a stately official reception in our honour, and presented +to the Expedition a fine collection of dried plants from the +exceedingly well-kept botanical garden of the city, which is under +the charge of Mr. CHARLES FORD, the latter presented me with an +address of welcome at a festive meeting in the City Hall, specially +arranged for the purpose and numerously attended by the principal +men of the town. The meeting was opened by the Chairman, Mr. +KESWICK, with a speech of welcome, after which Mr. J.B. COUGHTRIE +read and presented the address, bound in red silk and beautifully +illuminated in black; gold, and red, with 414 signatures, among +which many were by Chinese. The address ended with a hearty +congratulation to us all and a promise of a memorial of our visit to +Hong Kong which should indicate the way in which the _Vega_ +expedition was appreciated there. Some time after our return home +Palander and I received from members of the community of Hong Kong a +splendid silver vase each. + +I here embraced with great interest the opportunity, which my coming +in contact with the principal men of the place afforded, of getting +a glance into the political relations which prevailed in this +vigorous and promising colony. At first sight they appeared to be by +no means satisfactory. Peace and unanimity evidently did not +prevail; for dissatisfaction with the Governor was loudly expressed +by many of the Europeans settled in Hong Kong. He favoured, they +said, the Chinese in an exceedingly partial way, and mitigated their +punishments to such a degree that Hong Kong would soon become a +place of refuge for all the robbers and thieves of Canton. At the +time of our visit an instructive parliamentary debate on a small +scale was proceeding in the Legislative Council of the city. The +controversy was carried on with a certain bitterness, but with a +proper observance of the parliamentary procedure customary in the +mother country. The eloquent leader of the opposition had evidently, +as is usual in such cases, the general feeling of the Europeans on +his side. For they appeared to be pretty well agreed that the only +means of protecting themselves against the evil-doers from the great +heavenly empire would be to punish them in an inhuman way when they +were taken in the act. + +To an outsider it appeared, however, that the Governor not only had +humanity and justice on his side, but also acted with a true insight +into the future. When he came to the colony the corporal punishments +to which the Chinese were condemned were exceeding barbarous, +although mild in comparison with those common in China--a state of +things which the opposition brought forward in defence of the +severer punishments. Prisoners were repeatedly flogged with "the +cat," often with the result that they were attacked by incurable +consumption, they were prepared for the punishment by being +subjected for some time to a starvation-diet of rice and water; they +were branded when they left the prison, &c. Proceeding on the view +that the greatest security for a colony such as Hong Kong lies in +the affection which is cherished for it by the numerous native +population, the Governor had sought to protect it from unjust +attacks by Europeans. Considering that too barbarous punishments are +likely rather to promote than to deter from the commission of +crimes, in consequence of the protection the criminal in such a case +may reckon upon from sympathising fellow-creatures, and that mild +punishments are the first condition of a good protective police, the +Governor had diminished the floggings, forbidden the public +infliction of the punishment, given a reprimand in cases where "by +mistake" or by an evasion of the letter of the law extra strokes had +been given to criminals, exchanged "the regulation cat" for the +rattan, abolished the preliminary starvation-diet and the branding, +improved the prisons, &c. All this was now loudly complained of by +the European merchants, but was approved by the Chinese subjects in +the colony, who were however dissuaded from making any contrary +demonstrations. + +When we came afterwards to other English possessions, we found that +the inhabitants were often more or less in conflict with the +authorities, but nowhere was there anything to prevent the +opposition from endeavouring to promote their views by public +meetings, by addresses in newspapers and pamphlets. In this way a +pretty active political life arises early, and this is probably one +of the main conditions of the capacity of the English colonies for +self-government, and of their vigour and influence on the +surrounding country. + +It will in truth be highly interesting to see what influence will be +exerted on the great neighbouring empire if Mr. Hennessy's politics +with reference to the Chinese settled in Hong Kong be carried out, +and they be converted into fellow-citizens conscious that they are +protected by law in person and property, that they do not require to +crawl in the dust before any authority, and that so long as they +keep within the limits of the law they are quite safe from the +oppressions of all officials, and in the enjoyment of all the rights +and privileges which the English law confers upon the citizen. + +Many of the Europeans settled at Hong Kong were convinced that for +another thousand years one would be justified in using the +expression regarding China: "Thou art what thou wast, and thou wilt +be what thou art." Others again stated that contact with Europeans +at Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and the accounts given by the +emigrants returning to China in thousands from California and +Australia are by slow degrees changing the aspect of the world in +the "heavenly empire," and thereby preparing for a revolution less +violent, but as thorough as that which has recently taken place in +Japan. If this comes about, China will be a state that must enter +into the calculation when the affairs of the world are settled, and +whose power will weigh very heavy in the scales, at least when the +fate of Asia is concerned. At Hong Kong and Canton the report was +current that the far-sighted Chancellor of the German Empire had +taken this factor into calculation in settling his plans for the +future. + +Already the Chinese took part in the European life. A number of +Chinese names, as I have already said, were attached to the address +that was presented to me; at the Governor's reception many stout, +smiling heads provided with pigtails were seen; and Chinese had +taken part in the meetings at which the Governor's scheme of reform +was under discussion. There have also existed in the country from +time immemorial secret societies, which are said only to wait for a +favourable opportunity to endeavour to link their fates to the new +paths.[386] The observations that I made at Hong Kong and Canton +are, however, too superficial for me to wish to detain my reader +with these matters. I accordingly point to the numerous works on +these cities published by authors who have lived there as many +months or years as I have days, and proceed to sketch the +continuation of the voyage of the _Vega_. + +Accompanied by the good wishes of many newly acquired friends, we left +the harbour of Hong Kong on the morning of the 9th November. It was my +original intention to steer our course to Manilla, but the loss of time +during our long stay in Japan compelled me to give up that plan. The +course was shaped, however, not directly for Singapore, but for Labuan, +a small English possession on the north side of Borneo. Its northern +extremity (the coal mine) lies in 5 deg. 33' N.L. and 115 deg. 12' E.L. England +took possession of Labuan on account of the coal-seams which are found +there, which are of special importance on account of the situation of +the island nearly in the midst of the large, numerous, and fertile +islands of south-eastern Asia. It was the coal-seams too that attracted +me to the place. For I wished to see whether I could not, in the +neighbourhood of the equator itself, collect valuable contributions +towards ascertaining the nature of the former equatorial climate. + +We at first made rapid progress, thanks to a fresh and favourable +monsoon wind. But when we reached the so-called belt of calms, the +wind ceased completely, and we had now to avail ourselves of steam, +which, in consequence of the low power of the _Vega's_ engine and a +strong counter current, carried us forward so slowly that it was not +until the 17th November that we could anchor in the harbour of +Labuan. + +The largest of the islands belonging to the colony has, with a +pretty considerable breadth, a length of 10' from N.E. to S.W. It +is inhabited by some thousands (3,300 in 1863) of Chinese and +Malays, together with a few Englishmen, who are either crown +officials or employed at the coal mine. The north part of the island +has a height of 140 metres above the sea, but towards the south the +land sinks to an extensive sandy plain, closely overgrown with bushy +thickets and traversed by low marshes. Most of the inhabitants live +along the shore of the harbour which bears the now, or perhaps only +for the present, indispensable name for English colonies (which on +that account conveys little information) of Victoria. The Governor's +fine residence lies at a little distance from the harbour town in +the interior of the island, the coal mine on its north side. At the +time of our visit the coal company had recently gone into +liquidation, and work had therefore been stopped at the mine, but it +was hoped that it would soon be resumed. The sandy plain is of +little fertility in comparison with the neighbouring tropical lands. +It had recently been burned, and was therefore for the most part +covered only with bushes, among which stems of high, dried-up, +half-burned trees raised themselves, giving to the landscape a +resemblance to a northern forest devastated by an accidental fire. +In consequence of the fire which had thus passed over the island the +plain which, when looked at from a distance appeared to be +completely even, was seen everywhere to be studded with +crater-formed depressions in the sand, quite similar to the +_os_-pits in the _osar_ of Scandinavia.[387] On the north side there +was sandstone rock rising from the sea with a steep slope six to +fifteen metres high. Here tropical nature appeared in all its +luxuriance, principally in the valleys which the small streams had +excavated in the sandstone strata. + +The coal mine is sunk on coal-seams, which come to the surface on +the north side of the island. The seams, according to the +information I received on the spot, are four in number, with a +thickness of 3.3, 0.9, 0.4 and 1.0 metre. They dip at an angle of 30 deg. +towards the horizon, and are separated from each other by +strata of clay and hard sandstone, which together have a thickness +of about fifty metres. Above the uppermost coal-seam there are +besides very thick strata of black clay-slate, white hard sandstone +with bands of clay, loose sandstone, sandstone mixed with coal, and +finally considerable layers of clay-slate and sandstone, which +contain fossil marine crustacea, resembling those of the present +time. The strata which lie between or in the immediate neighbourhood +of the coal seams do not contain any other fossils than those +vegetable remains, which are to be described farther on. Thirty +kilometres south of the mine a nearly vertical coal-seam comes to +the surface near the harbour, probably belonging to a much older +period than that referred to above; and out in the sea, eighteen +kilometres from the shore north of the harbour, petroleum rises from +the sea-bottom. The manager of the mine supposed from this that the +coal-seams came to the surface again at this place. The coal-seams +of Labuan are besides, notwithstanding their position in the middle +of an enormous, circular, volcanic chain, remarkably free from +faults, which shows that the region, during the immense time which +has elapsed since these strata have been deposited, has been +protected from earthquakes. Even now, according to Wallace, +earthquakes are scarcely known in this part of Borneo. + +From what has been stated above we may conclude that the coal, sand, +and clay strata were deposited in a valley-depression occupied by +luxuriant marshy grounds, cut off from the sea, in the extensive +land which formerly occupied considerable spaces of the sea between +the Australian Islands and the continent of Asia. A similar state of +things must besides have prevailed over a considerable portion of +Borneo. On that island there are coal-seams under approximately +similar circumstances to those on Labuan. So far as I know, however, +they have not hitherto been closely examined with respect to +vegetable palaeontology. + +At Labuan fossil plants are found, though very sparingly, imbedded +in balls of clay ironstone from strata above the two lowermost +coal-seams. The upper coal-seams are besides exceedingly rich in +resin, which crosses the coal in large veins. From the thickness and +conversion into a hard sandstone of the layers of sand lying between +and above the coal-seams we may conclude that a very long time, +probably hundreds of thousands or millions of years have passed +since these coal-seams were formed. They also belong to a quite +recent period, during which the vegetation in these regions varied +perhaps only to a slight extent from that of the present time. It +is, however, too early to express one's self on this subject, before +the fossils which we brought home have been examined by Dr. +Nathorst. + +Coal mining was stopped for the time, but orders were expected by +every post to resume work. The road between the mine and the harbour +town was at all events pretty well kept, and Mr. COOKE, one of the +directors of the company, still lived at the place. He showed me all +possible hospitality during the time I remained on the north side of +the island for the purpose of collecting fossils. The rest of the +time I was the guest of the acting Governor, Mr. TREACHER, a young +and amiable man, who showed me several collections in natural +history from Labuan and the neighbouring parts of Borneo, and after +our return to Europe sent me a collection of leaves and fruit of the +kinds of trees which now grow on the island. I expect that this +collection will be very instructive in the study of the fossil +plants we brought home with us. + +At the steep shore banks on the north coast very fine sections of +the sandstone strata, which lie under and above the coal, are +visible. While I went along the shore in order to examine these, I +visited some Malay huts built on poles. They were surrounded at +flood tide by water, at ebb by the dry beach, bare of all +vegetation. In order to get inside these huts one must climb a +ladder two to two and a half metres high, standing towards the sea. +The houses have the same appearance as a warehouse by the seaside at +home, and are built very slightly. The floor consisted of a few +rattling bamboo splints lying loose, and so thin that I feared they +would give way when I stepped upon them. The household articles +consisted only of some mats and a pair of cooking vessels. I saw no +fireplace; probably fire was lighted on the beach. I could see no +reason why this place should be chosen as a dwelling in preference +to the neighbouring shore with its luxuriant vegetation, which at +the same time was not at all swampy, unless it was for the coolness +which arises from the any situation on the beach, and the protection +which the poles give from the thousands of crawling animals which +swarm in the grassy meadows of tropical regions. It is probable also +that the mosquitos are less troublesome along the sea-shore than +farther into the interior of the country. + +Some of my companions saw similar huts during an excursion, which +they undertook in the steam launch, to the mouth of a large river +debouching on the neighbouring coast of Borneo. Regarding this +exclusion Dr. Stuxberg gives the following report: + + "On the 19th November Palander, Bove, and I, together with + two men, undertook an excursion in the steam launch of the + _Vega_ to the river Kalias debouching right opposite to + Labuan. We started at dawn, a little after six o'clock. The + course was shaped first north of Pappan Island, then + between the many shoals that lie between it and the + considerably larger Daat Island, and finally south of the + latter island. + + "Pappan Island is a small beautiful island, clothed down to + high-water mark with a dark green primeval forest. On Daat + Island, on the contrary, the primeval forest on the east + side has been cut down, and has given place to a new + plantation of cocoa-nut trees, the work of a former + physician on Labuan, which yields its present owner a + considerable revenue. + + "We had no little difficulty in finding a way over the + sandy bar, which is deposited in front of the river mouth + at a distance of a nautical mile and a half to three miles + from the coast of Borneo. After several attempts in the + course of an hour we at last succeeded in finding the deep + channel which leads to the river. It runs close to the + mainland on the north side, from Kalias Point to the river + mouth proper. At the bar the depth was only a metre, in the + deep channel, it varied between 3.5 and 7 metres, in the + river mouth it was fourteen to eighteen metres and + sometimes more. + + "On the south side of the tongue of land, which projects + north of the mouth of the Kalias, were found two Malay + villages, whose inhabitants appeared to view our passage up + the river with curious glances. A crowd of half or wholly + naked children began a race along the shore, as soon as + they set eyes upon the fast steam launch, probably in order + to keep us in sight as long as possible. We now had deep + water and steamed up the river without delay. The + longed-for visit to some of the Malay villages we thus + reserved till our return. + + "We steamed about ten or twelve English miles up one of the + many winding river arms, when the limited depth compelled + us to turn. The vegetation on the mainland, as on the + shores of the islands lying near the river-mouth, was + everywhere so close that it was nearly impossible to find a + place where we could land; everywhere there was the + impenetrable primeval forest. Next the mouth of the river + this consisted of tall, shady broad-leaved trees, which all + had dark green, lustrous, large leaves. Some were in + flower, others bore fruit. The greater number consisted of + fig trees, whose numerous air-roots twining close on each + other formed an impenetrable fence at the river bank. These + air-root-bearing trees play an important _role_ in + increasing the area of the land and diminishing that of the + water. They send their strong air-roots from the branches + and stem far out into the water, and when the roots have + reached the bottom, and pushed their way into the mud, they + make, by the close basket-work they form, an excellent + binding medium for all the new mud which the river carries + with it from the higher ground in the interior. It has + struck me that the air-root-bearing trees form one of the + most important means for the rapid increase of the alluvial + land on Borneo. Farther up the river there commenced large + stretches of a species of palm, which with its somewhat + lighter green and its long sheath-formed leaves was sharply + distinguished from the rest of the forest. Sometimes the + banks on one side were covered with palms only, on the + other with fig-trees only. The palm jungles were not so + impenetrable as the fig-tree thickets, the latter preferred + the more swampy hollows, while the palms on the other hand + grew on the more sandy and less marshy places. Of herbs and + underwood there was nowhere any trace. + + "During the river voyage we saw now and then single + green-coloured kingfishers flying about, and a honeysucker + or two, but they were not nearly so numerous as might have + been expected in this purely tropical zone. We saw some + apes leaping in pairs among the trees, and Palander + succeeded in shooting a male. Alligators from one to one + and a half metre in length, frightened