v.] FORMER IDEAS REGARDING NOVAYA ZEMLYA. 201 



on the state of Novaya Zemlya, said to be founded on discoveries 

 which had been made at the express command of the Czar. 

 The letter was accompanied by a map, drawn by an artist 

 named Panelapoetski, who sent it from Moscow as a present 

 to the writer. The Kara Sea is said to be a freshwater inland 

 lake which freezes strongly in winter, and it is stated that 

 according to the unanimous accounts of the Samoyeds and 

 Tartars it is quite possible to sail north of Novaya Zemlya to 

 Japan. 



2. Another letter was inserted in the Traiisactions of the Royal 

 Society,^ in which the statement in the former letter on the 

 connection of Novaya Zemlya with the mainland is repeated, 

 and the difficulties which Barents met with ascribed to the 

 circumstance that he sailed too near the land, along which the 

 sea is often frozen; some miles from the shore, on the other 

 hand, it never freezes, even at the Pole, unless occasionally. 

 It is also said that some Amsterdam merchants sailed more 

 than a hundred leagues eastward of Novaya Zemlya, and on 

 that account petitioned the States-Geueral for privileges.^ 

 However, in consequence of opposition from the Dutch East 

 India Company, their petition was not granted, on which the 

 merchants turned to Denmark. Here their proposal was 

 immediately received with favour. Two vessels were fitted out, 

 but instead of sailing to Japan, they went to Spitzbergen to 

 the whale-fishing. It is further stated in the letter that it 

 would not be unadvisable to let some persons live for a time 

 with the Samoyeds, in order to find out what they knew of the 

 matter, and that, when a more complete knowledge of the 

 navigable waters was acquired, the whole voyage from England 

 to Japan might be accomplished in five or six weeks. Were a 



^ "A eummary Relation of what hath been hitherto discovered in the 

 matter of the North-Eaet passage ; communicated by a good Hand" {Phil. 

 Trans., vol. x. p. 417. London, 1675). 



^ The time when the voyage was made is not stated in the letter quoted. 

 Harris says that he with great difficulty ascertained the year of the 

 successful voyage to the eastward to be 1670. He says further that the 

 persons who gave him this information also stated that, at the time when 

 tliis petition was given in to the States-General, it was also asserted that 

 there was no difficulty in sailing northwards from Spitzbergen (Greenland), 

 and that many Dutch vessels had actually done it. To confirm this state- 

 ment the merchants proposed that the logs of the Spitzliergen fleet for the 

 year 1655 should be examined. This was done. In seven of them it was 

 found recorded that the vessels had sailed to 79° N. L. Three other logs 

 agreed in the point that on the 1st August, 1655, 8S° 56' was ohserved. The 

 sea here was open and the swell heavy (Harris, Nav. B'lhl., ii. p. 453). J. R. 

 Forster (Gesckichte der Entdeckungenund Sch'iffrfahrten tin Norden, Frank- 

 furt a. d. Oder, 1874) appears to place the voyage eastward of Novaya 

 Zemlya in the period before 1614. It is, however, probable that the voyage 

 in question is Vlaiiiingh's remarkable one in 1664, or that in 16G6, of wliich 

 I have already given an account. 



