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.



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.



]



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.



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.



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.



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.



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:—

]

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]



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.



[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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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."



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.



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.



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.