by the noise of the + propeller, throw themselves suddenly into the water. Small + land lizards with web-feet jumped forward with surprising + rapidity on the water near the banks. This was all we saw + of the higher animals. + + "After a run of two hours, during which we examined the + banks carefully in order to find a landing place, we lay to + at the best possible place for seeing what the lower fauna + had to offer. It was no easy matter to get to land. The + ground was so muddy that we sank to the knees, and could + make our way through the wood only by walking on an + intermediate layer of palm leaves and fallen branches. The + search for evertebrates did not yield very much. A + half-score mollusca, among them a very remarkable naked + leech of quite the same colour-marking and raggedness as + the bark of tree on which it lived, was all that we could + find here. It struck me as very peculiar not to find a + single insect group represented. The remarkable poverty in + animals must be ascribed, I believe, to the complete + absence of herbs and underwood. Animal life was as poor as + vegetation was luxuriant and various in different places. + Over the landscape a peculiar quietness and stillness + rested. + + "During our return we visited one of the two Malay villages + mentioned above. It consisted of ten different houses, + which were built on tall and stout poles out in the water + at the mouth of the river, about six to ten metres from the + shore. All the houses were built on a common large platform + of thick bamboo, which was about a man's height above the + water. At right angles to the beach there floated long + beams, one end being connected with the land, while the + other was anchored close to the platform. From this + anchored end a plank rose at a steep angle to the platform. + Communication with land was kept up in this way. The houses + were nearly all quadrangular, and contained a single room, + had raised, not flat roofs, and were provided at one of the + shorter sides, near one corner, with a high rectangular + door opening, which certainly was not intended to be + closed, and on one of the long sides with a square + window-opening. The building material was bamboo, from + eight to eleven centimetres in thickness, mostly whole, but + sometimes cleft. The roof had a thin layer of palm leaves + upon it to keep out the rain. The house in its entirety + resembled a cage of spills to which the least puff of wind + had always free entrance. The floor bent and yielded much, + and at the same time was so weak that one could not walk + upon it without being afraid of falling through. One half, + right opposite the door opening, was overlaid with a thin + mat of some plant; it was evidently the sleeping place of + the family. Some pieces of cloth was all the clothing we + could discover. Of household articles there was scarcely + any trace. Nor were there any weapons, arrows, or bows. The + fireplace was in one corner of the room; it consisted of an + immense ash-heap on some low stones. Beside it stood a + rather dirty iron pot. All refuse from meals, bones and + mollusc-shells, had been thrown into the water under the + floor; there lay now a regular culture-layer, a couple of + feet higher than the surrounding sea-bottom, consisting for + the most part of mussel shells. The floor of the room was + very dirty and black; it looked as if it had never been in + contact with a drop of water. The interior of the whole + house struck one as being as poor and wretched as that of a + Chukch tent. Its inhabitants appeared scarcely to own more + than they stood or walked in, _i.e._ for every person a + large piece of cloth round the waist. Small boats lay + moored to the platform. They were nothing else than + tree-stems hollowed out, without any separate planks at the + sides, at most two to two and a half metres long, and + capable of carrying only two men. We had met such a boat a + little way up the river, rowed by two youths, and laden + with palm-leaves, it was not more than five to eight + centimetres above the water, and appeared as if it would + capsize with the least indiscreet movement on the part of + the boatmen. Some dogs of middle size went about loose on + the platform; they were at first shy and suspicious of us, + and growled a little, but soon allowed themselves to be + caressed. + + "Of the natives, the Malays, unfortunately we saw at close + quarters only some middle-aged men. When we approached the + long floating beams which led to the platform, the women + and children fled precipitately out of the nearest houses, + and by the time we got to the platform, they had fortified + themselves in a distant house, where they sat motionless + and cast curious glances at us through a hole. The children + showed their fear of us by loud crying, kept up the whole + time. When we attempted to approach the fugitives, they + hastened farther away. We won their favour with some + cigarettes, which Palander distributed among them, and with + which they were evidently delighted. They had a serious, + reserved, perhaps rather indifferent appearance. A + physiognomist would perhaps have had difficulty in saying + whether their countenances expressed ferocity, + determination, or indifference. It appeared as if it would + not be easy to bring forth a look of mirth or gladness on + their faces. + + "At the Malay villages which we visited, some Chinese had a + sago plantation. With some Malays as workmen in their + service, they were now employed in loading a vessel of + light draught with sago meal, of which they appeared to + have a large quantity in store. Another vessel had just + taken on board its cargo and was starting. The Chinese here + made the same favourable impression on me as their + countrymen, whom I had seen before in Japan and Hong Kong, + and whom I was afterwards to see at Singapore--the + impression of an exceedingly industrious, thriving, + contented, and cleanly race." + +Labuan strikes me as a very suitable starting-point for a naturalist +who may wish to explore Borneo. Surrounded by Europeans, but +undisturbed by the distractions of a large city, he would have an +opportunity of accustoming himself to the climate, which, though +rather warm for a dweller in the North, is by no means unhealthy, to +get acquainted with the manners and customs of the natives, to +acquire a knowledge of the commonest forms of the luxuriant nature, +which would otherwise be apt to overwhelm the northern naturalist, +in a word, to make such preparations for the journey as are +necessary to secure its success. This region of Borneo appears to be +one of the least known parts of the Indian Archipelago, and one need +not go far from the coast to come to places which are never visited +by Europeans. Labuan itself and its immediate neighbourhood have +much that is interesting to offer to the observer, and from thence +short excursions may be made with ease and without excessive cost to +the territory of the Sultan of Bruni, who is favourable to +foreigners, and to the mountain Kini Balu, near the northern +extremity of Borneo, which is 4,175 metres high, and visible from +Labuan. When, before our arrival at Japan, I arranged the plan of +our voyage home, I included in it a visit to this mountain, at whose +summit a comparatively severe climate must prevail, and whose flora +and fauna, therefore, notwithstanding its equatorial position, must +offer many points of comparison with those of the lands of the +north. But when I was told that the excursion would require weeks, I +had to give it up. + +On the 12th November, the _Vega_ again weighed anchor to continue +her voyage by Singapore to Point de Galle in Ceylon. Between Labuan +and Singapore our progress was but slow, in consequence of the calm +which, as might have been foreseen, prevailed in the sea west of +Borneo. + +Singapore is situated exactly halfway, when a vessel, starting from +Sweden, circumnavigates Asia and Europe. We staid here from the 28th +November to the 4th December, very hospitably received by the +citizens of the town, both European and Asiatic, who seemed to vie +with the inhabitants of Hong Kong in enthusiasm for the voyage of +the _Vega_. A Babel-like confusion of speech prevails in the town +from the men of so many different nationalities who live here: +Chinese, Malays, Klings, Bengalees, Parsees, Singhalese, Negroes, +Arabs, &c. But our stay was all too short for independent studies of +the customs and mode of life of these different races, or of the +rich vegetable and animal worlds in the neighbourhood of the town. I +must refer those who are interested in these subjects to previous +descriptions of that region, and to the abundant contributions to a +knowledge of it which have been published by the Straits Branch of +the Asiatic Society, which was founded here on the 4th November, +1877. + +We arrived at Galle on the 15th December, having during our passage +from Singapore had a pretty steady and favourable monsoon. While +sailing through the Straits of Malacca strong ball-lightning was +often seen a little after sunset. The electrical discharges appeared +to go on principally from the mountain heights on both sides of the +Straits. + +I allowed the _Vega_ to remain in the harbour of Point de Galle, +partly to wait for the mail, partly to give Dr. Almquist an +opportunity of collecting lichens on some of the high mountain +summits in the interior of the island, and Dr. Kjellman of examining +its algae, while I myself would have time to visit the famous +gem-diggings of Ceylon. The return was as good as could have been +expected considering our short stay at the place. Dr. Almquist's +collection of lichens from the highest mountain of Ceylon, +Pedrotalagalla, 2,500 metres high, was very large, Kjellman, by the +help of a diver, made a not inconsiderable collection of algae from +the neighbourhood of the harbour, and from an exclusion which I +undertook in company with Mr. ALEXANDER C. DIXON, of Colombo, to +Ratnapoora, the town of gems, where we were received with special +kindness by Mr. COLIN MURRAY, assistant government agent, I brought +home a fine collection of the minerals of Ceylon. + +Precious stones occur in Ceylon mainly in sand beds, especially at +places where streams of water have flowed which have rolled, +crumbled down, and washed away a large part of the softer +constituents of the sand, so that a gravel has been left remaining +which contains considerably more of the harder precious stone layer +than the original sandy strata, or the rock from which they +originated. Where this natural washing ends, the gem collector +begins. He searches for a suitable valley, digs down a greater or +less depth from the surface to the layer of clay mixed with coarse +sand resting on the rock, which experience has taught him to contain +gems[388]. At the washings which I saw, the clayey gravel was taken +out of this layer and laid by the side of the hole until three or +four cubic metres of it were collected. It was then carried, in +shallow, bowl-formed baskets from half a metre to a metre in +diameter, to a neighbouring river, where it was washed until all the +clay was carried away from the sand. The gems were then picked out, +a person with a glance of the eye examining the wet surface of the +sand and collecting whatever had more or less appearance of a +precious stone. He then skimmed away with the palm of the hand the +upper stratum of sand, and went on in the same way with that below +it until the whole mass was examined. The certainty with which he +judged in a moment whether there was anything of value among the +many thousand grains of sand was wonderful. I endeavoured in a very +considerable heap of the gravel thus hastily examined, to find a +single small piece of precious stone which had escaped the glance of +the examiner, but without success. + +The yield is very variable, sometimes abundant, sometimes very +small, and though precious stones found in Ceylon are yearly sold +for large sums, the industry on the whole is unprofitable, although +now and then a favourite of fortune has been enriched by it. The +English authorities, therefore, with full justification, consider it +demoralising and unfavourable to the development of the otherwise +abundant natural resources of the region. For the numerous loose +population devotes itself rather to the easy search for precious +stones, which is as exciting as play, than to the severer but surer +labours of agriculture, and when at any time a rich _find_ is made, +it is speedily squandered, without a thought of saving for the times +when the yield is little or nothing. A large number of the precious +stones are polished at special polishing places at Ratnapoora, but +the work is very bad, so that the stones which come into the market +are often irregular, and have uneven, curved, ill-polished surfaces. +Most of them perhaps are sold in the Eastern and Western Indian +peninsulas and other parts of Asia, but many are also exported to +Europe. The precious stones which are principally found at +Ratnapoora, consist of sapphires, commonly blue, but sometimes +yellow or violet, sometimes even completely colourless. In the last +case they have a lustre resembling that of the diamond[389]. Rubies +I saw here only in limited numbers. + +[Illustration: GEM DIGGINGS AT RATNAPOORA. ] + +The precious stones occur in nearly every river valley which runs +from the mountain heights in the interior of the island down to the +low land. According to a statement by Mr. Tennent (i. p. 33), the +river-sand at many places contains so much of the harder minerals +that it may be used directly for the polishing of other stones. The +same writer, or more correctly Dr. GYGAX, who appears to have +written the rather scanty mineralogical contributions to Tennent's +famous work, states that a more abundant yield ought to be obtained +by working in the solid rock than by the usual method. This idea is +completely opposed to the experience of mineralogy. The finest gems, +the largest gold nuggets, as is well known, are never, or almost +never, found in solid rock, but in loose earthy layers. In such +layers in Ceylon the abundance of precious stones, that is to say, +of minerals which are _hard, translucent, and strongly lustrous_, is +very great, and enormous sums would be obtained if we could add up +the value of the mass of precious stones which have been found here +for thousands of years back. Already Marco Polo says of Ceylon: "In +ista insula nascuntur boni et nobiles rubini et non nascuntur in +aliquo loco plus. Et hic nascuntur zafiri et topazii, ametisti, et +aliquae aliae petrae pretiosae, et rex istius insulae habet pulcriorem +rubinum de mundo". + +But some one perhaps will ask, where is the mother-rock of all these +treasures in the soil of Ceylon? The question is easily answered. +All these minerals have once been imbedded in the granitic gneiss, +which is the principal rock of the region. + +In speaking of granite or gneiss in southern lands, or at least in +the southern lands we now visited, I must, in the first place, point +out that these rocks next the surface of the earth in the south have +a much greater resemblance to strata of sand, gravel, and clay than +to our granite or gneiss rocks, the type of what is lasting, hard, +and unchangeable. The high coast hills, which surround the Inland +Sea of Japan, resemble, when seen from the sea, ridges of sand +(_osar_) with sides partly clothed with wood, partly sandy slopes of +a light yellow colour, covered by no vegetation. On a closer +examination, however, we find that the supposed sandy ridges consist +of weathered granitic rocks, in which all possible intermediate +stages may be seen between the solid rock and the loose sand. The +sand is not stratified, and contains large, loose, rounded blocks +_in situ_, completely resembling the erratic blocks in Sweden, +although with a more rugged surface. The boundary between the +unweathered granite and that which has been converted into sand is +often so sharp that a stroke of the hammer separates the crust of +granitic sand from the granite blocks. They have an almost fresh +surface, and a couple of millimetres within the boundary the rock is +quite unaltered. No formation of clay takes place, and the +alteration to which the rocks are subjected therefore consists in a +crumbling or formation of sand, and not, or at least only to a very +small extent, in a chemical change. Even at Hong Kong the principal +rock consisted of granite. Here too the surface of the granite rock +was quite altered to a very considerable depth, not however to sand, +but to a fine, often reddish, clay, thus in quite a different way +from that on the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan. Here too one +could at many places follow completely the change of the hard +granite mass to a clay which still lay _in situ_, but without its +being possible to draw so sharp a boundary between the primitive +rock and the newly-formed loose earthy layers as at the first-named +place. We had opportunities of observing a similar crumbling down of +the hard granite at every road-section between Galle, Colombo, and +Ratnapoora, with the difference that the granite and gneiss here +crumbled down to a coarse sand, which was again bound together by +newly-formed hydrated peroxide of iron to a peculiar porous +sandstone, called by the natives _cabook_. This sandstone forms the +layer lying next the rock in nearly all the hills on that part of +the island which we visited. It evidently belongs to an earlier +geological period than the Quaternary, for it is older than the +recent formation of valleys and rivers. The _cabook_ often contains +large, rounded, unweathered granite blocks, quite resembling the +rolled-stone blocks in Sweden. In this way there arise at places +where the _cabook_ stratum has again been broken up and washed away +by currents of water, formations which are so bewilderingly like the +ridges (_osar_) and hills with erratic blocks in Sweden and Finland +that I was astonished when I saw them. I was compelled to resort to +the evidence of the palms to convince myself that it was not an +illusion which unrolled before me the well-known contours from the +downs of my native land. An accurate study of the sandy hills on the +Inland Sea of Japan, of the clay cliffs of Hong Kong, and the +_cabook_ of Ceylon would certainly yield very unexpected contributions +to an explanation of the way in which the sand and rolled-stone _osar_ +of Scandinavia have first arisen. It would show that much which the +Swedish geologists still consider to be glacial gravel transported +by water and ice, is only the product of a process of weathering or, +more correctly, falling asunder, which has gone on in Sweden also on +an enormous scale. Even a portion of our Quaternary clays have +perhaps had a similar origin, and we find here a simple explanation +of the important circumstance, which is not sufficiently attended to +by our geologists, that often all the erratic blocks at a place are +of the same kind, and resemble in their nature the underlying or +neighbouring rocks. + +It is this weathering process which has originated the gem sand of +Ceylon. Precious stones have been found disseminated in limited +numbers in the granite converted into _cabook_. In weathering, the +difficultly decomposable precious stones have not been attacked, or +attacked only to a limited extent. They have therefore retained +their original form and hardness. When in the course of thousands of +years streams of water have flowed over the layers of _cabook_, +their soft, already half-weathered constituents have been for the +most part changed into a fine mud, and as such washed away, while +the hard gems have only been inconsiderably rounded and little +diminished in size. The current of water therefore has not been able +to wash them far away from the place where they were originally +imbedded in the rock, and we now find them collected in the +gravel-bed, resting for the most part on the fundamental rock which +the stream has left behind, and which afterwards, when the water has +changed its course, has been again covered by new layers of mud, +clay, and sand. It is this gravel-bed which the natives