CHAPTER XIV. 



Nosonovsky Ostrov — The English expedition— Our party is hroken up — 

 The Ragna and the Shule — A cosmopolitan crew — A heavy cargo — 

 Homeward bound — The last sight of Golchika — Dickson Island— In 

 the ice — A narrow escape — Wireless news — A Government scandal — 

 Novaya Zemlya. 



NosoNOVSKY Ostrov is the most easterly island of 

 that great flat archipelago called BreokofFsky, which 

 represents the first delta of the Yenesei. Here the 

 river widens out into a vast basin forty miles in 

 width. You cannot even see from one side of the 

 delta to the other. The eastern arm alone is fifteen 

 versts from shore to shore. Nosonovsky has no 

 permanent dwellings upon it, but it is a not un- 

 important fishing station in the summer, when several 

 Siberian families, and a number of Yuraks, camp on 

 its shores. But in the month of September, 1914, 

 Nosonovsky was the scene of such bustle and activity 

 as its flat marshes had not witnessed since the old 

 Yenesei floods laid them down, thousands of years 

 before. It was the first place on the river which 

 afforded good anchorage and shelter to shipping, and 

 consequently it had been chosen by the Siberian 

 Company for the rendezvous where their English ex- 

 pedition was to meet the cargoes which had been 

 brought down from Krasnoyarsk for shipment to 



