52 SlIiKKIA. 



Docks of ice of various sizes, partly ilic reiric'iins of the winter covering of the sea, and 

 partly carried do \ n by ilu; lilr^'o Siberian rivers, arc carried by the winds and the 

 currents over tlie ocean iuid collect sometimes in one place and sometimes in another 

 willioiit li.isiii^' any regular egress to the southern waters. The pressure of water car- 

 ried by the (liiHstrnam doubling Nova Zcmbla forms a contrary current in th<.' Sea of 

 Kara, carrying llif ice of this sea tlirougli llic Kara Straits and Waigach Sound and thus 

 coiiiplctely clcuriii^' it bdnre the autumn. 'Ibis cnablrs sliijis t(j jicnetrate tbrougb .Ma- 

 toctikin Sliai, a narrow sound, separating tlu; two islands of Nova Zembla, into the Sea 

 of Kara, and, if it bi; clear of ice, to reach the gulf of Yenesseisk and make a return voyjige 

 the same autumn. This however is not always possible and ships cannot rely upon reaching 

 and leaving the gulf of Yenessei the same autumn. The ice, covering the enormous expanse 

 of ocean between the mouth of the Yenessei and Cape Dezhnev, has no other outlet than through 

 some of the sounds of the unknown polar lands to the shores of Greenland, and then along this 

 coast to the south. At all fvents this was the course taken by the ice upon which the crew 

 of the lost American ship Jeanette accidentally left the things they had cast away and 

 which were eventually found oil the coast of Greenland. Naturally this circuitous route does 

 not completely ensure the egress of the ice, formed off the Siberian shores, into more southern 

 latitudes where it would be quite melted. For this reason the route through the Arctic Ocean 

 from European seas to the mouth of the Lena and especially to the Behring Straits is by no 

 means sure, and although Nordenskjold's expedition on the Vega, for the first time In the 

 history of navigation, penetrated through the ice of the Arctic Ocean from the seas of Europe 

 to the Pacific Ocean, this can at present be only regarded as a stroke of luck, the difTiculty 

 of the undertaking being shown by the fact that through a few days delay on the road the 

 Vega was still obliged to pass the winter on the coast of the Chukotsk Peninsula, and was 

 only able to leave winter quarters and, doubling Cape Dezhnev, get out Into the adjacent 

 Behring Straits by the 20th of July of the following year. In the same way Dezhnev who dis- 

 covered the sound dividing Siberia from America, called after him In 1647, was unable to 

 ilouble the Cape in that year and only succeeded in doing so In 1G48. 



There are not many islands along the Siberian coast to the east of the large double 

 island of Nova Zembla. It is unnecessary to describe such islands as the White, Siblriakov 

 and Taimur. and likewise those formed by the deltas of the Lena, Yana and Indlghirka, 

 all of which are adjacent to the continent, but those which are further from the coast, like 

 Wrangel's land and the group of New Siberia Islands, are quite worthy of mention. 



Wrangel's land Is an island quite uninvestigated by the Russians and only a little 

 known by the American whalers. The Americans have doubled it from the north and shown 

 that its dimensions do not, exceed those of the New Siberian Islands, and from which it does 

 not apparently iliffer in its physical conditions. 



The New-Siberian group is well known to the Russians and consists of three large 

 islands, Kotelnoi, Fadievskoi and New Siberia lying in the open sea to the north-east of 

 the delta of the Lena, and a few smaller ones situated like Liakhov Island and others near- 

 er to Cape Sviatoi. Further to the north beyond the islands of Nova Zembla, the Ameri- 

 can expedition of the lost Jeanette discovered some other small islands, but the three large 



