248 SIBERIA AND SEA-TRADE 



other Arctic expeditions, this proved a failure. Poor Sir 

 Hugh Willoughby, it is supposed, discovered one of the 

 islands of Novaya Zemlya, but was afraid to winter 

 there, and landed on the Kola peninsula, where he and 

 all his crew were starved to death. 



Another ship belonging to the same expedition, com- 

 manded by Richard Chancellor, was more fortunate. It 

 was separated from the others by a heavy storm, and 

 driven by contrary winds into the White Sea. Chancellor 

 not only saved his ship and the lives of his crew, but 

 discovered Archangel, which subsequently became a little 

 English colony. At that time the inhabitants of Arch- 

 angel were actually carrying on a trade with this wonder- 

 ful land of Cathay. In their flat-bottomed lodkas, sewn 

 together with willow roots, they skirted the east coast of 

 the White Sea, and dragged their boats across the Kanin 

 peninsula. They coasted the southern shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean, and passing through the Kara gates, 

 entered the Kara Sea. On the Yalmal peninsula they 

 found a river, the head of which brought them to a 

 narrow watershed, across which they again pushed their 

 boats, coming to another river, which brought them into 

 the gulf of the Ob. Crossing this gulf they entered the gulf 

 of the Taz, at the head of which was the once famous 

 town of Mangaze, where a great annual fair was held. 

 This fair was frequented by merchants who brought tea, 

 silks, and spices down the Ob and the Yenesei to barter 

 with the Russian merchants, who returned to Archangel 

 the same season. 



In the struggle for existence which commenced on 

 the opening out of the port of Archangel to British com- 

 merce, according to the inevitable law of the survival of 

 the fittest, this Russian maritime enterprise languished 

 and finally died, and thenceforth the inhabitants of the 