call +_nellan_, and from which they chiefly get their treasures of +precious stones. + +Of all the kinds of stones which are used as ornaments there are +both noble and common varieties, without there being any perceptible +difference in their chemical composition. The most skilful chemist +would thus have difficulty in finding in their chemical composition +the least difference between corundum and sapphire or ruby, between +common beryl and emerald, between the precious and the common topaz, +between the hyacinth and the common zircon, between precious and +common spinel; and every mineralogist knows that there are +innumerable intermediate stages between these minerals which are so +dissimilar though absolutely identical in composition. This gave the +old naturalists occasion to speak of ripe and unripe precious +stones. They said that in order to ripen precious stones the heat of +the south was required. This transference of well-known +circumstances from the vegetable to the mineral kingdom is certainly +without justification. It points however to a remarkable and +hitherto unexplained circumstance, namely, that the occurrence of +precious stones is, with few exceptions, confined to southern +regions[390]. Diamonds are found in noteworthy number only in India, +Borneo, Brazil, and the Transvaal. Tropical America is the home-land +of the emerald, Brazil of the topaz, Ceylon of the sapphire and the +hyacinth, Pegu of the ruby, and Persia of the turquoise. With the +exception of the diamond the same stones are found also in the +north, but in a common form. Thus common sapphire (corundum) is +found in Gellivare iron ore so plentifully that the ore from certain +openings is difficult to smelt. Common topaz is found in masses by +the hundredweight in the neighbourhood of Falun; common emerald is +found in thick crystals several feet in length in felspar quarries, +in Roslagen, and in Tammela and Kisko parishes in Finland; common +spinel occurs abundantly in Aker limestone quarry; common zircon at +Brevig in Norway, and turquoise-like but badly coloured stones at +Vestana in Skane. True precious stones, on the other hand, are not +found at any of these places. Another remarkable fact in connection +with precious stones is that most of those that come into the market +are not found in the solid rock, but as loose grains in sand-beds. +True jewel mines are few, unproductive, and easily exhausted. From +this one would be inclined to suppose that precious stones actually +undergo an ennobling process in the warm soil of the south. + +During the excursion I undertook from Galle to Ratnapoora, I visited +a number of temples in order to procure Pali, Singhalese, and +Sanscrit manuscripts; and I put myself in communication with various +natives who were supposed to possess such manuscripts. They are now +very difficult to get at, and the collection I made was not very +large. The books which the temples wished to dispose of have long +ago been eagerly brought up by private collectors or handed over to +public museums, for example, to the Ceylon Government Oriental +Library established at Colombo[391]. The collector who remains a +considerable time in the region, may however be able to reap a rich +after-harvest, less of the classical works preserved in the temples +than of the smaller popular writings in the hands of private +persons. + +We see in Ceylon innumerable descendants of the races who repeatedly +subdued larger or smaller portions of the island, or carried on +traffic there, as Moormen (Arabs), Hindoos, Jews, Portuguese, +Dutchmen, Englishmen, &c., but the main body of the people at all +events varies very little, and still consists of the two allied +races, Tamils and Singhalese, who for thousands of years back have +been settled here. The colour of their skin is very dark, almost +black, their hair is not woolly, their features are regular, and +their build is exceedingly fine. The children especially, who, while +they are small, often go completely naked, with their regular +features, their large eyes, and fresh plump bodies, are veritable +types of beauty, and the same holds true of most of the youths. +Instead of buying in one of the capitals of Europe the right to draw +models, often enough with forms which leave much to desire, and +which must be used without distinction for Greek or Northern +divinities, for heroes or _savants_ of the present or former times, +an artist ought to make tours of study to the lands of the south, +where man does not need to protect himself from the cold with +clothes, and where accordingly nakedness is the rule, at least among +the poorer classes. The dress which is worn here is commonly +convenient and tasteful. Among the Singhalese it consists of a piece +of cloth wound round the middle, which hangs down to the knees. The +men, who still prefer the convenient national dress to the European, +go with the upper part of the body bare. The long hair is held +together with a comb which goes right over the head, and among the +rich has a large four-cornered projection at the crown. The women +protect the upper part of the body with a thin cotton jacket. The +priests wear a yellow piece of cloth diagonally over one shoulder. +The naked children are ornamented with metal bracelets and with a +metal chain round the waist, from which a little plate hangs down +between the legs. This plate is often of silver or gold, and is +looked upon as an amulet. + +The huts of the working men are in general very small, built of +earth or _cabook_-bricks, and are rather to be considered as sheds +for protection from the rain and sunshine than as houses in the +European sense. The richer Singhalese live in extensive "verandas" +which are almost open, and are divided into rooms by thin panels, +resembling in this respect the Japanese houses. The Japanese genius +for ornament, their excellent taste and skill in execution, are +however wanting here, but it must also be admitted that in these +respects the Japanese stand first among all the peoples of the +earth. + +In the seaport towns the Singhalese are insufferable by their +begging, their loquacity, and the unpleasant custom they have of +asking up to ten times as much, while making a bargain, as they are +pleased to accept in the end. In the interior of the country the +state of things in this respect is much better. + +Among the temples which I visited in order to procure Pali books was +the so-called "devil's" temple at Ratnapoora, the stateliest +idol-house I saw in Ceylon. Most of the temples were built of wood; +all were exceedingly unpretentious, and without the least trace of +style. The numerous priests and temple attendants lived in rather +squalid and disorderly dwellings in the neighbourhood of the temple. +They received me in a friendly way and showed me their books, of +which they occasionally sold some. The negotiation several times +ended by the priest presenting me with the book I wished to purchase +and positively refusing to receive compensation in any form. On one +occasion the priest stated that he himself was prevented by the +precepts of his religion from receiving the purchase-money agreed +upon, but said that I might hand it over to some of the persons +standing round. At two of the priests' houses there was a swarm of +school-children, who ran busily about with their palm-leaf writing +books and writing implements. + +[Illustration: STATUES IN A TEMPLE IN CEYLON. ] + +The temples were very different in their arrangements, probably on +account of the dissimilar usages of the various Buddhist sects to +which they belonged. A temple near Colombo contained a large number +of wooden images and paintings of gods, or men of more than human +size. Most of them stood upright like a guard round a sitting +Buddha. I could not observe any dislike on the part of the priests +to take the foreigner round their temples. The key, however, was +sometimes wanting to some repository, whose contents they were +perhaps unwilling to desecrate by showing them to the unbeliever. +This was, for instance, the case with the press which contained the +devil's bow and arrows, in the temple at Ratnapoora. The temple +vessels besides were exceedingly ugly, tasteless, and ill-kept. I +seldom saw anything that showed any sign of taste, art, and +orderliness. How different from Japan, where all the swords, lacquer +work, braziers, teacups, &c., kept in the better temples would +deserve a place in some of the art museums of Europe. + +In the sketch of the first voyage from Novaya Zemlya to Ceylon, a +countryman of Lidner can scarcely avoid giving a picture of +"Ceylon's burned up vales." In this respect the following extract +from a letter from Dr. Almquist, sketching his journey to the +interior of the island may be instructive:-- + + "Three hours after our arrival at Point de Galle I sat + properly stowed away in the mail-coach _en route_ for + Colombo. As travelling companions I had a European and two + Singhalese. As it was already pretty dusk in the evening + there was not much of the surrounding landscape visible. We + went on the whole night through a forest of tall coco-nut + trees whose dark tops were visible far up in the air + against the somewhat lighter sky. It was peculiar to see + the number of fire-flies flying in every direction, and at + every wing-stroke emiting a bright flash. The night air had + the warm moistness which is so agreeable in the tropics. + Now and then the sound of the sea penetrated to our ears. + For we followed the west coast in a northerly direction. + More could not be observed in the course of the night, and + all the passengers were soon sunk in deep sleep. + + "After seven hours' brisk trot we came to a railway station + and continued our journey by rail to Colombo, the capital + of Ceylon. As there was nothing special to see or do there, + I went on without stopping by the railway, which here bends + from the coast to Kandy and other places. The landscape now + soon became grander and grander. We had indeed before seen + tropical vegetation at several places, but of the + luxuriance which here struck the eye we had no conception. + The pity was that men had come hither, had cleared and + planted. + + "In the lowlands I saw some cinnamon plantations. Ceylon + cinnamon is very dear; in Europe cheaper and inferior sorts + are used almost exclusively, and most of the plantations in + Ceylon have been abandoned many years ago. Soon the train + leaves the lowland and begins to ascend rapidly. The patch + of coast country, where the coco-nut trees prevail, is + exchanged for a very mountainous landscape; first hills + with large open valleys between, then higher continuous + mountains with narrow, deep, kettle-like valleys, or open + hilly plateaus. In the valleys rice is principally + cultivated. The hills and mountain sides were probably + originally covered with the most luxuriant primitive + forest, but now on all the slopes up to the mountain + summits it is cut down, and they are covered with coffee + plantations. The coffee-plant is indeed very pretty, but + grows at such a distance apart that the ground is + everywhere visible between, and this is a wretched covering + for luxuriant Ceylon. + + "At two o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the station, + Perideniya, the nearest one to Kandy. The famous botanical + garden lies in its neighbourhood, and there I had to visit + the superintendent of the garden, Dr. THWAITES. This + elderly, but still active and enthusiastic naturalist is + exceedingly interested in botanical research, and very + obliging to all who work in that department. He received me + in a very friendly manner, and it was due to him that the + programme of my visit there was so full. + + "A botanic garden in Ceylon must naturally be something + extraordinary. Nowhere else can grander or more luxuriant + vegetation be seen than here. The garden has been + especially famous for the number of different varieties of + trees of immense size which it can show. Besides, all + possible better known plants are to be found here, + cultivated in the finest specimens. Spices and drugs were + specially well represented. Here long tendrils of the black + pepper-plant wound themselves up the thick tree-stems, here + the cardamon and the ginger flourished, here the pretty + cinnamon, camphor, cinchona, nutmeg, and cocoa trees made a + splendid show, here I saw a newly gathered harvest of + vanilla. The abundance of things to be seen, learned, and + enjoyed here was incredible. However, the next day I + determined on the advice of Dr. Thwaites to make a tour up + to the mountain localities proper, in order there to get a + better sight of the lichen flora of Ceylon. + +[Illustration: A COUNTRY PLACE IN CEYLON. ] + +[Illustration: HIGHLAND VIEW IN THE INTERIOR OF CEYLON. Coffee +Plantations; Adam's Peak in the back-ground. ] + + "I now travelled south partly by rail, partly by coach, + until in the evening I found myself lodged at a + 'rest-house' at Rambodde, a thousand metres above the sea, + at about the same height accordingly as that at which trees + cease to grow in southern Norway. This tropical mountain + land reminds one a little, in respect of the contours of + the landscape, of the fells of Norway. Here too are found + league-long deep valleys, surrounded by high mountain + summits and ranges with outlines sharply marked against the + horizon. But here they were everywhere overgrown with + coffee bushes, or possibly with cinchona plants. The + mountain slopes were so laid bare from the bottom all the + way up that scarce a tree was left in sight; everywhere so + far as the eye could reach only coffee. + + "Next day, attended by a Singhalese, I went, or to speak + more correctly, climbed farther up the steep coffee + plantations. At a height of 1,300 metres above the sea + coffee ceases to grow, and we now found some not very + extensive tea plantations, and above these the primitive + forest commences. At a height of 1,900 metres above the sea + there is an extensive open plateau. Up here there is a not + inconsiderable place, Novara Elliya, where the governor has + a residence, and part of the troops are in barracks during + the summer heat. One of the mountains which surround this + plateau is Pedrotalagalla, the loftiest mountain of Ceylon, + which reaches a height of 2,500 metres above the sea. + + "I have ascended not so few mountains, but of none has the + ascent been so easy as of this, for a broad footpath ran + all the way to the top. Without this path the ascent had + been impossible, for an hour's time would have been + required for every foot made good through the jungle, so + closely is the ground under the lofty trees covered to the + top of the mountain with bushes, creepers, or the bamboo. + In the evening I returned to my former night-quarters, + where I slept well after a walk of thirty-six English + miles. + + "As I felt myself altogether unable the following day to + make any further excursion on foot, I travelled back to + Peradeniya by mail-coach. During this journey I had as my + travelling companion a Singhalese, whom it was a special + pleasure to see at close quarters. One of his big toes was + ornamented with a broad ring of silver, both his ears were + pierced above, and provided with some pendulous ornament, + and one side of the nose was likewise perforated, in order + that at that place too might he adorn himself with a piece + of grandeur. On his head he had, like all Singhalese, a + comb by which the hair drawn right upwards is kept in + position, as little girls at home are wont to have their + hair arranged. As the man did not appear to know a word of + English, it was impossible to enter into any closer + acquaintance with him. + + "At noon on the following day I found myself compelled, by + a quite unexpected occurrence, to return precipitately to + the coast again. Dr. Thwaites and I had been invited to + dinner by his Excellency the Governor. As I was still + limping after my long excursion on foot, and besides had + not had the forethought to take a dress-suit with me, I + considered that, vexatious as it was to decline, I could + not accept this gracious invitation, but instead went my + way. Thus after six exceedingly pleasant days I came back + to Point de Galle and the _Vega_". + + +[Footnote 385: Yet with one very laughable exception. I wished for +zoological purposes to get one of the common Chinese rats, and with +this object in view made inquiries through my interpreter at a shed +in the street, where rats were said to be cooked for Chinese +epicures. But scarcely had the question been put, when the old, +grave host broke out in a furious storm of abuse, especially against +the interpreter, who was overwhelmed with bitter reproaches for +helping a "foreign devil" to make a fool of his own countrymen. All +my protestations were in vain, and I had to go away with my object +unaccomplished. ] + +[Footnote 386: See on this subject W.A. Pickering, "Chinese Secret +Societies" (_Journal of the Straits Branch of the R. Asiatic +Society_, 1878, No. 1, pp. 63-84) ] + +[Footnote 387: Concerning their formation and origin see a paper by +K. Nordenskioeld in _Oefversigt af Vet.-akad Foerh_ 1870, p 29. ] + +[Footnote 388: Emerson Tennent says on the subject:--The gem +collectors penetrate through the recent strata of gravel to the +depth of from ten to twenty feet in order to reach a lower deposit, +distinguished by the name of _Nellan_, in which the objects of +their search are found. This is of so early a formation that it +underlies the present beds of rivers, and is generally separated +from them or from the superincumbent gravel by a hard crust (called +_Kadua_), a few inches in thickness, and so consolidated as to have +somewhat the appearance of laterite or sun-burnt brick. The nellan +is for the most part horizontal, but occasionally it is raised into +an incline as it approaches the base of the hills. It appears to +have been deposited previous to the eruption of the basalt, on which +in some places it reclines, and to have undergone some alteration +from the contact. It consists of water-worn pebbles firmly imbedded +in clay, and occasionally there occur large lumps of granite and +gneiss, in the hollows under which, as well as in "pockets" in the +clay (which from their shape the natives denominate "elephants' +footsteps "), gems are frequently found in groups, as if washed in +by the current. (E. Tennent, _Ceylon_ London, 1860, i. p. 34.) ] + +[Footnote 389: Diamonds are wanting in Ceylon. And neither gold nor +platinum appears to occur in noteworthy quantity in the gem gravel. ] + +[Footnote 390: The only considerable exceptions from this are two +localities for precious stones in Southern Siberia and the +occurrence of precious opal in Hungary. The latter, however, in +consequence of defective hardness and translucency, can scarcely be +reckoned among the true precious stones. ] + +[Footnote 391: The Catalogue of Pali, Singhalese, and Sanscrit +Manuscripts in the Ceylon Government Oriental Library, Colombo, +1876, includes:-- + + 41 Buddhist canonical books + 71 Other religious writings + 25 Historical works, traditions + 29 Philological works + 16 Literary works + 6 Works on Medicine, Astronomy, &c. + +According to Emerson Tennent (i. p. 515), the Rev. R. Spence Hardy +has in the _Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Asiatic Society_ for +1848 given the titles of 467 works in Pali, Sanskrit, and Elu, +collected by himself during his residence in Ceylon. Of these about +eighty are in Sanskrit, 150 in Elu or Singhalese, and the remainder +in Pali. ] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + The Voyage Home--Christmas, 1879--Aden--Suez--Cairo-- + Excursion to the Pyramids and the Mokattam Mountains-- + Petrified Tree-stems--The Suez Canal--Landing on Sicily + by night--Naples--Rome--The Members of the Expedition + separate--Lisbon--England--Paris--Copenhagen--Festive Entry + into Stockholm--_Fetes_ there--Conclusion + + +During our stay in Japan and our voyage thence to Ceylon I had +endeavoured at least in some degree to preserve the character of the +voyage of the _Vega_ as a scientific expedition, an attempt which, +considering the short time the _Vega_ remained at each place, could +not yield any very important results, and which besides was rendered +difficult, though in a way that was agreeable and flattering to us, +by I may almost say the tempestuous hospitality with which the +_Vega_ men were everywhere received during their visits to the ports +of Japan and East Asia. It was besides difficult to find any new +untouched field of research in regions which were the seat of +culture and civilisation long before the time when the forest began +to be cut down and seed to be sown in the Scandinavian North, and +which for centuries have formed the goal of exploratory expeditions +from all the countries of Europe. I hope however that the _Vega_ +will leave lasting memorials even of this part of her voyage through +the contributions of Stuxberg, Nordquist, Kjellman, and Almquist to +the evertebrate fauna and the sea-weed and lichen flora of East +Asia, and by my collections of Japanese books, of fossil plants from +Mogi and Labuan, &c. + +[Illustration: THE SCIENTIFIC MEN OF THE _"VEGA."