20 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



open sea with a fresh breeze was as destructive to the craft 

 which were at the disposal of the adventurous, but ill-equipped 

 Siberian polar explorer as an ice-filled sea; indeed, more dangerous, 

 for in the latter case the crew, if the vessel was nipped, generally 

 saved themselves on the ice, and had only to contend with 

 hunger, snow, cold, and other difficulties to which the most 

 of them had been accustomed from their childhood ; but in the 

 open sea the ill-built, weak vessel, caulked with moss mixed 

 with clay, and held together with willows, leaked already with 

 a moderate sea, and with a heavier, was helplessly lost, if a 

 harbour could not be reached in time of need. 



The explorers soon preferred to reach the islands by sledge 

 journeys on the ice, and thus at last discovered the whole of the 

 large group of islands which is named New Siberia. The islands 

 were often visited by hunters for the purpose of collecting mam- 

 moth tusks, of which great masses, together with the bones 

 of the mammoth, rhinoceros, sheep, ox, horse, etc., are found 

 Imbedded in the beds of clay and sand here. Afterwards they 

 were completely surveyed during Hedenstrom's expeditions, fitted 

 out by Count Rumauzov, Chancellor of the Russian Empire, in 

 the years 1809-1811, and during Lieutenant Anjou's in 1823. 

 Hedenstrom's expeditions were carried out by travelling with 

 dog-sledges on the ice, before it broke, to the islands, passing 

 the summer there, and returning in autumn, when the sea was 

 again covered with ice. As the question relates to the possibility 

 of navigating this sea, these expeditions, carried out in a very 

 praiseworthy way, might be expected to have great interest, 

 especially through observations from land, concerning the state 

 of the ice in autumn ; but in the short account of Hedenstrom's 

 expeditions which is inserted in Wrangel's Travels, pp. 99-119, the 

 only source accessible to me in this respect, there is not a single 

 word on this point. ^ Information on this subject, so important 

 for our expedition, has, however, by Mr, Sibiriakoff's care, been 

 received from inhabitants of North Siberia, who earn their living 

 by collecting mammoths' tusks on the group of islands in question. 

 By these accounts the sea between the north coast of Asia and 

 the islands of New Siberia, is every year pretty free of ice. 



Avery remarkable discovery was made in 1811 by a member 

 of Hedenstrom's expedition, the Yakoutsk townsman Sannikov ; 

 for he found, on the west coast of the island Katelnoj, remains 

 of a roughly-timbered winter habitation, in the neighbourhood 

 of the wreck of a vessel, differing completely in build from those 

 which are common in Siberia. Partly from this, partly from a 



1 Wrangel's own journeys were carried out during winter, with dog 

 sledges on the ice, and, however interesting in many other respects, do not 

 yield any other direct contribution to our knowledge of the state of the 

 ice in summer and autumn. 



