206 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



among the accounts that have been thus preserved we do not 

 find a single sketch of any special voyage, on the ground of 

 which we could place a Russian name beside that of Willoughby, 

 Burrough, Pet and Barents in the older history of the North- 

 East Passage. The historical sources of Russia too must be 

 similarly incomplete in this respect, to j l^dge from the otherwise 

 instructive historical introduction to Liitke's voyage. Gallant 

 seamen, but no Hakluyt, were born during the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth century on the shores of the White Sea, and 

 therefore the names of these seamen and the story of their 

 voyages have long since fallen into complete obscurity, excepting 

 some in comparatively recent times. 



In the second edition of Witsen's great work we find, at page 

 913, an account of an unsuccessful hunting voyage to the Kara 

 Sea, undertaken in 1690, that is to say, at a time when voyages 

 between the White Sea and the Obi and Yenisej were on the 

 point of ceasing completely. The account was drawn up by 

 Witsen from an oral communication by one of the shipwrecked 

 men, Rodivan Ivanov, who was for several years mate on a 

 Russian vessel, employed in seal-fishing on the coast of Novaya 

 Zemlya and Vaygats Island. 



On the — September this Rodivan Ivanov suffered ship- 

 wreck with two vessels on Serapoa Koska (Serapov's Bank,) 

 probably situated in the Southern part of the Kara Sea. The 

 ice was thrown up here in winter into lofty ice-casts with 

 such a crashing noise that "the world was believed to be coming 

 to an end," and at high water with a strong breeze the whole 

 island was submerged with the exception of some knolls. On 

 one of these the winter house was erected. It was built of clay, 

 which was kneaded with the blood and hair of the seal and 

 walrus. This mixture hardened to a solid mass, of which the 

 walls were built with the help of boards from the vessel. 

 The house thus afforded good protection not only from cold and 

 bad weather, but also from bears. A furnace was also built 

 inside the house and fired with driftwood collected on the beach. 

 Train oil from the captured animals was used for lighting. 

 There wintered here fifteen men in all, of whom eleven died 

 of scurvy. Want of exercise perhaps mainly conduced to bring 

 on this disease. For most of them did not leave the house 

 durino" the winter night, five weeks long. Those were most 

 healthy who had most exercise, as, for instance, the mate, who 

 was the youngest among the crew, and therefore had to go round 

 the island to collect wood. Another cause of the great mortality 

 was the total want of provisions brought from home. For the 

 first eio-ht days their food consisted of seaweed dredged up from 

 the bottom of the sea, with which some meal was mixed. After- 

 wards they ate the flesh of the seal and walrus, and of the Polar 