_ + F.R. Kjellman. + A. Stuxberg. + E. Almquist + O. Nordquist. ] + +With the new overpowering impression which nature and people exerted +on those of us, who now for the first time visited Japan, China, +India, Borneo, and Ceylon, it was however specially difficult, +during a stay of a few days at each place, to preserve this side of +the _Vega_ expedition. I therefore determined after leaving Ceylon +to let it drop completely, that is, from that point merely to +_travel home_. Regarding this part of the voyage of the _Vega_ I +would thus have very little to say, were it not that an obligation +of gratitude compels me to express in a few words the thanks of the +_Vega_ men for all the honours bestowed upon them, and all the +goodwill they enjoyed during the last part of the voyage. For many +of my readers this sketch may perhaps be of interest as reminding +them of some happy days which they themselves have lived through, +and it may even happen that it will not be unwelcome to the friends +of geography in a future time to read this description of the way in +which the first circumnavigators of Asia and Europe were _feted_ in +the ports and capitals of the civilised countries. In this sketch +however I am compelled to be as brief as possible, and I must +therefore sue for pardon if every instance of hospitality shown us +cannot be mentioned. + +We started from Point de Galle on the 22nd December, and arrived at +Aden on the 7th January. The passage was tedious in consequence of +light winds or calms. Christmas Eve we did not celebrate on this +occasion, tired as we were of entertainments, in such a festive way +as at Pitlekaj, but only with a few Christmas-boxes and some extra +treating. On New Year's Eve, on the other hand, the officers in the +gunroom were surprised by a deputation from the forecastle clad in +_pesks_ as Chukches, who came, in good Swedish, mixed with a few +words of the Pitlekaj _lingua franca_ not yet forgotten, to bring us +a salutation from our friends among the ice of the north, thanks for +the past and good wishes for the coming year, mixed with Chukch +complaints of the great heat hereaway in the neighbourhood of the +equator, which for fur-clad men was said to be altogether +unendurable. + +We remained at Aden only a couple of days, received in a friendly +manner by the then acting Swedish-Norwegian consul, who took us +round to the most remarkable points of the desolate environs of this +important haven, among others to the immense, but then and generally +empty water reservoirs which the English have made in the +neighbourhood of the town. No place in the high north, not the +granite cliffs of the Seven Islands, or the pebble rocks of Low +Island on Spitzbergen, not the mountain sides on the east coast of +Novaya Zemlya, or the figure-marked ground at Cape Chelyuskin is so +bare of vegetation as the environs of Aden and the parts of the east +coast of the Red Sea which we saw. Nor can there be any comparison +in respect of the abundance of animal life between the equatorial +countries and the Polar regions we have named. On the whole animal +life in the coast lands of the highest north, where the mountains +are high and surrounded by deep water, appears to be richer in +individuals than in the south, and this depends not only on the +populousness of the fowl-colonies and the number of large animals of +the chase that we find there, but also on the abundance of +evertebrates in the sea. At least the dredgings made from the _Vega_ +during the voyage between Japan and Ceylon gave an exceedingly +scanty yield in comparison with our dredgings north of Cape +Chelyuskin. + +Aden is now an important port of call for the vessels which pass +through the Suez Canal from European waters to the Indian Ocean, and +also one of the chief places for the export of the productions of +Yemen or Arabia Felix. In the latter respect the harbour was of +importance as far back as about four hundred years ago, when the +Italian, LUDOVICO DE VARTHEMA, was for a considerable time kept a +prisoner by the Arab tribes at the place. + +In the harbour of Aden the _Vega_ was saluted by the firing of +twenty-one guns and the hoisting of the Swedish flag at the maintop +of an Italian war vessel, the despatch steamer _Esploratore_ under +the command of Captain AMEZAGA. The _Esploratore_ took part in an +expedition consisting of three war vessels, charged with founding an +Italian colony at Assab Bay, which cuts into the east coast of +Africa, north of Bab-el-Mandeb, on a tract of land purchased for the +purpose by Rubbattino, an Italian commercial company. On board was +Professor SAPETTO, an elderly man, who had concluded the bargain and +had lived at the place for forty years. It was settled that he +should be the administrator of the new colony. On board the +_Esploratore_ were also the _savants_ BECCARI and the Marquis DORIA, +famous for their extensive travels in the tropics and their valuable +scientific labours. The officers of the Italian vessel invited us to +a dinner which was one of the pleasantest and gayest of the many +entertainments we were present at during our homeward journey. When +at the close of it we parted from our hosts they lighted up the way +by which we rowed forward over the tranquil waves of the Bay of Aden +with blue lights, and the desert mountain sides of the Arabian coast +resounded with the hurrahs which were exchanged in the clear, calm +night between the representatives of the south and north of Europe. + +The _Vega_ left Aden, or more correctly its port-town, Steamer +Point, on the 9th January, and sailed the following day through +Bab-el-Mandeb into the Red Sea. The passage of this sea, which is +narrow, but 2,200 kilometres long, was tedious, especially in its +northern part, where a strong head wind blew. This caused so great a +lowering of the temperature that a film of ice was formed on the +fresh-water pools in Cairo, and that we, Polar travellers as we +were, had again to put on winter clothes in Egypt itself. + +The _Vega_ anchored on the 27th January at the now inconsiderable +port, Suez, situated at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal. +Most of the scientific men and officers of the _Vega_ expedition +made an excursion thence to Cairo and the Pyramids, and were +everywhere received in a very kind way. Among other things the +Egyptian Geographical Society sent a deputation to welcome us under +the leadership of the President of the Society, the American, STONE +PACHA. He had in his youth visited Sweden, and appeared to have a +very pleasant recollection of it. The Geographical Society gave a +stately banquet in honour of the _Vega_ expedition. An excursion was +made to the Great Pyramids, and, as far as the short time permitted, +to other remarkable places in and around the heap of ruins of all +kinds and from all periods, which forms the capital of the Egypt of +to-day. During our visit to the Pyramids the Swedish-Norwegian +consul-general, BOeDTKER, gave us a dinner in the European hotel +there, and the same evening a ball was given us by the Italian +consul-general, DE MARTINO. A day was besides devoted by some of us, +in company with M. GUISEPPE HAIMANN, to a short excursion to the +Mokattam Mountains, famous for the silicified tree-stems found +there. I hoped along with the petrified wood to find some strata of +clay-slate or schist with leaf-impressions. I was however +unsuccessful in this, but I loaded heavily a carriage drawn by a +pair of horses with large and small tree-stems converted into hard +flint. These he spread about in the desert in incredible masses, +partly broken up into small pieces, partly as long fallen stems, +without root or branches, but in a wonderfully good state of +preservation. Probably they had originally lain embedded in a layer +of sand above the present surface of the desert. This layer has +afterwards been carried away by storms, leaving the heavy masses of +stone as a peculiar stratum upon the desert sand, which is not +covered by any grassy sward. No root-stumps were found, and it thus +appeared as if the stems had been carried by currents of water to +the place where they were imbedded in the sandy layers and +silicified. In their exterior all these petrifactions resemble each +other, and by the microscopical examination which has hitherto been +made naturalists have only succeeded in distinguishing two species +belonging to the family Nicolia, and a palm, a pine, and a +leguminous plant, all now extinct. It is possible that among the +abundant materials I brought home with me some other types may be +discovered by polishing and microscopical examination. Such at least +was my expectation in bringing home this large quantity of stones, +the transport of which to the _Vega_ was attended with a heavy +expenditure. + +From Cairo we returned, on the 2nd February, to Suez, and the +following day the _Vega_ weighed anchor to steam through the Suez +Canal into the Mediterranean. This gigantic work, created by the +genius and perseverance of LESSEPS, which is unsurpassed by the many +marvels of construction in the land of the Pharaohs, has not a very +striking appearance, for the famous canal runs, like a small river +with low banks, through the monotonously yellow plain of the desert. +There are no sluices. No bold rock-blastings stand as monuments of +difficulties overcome. But proud must every child of our century be +when he gazes on this proof that private enterprise can in our day +accomplish what world-empires in former times were unable to carry +into execution. We touched at Port Said for a few hours on the 5th +February, after which we continued our voyage to Naples, the first +European port we were to visit. + +At Aden and in Egypt I had received several letters and telegrams +informing me that great preparations were being made at Naples for +our reception, and that repeated inquiries had been addressed to the +Swedish consul-general regarding the day of our arrival, questions +which naturally it was not so easy to answer, as our vessel, with +its weak steam-power, was very dependent on wind and weather. It was +hoped that the _Vega_ might be signalled from the Straits of +Messina, but we did not come to the entrance to the Straits until +after sunset. I therefore ordered the _Vega_ to lie to there for +some hours, while Lieut. Bove and I rowed ashore to send off +telegrams announcing our arrival in Europe to Sweden, Naples, Rome, +and other places. The shore, however, was farther off than we had +calculated, and it was quite dark before it was reached. It was not +without difficulty that in these circumstances we could get to land +through the breakers in the open road quite unknown to us, and then, +in coal-black darkness, find our way through thickets of prickly +bushes to the railway which here runs along the coast. We had then +to go along the railway for a considerable distance before we +reached a station from which our telegrams could be despatched. +Scarcely had we entered the station when we were surrounded by +suspicious railway and coast-guard men, and we considered ourselves +fortunate that they had not observed us on the way thither, for they +would certainly have taken us for smugglers, whom the coast-guard +have the right to salute with sharp shot. Even now we were +overwhelmed with questions in a loud and commanding tone, but when +they saw to what high personages our telegrams were addressed, and +were informed by their countryman Bove, who wore his uniform, to +what vessel we belonged, they became very obliging. One of them +accompanied us back to our boat, after providing us with excellent +torches which spread abundant light around our footsteps. They were +much needed, for we were now compelled to share the astonishment of +our guide that in the darkness we had succeeded in making our way +over the rugged hills covered with cactus plants and bushy thickets +between the railway and the coast, and along a railway viaduct which +we had passed on our way to the station without having any idea of +it. It was the last adventure of the voyage of the _Vega_, and my +first landing on the glorious soil of Italy. + +On the 14th February, at 1 P.M., the _Vega_ arrived at Naples. +At Capri a flag-ornamented steamer from Sorrento met us; somewhat +later, another from Naples, both of which accompanied us to the +harbour. Here the Swedish expedition was saluted by an American +war-vessel, the _Wyoming_, with twenty-one guns. The harbour swarmed +with boats adorned with flags. Scarcely had the _Vega_ anchored--or +more correctly been moored to a buoy--when the envoy LINDSTRAND, the +Swedish-Norwegian consul CLAUSEN, Prince TEANO, president of the +Geographical Society, Commander MARTIN FRANKLIN, Commendatore NEGRI, +and others came on board. The last-named, who nearly two years +before had made a special journey to Sweden to be present at the +departure of the _Vega_, now came from Turin commissioned by the +Italian government, and deputed by the municipalities of Florence +and Venice, the Turin Academy of Sciences, and several Italian and +foreign geographical societies, to welcome the Expedition, which had +now brought its labours to a happy issue. + +After Herr Lindstrand, as King Oscar's representative, had welcomed +the Expedition to Europe, and publicly conferred Swedish decorations +on Palander and me, and two adjutants of the Italian Ministry of +Marine had likewise distributed Italian orders to some of the _Vega_ +men, some short speeches were exchanged, on which the members of the +Expedition, accompanied by the persons enumerated above, landed in +the Admiral's steam-launch under a salute of twenty-one guns from +the Italian guard-ship. On the landing-quay, where a large crowd of +the inhabitants of the city was assembled, the Swedish seafarers +were received by the Syndic of Naples, Count GIUSSO, accompanied by +a deputation from the municipality, &c. Here we were taken, between +rows of enthusiastic students, in the gala carriages of the +municipality, to the Hotel Royal des Etrangeres, where a handsome +suite of apartments, along with equipages and numerous attendants, +was placed at our disposal. We were there received by the committee +in charge of the festivities, Prince BELMONTE and Cavalier RICCIO, +who afterwards, during our stay in the city, in the kindest way +arranged everything to make our stay there festive and agreeable. + +On Sunday the 15th several deputations were received, among them one +from the University. A beautifully-bound address was presented by +"Ateneo Benjammo Franklin," and a number of official visits were +made and received. We dined with the Swedish-Norwegian consul, +Clausen. On Monday the 16th an address was presented from "Scuola +d'Applicazione per gl'Ingenieri," and from "Neapolitana +Archaeologiae, Litterarum et Artium Academia," a song of welcome in +Latin, written by Professor ANTONIO MIRABELLI. Then followed a grand +dinner given by the municipality of the city in a hall of the hotel, +which was now inaugurated and was named the _Vega_ Hall, and was on +this occasion ornamented with the royal cipher, the Swedish and +Italian flags, &c. In the evening there was a gala representation at +San Carlo, where the members of the Expedition scattered among the +different boxes were saluted with repeated loud cries of +"Bravo!"--On Tuesday the 17th the Committee had arranged an +excursion to Lake Averno, the Temple of Serapis, and other places +famous in a geological and historical respect, situated to the +north-west of Naples. Prince URUSOV entertained some of the members +of the Expedition to dinner. There was an afternoon musical +entertainment at the "Societa Filarmonica," where there was a +numerous attendance of persons moving in the first circles in the +city.--Wednesday the 18th, excursion along with the Committee to +Pompeii, where the Swedish guests were received by the famous +superintendent of the excavations, Director RUGGIERI. Breakfast was +eaten with merry jests and gay speeches in a splendid Roman bath, +still in good preservation, excavations were undertaken, &c. In the +afternoon there was a grand dinner, followed by a reception by the +admiral in command, and a festive representation at the Bellini +Theatre.--Thursday the 19th, Dr. FRANZ KUeHN, arrived from Vienna, +deputed by the Geographical Society there to welcome us. Excursion +in company with Professor PALMIERI and the Committee to Vesuvius, +which at the time of our visit was emitting thick columns of smoke, +was pouring out a stream of lava, and casting out masses of glowing +stone. We ascended the border of the crater, not without +inconvenience from the heat of the half-solidified lava streams over +which we walked, from the gases escaping from the crater, and from +the red-hot stones flung out of it. The new railway, not then ready, +was inspected, and the observatory visited. We dined with the +Committee at the hotel--Friday the 20th, journey to Rome, where the +members of the Expedition arrived at 2 P.M., and were, in the same +way as at Naples, received in a festive manner by the Syndic of the +city, Prince RUSPOLI, president and director of the Geographical +Society, by members of the University, the Scandinavian Union, &c. +Carriages met the Swedish guests, in which they were taken past the +Swedish-Norwegian minister's hotel, decked with innumerable flags, +to Albergo di Roma in the Corso, where a splendid suite of +apartments, along with equipages, was placed at the disposal of the +Expedition. In the evening we dined with the Swedish minister, and +were afterwards received by Prince PALLAVICINI at his magnificent +palace--Saturday the 21st, visit to the Chamber of Deputies, private +excursions, dinner given by the Duke NICOLAS of Leuchtenberg, to +Nordenskioeld and Nordquist.--Sunday the 22nd, public meeting of the +Geographical Society, at which its grand gold medal was presented to +Nordenskioeld. In the evening a grand dinner, given by the +Geographical Society, in the Continental Hotel. Among the toasts +which were drunk may be mentioned one to the King of Sweden and +Norway, proposed in a very warm and eloquent speech by the Premier, +CAIROLI; to Nordenskioeld, by Prince Teano; to Palander, by the +Minister of Marine, Admiral ACTON; to the other members of the +Expedition, to its munificent patrons, Oscar Dickson and Alexander +Sibiriakoff, to Bove, the Italian officer, who took part in it, +&c.--Monday the 23rd. Audience of the King. In the evening a grand +reception at the Palazzo Teano, where almost all that was +distinguished and splendid of Roman society appeared to be +assembled.--Tuesday the 24th. Dined at the Quirinal with King +Humbert. There were present, besides the King and his suite, the +Swedish minister, the members of the _Vega_ expedition, Prince +Teano, President of the Geographical Society; Commendatore Negri; +Cairoli, Premier; Acton, Minister of Marine; MALVANO, Secretary of +the Cabinet; Major BARATIERI, and the Italian naval officer, EUGENIO +PARENT, a member of the Swedish Polar expedition of 1872-3, and +others. In the evening, reception by the English minister, Sir A.B. +PAGET, and a beautifully arranged _fete_ at the Scandinavian Union, +at which a number of enthusiastic speeches were made, and flowers +and printed verses were distributed.