VOYAGES IN THE POLAR SEA 



thirty-seated ship in the southern half, but six in the northern half; since they 

 [i.e., the inhabitants of the northern half] have to keep guard on the east." 



This keeping guard might, it is true, refer to Kvsens in 

 Finmark, but it seems rather to point to ships coming from 

 the east. In the negotiations of 1251, between the Grand 

 Duke of Novgorod (Alexander Nevsky) and Hakon Hakonsson, 

 there is express mention of disturbances from the east in 

 Finmark, and after that time we hear more frequently of 

 hostile incursions of Karelians and Russians in Finmark; they 

 may have come by land, but occasionally also by sea. 



A treaty of 1326 between Norway and Novgorod shows 

 that Norwegian mer- 

 chants traded with 

 the people of Nov- 

 gorod on the White 

 Sea. The erection 

 of the fortress of 

 Vardohus, as early 

 as 1307, also shows 

 the imp ortanc e 

 attached to these 

 eastern communica- 

 tions, and the for- 

 tress certainly 



afforded them a fixed point of support. Thus, about 1550 we 

 see that " Vardohus weight " (mark and pound) had penetrated 

 into northern Russia and was generally used in the North 

 Russian fish and oil trade. The Norwegians chiefly bought furs 

 in Bjarmeland, but what they exported thither is not mentioned 

 in the Norwegian notices; it may, even at that time, have been 

 to some extent fish, which in later times was the most important 

 article of export to North Russia from the north of Norway. 



As G. Storm [1894, P* 1°°] ^^^ pointed out, the Russian 

 chronicles tell of many hostile expeditions by sea between 

 Norway and the White Sea in the fifteenth century. In 141 2 

 the inhabitants of " Savolotchie " (the countries on the 



141 



On snow-shoes through the border-lands of 

 Norway [Olaus Magnus, 1555] 



