XII ] THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE ACHIEVED. 451 



the North Polar Sea with the Pacific, and from this point the 

 Vega greeted the old and new worlds by a display of flags and 

 the firing of a Swedish salute. 



Thus finally was reached the goal towards which so many 

 nations had struggled, all along from the time when Sir Hugh 

 Willoughby, with the firing of salutes from cannon and with 

 hurrahs from the festive-clad seamen, in the presence of an 

 innumerable crowd of jubilant men certain of success, ushered 

 in the long series of North-East voyages. But, as I have before 

 related, their hopes were grimly disappointed. Sir Hugh and all 

 his men perished as pioneers of England's navigation and of 

 voyages to -the ice-encumbered sea which bounds Europe and Asia 

 on the north. Innumerable other marine expeditions have since 

 then trodden the same path, always without success, and generally 

 with the sacrifice of the vessel and of the life and health of 

 many brave seamen. Now for the first time, after the lapse of 

 336 years, and when most men experienced in sea matters had 

 declared the undertaking impossible, was the North-East Passage 

 at last achieved. This has taken place, thanks to the discipline, 

 zeal, and ability of our man-of-war's-men and their officers, 

 without the sacrifice of a single human life, without sickness 

 among those who took part in the undertaking, without the 

 slightest damage to the vessel, and under circumstances which 

 show that the same thing may Tae done again in most, perhaps 

 in all years, in the course of a few weeks. It may be permitted 

 us to say, that under such circumstances it was with j)ride we 

 saw the blue-yellow flag rise to the mast-head and heard the 

 Swedish salute in the sound where the old and the new worlds 

 reach hands to each other. The course along which we sailed 

 is indeed no longer required as a commercial route between 

 Europe and China. But it has been granted to this and the 

 preceding Swedish expeditions to open a sea to navigation, and 

 to confer on half a continent the possibility of communicating 

 by sea with the oceans of the world. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The history, physique, disposition, and n^anncfs of the Chukclies. 



The north coast of Siberia is now, with the exception of -its 

 westernmost and easternmost parts, literally a desert. In the 

 west there projects between the mouth of the Ob and the 

 southern portion of the Kara Sea the peninsula of Yalmal, 

 which by its remote position, its grassy plains, and rivers 



G G 2 