--Wednesday the 25th. Farewell +visits. Some of the members of the Expedition travelled north by +rail. Captain Palander made an excursion to Spezzia to take part in +a cruise on the large ironclad _Duilio_. The others remained some +days longer in Rome in order to see its lions, undisturbed by +official _fetes_. + +While the _Vega_ lay in the harbour of Naples she was literally +exposed to storming by visitors. The crew were on several occasions +invited to the theatres there by the managers. Excursions to Pompeii +had besides been arranged for them by the consul for the united +kingdoms, Clausen, who spared no pains to make the stay of the +expedition at Naples honouring to the mother-country and as pleasant +as possible to the guests, as well as in arranging the more formal +details of the visit. We had besides the joy of meeting in Italy our +comrade from the severe wintering of 1872-3, Eugenio Parent, who +soon after had the misfortune to be in the tower of the ironclad +_Duilio_, when the large Armstrong cannon placed there burst, and +the wonderful good fortune to escape with life and without being +seriously hurt from this dreadful accident. The only mishap on board +the _Vega_ during the latter part of her long voyage home occurred +besides in the harbour of Naples, one of the sailors who was keeping +back an enthusiastic crowd of people who stormed the _Vega_, being +thrown down from the bulwarks with the result that he broke an +arm.[392] + +On the 29th February the _Vega_ left the harbour of Naples, but no +longer with her staff complete. Doctors Kjellman, Almquist, and +Stuxberg, and Lieut. Nordquist had preferred the land route from +Italy to Stockholm to the long _detour_ by sea, and Lieut. Bove was +obliged, by family circumstances, to leave the _Vega_ at Naples. We, +however, all met again at Stockholm. At our departure from Naples +the gunroom _personnel_ thus consisted only of me, Captain Palander, +and Lieuts. Brusewitz and Hovgaard. + +Through M.A. RABAUT, President of the young, but already so well +known Geographical Society of Marseilles, I had received repeated +invitations to visit along with my companions the birthplace of +Pytheas, the first Polar explorer and the discoverer of the +Scandinavian Peninsula. With great reluctance I was compelled to +decline this invitation. We had to hasten home, and I wished to save +some days for a visit to the fatherland of HENRY the Navigator and +VASCO DA GAMA. + +We sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar on the 9th March, and +anchored in the harbour of Lisbon on the 11th March at 2 P.M. The +following day we made an excursion to the beautiful palace of Cintra, +situated about five Portuguese miles from the capital. On Saturday we +were received in audience by the King, Dom Luiz, of Portugal, who, a +seaman himself, appeared to take a great interest in the voyage of the +_Vega_. Later in the day the Swedish minister in Lisbon gave a dinner, +to which were invited the President of the Portuguese Council, the +Minister of Foreign Affairs, the members of the Diplomatic Corps, and +others, ending in the evening with a grand reception. On Monday the 15th +we were present by special invitation at a meeting of the Geographical +Society, at which the newly-returned African travellers, BRITO-CAPELLO +and IVEN, gave addresses. Here I had besides the great pleasure of +meeting the famous African traveller, Major SERPA PINTO. The King at the +same time honoured us with decorations, and at its meeting on the 10th +March the Portuguese Chamber of Deputies resolved, on the motion of the +Deputies ENNES and ALFREDO, to express its welcome and good wishes in a +congratulatory address to the _Vega_ men. + +We weighed anchor again on the 15th March. We were favoured at first +with a fresh breeze and made rapid progress, but at the entrance to the +Channel we met with a steady head-wind, so that it was not until the +evening of the 25th March, considerably later than we had counted on, +that we could anchor in the harbour of Falmouth, not, as was first +intended, in that of Portsmouth. We thus missed some preparations which +had been made at the latter place to welcome us to the land which stands +first in the line of those that have sent out explorers to the Polar +Seas. We besides missed a banquet which the Royal Geographical Society +had arranged in honour of the _Vega_ expedition, at which the Prince of +Wales was to have presided, and which now, in the midst of the Easter +holidays and a keenly-contested parliamentary election, could not be +held.[393] Our stay in England, at all events, was exceedingly pleasant. +Palander and I travelled on the night before Good Friday to London, +where we were received at the railway station by the Swedish minister, +Count PIPER, and a large number of our countrymen living in London. +Count Piper carried me to my future host, the distinguished Secretary of +the Geographical Society and famous Arctician and geographical writer, +CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, who did everything to make my stay in London as +pleasant and instructive as possible. Saturday was spent in paying +visits. On Easter Sunday Consul-General RICHTER gave a lunch in the +Continental Hotel, to which a considerable number of Scandinavians and +Englishmen were invited. The same evening we dined with the famous +Arctic traveller, Sir ALLEN YOUNG. On Monday we were invited by the Earl +of NORTHBROOK, President of the Geographical Society,[394] to his +country seat, Stratton, near Winchester. Here we saw the way--an +exceedingly quiet one--in which an English parliamentary election goes +on. The same day we paid a visit to Mr. SPOTTISWOODE, the President of +the Royal Society, at his magnificent country seat, in the neighbourhood +of London. Here I saw several instructive experiments with very large +machines for the production of light by electric discharges in highly +rarified air. Wednesday the 31st, grand dinner at the Swedish +minister's, and in the evening of the same day a Scandinavian _fete_ in +the Freemasons' Hall, at which there were great rejoicings according to +old northern usages. + +[Illustration: THE OFFICERS OF THE "VEGA." + E. Bruzewitz. + G. Bove. + A. Hovgaard. ] + +We started for Paris on the night before the 1st April. We went by +Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose Chamber of Commerce had invited us to a +_fete_ to celebrate the first landing of the _Vega_ men on the soil +of France after the North-east Passage was achieved. Several of the +authorities of the town and Dr. HAMY, a delegate from the +Geographical Society of Paris met us in the waiting-room at the +station. Here a breakfast had been arranged, in the course of which +we were presented to a number of eminent persons of the place, with +whom we afterwards passed the greater part of the day in the most +agreeable way. After making several excursions in the neighbourhood +of the town and paying the necessary official visits, we partook of +a festive dinner arranged by the municipality. From Boulogne we +travelled by night to Paris, arriving there on the 2nd April at +7 A.M. + +Notwithstanding the early morning hour we were received here at the +station in a festive way by the Swedish-Norwegian minister and the +_personnel_ of the Legation, a deputation from the Geographical +Society of Paris, and a considerable number of the members of the +Scandinavian colony in the capital of France. The famous Madagascar +traveller, GRANDIDIER, President of the Geographical Society's +Central Committee, welcomed us, with lively expressions of assent +from the surrounding crowd. We were invited during our stay in the +city to live with our countryman, A. NOBEL, in a very comfortable +villa belonging to him, Rue Malakoff, No. 53, and I cannot +sufficiently commend the liberal way in which he here discharged the +duties of a host and assisted us during our stay in Paris, which, +though very agreeable and honouring to us, demanded an extraordinary +amount of exertion. + +Our reception in Paris was magnificent, and it appeared as if the +metropolis of the world wished to show by the way in which she +honoured a feat of navigation that it is not without reason that she +bears on her shield a vessel surrounded by swelling billows. It is a +pleasant duty for me here to offer my thanks for all the goodwill +we, during those memorable days, enjoyed on the part of the +President of the Republic, of Admiral LA RONCIERE LE NOURY, +President of the Geographical Society, his colleague, M. HECHT, M. +MAUNOIR, the Secretary of the Society, M. QUATREFAGE, and M. +DAUBREE, members of the Institute, not to forget many other +Frenchmen and Scandinavians. Among the _fetes_ of Paris I must +confine myself to an enumeration of the principal ones. + +Friday, the 2nd April. Public _seance de reception_ by the Geographical +Society in the Cirque des Champs Elysee in the presence of a very large +and select audience. Admiral La Ronciere delivered the speech on this +occasion, which I replied to by giving a pretty full account of the +Swedish Arctic expeditions, on which the President handed me the large +gold medal of the Society "as a proof of the interest which the public +and the geographers of France take in the voyage of the _Vega_." Dined +the same day with the Swedish-Norwegian minister, SIBBERN.--Saturday the +3rd. Invitation to a festive meeting of delegates from twenty-eight +learned societies in France in the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne.[395] We +were greeted by the Minister of Education in a masterly and eloquent +speech, after which he conferred upon us, on the part of the Republic, +Commander's and Officer's Insignia of the French Legion of Honour. "A +reward," as the Minister of the _Republic_ expressed himself, "for the +blood of the brave and the sleepless nights of the learned." After that +an official dinner and reception by M. Jules Ferry.--On Sunday the 4th, +an address was presented from the Scandinavian Union, under the +presidency of Herr Fortmeijer. In the evening a brilliant entertainment +on a large scale given by the Scandinavian Union in the Hotel +Continental. Among those present may be mentioned Prince OSCAR of +Sweden, the President of the _Fete_ Committee, Herr JENSEN, Fru KRISTINA +NILSON-ROUZEAUD the Danish minister, the Swedish embassy, members of the +Russian embassy, a large number of Scandinavian artists, many of the +principal representatives of the French and foreign press, and lastly, +what ought perhaps to have been mentioned first, a flower-garden of +ladies, of which every dweller in the north might feel proud.--Monday +the 5th. Meeting of the Institute in its well-known hall, with speeches +of welcome. Hence we were conducted to a grand festive reception, +arranged beforehand to the minutest details by the Municipal Council, in +"la Salle des Etats," situated in that part of the Tuileries where the +Geographical Congress was held in 1878. The hall and the ascent to it +were richly ornamented with French tri-colours and Swedish flags, +beautiful Gobelins, and living plants. A number of speeches were made, +after which the President of the Municipal Council, on the part of the +City of Paris, presented to me a large, artistically executed medal as a +memorial of the voyage of the _Vega_[396]. In the evening a grand dinner +was given by the Societe de Geographie, with several eloquent speeches +for King Oscar (General Pittie), for President Grevy, for the prosperity +of France (Prince Oscar), for the _Vega_ expedition (M. Quatrefage), +and so on.--Tuesday the 6th. Dinner given by the President of the +Republic, M. Grevy, to Prince Oscar and the _Vega_ men then in +Paris.--Wednesday the 7th. Dinner given to a numerous and select company +of French _savants_ by the then President of the Geographical Society +and of the Institute, M.A. Daubree.--Thursday the 8th. Dinner to a +small circle at Victor Hugo's house, where the elderly poet and +youthful-minded enthusiast in very warm, and I need not say eloquent, +words congratulated me on the accomplishment of my task. Reception there +the same evening. + +Here ended our visit to the capital of France. Thoroughly exhausted, +but bringing with us memories which shall never pass away, we +travelled the following day to Vlissingen, whither the _Vega_ had +gone from Falmouth, under the command of Brusewitz. We had been +compelled to decline warm and hearty invitations to Holland and +Belgium from want of time and strength to take part in any more +festivities. The anchor was weighed immediately after we came on +board, and the course shaped for Copenhagen. At noon on the 15th we +passed Helsingborg, which was richly ornamented with flags for the +occasion. Already at Kullaberg we had been met by the steamer _H.P. +Prior_, with Lund students on board, and eight other steamers with +deputations of welcome and enthusiasts for the voyage of the _Vega_, +from Copenhagen, Malmoe, Helsingborg, and Elsinore. The number of +passengers was stated to be 1,500, including a number of ladies. +Songs were sung, speeches made, fireworks let off, &c. At night we +lay at anchor in the outer road of Copenhagen, so that it was not +until the following forenoon that we steamed into the harbour, +saluting the fort with nine shots of our little cannon, and saluted +in turn by as many. While the _Vega_ was sailing into the harbour, +and after she had anchored, there came on board the Swedish +Minister, Baron BECK-FRIIS, the Swedish consul-general EVERLOeF, the +representatives of the University, of the merchants, and of the +Geographical Society under the presidency of the former President of +the Council, Count HOLSTEIN-HOLSTEINBORG, to bring us a welcome from +the corporations they represented, and accompany us to the Toldbod, +where we were received by the President-in-chief, the Presidents of +the Communal Authority, and the Bourse, and the Swedish Unions of +Copenhagen. We then drove through the festively ornamented city, +saluted by resounding hurrahs, from a countless throng of human +beings, to the Hotel d'Angleterre, where apartments had been +prepared for us. On the 17th a _fete_ was given by the Geographical +Society in the Casino Hall, which was attended by the King, the +Crown Prince, and Prince John of Gluecksborg, and nearly all the +distinguished men of Copenhagen in the fields of science, business, +and politics. The speech of the _fete_ was delivered by Professor +ERSLEV. Thereafter a gay and lively banquet was given, at which the +Crown Prince of Denmark presided. + +The 18th April. Grand entertainment given by the King.--The 19th +April. Magnificent banquet given by the Society of Merchants to the +members of the _Vega_ expedition at the Bourse, the rooms being +richly ornamented with flowers and flags, and with busts and +paintings executed for the occasion by eminent artists. Councillor +of state MELCHIOR presided, and amongst those present, were observed +the Crown Prince, the ministers, the speakers and vice-speakers of +the _folke-_ and _lands-ting_, and a number of the principal +scientific and military men and officials. Speeches were delivered +by the Crown Prince, State-councillor TEITGEN, Manager of the Great +Northern Telegraph Company, Admiral BILLE, Professor MADVIG, +State-councillor Melchior, &c. At another place, an entertainment +was given at the same time to the crew. In the evening, _fete_ of +the Students' Union, the Swedish National Union, and the Norwegian +Union. + +I was obliged to decline an invitation to Lund, because his Majesty, +King Oscar, had expressed the wish that we should first set foot on +Swedish ground at the Palace of Stockholm. + +It was settled that our entry into Stockholm should take place in +the evening of the 24th April, but we started from Copenhagen as +early as the night before the 20th in order to be sure that we would +not, in consequence of head winds or other unforeseen hindrances, +arrive too late for the festivities in the capital of Sweden. In +consequence of this precaution we arrived at the archipelago of +Stockholm as early as the 23rd, so that we were compelled during the +night between the 23rd and 24th to lie still at Dalaroe. Here we were +met by Commander LAGERCRANTZ, who by the King's orders brought our +families on the steamer _Skoeldmoen_ to meet us. + +[Illustration: THE CREW OF THE "VEGA." After a photograph taken at +Naples. ] + +On the 24th at 8 A.M. the _Vega_ again weighed anchor in order to +steam on slowly, past Vaxholm into Stockholm. We met innumerable +flag-decked steamers by the way, fully laden with friends, known and +unknown, who with shouts of rejoicing welcomed the _Vega_ men home. +The nearer we came to Stockholm, the greater became the number of +steamers, that, arranged in a double line and headed by the _Vega_, +slowly approached the harbour. Lanterns in variegated colours were +lighted on the vessels, fireworks were let off, and the roar of +cannon mingled with the loud hurrahs of thousands of spectators. +After being greeted at Kastelholmen with one salute more the _Vega_ +anchored in the stream in Stockholm at 10 P.M. + +The queen of the Maelar had clothed herself for the occasion in a +festive dress of incomparable splendour. The city was illuminated, +the buildings round the harbour being in the first rank. Specially +had the King done everything to make the reception of the _Vega_ +expedition, which he had so warmly cherished from the first moment, +as magnificent as possible. The whole of the Royal Palace was +radiant with a sea of lights and flames, and was ornamented with +symbols and ciphers in which the name of the youngest sailor on the +_Vega_ was not omitted. + +An estrade had been erected from Logaorden to the landing-place. +Here we were received by the town councillors, whose president, the +Governor, welcomed us in a short speech, we were then conducted to +the Palace, where, in the presence of her Majesty the Queen of +Sweden, the members of the Royal House, the highest officials of the +State and Court, &c., we were in the grandest manner welcomed in the +name of the fatherland by the King of Sweden, who at the same time +conferred upon us further marks of his favour and goodwill[397]. It +was also at the Royal Palace that the series of festivities +commenced with a grand gala dinner, on the 25th of April, at which +the King in a few magnanimous words praised the exploit of the +_Vega_. Then _fete_ followed _fete_ for several weeks. + +On the 26th the Swedish Yacht Club gave an entertainment in the +Grand Hotel under the presidency of Admiral Lagercrantz. Among those +who were present may be mentioned his Majesty the King, the Crown +Prince, Prince Oscar, Oscar Dickson, and Baron von Otter, Minister +of Marine. On the evening of the same day there was a torchlight +procession by pupils of the Technical High School. On the 27th there +was a gala-play, to which all the _Vega_ men were invited. On the +28th at a festive meeting of the Academy of the Sciences, a medal +struck on account of the _Vega_ expedition was distributed, the +meeting being followed by a dinner given at the Hotel Phoenix by the +Academy under the presidency of the Crown Prince. On the 30th April +and 5th May banquets were given by the Publicist Club, and by the +Idun Society, by the Naval Officers' Society to the officers of the +_Vega_, and by the Stockholm Workman's Union to the crew. On the 7th +and 8th May there were festivities at Upsala, the principal +attraction of which consisted of gay, lively, and ingenious carnival +representations, in which we received jocular addresses and homage +from fantastically dressed representatives of the peoples of +different countries and periods. + +[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE OF THE "VEGA" INTO STOCKHOLM ON THE 24TH +APRIL, 1880. ] + +During this time there were daily received deputations addresses, +and telegrams of welcome, among others from the _riksdag_ of Sweden, +the _storting_ of Norway, and the principal towns of Norway and +Finland, from the student corps at Upsala and Helsingborg, from the +St. Petersburg Geographical Society, from women in Northern Russia +(the address accompanied by a laurel wreath in silver), &c. In a +word, the Stockholm _fetes_ formed the climax of the remarkable +triumphal procession from Japan to Stockholm, which stands unique in +the history of festivities. Even after the Expedition was broken up +in Stockholm, and the _Vega_ had sailed on the 9th May for +Karlskrona and Gothenburg, where she was again taken over by the +whaling company that previously owned her, the _fetes_ were repeated +at these towns. They commenced anew when the _Vega_ exhibition was +opened with appropriate solemnities by His Majesty the King in one +of the wings of the Royal Palace, and when some months after I +visited Berlin, St. Petersburg, and my old dear fatherland, Finland. + +But I may not weary my reader with more notes of festivities. It is +my wish yet once again to offer my comrades' and my own thanks for +all the honours conferred upon us both in foreign lands and in the +Scandinavian North. And in conclusion I wish to express the hope +that the way in which the accounts of the successful voyage of the +_Vega_ have been received in all countries will give encouragement +to new campaigns in the service of research, until the natural +history of the Siberian Polar Sea be completely investigated and +till the veil that still conceals the enormous areas of land and sea +at the north and south poles be completely removed, until man at +last knows at least the main features of the whole of the planet +which has been assigned him as a dwelling-place in the depths of the +universe. + +Hearty thanks last of all to my companions during the voyage of the +_Vega_; to her distinguished commander Louis Palander, her +scientific men and officers, her petty officers and crew. Without +their courage and the devotion they showed to the task that lay +before us, the problem of the North-East Passage would perhaps still +be waiting for its solution. