228 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



7th and 8th August into the Kara Sea, which was completely 

 free of ice, with the exception of some few very scattered pieces. 

 After sailing backwards and forwards in different directions in 

 the Kara Sea, he returned through the Kara Port on the 24th 

 August. Captain F. E. Mack made a similar voyage. He 

 sailed from the 28th June to the 8th July northwards along the 

 west coast of Novaya Zemlya, which was free of ice between the 

 Petchora and the Admiralty peninsula, where fast ice was 

 found, and fourteen sailing vessels and two steamers were now 

 assembled. On the 8th and 9th June thunder was heard here. 

 From the Admiralty peninsula Mack sailed again, first to the 

 south, and then, on the 18th July, through Matotschkin Sound 

 into the Kara Sea, which was nearly free of ice. Captain P. 

 Quale, again, and A. O. Nedrevaag, sailing master, penetrated 

 through Yugor Sound into the Kara Sea, and sailed there to 

 75° 22' N.L., and 74' 35' E.L. (Greenwich).^ 



Also in 1871 a number of walrus-hunters made remarkable 

 voyages in the Kara Sea. Of these, however, only one. Mack, 

 in the schooner Pole Star, penetrated eastwards farther than all 

 his predecessors. On the 14th June he sailed into the Kara 

 Sea through the Kara Port, but found the sea still covered with 

 continuous fast ice, from 1"8 to 2 metres in thickness. He 

 therefore turned and sailed northwards along the west coast of 

 Novaya Zemlya to the Gulf Stream Islands (76' 10' N.L. ), 

 where he remained till the 3rd of August. The temperature 

 of the air rose here to + 10^ '5. The name, which the Norwegian 

 walrus-hunters have o^iven these islands, owes its oris^in to the 

 large number of objects from southern seas which the Gulf 

 Stream carries with it thither, as floats from the Norwegian 

 fisheries, with their owner's marks frequently recognisable by 

 the walrus-hunters — beans of Entada gigalohium from the West 

 Indies, pumice-stone from Iceland, fragments of wrecked vessels, 

 &c. On the 3rd of August Mack passed the northernmost 

 promontory of Novaya Zemlya. Hence he sailed into the Kara 

 Sea, where at first he fell in with ice. Farther on, however, the 

 ice disappeared completely, and Mack on the 12th of September 

 reached 75° 25' N.L. and 82° 30' E.L. (Greenwich) accord- 



■^ Peterraann's M/ftheilun//en, 1871, p. 97. Along witli Ulve's, Mack's, 

 and Quale's voyages, Petermann refers to a voyage round Novaya Zemlya 

 by T, Torkildsen. In this case, however, Petermann was exposed to a 

 possibly unintended deception. Torkildsen, who visited the Polar Sea for 

 the first time in 1870, indeed made the voyage round Nova,ya Zsmlya, but 

 only as a rescued man on Johannesen's vessel. Torkildsen's own vessel, the 

 Alifa, had been wrecked on the 13th July at the bottom of Kara Bay, after 

 which the skipper and six men Avere saved by Johannesen, yet by no 

 means so tliat Torkildsen, as is stated by Petermann, had the least com- 

 mand of the vessel that saved him. (Cf. Tromsoe Stiftstidende, 1871, 

 No. 23.) 



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