WATER AND OVERLAND COMilUNICATION'. 235 



zer» repeated her voyage with the same success. At the same time Baron Nordenskjold's se- 

 cond expedition took place. This navigator in the steamer «Yegav> made the voyage from 

 Transen through the whole Arctic Ocean and returned to Europe after circumnavigating the 

 continent of Europe-Asia. 



Sabsequeutly there were not a few other successful expeditions of this kind. lu the 

 same year, 1878, two large European steamers entered the mouth of the Obi with colonial 

 wares and iron goods, in exchange for which they took cargoes of wheat and hemp. Knop's 

 steamers the <?Tsaritsa» and the «Moscow;^ entered the mouth of the Yenisei, the latter reach- 

 ing Yeniseisk. Nordenskjold's steamer the «:Lena» entered the mouth of the river of the 

 same name and ascended as far as Yakutsk having thus sailed 2,700 versts from the mouth. 



In consequence of such results, sea communication between Europe and Siberia by the Arctic 

 Ocean appeared to be completely established, although there were still not a few accidents to 

 ships attempting to make their way to Siberia by this new route. In 1887 in Newcastle a 

 company was formed for establishing commercial relations with Siberia, and with this object 

 it equipped the steamer «Phoeuix» which successfully reached Yeniseisk. This first expedition, 

 in consequence of the unfortunate choice of goods, was in a commercial sense a failure lor 

 the company, but nevertheless the latter having become more nearly acquainted through its 

 agents with the needs of Siberia and its productions, fitted out in the following year the 

 steamer «Labrador», which was to carry its cargo to the mouth of the Yenisei and there re- 

 ceive Siberian goods from the «Phoenix». But neither of these steamers attained its object 

 and the company incurred considerable losses and soon wound up its affairs. The ill success of 

 this company did not however quell the desire of the enterprising Englishmen to again 

 try their luck, and with this object once more an Anglo-Siberian Company was formed, 

 which despatched a steamer to the mouth of the Yenisei with a cargo of assorted goods. lu 

 consequence of an accidental concurrence of various unfortunate circumstances, notwithstanding 

 even the gi-anting of the right of duty-free importation of goods into the northern ports ot 

 Siberia during five years, the new company also had no success in a commercial sense and 

 was obliged to wind up its affairs. 



Thus, the result of these attempts was the positive establishment of the fact of the 

 possibility without extraordinary difficulty of sea communication between Europe and Asia 

 via the Arctic Ocean. But the commercial advantage of the employment of this route remains 

 so far a thing of the future. In conclusion it is not out of place to remark in connexion with 

 the north sea passage to Siberia, that Sidorov first pointed out the importance of stoking 

 steamers for polar expeditions with pertroleum and in 1872 inaugurated this system in Archangel, 

 intending to employ the liquid fuel of local origin, but the expedition then planned by him, as 

 was mentioned, did not take place. 



The Pacific coast of Siberia did not present any difficulties in the way of regular sea 

 communication, but here this undertaking could not be developed in consequence of quite dif- 

 ferent causes. Till the end of the seventies the communication between European Russia and 

 Siberia through the Pacific Ocean had a more or less accidental character. The establishment 

 of steam communication with the Far East, undertaken in 1870 by the Russian Steam Naviga- 

 tion and Trade Company, did not possess any serious commercial importance. This undertaking 