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: Map of the North Coast of the Old World from Norway to + Behring's Straits, with the track of the _Vega_, constructed + from old and recent sources, and from observations made during the + Voyage of the _Vega_, by N. Selander, Captain in the General Staff. ] + + +ABSTRACT OF THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA + + Distance traversed + English + 1878 geographical miles + Karlskrona--Copenhagen June 22--24 144 + Copenhagen--Gothenburg ,, 26, 27 134 + Gothenburg--Tromsoe July 4--17 1,040 + Tromsoe--Chabarova ,, 21--30 930 + Chabarova--Port Dickson Aug 1--6 580 + Port Dickson--Cape Chelyuskin ,, 10--19 510 + Cape Chelyuskin--Preobraschenie Island ,, 20--24 385 + Preobraschenie Island--the Mouth of the Lena ,, 24--27 380 + The Mouth of the Lena--Irkaipij Aug 27--Sept 12 1,260 + Irkaipij--Pitlekaj Sept 18--28 235 + _The Wintering_ Sept 28, 1878-- + July 18, 1879 + + 1879 + Pitlekaj--St. Lawrence Bay July 18--20 190 + St. Lawrence Bay--Port Clarence ,, 21, 22 120 + Port Clarence--Konyam Bay ,, 26--28 160 + Konyam Bay--St. Lawrence Island ,, 30, 31 90 + St. Lawrence Island--Behring Island Aug 2--14 900 + Behring Island--Yokohama Aug. 19--Sept 2 1,715 + Yokohama--Kobe Oct. 11--13 360 + Kobe--Nagasaki ,, 18--21 410 + Nagasaki--Hong Kong Oct. 27--Nov 2 1,080 + Hong Kong--Labuan Nov. 9--17 1,040 + Labuan--Singapore ,, 21--28 750 + Singapore--Point de Galle Dec. 4--15 1,510 + Point de Galle--Aden Dec. 22--Jan. 7, 1880 2,200 + + 1880 + Aden--Suez Jan. 9--27 1,320 + Suez--Naples Feb. 3--14 1,200 + Naples--Lisbon Feb. 29--March 11 1,420 + Lisbon--Falmouth March 16--25 745 + Falmouth--Vlissingen April 5--8 345 + Vlissingen--Copenhagen ,, 10--16 632 + Copenhagen--Stockholm ,, 20--24 404 + --------- + Total 22,189 + + +[Footnote 392: An accident also happened during the first half of +the expedition, the steersman, in backing among drift-ice, having +been thrown over the wheel and hurt very seriously. ] + +[Footnote 393: Further particulars on this point are given in the +Annual Address on the Progress of Geography by the Right Hon. the +Earl of Northbrook (_Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, +1880, p. 401). ] + +[Footnote 394: During our visit to London we had no opportunity of +taking part in any of the meetings of the Society, but some time +after the Society gave Palander the Founders Gold Medal (I had in +1869 obtained the same distinction) and elected me an Honorary +Corresponding Member. ] + +[Footnote 395: These are enumerated in the _Bulletin de la Societe +de Geographie_, Mai, 1880, p. 463. In the same part (p. 450) there +is also a report of the speeches made at the _seance de reception_. ] + +[Footnote 396: The medal was accompanied by an "extrait du registre +de proces-verbaux du conseil municipal de la ville de Paris," a +caligraphic masterpiece illuminated in various colours and gold. The +_Conseil municipal_ also ordered a detailed description of the +_fete_ to be printed, with the title _Relation officielle de le +reception de M. le Professeur Nordenskioeld par le conseil municipal +de Paris le lundi 5 Avril_ 1880. ] + +[Footnote 397: Among others to all who took part in the Expedition a +_Vega_ medal, specially struck, to be worn on a blue-yellow riband +on the breast. It may perhaps be of interest for numismatists to +know that the medals distributed on account of the _Vega_ expedition +are to be found delineated in the eighth and ninth parts of the +Swedish Family Journal for 1880. To those that are there delineated +there have since been added a medal struck by the Finnish Society of +Sciences, and the Anthropological-Geographical Society's medal. ] + + + + +INDEX. + + +INDEX. + +(_n_ after the number of a page signifies note) + +A + +Aagaard, Aage, i. 302_n_ + +_Acanthostephia Malmgreni_, ii. 49 + +Actinia Bay, i. 331 + +Acton, Admiral, ii. 446 + +Adam's mammoth _find_, i. 408 + +Adam's Peak, ii. 431 + +Adam's wood, ii. 209 + +Aden, ii. 437 + +Ahlquist, A.E., i. 103 + +Aino race, the, ii. 199 + +Aitanga, Chukch woman, ii. 57; portrait, ii. 8 + +Akja, Lapp sledge, i. 83 + +Alasej, the river, discovered, ii. 161; + mammoth _find_ at, i. 408 +Alaska, ii. 196 + +Alaska Commercial Company, ii. 257 + +_Alauda alpestris_, i. 129_n_ + +Albertus Magnus, i. 159 + +Alecto, _see_ Antedon + +Aleutian Islands, the, i. 161_n_, ii. 274_n_, 275_n_; + discovered, ii. 196 + +Alexejev, Feodot, ii. 162, 164, 167 + +Alfred the Great, i. 46, 47, 215 + +Algae, on the inland-ice of Greenland, i. 178; + in the Kara Sea, i. 185; + at Behring Island, ii. 292 + +Alibert's graphite quarry, ii. 235 + +Alkhornet, i. 112 + +Almquist, E., i. 4, 37, 38, 93, 187, 208, 319, 320, 340, 436, 444, +465, 478, 504, 505; + ii. 32, 242, 414, 434; + excursion to Beli Ostrov, i. 200; + report on a dead man laid out on the tundra, ii. 89; + on the colour-sense of the Chukches, ii. 135; + excursion in Ceylon, ii. 427; + portrait, ii. 435. + +Alophus (beetle), ii. 55 + +Altaic races, i. 103 + +Amber in China, ii. 399 + +America, the north-west coast of, first visited by Europeans, + ii. 210_n_; + Russian voyages to, ii, 196. + +American whaler, near the _Vega's_ winter-quarters, i. 467; + voyages in the Siberian Polar sea, i. 27; + accounts of the state of the ice north of Behring's Straits, i. 459 + +Amezaga, Captain, ii. 439 + +Ammonites with gold lustre, i. 273 + +Amossov, Feodot, ii. 170, 171 + +Amoretti, Carlo, ii. 215 + +Amulets, Chukch, i. 503, ii. 126, 134; + Eskimo, ii. 239 + +Anadyr, the river, i. 22; ii. 75, 76, 164, 165, 167, 195; + is discovered, ii. 162 + +Anadyrsk, ii. 165, 172 + +Anauls, ii. 166 + +Andersen, the photographer, ii. 304 + +Andrejev Land, ii. 202 + +Andrejev, Sergeant, ii. 202, 203 + +Androphagi, i. 77_n_; ii. 157_n_ + +Angara river, the, i. 374 + +Anian Sound, the, ii. 215. + +Anika, Russian peasant, ii. 158 + +Anjou, Peter Feodorovitsch, i. 23; + journey, ii. 209; + portrait, ii. 207 + +Anjui river, market at the, ii. 14, 118 + +Ankudinov, Gerasim, i. 22; ii. 163, 167_n_ + +_Anser bernicla_, i. 118, 119, 247_n_; + seen during the expedition, i. 321, 334, 343 + +---- _brachyrhynchus_, i. 126 + +---- _hyperboreus_, ii. 42 + +---- _leucopsis_, i. 126 + +---- _pictus_, ii. 42 + +---- _segetum_, i. 126 + +_Antedon Eschrichtii_, i. 324, 325 + +Anziphorov, the Cossack, ii. 174 + +Arachnids on Novaya Zemlya, i. 148 + +Archangel, i 167 + +Arimaspi, Herodotus' statement regarding, i. 407; ii. 150 + +Arnell, Dr., i. 383 + +_Arvicola obscurus_, ii. 44 + +Arzina, the situation of, i. 66 + +Asamayama, ascent of, ii. 349; + descent of, ii. 351 + +Asia, views regarding its geography in the beginning of the +18th century, ii. 177 + +Astronomical determinations of position, the first in Siberia, ii. 178_n_ + +Atlassov, Volodimir, ii. 72, 167, 172 + +Aurora, the, at the _Vega's_ winter quarters, ii. 35 + +Austrian Arctic Expedition, i. 266, 300 + +Avatscha Bay, ii. 181, 196 + +Avril, Ph., i. 400 + + +B + +BACHOFF, Ivan, ii. 200 + +Baer, K.E. von, i. 158; ii. 183, 276; + voyage to Novaya Zemlya, i. 282 + +Baikal Lake, i. 374 + +_Balaena Mysticetus_, i. 151, 169 + +_Balaenoptera Sibbaldii_, i. 170 + +Baratieri, Major, ii. 446 + +Barents, i. 101, 108_n_, 422, 423; + voyages, i. 232; + wintering, i. 249; + death, i. 253; + discovery of relics from his wintering, i. 300 + +Barjatinsky, Ivan Petrovitsch, ii. 169 + +Barnacle Goose, see _Anser bernicla_ + +Barrington, D., i. 265 + +Barrow, J., i. 230; ii. 215 + +Bartlett, W., i. 467 + +Bassendine, James, i. 229 + +Baths in Japan, ii. 345 + +Baumhauer, ii. 36 + +Bavier, Consul, ii. 312, 326, 327 + +Bay-ice, i. 424 + +Beaker sponges, i. 426, 427 + +Bear Island, i. 12, 108, 115, 152; + discovery of, i. 247 + +Bear Islands, the, ii. 171_n_, 195, 201, 202; + the _Vega_ arrives at, i. 421; + geological formation, i. 428 + +Bear, land, ii. 45; _see_ Polar bear + +Beccari, ii. 439 + +Beck Friis, Baron, ii. 455 + +Beechey, F.W., i. 28; ii. 228_n_ + +Behemoth, i. 400 + +Behring, Vitus, i. 25, 28; ii. 183_n_, 193, 265; + first voyage, ii. 179; + second voyage, ii. 196; + stay on Behring Island, ii. 265; + death, ii. 265 + +Behring the younger, Captain, ii. 211 + +Behring Island, ii. 257; + discovered, ii. 197, 262 + +Behring's Straits, ii. 218; + its hydrography, ii. 242; + is discovered, ii. 180, 181 + +Beli, Ostrov, i. 187; + excursion to, i. 200; + description of, i. 201; + former visit to, i. 205; + mapping of, ii. 185 + +Bellot, J.R., ii. 57 + +Belmonte, Prince, ii. 444 + +Bell Sound, i. 112, 122, 125, 129, 137, 183 + +Beluga, _see_ White whale + +Beluga Bay, i. 361 + +Bennet, Stephen, i. 152, 158, 291 + +Bentinck, Swedish officer, ii. 76_n_ + +Beormas, i. 48, 51 + +Beresov, ii. 184 + +Berggren, Sven, i. 176 + +Beryl, ii. 422 + +Berzelius, ii. 325 + +Besimannaja Bay, i. 73, 112, 344 + +Busk, i. 373 + +Bille, Admiral, ii. 456 + +Billings, J., ii. 78, 203, 254_n_ + +Biwa Lake, ii. 370 + +Bjelkov, hunter, ii. 204, 206 + +Black-lead pencil first mentioned, ii. 235_n_ + +Blischni Island, _see_ Ljachoff's Island + +Bludnaya river, the, ii. 191 + +Boedtker, Consul-general, ii. 440 + +Bog iron ore formations in the Kara Sea, i. 185, 186 + +Bolschaja Reka, ii. 196, 199 + +Bolschoj, Kamen, i. 173 + +Bolvan worship, Samoyed, i. 79, 87, 95 + +_Bona Confidentia_ (vessel), i. 59; + its fate, i. 225 + +_Bona Esperanza_,(vessel), i. 59; + its fate, i. 225 + +Books, purchase of Japanese, ii. 364 + +Boergen, Dr., i. 143 + +Borgmaestareport, i. 115 + +Borneo, ii. 407, 413; + excursion to the interior of, ii. 409 + +Borrowdale, graphite deposit at, ii. 235 + +Bosman, Cornelis, i. 257 + +Boulogne-sur-mer, arrival at, ii. 451 + +Bove, G., i. 4, 39, 190, 318, 502; ii. 2, 47, 242, 409, 447; + excursion to Najtskaj, ii. 20; + to the interior of the Chukch Peninsula, ii. 28; + portrait, ii. 449 + +Bragin, Dmitri, ii. 275 + +Brandt, J.F., ii. 275, 276 + +Brandt, W., i. 279 + +Brandy, i. 440; ii. 116, 118 + +Brandywine Bay, i. 108 + +Briochov Islands, i. 210, 359, 381 + +Brown, Richard, i. 229_n_ + +Bruin, Cornelis de, ii. 72 + +Brun, Captain, i. 360 + +Brunel, Oliver, i. 234 + +Bruzewitz, E., i. 4, 39, 339, 353; ii. 18, 44, 447, 455; + his measurements of the thickness of the ice, i. 465; + excursion to Najtskaj, ii. 7; + portrait, ii. 449 + +Buache, ii. 171 + +Buckland, John, i. 225 + +Buckland, William, ii. 228_n_ + +Buddhism in Japan, ii. 378 + +Buldakov, Timofej, ii. 163 + +Bulun, i. 362, 368 + +Burgomaster, i. 114; + met with during the voyage, i. 191, 352; ii. 42 + +Burney, James, ii. 178 + +Burrough, Stephen, i. 60, 100, 169; + his voyage, i. 217 + +Busa, Elisej, ii. 160 + +Busch, Henry, ii. 175 + +Buys, N., ii. 243 + +Bychov mouth of the Lena, the, i. 367; ii. 194 + + +C + +CABOOK, ii. 420, 421 + +Cabot, Sebastian, i. 56, 58, 217; + portrait, i. 59 + +Cadamosto, ii. 73_n_ + +Cairo, stay in, ii. 443 + +Cairoli, premier, ii. 445, 446 + +Cannibals in the North, i. 77_n_; ii. 157_n_ +Canton, ii. 398 + +Cape Baranov, i. 25, 428; ii. 195, 206 + +Cape Borchaja, ii. 194 + +Cape Chelyuskin, i. 13, 19; + arrival at, i. 336 + reindeer there, i. 344, ii. 192_n_; + flora, i. 340; + is discovered, i. 17, 20; ii. 193 + +Cape Deschnev, ii. 68, 181 + +Cape Kammennoj, ii. 206 + +Cape Mattesol, ii. 186 + +Cape Medinski Savorot, ii. 223_n_ + +Cape Nassau, ii. 234 + +Cape North, i. 442; ii. 210 + +Cape Olenek, i. 363 + +Cape Onman, i. 456 + +Cape Prince of Wales, ii. 226 + +Cape Ruski Savorot, i. 223 + +Cape Schaitanskoj, i. 381 + +Cape Schelagskoj, i. 426, 447; ii. 201, 202 + +Cape St. John, i. 221, 222 + +Cape Thaddeus, i. 20; ii. 190 + +Cape Voronov, i. 219_n_ + +Cape Yakan, i. 27, 447 + +Capello, Brito, ii. 453 + +_Carabus truncaticollis_, ii. 55 + +Carlsen, Elling, ii. 294, 300 + +Carska Bay, i. 172 + +Carthaginians' traffic with African races, ii. 73 + +Caspian Sea, former views regarding, ii. 151 + +Castren's Island, i. 133 + +Ceylon, stay at, ii. 414; + natives, ii. 424 + +Chabarova, i. 75; + church of, i. 76 + +Chacke, Martin, ii. 214 + +Chamisso, A. von, ii. 235_n_ + +Chancelor, Richard, i. 13, 60; + his voyage, i. 67; + his death, i. 226_n_ + +Chatanga Bay, i. 20; ii. 189, 190 + +Chatanga river, the, i. 354; ii. 188, 192 + +Cheltinga, midshipman, ii. 198 + +Chenizyn, ii. 206, 209 + +China, stay in, ii. 396; + communication with Europe, i. 373; + its future, ii. 403 + +Chinese in Japan, ii. 363 + at Hong Kong, their treatment, ii. 402; + in Borneo, ii. 412 + +_Chionoecetes opilio_, ii. 63, 242 + +Cholodilov, ii. 270_n_ + +Chukches, the, compared with other Polar races, i. 92, 146; + first meeting with, i. 430; + at Cape Yakan, i. 433; + barter with the, i. 439; + at Irkaipij, i. 449; + visit the _Vega_, i. 486, 513; + at Cape Deschnev, ii. 220; + at Konyam Bay, ii. 221, 245, 246; + on the American side of Behring's Straits, ii. 81, 232; + divided into reindeer and coast Chukches, ii. 81; + number of, ii. 81; + removals, ii. 93; + carry on traffic between America and Siberia, ii. 14, 118; + language, i. 489; ii. 82; + diseases, ii. 87; + position of the women, ii. 138; + their history, _physique_, disposition, and manners, ii. 70 + +Chukotskojnos, i. 22; ii. 79, 164, 212 + +Chvoinoff, landmeasurer, i. 418; ii. 204 + +Chydenius, Carl, i. 142 + +Clarke, Charles, ii. 211 + +Clausen, Consul, ii. 443, 444, 446 + +Clothing, i. 37; + of the _Vega_ men, i. 476 + +Cloudberries, a powerful antiscorbutic, i. 42, 44 + +Cochrane, John Dundas, ii. 178 + +Coffee plantations, ii. 432 + +Coleoptera in Novaya Zemlya, i. 148; + in North Siberia, i. 321; + at Port Clarence, ii. 242 + +Collie, Dr., ii. 228_n_ + +Colmogro, i, 225; ii. 156 + +Colombo (Ceylon), ii. 427 + +Colour-blindness, ii. 135 + +Colours, Chukch, ii. 135 + +Commander's Islands, ii. 257 + +Cook, James, i. 13, 25, 28, 442, 445_n_; ii. 210 + +Cooke, Mr, ii. 408 + +Copenhagen, the _Vega_ calls at, i. 4; + reception at, ii. 455 + +Copper Island, ii. 257, 261, 270, 275 + +Corea, whales with European harpoons caught at, i. 264; + Japanese campaign to, ii. 380 + +Coregonus caught by the Chukches, i. 494; ii. 18, 19 + +Corpse found in Chukch Land, i. 505; ii. 89 + +Corundum, ii. 400, 423 + +Cosmic dust, i. 329 + +Coughtrie, J.B., ii. 401 + +Coxe, J.H., ii. 211 + +Croyere, L'Isle de la, ii. 196, 198, 200 + +Crustacea, phosphorescent, ii. 55, 56 + +Cruys Eiland, i. 234 + +Crystals found on the ice, i. 327 + +Currents in the Siberian Polar Sea, i. 18 + +_Cyqnus Bewickii_, i. 127 + +_Cystophora cristata_, i. 165 + + +D + +Daat Island, i. 409 + +Dahl, Captain, i. 314 + +Daibutsu statues, ii. 379 + +Dale, Fr. de la, i. 237, 243 + +Dall, W.H. i. 459; ii. 213, 228_n_ + +_Dallia delicatissima_, ii. 59, 242 + +Dallmann, Captain, i. 313, 360, 459 + +Daubree, A., ii. 454 + +David, Russian ambassador, i. 54 + +_Dawn_ (vessel), the, i. 317 + +Day-reckoning on board the _Vega_, i. 453_n_ + +Delisle, i. 171 + +De Long, Captain, i. 489 + +Dementiev, ii. 198 + +Deschnev Simeon, i. 20, 21, 25; ii. 181, 194; + voyages of, ii. 164 + +Devil's Temple at Ratnapoora, ii. 427 + +Diamonds, ii. 416,422 + +_Diastylis Rathkei_, i. 198, 199 + +Diatoms, fresh-water, on sea ice, i. 189 + +Dickson Island, i. 191 + +Dietary of the expedition, i. 478 + +Diomede Island, ii. 218 + +Disco Island, i. 147_n_ + +Dittmar, C. von, ii. 79, 118 + +Dixon, Alexander C., ii. 414 + +Dog-fish, ii. 59 + +Dogs, Samoyed, i. 83; + tow boats on the Yenisej, i. 385; + Chukch, i. 501; ii. 94; + sacrificed, ii. 255 + +Dolgans, i. 373 + +Dolgoi Island, i. 223, 236; ii. 184 + +Donis, Nic, i. 51; ii. 152 + +Doria, Marquis, ii. 439 + +Doerma, hunter, i. 300 + +_Draba alpina_, i. 340, 341; ii. 224 + +Dredgings, zoological, i. 174, 198, 324, 345, 350, 420, 426, 432, + 451, 455; + ii. 47, 68, 242, 362, 438 + +Driftwood, at Port Dickson, i. 198; + at Beli Ostrov. i. 201 + +Drums, Shaman, ii. 24, 129 + +Dsungaria, i. 374 + +Dudino, i. 359; ii 192; + thanksgiving service at, i. 369 + +Du Halde J.B., ii. 180_n_ + +Durfoorth, Cornelius, i. 60 + +Dutch, first voyage of the, i. 231; + second voyage, i. 243; + third voyage, i. 245 + +Dwina, the river, i. 54, 56, 67; ii. 157 + +Dyaks, ii. 323 + +Dybovski, Benedikt, ii. 294 + + +E + +Earth, changes of the surface of the, + in the arctic regions, i. 438 + +East Cape, ii. 63,181 + +Edge, Thomas, i. 62_n_ + +Edward VI. of England, i. 58 + +_Edward Bonaventure(_vessel) i. 60, 66, 218; + its fate i. 225_n_ + +Egypt, stay in, ii. 432 + +Ehlertz, Russian official, i. 360 + +Eider, i. 123, 191, 208; + import of down, i. 125_n_ + +Eisen, G., i. 148 + +Elfving N.A., i. 460 + +Elliott, H.W., i. 162; ii. 258, 281_n_, 282 + +_Elpidia glacialis_, i. 184, 186 + +_Emberiza lapponica_, i. 129_n_; ii. 62 + +_Emberiza nivalis_, i. 129_n_, 191, 320, 334; ii. 41 + +Emeralds, ii. 422 + +England, stay in, ii. 448; + development of its navigation, i. 58, + north-east voyages from, i. 60, 215 + +_Enhydris lutris_, ii. 266, 271 + +Enontekis, the climate of, i. 45 + +Enoshima, excursion to, ii. 315 + +Ensamheten (island), i. 175, 335 + +Envall, A., i. 11 + +Erik the Red, ii. 146 + +Eschscholz Bay, ii. 212, 228 + +Eskimo in North America, i. 90, ii. 78_n_, 145 + +Eskimo at Port Clarence, banter with, ii. 228, 236; + dress, ii. 232; + implements ii. 229,233; + boats, ii. 228; + carvings, ii. 237, 240, 241; + artistic skill, ii. 134; + graves, ii. 239, 240; + religion, ii. 239_n_ + +Eskimo in Asia, ii. 221 + +Eskimo on St. Lawrence Island, ii. 250 + +_Eumetopias Stelleri_, i. 446_n_; ii. 272, 274, 290 + +Europaeus, E.D., i. 203 + +_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, ii. 43 + +Everloef, Consul-general, ii. 455 + +Evertebrates living by turns in fresh and salt water, i. 198 + +Exhibitions, Japanese, ii. 311, 390 + +Exiles, Siberian, i. 387 + +_Express_ (ship), i. 9, 74, 174, 189, 200; + voyage of, i. 357 + + +F + +Faddeyev Island, ii. 204, 206 + +Falcons on Yalmal i. 208 + +Falmouth, arrival at, ii. 448 + +Feodor, the Cossack, i. 195, 358 + +Ferry, Jules, i. 453 + +Figurin, the surgeon, ii. 209 + +Finmark, the settlement of, i. 51 + +Fins carry on navigation in the Murman Sea, i. 219, 239 + +Finsch, Richard, i. 76_n_, 172 + +Finsch, O., i. 205 + +Fire-drill, Chukch, ii. 121 + +Fixed dwellings, i. 193_n_ + +Flawes, Captain, i. 260 + +Fletcher, Giles, i. 101 + +Foehn wind, the, i. 276; ii. 35 + +Fomin, the Yakut, i. 17 + +Food-plants, Chukch, ii. 110 + +Ford, Charles, ii. 401 + +Foreland Sound, the, i. 137 + +Fossil plants at Mogi, ii. 392; + at Labaan, ii. 407; + in Egypt, ii. 440 + +Foal Bay, i. 106, 180 + +Fox, the Arctic (or mountain), i. 146; ii. 44, 269, 270; + common _ib._ + +Foeyn, Svend, i. 170 + +Fra Mauro's map, ii. 155 + +Franklin, Martin, ii. 443 + +Franz Josef Land, i. 182_n_, 266, 302, 422 + +_Fraser_ (steamer), i. 9, 74, 174, 187, 189, 318; + voyage, i. 357 + +Fretum Nassovicum (Yugor Schar), i. 14, 172, 242 + +Frost-bite, i. 474; ii. 87 + +Frost-formation, the Siberian, ii. 60 + +Frozen ground in Finland, ii. 60_n_ + +Fruholm, the climate of, i. 45_n_ + +_Fuligula glacialis_, i. 126, 208; + found during the expedition, i. 334; ii. 46 + +---- _Stelleri_, ii. 46 + +Fusiyama, ii. 299, 370 + +_Fusus deformis_, ii. 243 + + +G + +_Gadus navaga_, i. 481 + +Gagarin, Prince, ii. 175 + +Gama, Vasco da, ii. 153 + +Gardiner, Charles, i. 301 + +Geertz, Dr., ii. 326, 364 + +Gefferson, William, i. 60 + +Gessner, Conrad, ii. 235_n_ + +Gillissy (Yenisej), i. 243, 244 + +Giusso, Count, ii. 443 + +Glacier-iceblocks in the Polar seas, ii. 422; + burst asunder, i. 424 + +Glaciers, various kinds of, i. 181; + formerly in North-Eastern Asia, ii. 227, 246 + +Gmelin, ii. 199 + +Gold lustre, stones with, on Novaya Zemlya, i. 273, 277 + +Gold diggings, Siberian, i. 393 + +Golovin, second mate, ii. 184 + +Golovin, Captain, ii. 329 + +Goltschicha, i. 193, 194, 313 + +Gooseland, i. 72, 126 + +Goreloj, Andrej, ii. 168 + +_Gorm_ (larva of _Oestrus tarandi_), i. 137; + ii. 129, 143 + +Gosho, palace in Kioto, ii. 374 + +Gothenburg, i. 34 + +Goulden, Captain, i. 264 + +Gourdon, William, i. 256 + +_Graculus bicristatus_, i. 453 + +Grandidier, ii. 452 + +Granite, weathered, ii. 419 + +Grant, U.S., General, ii. 333 + +Graphite, ii. 235 + +Graves, Siberian, i. 393; + Chukch, i. 437; ii. 89, 225; + Eskimo, ii. 238 + +Grebnitski, ii. 291_n_, 294 + +Greeks, geographical ideas of the, ii. 148 + +Green Harbour, i. 136 + +Greenland said to be continuous with Norway, i. 51; + Inland-ice, i. 176 + +Greenland seal, i. 164, 165 + +Greenlander's dress, i. 41; + compared with other Polar races, i. 90; ii. 144; + are descended from Norse colonists, ii. 145 + +Grevy, President, ii. 452, 454 + +"Grip-claws" found in Siberia, ii. 408 + +Gubin, mate, i. 274 + +Gundersen, captain of the _Express_, i. 9 + +Gundersen, M., i. 301 + +Gusinnaya Semlya, _see_ Gooseland + +Gustaf Vasa's plan of a north-east passage, i. 57 + +Guturov, Peter, ii. 174 + +Gvosdarev, mate, i. 279 + +Gvosdev, Michael, ii. 74, 210_n_ + +Gyda Bay surveyed, ii. 186 + +Gygax, Dr, ii. 419 + + +H + +Haga dust, the, i. 330 + +Haimann, Guiseppe, ii. 440 + +Hakluyt, Richard, i. 60_n_ + +Hall, Captain, ii. 211 + +Halos, i. 246, 518 + +Hamy, Dr., ii. 452 + +Hardy, R. Spence, ii. 404 + +Hares, i. 507; ii. 44; + snow-blind, i. 508. + +Hartman, Hendrik, i. 243 + +Haven, P. von, ii. 186_n_ + +Health, state of, during the wintering, i. 478 + +Hecht, ii. 452 + +Hedenstroem, i. 23, 143, 408; + travels, ii. 205; + life, ii. 203_n_ + +Heemskerk, i. 254 + +Hellant, A., ii. 6_n_ + +Hennessy, Pope, ii. 401, 403 + +Hens, Jacob, ii. 74 + +Herald Island, ii. 212 + +Herbertsten, Sigismund von, i. 54; ii. 156 + +Herdebol, ore-tester, ii. 74 + +Herodotus on the geography of Asia, ii. 149, 154; +on Androphagi, i. 77_n_; ii. 157_n_ + +Heuglin, Baron von, i. 302_n_ + +Hideyoshi, Taiko, ii. 380 + +Hinloopen Strait, i. 110, 112, 137 + +Hirosami, ii. 387 + +_Histriophoca fasciata_, ii. 219, 224, 254 + +Holland, development of its navigation, i. 231 + +Holmgren, A.E., i. 148 + +Holmgren, Fr., ii. 135 + +Holstein-Holsteinborg, Count, ii. 455 + +Homer, ii. 148 + +Hong Kong, ii. 398; + rocks at, ii. 420 + +Hooper, ii. 79, 128, 220_n_, 222, 235_n_, 245, 249 + +Hoorn, Jan Cornelisz van, i. 257 + +Hope Island, i. 165 + +Horn Sound, i. 109, 110, 124, 137, 291 + +Hovgaard, A., i. 4, 39, 93, 187, 200, 202, 208, 457, 497; + ii. 45, 112, 115, 327, 447; + Excursion to Menka's home, i. 500; + portrait, ii. 449 + +Hudson, Henry, i. 255 + +Hugo, Victor, ii. 454 + +Humbert, King, ii. 446 + +Hyacinth (precious stone), ii. 423 + + +I + +Ice, different kinds of, in the Polar Seas, i. 422; + action on the sea-bottom, i. 188; + thickness during the wintering, i. 465 + +Icebergs, i. 182; + size of, i. 422 + +Ice Fjord, i. 112, 137, 344 + +Icing up, i. 451 + +Ides, Evert Yssbrants, i. 404 + +Idlidlja (island), ii. 27 + +_Idothea entomon_, i. 198, 415, 416, 420 + +---- _Sabinei_, i. 198, 415, 417 + +Ignatiev, ii. 163 + +Ikaho, ii. 334 + +Ilgin, mate, ii. 209 + +Illusions caused by mist, i. 347; ii. 32 + +Indians, driven, i. 52 + +Indigirka, ii. 195 + +Ingoen, i. 42 + +Inland-ice, i. 176, 182; ii. 246 + +Inland Sea, of Japan, ii. 384, 421 + +Inn, Japanese, ii. 313, 316 + +Insects, i. 147, 202, 343; ii. 54, 242; + frozen stiff, i. 148; ii. 54; + in a bird's nest, i. 118 + +Insula Tazata, ii. 155 + +Irbit, i. 179 + +Irgunnuk, i. 485; ii. 21 + +Irkaipij, i. 441; ii. 210 + +Irtisch, i. 373, 374; ii. 159 + +Islands in the Siberian Sea, accounts of, i. 22; ii. 169, 170, 171_n_ +Isleif, i. 144 + +Istoma, Gregory, i. 54; ii. 157 + +Italy, ii. 442 + +Ito-Keske, ii. 324 + +Ivanov, mate, i. 279 + +Ivanov, Rodivan, i. 269 + +Ivens, ii. 448 + +Ivory coat of mail, ii. 104 + + +J + +Jackman's voyages, i. 227, 229_n_ + +Jakovlev, Peter, ii. 275 + +Jauszoon, Harman, i. 243 + +Japan, ii. 395 + +Japanese, ii. 173, 174, 181 + +Japanese voyage round the world, i. 161_n_ + +_Jeanette_, the expedition of the, i. 448 + +Jinrikisha, ii. 317 + +Johannes de Plano Carpini, i. 102_n_ + +Johannesen, Chr., i. 9, 300, 353, 358, 365, 366 + +Johannesen, Edward, i. 185, 295 + +Johannesen, Soeren, i. 300 + +Jovius, Paulus, i. 57_n_ + +Jugaria, i. 172 + +Juschkov, i. 273 + + +K + +Kalias river, the, ii. 409 + +Kamakura, ii. 315 + +Kamchatka discovered, ii. 172; + subjugated, ii. 167; + first voyage to, ii. 176; + its extent towards the south in old maps, ii. 181 + +Kamchatka river, the, ii. 172 + +Kamenni Ostrova, i. 318 + +Kaempfer, E., ii. 325 + +Kanin-nos, i. 222 + +Karaginsk Island, ii. 256 + +Kara port, the, i. 14; + Pet sails through it, i. 229 + +Kara river, wintering at the, ii. 184 + +Kara Sea, the, voyage across, i. 187; + its name, i. 172; + its boundaries, i. 175, + depth, i. 15, 184, 187; + temperature of the water, i. 185; + salinity, i. 185, 189; + fauna, i. 184; + algae, 185; + icebergs uncommon in, i. 182, + "ice-house," i. 182; + navigated for the first time by West-Europeans, i. 227; + voyages to, i. 286 + +Kargauts, i. 448 + +Karlskrona, i. 34 + +Karmakul Bay, i. 125, 255 + +Kascholong, ii. 238_n_ + +Kawamura, Admiral, ii. 301, 309, 369; + portrait of, ii. 302 + +Kay, E.C. Lister, i. 360 + +Kegor, i. 243 + +Kellett, i. 448; ii. 212 + +Kellett Land, ii. 212 + +Keswick, ii. 401 + +Keulen's Atlas, ii. 72 + +Kilduin, i. 237 + +Killingworth, George, i. 66 + +Kindaekov, ii. 195 + +King's Bay, i. 137 + +Kini Balu mountain, ii. 413 + +Kioto, ii. 366, 372,375 + +Kirilov, secretary, ii. 183 + +Kita-Shira-Kava, ii. 305, 308 + +Kittiwake, see _Larus tridactylus_ + +Kittlitz, ii. 245 + +Kjellman, F.R., i. 3, 33, 38, 185, 189, 196, 201_n_, 202_n_, 319, 320, + 327, 333, 340, 354, 437, 451, 468, 504, 523; + ii. 15, 225, 240, 245, 254, 291, 292, 414, 434, 447; + sketch of a day during the wintering, i. 513; + portrait, ii. 435 + +Klapmyts, i. 165 + +Klingstedt, i. 271, 272 + +Klokov, i. 279 + +Knoop, Baron, i. 360 + +Koba-Yoschi, ii. 370, 383 + +Kobe, stay at, ii. 364 + +Koch, i. 148 + +Kola, i. 218, 253, 254 + +Kolesoff, I.P., i. 362, 364 + +Kolgujev Island, i. 62_n_, 229 + +Kolmogor, i. 226; ii. 156 + +Kolmogorzov, i. 22 + +Kolyma river, the, i. 427; ii. 162, 165, 166, 195, 201; + discovered, ii. 163 + +Kolyutschin Bay, ii. 227, 246; + _Vega_ comes to, i, 456; + its extent, ii. 31, 32, 76 + +Kolyutschin Island, i. 456, 485 + +Kompakova river, the, ii. 176 + +Konungs skuggja on the walrus, i. 159 + +Konyam Bay, ii. 221, 227; + _Vega_ comes to, ii. 245 + +Kopai, a Schelag, ii. 171 + +Korepovskoj, i. 315, 358 + +Korovin, hunter, ii. 274, 276_n_ + +Koryaeks, ii. 82, 167, 172 + +Koscheleff, ii. 125_n_ + +Koschelev, ii. 186 + +Koschevin, ii. 205 + +Kosirevskoj, Ivan, ii. 174 + +Kosmin, mate, ii. 209 + +Kostin Schar, i. 236 + +Kotelnoj Island, i. 24; ii. 204, 206, 207 + +Kotsches, i. 22_n_; ii. 160_n_ +Kotschuga, i. 374 + +Kotzebue, i. 28; ii. 212, 228_n_; + stay at St. Lawrence Island, ii. 254 + +Krascheninnikov, ii. 80, 167_n_, 173_n_ + +Krassilinikoff, ii. 274 + +Krestovski Island, ii. 162 + +Krestovskoj, i. 193, 194 + +Krestovskoj arm, the, ii. 190 + +Kroma river, the, ii. 168 + +Krotov, Lieut., i. 279 + +Krusenstern, M. von, i. 161_n_; ii. 125_n_ + +Krusenstern, Paul von, the elder, i. 284 + +Krusenstern, Paul von, the younger, i. 287; + his portrait, i. 285 + +Kueber, Dr., ii. 209 + +Kuehn, Franz, ii. 445 + +Kung Karl's Land, i. 137, 301_n_ + +Kurbski, S.T., ii. 157 + +Kuro-Sivo, ii. 295 + +Kusakov, ii. 170 + +Kusatsu, stay at, ii. 343; + the healing power of the baths, ii. 345 + +Kutschum Khan, ii. 159 + +Kythay lacus, ii. 157 + + +L + +Labuan, ii. 405 + +Lagomys, ii. 222 + +Lagercrantz, ii. 456, 460 + +Lagoon formations, i. 433 + +_Lagopus hyperboreus_, i. 129, 191, 214, 334, 508 + +_Lagopus subalpinus_, ii. 46 + +La Madelene, ii. 216 + +La Martiniere, i. 257; + his map, i. 259 + +_Laminaria solidungula_, i. 452 + +Lamps, Chukch, ii. 23 + +Landmarks, i. 228 + +Land worms, i. 148 + +Languet, Hubert, i. 57 + +Lapland, the Dutch navigation to, i. 227_n_ + +Lapps, the, dress, i. 40; + spoken of by Othere, i. 48_n_, 51; + compared with other Polar races, i. 90; + skilful hunters, i. 224_n_ + +Lapp sparrow, see _Emberiza lapponica_ + +Laptev, Chariton, i. 20, 21, 367_n_; + voyages, ii. 190 + +Laptev, Dimitri, i. 24; + first voyage, ii. 193; + second voyage, ii. 195 + +La Ronciere le Noury, ii. 452 + +_Larus eburneus_, i. 117, 118; ii. 137; + met with during expedition, i. 343; ii. 42 + +---- _glaucus_, i. 114; + met with during expedition, i. 191, 321, 352; ii. 47 + +---- _Rossii_, i. 119, 120; ii. 48 + +---- _Sabinii_, i. 119, 120, 508 + +---- _tridactylus_, i. 117; + seen during expedition, i. 334, 352; ii. 42 + +Lasarev, i. 277 + +Lassinius, i. 24; ii. 187_n_; + voyage, ii. 193 + +Laxman, ii. 329 + +Lectures during the wintering, ii. 7 + +Lemming, the, i. 146; + met with during the expedition, i. 191, 343, 437; ii. 44 + +Lena (river), the, ascent of, i. 367; + river area, i. 372_n_; + navigable, i. 374; + its natural beauty, ii. 188_n_; + discovered, ii 160; + Russian voyages from, ii. 187, 198 + +_Lena_ (steamer), i. 7, 8, 9, 41, 75, 171, 187, 200; + parting from _Vega_, i. 355; + voyage up the river Lena, i. 367 + +Lena delta, the, i 367_n_ + +Leontiev, ii. 203 + +Leprosy in Japan ii. 345 + +Lesseps, ii. 441 + +_Lestris Buffonii_, i. 121, 334 + +---- _parasitica_, i. 121, 321, 334 + +---- _pomarina_, i. 121 + +Letters sent home, i. 496, 501; ii. 9 + +Lechtenberg, ii. 445 + +Lighthouse Island, i. 428 + +Lilljeborg, W, ii. 56 + +Limit of trees in the north of Europe and Asia, i. 42; + at the Yenisej, i. 381, + at the Lena, i. 43 + +Lindstrand, ii. 443 + +_Linnaea borealis_, ii. 240, 254 + +Linnaeus, ii. 43 + +Linschoten, i. 236, 237 + +Lisbon, stay in, ii. 447 + +L'Isle de la Croyere, ii. 196, 198, 200 + +Little Auk, see _Mergulus alle_ + +Ljachoff, i. 418, 419; ii. 204 + +Ljachoff's Island, ii. 162, 201, 204; + _Vega_ comes to, i. 415 + +Logan, J, i. 400 + +Lomme Bay, i. 112 + +London, stay at, ii. 451 + +Long, Captain, i. 26, ii. 212 + +Looms met with at Port Dickson, i. 191, 353 + +Loschkin, S., i. 273, 280 + +Loshak, i. 224 + +Lotterius, map by, ii. 77 + +_Louise_ (steamer), i. 314, 360 + +Ludlow, miner, i. 217 + +Luiz, King of Portugal, ii. 448 + +Lundstroem, A.N., i. 3, 193, 205, 206 + +Lussov, ii. 203 + +Luetke, von, i. 14, 279; ii. 78, 212, 245; + portrait, i. 278 + + +M + +MacClintock, i. 119 + +Machimura Masinovo, ii. 382 + +Mack, F.E., 298 + +Madvig, J.N., ii. 456 + +Maelson, F., i. 232 + +Magnetical observations during the wintering, i. 509 + +Magnus, Johannes, i. 51_n_ + +Magnus, Olaus, i. 145, 159; + map of the North, i. 53, 56; + views regarding the North-east Passage, i. 53_n_ + +Maeklin, F.W., i. 148 + +Malacca, Straits of, ii. 414 + +Malays on Labuan and Borneo, ii. 408, 412 + +Maldonado, L.F., i. 214 + +Malgin, N., ii. 169 + +Malm, A.W., i. 523 + +Malmgren, A.J., i. 119, 153 + +Maloj Island, ii. 204, 205 + +Malvano, Secretary of the Italian Cabinet, ii. 446 + +Malygin, i. 203, 272; ii. 184 + +Mammoth, i. 23, 30, 398, 445_n_; + in Europe, i. 399; + in Chukch Land, ii. 66; + at Eschscholz Bay, i. 228_n_; + old accounts of, i. 404; + legends regarding its mode of life, i. 405 + +Maosoe, stay at, i. 41, 71; + climate, i. 45 + +Maps of the North, i. 51 + +Marco Polo, _see_ Polo + +Markets in Siberia and Polar America, ii. 13, 118 + +Markham, Clements R., ii. 451 + +Markov, A., ii. 170 + +Marseilles, invitation to, ii. 447 + +Martino, Consul-general, ii 440 + +Massa, Isaak, ii. 249_n_; + his map, i. 225_n_, 239_n_; ii. 158_n_ + +Massage in Japan, ii. 335 + +Matiuschin, midshipman, ii. 118_n_ + +Matotschkin Schar, i. 14, 70, 282; + mountains in its neighbourhood, i. 173; + stone ramparts on its shores, i. 188; + surveyed, i. 282 + +Matveyev Island, i. 272 + +Maunoir, ii. 452 + +Maurice Island, i. 241 + +Maydell, G. von, i. 410; ii. 79 + +Medals in memory of the voyage of the _Vega_, ii. 306, 459_n_ + +Melchior, state councillor, ii. 456 + +Melguer, David, ii. 216 + +Melkaja Guba, i. 283 + +Menka, i. 495, 501; ii. 125; + portrait, i. 495 + +_Mergulus alle_, i. 119 + +Mertens, ii. 245 + +Mesen, i. 51, 79; ii. 157 + +Mesenkin, i. 381; + mammoth remains found at, i. 410 + +Messerschmidt, i. 405 + +Mestni Island, i. 174, 228, 241, 297 + +Meteorological observations, i. 481; ii. 33 + +_Metridia armata_, ii. 56 + +Metschigme Bay, ii. 29, 227 + +Meyenvaldt, mate, i. 213, 317 + +_Mieralymma Dicksoni_, i. 343 + +Middendorff, i. 17, 406_n_; ii. 246_n_ + +Migrating birds, ii. 41 + +Mikado, audience of, ii 305 + +Miller, i. 460 + +Mimisuka, the grave of the noses and ears, ii. 380 + +Minin, i. 16; ii. 186, 187 + +Minusinsk, i. 373 + +Mirabelli, A., ii. 444 + +Mogi, excursion to, ii. 390; + fossil plants at, ii. 392 + +Mohn, i. 300 + +Moisture in the air, i. 484 + +Mokattam mountains, excursion to, ii. 440 + +Molin, A., ii. 175 + +Mollusca, land and fresh-water, at Port Clarence, ii. 242; + at Konyam Bay, ii. 245; + in Japan, ii. 362, 371; + the northernmost, ii. 245 + +Mollusca, subfossil, in Siberia, i. 378 + +Moma, the river, ii. 168 + +Moore, Captain, ii. 79, 213, 245 + +Morgiovets, i. 223 + +_Mormon Arcticus_, i. 113 + +Morosko, L., ii. 172, 173 + +_Maskwa_ (steamer), i. 360 + +Mosquitoes in the Polar regions, i. 147_n_ + +Motora, Simeon, ii. 165 + +Moxon, Joseph, i. 263 + +Mucheron, B., i. 232 + +Mueller, G.P., i. 16_n_, 21, 25; ii. 164_n_, 166, 167, 171, 172_n_, +183_n_, 199, 268_n_ + +Mueller, J.B., i. 405 + +Muenster, S., ii. 156_n_ + +Muravjev, Lieut., i. 272; ii. 183 + +Murman Sea, i. 14 + +Murray, Colin, ii. 415 + +Muscovy Company, i. 172, 217 + +Musk ox, discovery of the remains of, i. 411; ii. 228_n_; + supposed occurrence of, on Wrangel Land, i. 449_n_ + +_Mustela vulgaris_, ii. 46 + +Mutnaja river, i. 268 + +Mutnoj Saliv, ii. 183 + +_Myodes obensis_, i. 146; ii. 44 + +_Myodes torquatus_, ii. 44 + + +N + +Nagasaki, arrival at, ii. 389 + +Nakasendo road, the, ii. 327, 352 + +Namollo, ii. 80, 221 + +Naples, stay at, ii. 443 + +Narainzay river, i. 225 + +Narborough, John, i. 260 + +Narwhal, i. 165, 418 + +Narontza river, i. 225_n_ + +Nathorst, A.G., ii. 332, 394, 408 + +Nay, C., i. 232 + +Nearchus, i. 169 + +Nedrevaag, A.O., i. 298 + +Negri, C., i. 34; ii. 443 + +Nephrite among the Eskimo, ii. 236; + among the Chinese, ii. 236_n_, 399 + +Neremskoe, i. 172 + +Neumann, C. von, ii. 79, 118 + +New Siberian Islands, i. 23, 131_n_, 132, 413; ii. 171_n_; + exploratory journeys to, i. 412; + first visited by Europeans, ii. 204; + journeys to, ii. 205 + +Nierop, i. 203 + +Nikul river, ii. 167 + +Nilson, K., ii. 453 + +Njaskaja, i. 370 + +Noah Elisej, ii. 50; portrait, ii. 51 + +Noah's Wood, i. 30, 207, 381; ii. 207_n_ + +Nobel, A., ii. 452 + +Nordenskioeld, K., i. 320; ii. 406_n_ + +_Nordenskioeld_ (steamer), ii. 298, 301 + +Nordquist, O., + i. 4, 37, 39, 187, 200, 202, 319, 321, 327, 444, 446_n_, 489; + ii. 12, 44, 82, 115, 315, 362, 369, 371, 435, 447; + excursion to Menka's home, i. 497; + visit to Pidlin, i. 502; + excursion to Nutschoitjin, ii. 18; + on the animals wintering in Chukch Laud, ii. 44; + portrait, ii. 435 + +Nordvik, ii. 190 + +Noril Mountains, i. 360 + +North-east Land, inland ice on, i. 176 + +North-east Passage, reasons of search for, i. 58, 231; + prize for its discovery, i. 246 + +North Pole, said to have been reached, i. 263 + +Norways, the i. 109 + +Northbrook, Earl of, ii. 451 + +Notti, ii. 7, 19, 22, 129; portrait, ii. 8 + +Novara Elliya, ii. 432 + +Novaya Sibir, ii. 204, 205, 206 + +Novaya Zemlya, animal life there, i. 107; + first known to West-Europeans, i. 215; + its name, i. 216; + Russian landmarks on, i. 228_n_; + its northern extremity passed for the first time, i. 248; + proposal to colonise it, i. 271_n_; + supposed riches in metals, i. 277; + Russian voyages to, i. 280; + Norwegian voyages to, i. 293; + curcumnavigation of, i. 297 + +Nummelin, G.A., i. 211, 314; portrait, i. 316 + +Nunamo, ii. 222 + +Nutschoitjin, excursion to, ii. 18 + + +O + +Ob, Gulf of, Owzyn's voyage on, ii. 185, 186; + surveyed, ii. 186 + +Ob, river territory, i. 372_n_; + navigable, i. 374; + first mentioned, ii. 157; + Russian navigation to in former times, i. 226, 244, 271; + English vessel stranded at, i. 229_n_, 256; + vessel stranded east of, i. 271; + Russian expedition to, ii. 183; + recent voyages to, i. 313 + +Obdorsk, i. 204, 290; ii. 185, 186 + +Observatory, magnetical, at Pitlekaj, i. 473, 509 + +Oiwaki, ii. 352 + +Okotsk, ii. 174 + +Okotsk, Sea of, + bottom frozen, ii. 61_n_; + navigation on, ii. 175, 176 + +Okuschi, ii. 364 + +Old Believers, Russian sect i. 179, 270_n_ + +Olenek river, i. 20, 26, ii. 160, 188, 190 + +Olutorsk river, ii. 165 + +Onkilon tribe, the ii. 80, 221; + excavations on the sites of old dwellings i. 444, + implements, i. 444; + Wrangel's account of them, i. 446 + +Oom, L.G., i. 243 + +Oordt, Consul van, ii. 298 + +_Ophiacantha bidentata_, i. 345 + +_Ophioglypha nodosa_, ii. 49 + +Orange Island, i. 241 + +Orange Islands, i. 234, 248 + +_Orca gladiator_, i. 170 + +Orosius, Paulus, i. 47_n_ + +Osaka, ii. 364, 366 + +Oscar, Duke of Gotland, ii. 453, 454 + +Oscar, King, i. 2, 3; ii. 459, 460, 463 + +Osche, ii. 278 + +Oshima, ii. 297 + +_Osmerus eperlanus_, i. 494 + +Ostatiof, M., ii. 72 + +Ostyaks, i. 384 + +_Otaria Stelleri_, _see_ Sea lion + +_Otaria ursina_, _see_ Sea-bear + +Othere, i. 158; + voyage, i. 47 + +Otter, F.W. von, i. 3; ii. 460 + +Owl, snowy, i. 131; + observed during expedition, i. 343, 352 + +Owzyn, Lieut, i. 16; ii. 185, 186 + + +P + +Pachtussov, voyages of, i. 279; + death of, i. 282 + +Paget, Sir A.B., ii. 446 + +Paj-Roj mountain, the, i. 74 + +Palander, L, i. 4, 9, 10_n_, 11, 36, 38, 137, 141, 172, 176, 190, 191, + 319, 348, 429, 456, 474, 478, 509; + ii. 67, 131, 226, 256, 298, 401, 410, 412, 443, 445, 447, 451_n_, 463; + excursion to a reindeer-chukch camp, ii. 15; + portrait, ii. 68 + +Pallas, ii. 211, 275 + +Pallavicini, Prince, ii. 445 + +Palliser, John, i. 286 + +Palmieri, Prof., ii. 445 + +Panelapoetski, i. 262 + +Pansch, Dr., i. 140_n_ + +Pappan Island, ii. 409 + +Paradeniya, botanic garden at, ii. 428 + +Parent, E., ii. 446 + +Paris, _fetes_ at, ii. 453 + +Parositi, Asiatic tribe, i. 103_n_ + +Parry Island, i. 113, 133 + +Parry, Sir Edward, ii. 144, 210 + +Paulov, Lieut, i. 272; i. 183 + +Paulutski, D., ii. 75, 221 + +Payer, i., 266, 422 + +Pedrotalagalla, ii. 414, 432 + +Pekarski, ii. 275 + +Pelikan, Consul, ii. 298 + +Penschina Bay, ii. 75 + +Penschina River, ii. 166 + +Permakov, J., ii. 169 + +Perry, Commodore, ii. 297 + +Pet, A., i. 60, 172; + his voyages, i. 227 + +Petchora river, i. 55, 219, 224; ii. 157 + +Peter the Great, ii. 175, 179 + +Petermann, A., his belief that the Polar Sea is occasionally +navigable, i. 265 + +Petersen, C., i. 143, 423 + +Petropaulovsk, ii. 196, 268, 294 + +Pet's Straits, i. 172 + +Phalarope, i 128, 191, 320; + observed during the expedition, i. 415, 437; ii. 42 + +_Philip and Mary_ (vessel), i. 226_n_ + +Phipps Island, i. 133 + +_Phoca barbata_, i. 159_n_, 162, 334 + +_Phoca Groenlandica_, i. 165; + young of the, 164 + +_Phoca hispida_, i. 165, 343 + +Pidlin, i. 485; + excursion to, i. 502 + +Pinto, Major, ii. 