A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 301 



up the Marconi station on Waigatz, whence we hoped 

 to hear news of the war. But in this we were dis- 

 appointed. The telegraphist on the island kuew 

 nothing of the European turmoil except that the name 

 of Petersburg had been changed. We were obliged to 

 take what comfort we could from the fact that the 

 town had been renamed Petrograd, and not Wilhelm- 

 stadt, or something equally ominous; and resign ourselves 

 to wait for news until we reached Norway. 



This poor telegraphist and his fellows had been sent 

 to Waigatz during the previous summer. They had been 

 under-supplied with provisions, and were also suffering 

 from scurvy. The Russian Government, who take 

 great interest in the modern attempts to open up 

 Captain Wiggins' old route, undertook to establish 

 three wireless stations in the Kara Sea — at Waigatz, at 

 the Yugor Strait, and at M-0v6 Sale, in order that 

 incoming ships should have news of the condition of 

 the ice in the straits, and shape their course accordingly. 

 However, it caused such a scandal that the unfortunate 

 operators should have been sent out so badly equipped, 

 that questions were asked in the Duma, and the matter 

 was put right. 



Late in the evening we sighted the coast of Novaya 

 Zemlya, and lay-to for the night to wait for the Skule, 

 whose engines were less powerful than ours, and was 

 constantly falling behind. It was strange to stand on 

 the bridge at dusk, and look over to the dim purple 

 smear under the mist on our starboard bow which 

 represented Novaya Zemlya. It is a place that every 

 schoolboy has heard of, but which, by the tricks of 



