A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 307 



wireless stations round the Kara and Yugor Straits . 

 Tlie routes by the Matochkin Strait, and the north of 

 Novaya Zemlya, are too uncertain for ordinary use. In 

 1913 the s.s. Correct, chartered by the Siberian Com- 

 pany, made a successful trip to Breokoffsky — an 

 account of which has already been published by Doctor 

 Nansen.^ In the future the company expect larger 

 developments, and are taking more precautions. A 

 depot of stores is to be placed on Bieliy Ostrov, and 

 the ships will carry a winter equipment of clothing, a 

 hut, etc., in case, by any accident, the crew are obliged 

 to abandon the vessel and take to the ice. It has even 

 been suggested that a useful adjunct would be a pilot 

 in a waterplane, who could fly over the floes and find 

 out the open leads. Whether modern science can do 

 what pluck and seamanship failed to accomplish in the 

 last century, and overcome the natural difficulties of 

 navigation in these waters, remains to be seen. At 

 least the energy and enterprise of Mr. Lied, and the 

 other promoters of the present attempt, deserve all 

 success in their undertaking. 



I think that everybody breathed more easily when 

 Novaya Zemlya lay astern. The Kara Sea, especially 

 in its eastern waters, is charted only approximately, 

 and shipping insurance premiums rise mightily if the 

 destination of a vessel is known to lie east of the 

 Petchora. On 27th September we had hoped to hold 

 wireless communication with the station at Ingoe on 

 the Finmark coast ; but, alas, the operators there could 

 give us little or no reliable news of the war, and we 

 ^ Through Siberia, by Fridtjof Nansen. 