448 + +Piper, Count, ii. 451 + +Pitlekaj, i. 485; + flora at, i. 468; + appearance of, ii. 60 + +Pjaesina River, i. 193; ii. 187; + is discovered, ii. 160 + +Plancius, Dutch geographer, i. 232 + +_Pleuropogon Sabini_, i. 332 + +Pliny the elder, ii. 153, 157_n_ + +Plover expedition, ii. 79, 245 + +Podurids, Novaya Zemlya, i. 148 + +Poetry, Japanese, ii. 382 + +Pogytscha, River, ii. 162 + +Point de Galle, arrival at, ii. 414; + departure from, ii. 437 + +Polar bear seen during the expedition, i. 190, 339, 353; ii. 46; + account of, i. 137 + +Polar Sea hunting, i. 291 + +Pole of cold, i. 474 + +Police in Japan, ii. 331 + +Polo, Marco, i. 58, 144; ii. 154, 157_n_; + his life, ii. 153 + +Polynias, i. 466 + +Pompeii, excursion to, ii. 444 + +Pontchartrin, Count de, ii. 216 + +Poole, J., i. 291 + +Popov, ii. 78 + +Porcelain manufacture in Japan, ii. 381 + +Port Clarence, ii. 226 + +Port Dickson, i. 18; + stay at, i. 189; + its discovery, i. 311 + +Porthan, i. 47 + +Portugal, stay in, ii. 447 + +Pospjelov, i. 277 + +Postels, ii. 245 + +Postnik, ii. 161 + +Potatoes, antiscorbutic, i. 11 + +Preobraschenie Island, i. 353 + +Pribylov, ii. 212 + +Pribylov Islands, ii. 258 + +Priluschnoj, i. 195 + +_Procellaria galcialis_, i. 108 + +_Promontorium Scythicum_, ii. 153 + +_Promontorium Tabin_, ii. 153 + +Prontschischev, i. 19; ii. 188, 189 + +Protodiakonoff, Z., i. 418 + +_Proeven_ (hunting sloop), i. 1, 292 + +Provision depot on land, i. 473 + +Ptolemy, ii. 152 + +Purchas, i. 62_n_ + +Puschkarev, ii. 203 + +Pustosersk, i. 75 + +Putrefaction slow in the Polar regions, i. 167 + +Pyramids, the, visit to, ii. 440 + + +Q + +Quaen Sea, i. 215 + +Quaens, skilful harpooners, i. 224 + +Quale, P, i. 298 + +Quatrefages, ii. 453 + + +R + +Rabaut, A., ii. 447 + +Railway, Siberian, i. 375 + +Rambodde, ii. 432 + +Ratnapoora, ii. 416 + +_Recherche's_ wintering, ii. 36 + +Red ochre, ii. 235 + +Red Sea, ii. 439 + +Reindeer, tame, i. 78; wild, i. 132 + +Reindeer's skin used for clothing, i. 37 + +Reindeer's stomach, contents of, consumed by the Chukches, i. 435 + +Reitinacka, ii. 57, 58 + +Renoe, i. 43 + +_Rhinoceros antiquitatis_, i. 406 + +_Rhinoceros Merckii_, i. 411 + +Rhytina, ii. 272 + +Riccio, ii. 444 + +Richter, Consul-general, ii. 451 + +Rijp, i. 246 + +Riksdag, the, supports the expedition, i. 5 + +Rio-San, ii. 382 + +Rirajtinop, i. 485 + +Robeck, ii. 211 + +Rodgers, i. 26 + +Rokuriga-hara, ii. 348 + +Romanzov, ii. 204 + +Rondes (sable), i. 145 + +Rookery, ii. 282 + +Rossmuislov, i. 274 + +Rotgansen, i. 247 + +Rotschilten, ii. 16, 31 + +Roule, C., i. 216 + +Rubies, ii. 419 + +Ruggieri, Prof., ii. 444 + +Ruinlike rock formations, i. 428 + +Runeberg, R., i. 8 + +Ruspoli, Prince, ii. 445 + +Russians, at Chabarova, i. 79 + + +S + +_Sabinea septemcarinata_, ii. 48 + +Sachanich Bay, i. 236_n_ + +Sacrificial heights, i. 92 + +Saigo Kichinosuke ii. 303 + +Sajsan, Lake, i. 374 + +_Salix artica_, ii. 65 + +Samoyeds, i. 77; + their idols, i. 85, 94; + their dress, i. 89; + Compared with other Polar races, i. 91; + burying place, i. 97; + their weapons, i. 99; + old accounts of them, i. 100; + their place in ethnography, i. 103 + +Samurai, ii. 376 + +Sandman, Captain, ii. 294 + +Sandpiper, _see_ Phalarope + +Sankin Grigorej, ii. 170 + +Sannikov, i. 24 + +Sanyo Sanitomi, ii. 303 + +Saostrovskoj, i. 311 + +Sapetto, Prof., ii. 439 + +Sapphires, ii. 419 + +Sarytschev, ii. 408 + +Satow, E M, ii. 321 + +Sauer, Martin, i. 418 + +Savavatari, ii. 337 + +Savina river, i. 280 + +Schalaurov, ii. 200 + +Schelags, ii. 170 + +Schelechov, G, ii. 270_n_ + +Scheltinga, ii. 198 + +Schestakov, A, ii. 74 + +Schigansk, i. 369 + +Schmidt, F, i. 409 + +Schmidt, H, i. 360 + +Schrenck, L von, i. 410 + +Schtinnikov, A, ii. 182 + +Schwanenberg, D, i. 9_n_, 314 + +Scoresby, i. 143_n_ + +Scurvy, i. 45; ii. 295 + +Sea-bear, the, ii. 272 + +Sea-cow, ii. 272 + +Sea-lion, i. 446; ii. 267 + +Sea-otter, ii. 271 + +Sea-spider, i. 349 + +Seals, i. 162 + +Sealskin used as clothing, i. 37 + +_Searchthrift_ (vessel), i. 217 + +Seebohm, Mr., i. 315 + +Selenetz Islands, i. 228 + +Selenga, i. 374 + +Selennoe Lake, i. 269 + +Self-dead animals, i. 322 + +Selifontov, i. 204 + +Selivaninskoj, i. 387 + +Selivestrov, ii. 166_n_ + +Semenoffski Island, i. 414 + +Semipalitinsk, i. 373 + +Senjavin Sound, ii. 244 + +Senkiti-San, ii. 336 + +Serapoa Koska, i. 217 + +Serdze Kamen, i. 467 + +Seribrenikoff, S.J., i. 39 + +Seven Islands, i. 117 + +_Severnoe Sianie_, i. 211 + +Shamans, ii. 128 + +Shaman drums, ii. 24 + +Shimonoseki. ii. 387 + +Shintoism, ii. 378 + +Sibbern, ii. 453 + +Siberian Polar Sea, i. 14, 28 + +Siberian cattle plague, i. 78 + +Sibir, ii. 159 + +Sibiriakoff, A., i. 2, 3, 8, 24 + +Sibiriakoff Island, ii. 312 + +Sidoroff, M., i. 211 + +Sidoroff's graphite quarry, ii. 235 + +Siebold, P.H.F. von, ii. 326 + +Siebold, H. von, ii. 326 + +_Sieversia glacialis_, i. 197 + +Simonsen, i. 300 + +Simovies, i. 193 + +Simpson, John, ii. 118 + +Singapore, ii. 413 + +Singhalese, ii. 424 + +Sirovatskoj, ii. 204 + +Skoptzi in Siberia, i. 387 + +Skuratov, i. 204 + +Slaves among the Chukches, ii. 123 + +Sledges, i. 82, 83 + +Smitt, F.A., ii. 59 + +Snobberger, C.P., i. 259 + +Snow-blindness, i. 477; ii. 10 + +Snow-bunting, the, ii. 129 + +Snow-drifting, i. 483 + +Snow-shoes, ii. 102 + +Snow-spectacles, i. 477; ii. 10 + +Snow, the melting of the, ii. 34 + +Snups, M., ii. 157_n_ + +Sokolov, ii. 176 + +Solovets, ii. 157 + +_Somateria molissima_, i. 123 + +_Somateria spectabilis_, i. 123 + +_Somateria V.-nigrum_, ii. 42 + +Spangberg, Martin, ii. 179 + +Spinel, ii 423 + +Spirits, i. 440; ii. 13, 116, 118 + +Spitzbergen hunting, history of, i. 29 + +Spitzbergen, its discovery ascribed to Willoughby, i. 62_n_; + discovered by Barents, i. 247; + Russian voyages to, i. 291; + Norwegian voyages to, i. 293 + +Spottiswoode, Mr., ii. 451 + +Springs, hot, ii. 343 + +St. James's Islands, i. 223 + +St. Laurens Bay, i. 236 + +St. Lawrence Bay, ii. 212, 218 + +St. Lawrence Island, i. 154; ii. 250 + +_Stegocephalus Kessleri_, ii. 48 + +Stellar, G.N., ii. 80, 187_n_, 200, 266; + his death, ii. 268 + +Steppes, Siberian, i. 384 + +_Sterna macroura_, i. 123 + +Stockholm, arrival at, ii. 459 + +Stolbovoj Island, i. 414 + +Stone Pacha, ii. 440 + +Stone polishing works in Canton, ii. 399 + +Strabo, ii. 148, 151 + +Strahlenberg i. 405 + +_Strix nyctea_, i. 131 + +Stroganov, Russian commercial house, i. 235 + +Stuxberg, A., i. 3, 38, 151, 193, 194, 198, 311, 324, 438, 451; + ii. 225, 291, 315, 434; + portrait, ii. 435 + +Suez, arrival at, ii. 440 + +Suez Canal, the, ii. 441 + +Sujeff, student, i. 185_n_ + +Swan, Bewick's, i. 127 + +Swedish expedition of 1875, the, i. 12; + visits Yalmal, i. 205; + reaches the Yenisej, i. 311 + +Swedish prisoners of war in Siberia, ii. 175 + +Swell from falling pieces of ice dangerous to vessels, i. 183_n_ + +Sword-bearing in Japan, ii. 377 + +_Sylvia Ewersmanni_, ii. 43 + +Sylvius, AEneas, i. 52_n_ + + +T + +Tabin, Promontorium, i. 13, 241 + +Taffelbeiget, ii. 29 + +Tagil river, the, ii. 159 + +Taimur Island, i. 331 + +Taimur lake, ii. 192 + +Taimur Land, inhabited by Samoyeds, i. 244_n_ + position of its east coast, i. 352; + Minin's travels along the coast, ii. 187 + +Taimur river, the, i. 409 + +Takasaki, ii. 325 + +Takasima coal mine, ii. 394 + +Tamils, ii. 424 + +Tanning reindeer hides hides, ii. 122 + +Tas-ary, i. 362, 368 + +Tas river, the, ii. 156, 159_n_ + +Tatarinov, Feodor, ii. 203 + +Tatariov, Cossack, ii. 206 + +Tattooing, Chukch, i. 499; ii. 99; + Eskimo, at Port Clarence, ii. 232; + Eskimo, at St. Lawrence island ii. 251, 252 + +_Tazata, Insula_, ii. 155 + +Teano, Prince, ii. 445, 446 + +Temples in Japan, ii. 375, 377; + on Ceylon, ii. 425 + +Tennent, E, ii. 415_n_, 419, 424_n_ + +Terfins, i. 48_n_ + +Tetgales, B.Y., i. 232 + +_Thalassiophyllum Clathrus_, ii. 293 + +Theel, Hj, i. 3, 311 + +Theatres in Japan, ii. 356 + +Thorne, Robert, i. 57_n_ + +Thunberg, C.P., ii. 43, 326_n_ + +Thwaites, Dr., ii. 428 + +Tietgen, state councillor, ii. 456 + +Tigil River, the, ii. 167_n_, 176 + +Tintinyaranga, i. 509 + +Tjapka, Chukch village, ii. 20 + +Tjumen, ii. 159, 268 + +Tobacco, its use among the Chukches, ii. 116; + in Japan, ii. 321 + +Tobiesen, S.K., i. 108, 141, 144, 152, 300; + his voyage to Spitzbergen, i. 302; + wintering on Bear Island, i. 303; + his death, i. 305; + his portrait, i. 303 + +Tobol river, the, ii. 159 + +Tobolsk, i. 344; ii. 185, 186 + +Tokaido road, the, ii. 315 + +Tokio, visit to, ii. 304; + the Shoguns' graves at, ii. 309 + +Topaz, ii. 400, 419 + +Toporkoff Island, ii. 291 + +_Torosses_, i. 425, 463; ii. 2 + +Toxar Island, i. 239 + +Treacher, Governor, ii. 408 + +Trees, distribution of, in Siberia, i. 383 + +_Tringa maritima_, i. 128 + +Trofimov's mammoth, i. 409 + +Tromsoe, _Vega's_ stay at, i. 38; + its climate, i. 45_n_ + +Tumat Island, i. 362 + +_Tundra_, appearance of the, i. 378 + +Tunguses, i. 384, 408; ii. 191 + + +U + +Umbellula in the Kara Sea, i. 184 + +Ural-Altaic race, i. 103 + +_Uria Bruennichii_, i. 110 + +---- _grylle_, i. 113 + +Urusov, Prince, ii. 445 + +Ustjansk, ii. 205, 206 + +Usui toge, ii. 352 + + +V + +Vardoe, i. 66, 68; + climate of, i. 45 + +Varsina river, the, i. 66 + +Varthema, Luduvico de, ii. 438 + +Vasa Murrhina, ii. 236_n_ + +Vaygats Island, i. 77, 93; + discovered, i. 215; + visited by Pet, i. 228 + +Veer, Gerrit de, i. 101; + his book, i. 245 + _Vega_, the, purchased, i. 8; + description of, i. 9; + equipment of, i. 11; + position when frozen in, i. 468; + action of cold on, i. 466; + prepared for wintering, i. 469; + repaired, ii. 396; + sold, ii. 463 + +Vessels, Norse, i. 50; Russian, on the Polar sea, i. 219 + +Vlamingh, i. 258 + +Volcanic dust in Scandinavia, i. 330 + +Volcanoes, ii. 249 + +_Vulpes lagopus_, _see_ Fox, Arctic + +---- _vulgaris_, _see_ Fox, common + + +W + +Waern, C.F., i. 5 + +Waldburg-Zeil, Count, i. 205 + +Walden Island, i. 112 + +Walrus, i. 152 + +Walton, Lieut., ii. 198 + +Wax tree, the Japanese, ii. 389 + +Waxel, Lieut, ii. 197 + +Weasel, ii. 46 + +Werchojansk, i. 411 + +Werkon, the river, ii. 202 + +Weyprecht, i. 266 + +Whales, on the coast of Norway, i. 49; + scarce at Novaya Zemlya, i, 168; + fear of, in ancient times, i. 169; + with European harpoons, found in the Pacific, i. 264 + +Whale bones on Spitzbergen, i. 168; + sub-fossil at Pitlekaj, i. 520; + used is building materials, ii. 223; + at St. Lawrence Island, ii. 253 + +Whale-fishing, described by Albertus Magnus, i. 159_n_; + at Spitzbergen, i. 168 + +Whale _mummy_ at Pitlekaj, i. 523 + +White-fronted goose, i. 124 + +White Island, _see_ Beli Ostrov + +White Sea, the, i. 215 + +White whale, the, i. 79, 167 + +Widmark, H.A., ii. 35 + +Wiemut, Julian, ii. 294 + +Wiggins, J., i. 311, 312; + portrait, i. 313 + +Wilkoffski, ii. 238 + +Willoughby, Sir Hugh, i. 13, 58; + portrait, i. 59 + +Willoughby's, Land, i. 62 + +Wilui river, the, i. 406 + +Wood, Captain, i. 260 + +Wosnessenski, conservator, ii. 276 + +Wrangel, Ferdinand von, i. 23, 265, 446, + journeys, ii. 209; + portrait, ii. 208 + +Wrangel Land, i. 23, 26, 448; ii. 171_n_, 202, 209; + landing on, i. 448 + +Wrestlers, Japanese, ii. 339 + +Wulfstan's travels, i. 50 + + +Y + +Yakovieva, i. 316 + +Yakuts, i. 384; ii. 161 + +Yakutsk, i. 19, 22, 26, 370, 371; + ii. 187, 190, 193 + +Yalmal, exclusion to, i. 201; + visited in 1875, i. 205; + population i. 204; + origin of the name, i. 203; + old accounts of, i. 204; + surveyed, ii. 185 + +Yana River, the, i. 418_n_ + +Yanimoto, ii. 366 + +Yefremov Kamen, i. 376 + +Yekargauls, i. 498 + +Yelmert, i. 203 + +Yelmert Land, i. 203 + +Yenisej, the, voyages of the _Fraser_ and + the _Empress_, up, i. 357; + ascent of, in 1875, i. 387; + river territory, i. 372; + navigable, i. 373; + its banks, i. 377; + vegetation on, i. 381; + steamers on, i. 394; + discovered, ii. 160; + Russian navigation on, in former times, i. 243; + Russian sea, expeditions to, ii. 185; + Minin's voyages on, ii. 186; + later voyages to, i. 311 + +Yenisej, mouth of the, map of, i. 192; + formerly inhabited, i. 193; + winter at, i. 209 + +Yettugin, ii. 29, 67, 125 + +Yii gate, the, ii. 399 + +Yinretlen, i. 485 + +_Ymer_ (steamer), i. 1, 9_n_, 312, 358 + +Yokohama, ii. 296; + arrival at, ii. 295; + departure from, ii. 364 + +Yokosuka, ii. 396 + +_Yoldia Artica_, i. 199 + +Young, Sir Allen, ii. 451 + +Yugor Schar, i. 14; + expedition passes, i. 171; + rules for sailing through, i. 172; + harbours in, i. 174; + origin of the name, i. 172; + Pet did not sail through, i. 228; + map of, i. 242 + +Yukagires, ii. 75 + +Yukagir dwellings, remains of, on the New Siberian Islands, ii. 209 + + +Z + +_Zaritza_ (steamer), i. 360 + +Zeno, i. 53 + +Ziegler's map of the north, i. 53 + +Zivolka, A.K., i. 282; portrait, i. 284 + +Zircon, ii. 423 + + +THE END + + + + +THE ARCTIC VOYAGES OF BARON A.E. + VON NORDENSKIOeLD, 1858-1879 With Illustrations and Map. + Demy 8vo. 16_s_. + "Those who wish to get a clearer notion of one of the first + Arctic explorers of our day cannot do better than purchase + this interesting volume."--_Atheneum._ + + +By CAPTAIN ALBERT H. MARKHAM, R.N. + +NORTHWARD HO! By Captain ALBERT H. MARKHAM, R.N., + Author of "The Frozen Sea," &c. Including a Narrative of Captain + Phipps's Expedition, by a Midshipman. With Illustrations. + Crown 8vo. 10_s_. 6_d_. + "Captain Markham's interesting volume has the advantage of being written + by a man who is practically conversant with the subject."--_Pall Mall + Gazette._ + + +By SIR C. WYVILLE THOMSON, LL.D., F.R.S., &c. + +THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. An Account of the + General Results of the Dredging Cruises of H.M. SS. "Lightning" and + "Porcupine" during the Summers of 1868-69-70, under the Scientific + Direction of Dr. CARPENTER, F.R.S., J. GWYN JEFFREYS, F.R.S., and + Sir WYVILLE THOMSON, Director of the Scientific Staff of the + "Challenger" Exploring Expedition. 8vo, extra gilt, with nearly + 100 Illustrations and Eight Coloured Maps and Plans. + Second Edition 31_s_. 6_d_. + +THE VOYAGE OF THE "CHALLENGER"--THE ATLANTIC. A Preliminary + Account of the Exploring Voyages of H.M.S. "Challenger," during + the Year 1873, and the early part of 1876. With numerous + Illustrations, Coloured Maps, Charts, &c., and Portrait of + the Author, engraved by JEENS. Two Vols. 8vo. 45_s_. + +By LORD GEORGE CAMPBELL + +LOG-LETTERS FROM THE "CHALLENGER" + Fifth and Cheaper Edition, revised. Crown 8vo. 6_s_. + +By SIR SAMUEL BAKER, M.A., F.R.G.S. + +ISMAILIA A Narrative of the Expedition to Central + Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, organized by + ISMAIL, Khedive of Egypt. With Illustrations by ZWECKER and DURAND. + New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6_s_. + +THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF ABYSSINIA, AND + THE SWORD HUNTERS OF THE HAMRAN ARABS. With Maps and + Illustrations Sixth and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6_s_. + +THE ALBERT N'YANZA GREAT BASIN OF THE + NILE, AND EXPLORATIONS OF THE NILE SOURCES. With Maps + and Illustrations. Fifth and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6_s_. + +By BARON HUeBNER. + +A RAMBLE ROUND THE WORLD 1871. By M. le BARON de HUeBNER, + formerly Ambassador and Minister. Translated by + Lady HERBERT. New and Cheaper Edition With numerous Illustrations. + Crown 8vo 6_s_. + +By SIR CHARLES W. DILKE, M.P. + +GREATER BRITAIN. A Record of Travel in English-speaking + Countries during 1866-67 (America, Australia, India.) Sixth + and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo 6_s_. + +By W.G. PALGRAVE. + +A NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S JOURNEY + THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARABIA, 1862-63. With Map, + Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on Steel by JEENS. Crown + 8vo 6_s_. + MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON, W.C. + + + +START OF TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES: + +First a list of typographical errors, which have been corrected +in the etext. Followed by alternative spellings of words noticed, +the majority of which occur bewteen the index and the text, +these have been left unchanged. There are also two short ERRATA +for Volume I and Volume II in the printed edition. + +Vol I page x "Cape Schelagskog" changed to "Cape Schelagskoj" +[ to match 4 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page xiii "Sieveria" changed to "Sieweria" +[ as in the title "Neu-entdecktes Sieweria, worinnen die Zobeln +gefangen werden" confirmed on Internet, and one other instance +in the text ] + +Vol I page xxv "Ida Fallander" changed to "Ida Falander" +[ to match 5 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page xxvi "Yenissej" changed to "Yenisej" +[ to match many instances in text ] + +Vol I page 22 "Staduschin" changed to "Staduschin" +[ to match 11 other instances in the text ] + +Vol I page 43 "Middendorf" changed to "Middendorff" +[ to match 19 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page 51 "Ptolemoei Cosmographia" + changed to "Ptolemaei Cosmographia" +[ confirmed on internet as the correct spelling, +also correct in one other instance in the text ] + +Vol I page 73 "Besimmanaja Bay" changed to "Besimannaja Bay" +[ to match 5 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page 219 "Cape Woronov" changed to "Cape Voronov" +[ to match entry in index and confirmed on Internet ] + +Vol I page 310 "Novya Zemlaya" changed to "Novaya Zemlya" +[ over 200+ instances of "Novaya Zemlya" ] + +Vol I page 315 "Sewernoe Sianie" changed to "Severnoe Sianie" +[ to match 2 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page 317 "Meywaldt" changed to "Meyenwaldt" +[ to match 2 other instances in text, note also spelt as +"Meyenvaldt" in the index ] + +Vol I page 377 "YEKISEJ" changed to "YENISEJ" +[ to match many instances in text ] + +Vol I page 397 "MIDDENDORF" changed to "MIDDENDORFF" +[ to match 19 other instances in text ] + +Vol I page 451 "Redogoerese" changed to "Redogoerelse" +[ to match 4 other instances in the text ] + +Vol II page xvi "Pribyloo" changed to "Pribylov" +[ to match 4 other instances in the text ] + +Vol II page 140 "ocasionally" changed to "occasionally" + +Vol II page 183 "Dolgoj Island" changed to "Dolgoi Island" +[ to match index and 2 other instances in text ] + +Vol II page 249 "Hessal Gerritz" changed to "Hessel Gerritz" +[Internet book text search gives both variations of surname +see under differences of spelling below, but always "Hessel" +as the first name of the author ] + +Vol II page 432 "Pedrotalegalla" changed to "Pedrotalagalla" +[ to match 2 other instances in text, also confirmed on Internet +as correct spelling for this mountain ] + +Vol II page 447 "Nutschoitzin" changed "Nutschoitjin" +[ to match other index entry and 6 instances in the text ] + +Vol II page 481 "Vlaming" changed to "Vlamingh" +[ to match 8 other instances in text ] + +Differences noticed in spelling, these remain unchanged as it is +not obvious which is correct. + +"Bruzewitz" In index and Illustration, but "Brusewitz" in text + +"Engehardt's" or "Engelhardt's" + +"Hessel Gerritsz" or "Hessel Gerritz" + +"Gusinnaja Semlja" or "Gusinnyja Semlja" + +"Gwosdarev" in text, but "Gvosdarev" in index + +"Cape Kamennoj" in text, but "Cape Kammennoj" in index + +"Kolmogorsov" in text, but "Kolmogorzov" in index + +"Krassilnikoff's" in text, but "Krassilinikoff" in index + +"Labuan" in text, but "Labaan" in index + +"Matvejev" in text, but "Matveyev" in index + +"Meyenwaldt" in text, but "Meyenvaldt" in index + +"Morgiouets" in text, but "Morgiovets" in index + +"Mutnoi" in text, but "Mutnoj" in index + +"Oiwake" in text, but "Oiwaki" in index + +"Rotschitlen" in text, but "Rotschilten" in index + +"Sarytchev" or "Sarytschev" + +"Semenoffskoj" in text, but "Semenoffski" in index + +"Gusinnaja Semlja" in text, but "Gusinnaya Semlya" in index + +"Serebrenikoff" in text, but "Seribrenikoff" in index + +"skuggsja" in text, but "skuggja" in index + +"Sumiyashi" In list of illustrations, but +"SUMIYOSHI" Caption on illustration + +"Tajmur river" or "Taimur river" + +"Volodomir" in text, but "Volodimir" in index + +"Yekargaules" in text, but "Yekargauls" in index + + +END OF TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and +Europe, Volume I and Volume II, by A.E. 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