348 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The Russian expedition of Captain Sedof sailed late in the summer of 1912 

 with the intention of making Franz Josef Land its base of operations for 

 visiting the Pole. 



Another expedition to Franz Josef Land has a sentimental as well as a 

 physical aspect. This Arctic Archipelago it will be recalled, was discovered 

 by the Austro-Hungarian expedition of Weyprecht and Payer in August, 

 1873, when their ship "Tegetthoff ' ' was beset. It was first visited by Payer, 

 whose charts of the region have been the subject of much discussion and of 

 material modifications. Now after forty years, his son, Jules de Payer, a 

 French citizen, is to make a scientific survey of this Arctic country. From a 

 land base he hopes to cover the region through the use of a power boat and 

 two aeroplanes. 



The American Museum expedition under Donald B. MacMillan for the 

 exploration of Crocker Land, and that initiated by Captain Amundsen for a 

 drift from Bering Strait across the north-polar basin, are too well known 

 to need comment here. The same remark may be made as to the aims and 

 the progress of V. Stefansson, who so distinguished himself in Arctic 

 America as the representative of the American Museum of Natural History. 



While the Arctic explorers specifically mentioned were striving for defi- 

 nite results, the world awakened one morning to learn that what might be 

 called the "first blood" had been drawn by a Russian officer, Commander 

 Wilkitzky, Imperial Russian Navy, while engaged purely on a work of 

 domestic economy and of national interest. His voyage was the prosecu- 

 tion of the survey of the coast waters of northern Asia. For several years 

 Russian officers have been busy in determining and charting a safe and re- 

 liable maritime trade-route between the valleys of the great rivers of Si- 

 beria and the remainder of the empire. 



The discovery of this new Arctic land is but one of many creditable 

 chapters in the history of maritime explorations made by Russian officers 

 and explorers during the past quarter of a century. Unfortunately the 

 publication in Russian text only of the results of these voyages seriously 

 limits the dissemination of the knowledge. Among such Russian texts may 

 be mentioned the Riabouchinsky expedition to Kamtchatka, under the direc- 

 tion of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. One distinguished 

 Russian geographer, General Jules de Schokalsky, Imperial Navy, has con- 

 tributed from time to time memoirs of importance, especially relative to the 

 sea-route to Siberia — so important to the whole empire. 



As to this route, stimulated by the circumnavigation of Asia by Norden- 

 skiold, and by the successful demonstration by Wiggins of summer naviga- 

 tion in favorable seasons between Europe and the Yenisei, Russian officers 

 have done daring work of interest and importance in the dangerous ice-clad 

 Siberian ocean. Among these explorations are the well-known surveys of 

 Colonel A. J. Vilitsky in the Obi and Yenisei regions, and the extended 



