518 THE VOYAGE OP THE VEGA. [chap. 



south there falls into it a large river, called the Dwina. On 

 the banks of the Dwina there are forts or towns with the 

 names Solovoka (Solovets), Pinega, Colmogor, &c. There are 

 to he found on the map besides, the names Mesen, Peczora, 

 Oby,^ Tumen, &c. Oby runs out of a large lake named Kythay 

 lacus. In the text, mention is made of Irtisch and Papingorod, 

 of walruses and white bears ^ by the coast of the Polar Sea, of 

 the Siberian cedar-tree, of the word Samoyed signifying self- 

 eaters, &c.^ The walrus is described in great detail. It is 

 mentioned further that the Hussian Grand Duke sent out two 

 men, Simeon Theodorovitsch Kurbski and Knes Pietko 

 UCHATOI, to explore the lands east of the Petchora, &c. 



Herberstein's work, where the narrative of I stoma's circum- 

 navigation of the northern extremity of Europe, which has been 

 already quoted, is to be found, was published only a few years 

 before the first north-east voyages of the English and the Dutch, 

 of which I have before given a detailed account. Througli 

 these the northernmost part of European Russia and the 

 westernmost part of the Asiatic Polar Sea were mapped, but an 

 actual knowledge of the north coast of Asia in its entirety 

 was obtained through the conquest of Siberia by the Russians. 

 It is impossible here to give an account of the campaigns, by 

 which the whole of this enormous territory was brought under 

 the sceptre of the Czar of Moscow, or of the jDrivate journeys for 

 sport, trade, and the collecting of tribute, by which this conquest 

 was facilitated. But as nearly every step which the Russian 

 invaders took forward, also extended the knowledge of 

 regions previously quite unknown, I shall mention the years in 

 which during this conquest the most important occurrences in a 

 geographical point of view took place, and give a rather more 

 detailed account of the exploratory or military expeditions which 

 led directly to important results affecting the extension of our 

 knowledge of the geography of the region now in question. 



The way was prepared for the conquest of Siberia through 

 peaceful commercial treaties ^ which a rich Russian peasant 



1 The river Ob is raentioned the first time in 1492, in the ne.cfotiations 

 which tlje Austrian ambassador, Michael !Smips, carried on iu Moscow in 

 order to obtain permission to travel in the interior of Russia (Adehmg, 

 (Jehersicht der Reisenden in Russland, p. 157). 



'^ As before stated, Marco Polo mentions Polar bears but not walruses. 



3 Herodotus j^laces Andropagi in nearly the same regions which are 

 now inhabited by the Samoyeds. Pliny also speaks of man-eating 

 Scythians. 



* Arctic literature contains a nearly contemporaneous sketch of the first 

 Eussian-Siberian commercial undertakings, Beschryvinghe vander Samoyed en 

 Landt in Tartarien, nieulijcks onder't ghehicdt der Moscoviten gehraclit. Wt 

 de Bussche tale overgheset, Anno 1609. Amsterdam, Hessel Gerritsz, 1612 ; 

 inserted in Latin, in 1613, in the same publisher's Descrijjtio ac Delincatio 



