58 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



aiiproached Novaya Zemyla; 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° 33' N. L. and 51° 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° 10' and 71° 30' N. L. The name is a trans- 

 lation of the Russian Gusinnaja Semlja, and arises from the 

 large number of geese and swans (Cygnus Bcivickii, Yarr.) which 

 breed in that region. The geese commonly place their ex- 

 ceedingly 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 fowd-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 Besim- 

 manaja 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 lifteen 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 



