CAPTAIN WIGGINS 249 



banks of Dvina received their silks and their tea via the 

 Thames instead of the Ob and the Yenesei ; and ever 

 since that time the commercial world seems to have taken 

 it for granted that the Kara Sea was unnavigable, and that 

 the Kara gates were closed by impenetrable bars of ice. 



Latterly considerable efforts have been made, prin- 

 cipally by Professor Nordenskiold of Stockholm and 

 Captain Wiggins of Sunderland, to re-open this ancient 

 route, and to re-establish a trade with Siberia via the Kara 

 Sea. In 1874 Captain Wiggins chartered the well-known 

 Arctic steam yacht Diana, and passing through the Kara 

 gates, explored the entrance to the Ob and the Yenesei, 

 and returned to England in safety. In 1875 Professor 

 Nordenskiold chartered a walrus-sloop at Hammerfest, 

 and entering the Kara Sea through the Matoshkin Skar, 

 landed in the gulf of the Yenesei. The walrus-sloop 

 returned to Europe in safety, leaving the Professor to make 

 his way up the river in a boat as far as Yeneseisk, whence 

 he returned to Stockholm by the overland route. 



In 1876 both these gentlemen attempted to take a 

 cargo to Siberia by the Kara Sea. Professor Norden- 

 skiold was the first to arrive, and fortunately failing to 

 find a channel up the Yenesei deep enough for his 

 steamer, he landed his goods at a little village called 

 Koreopoffsky, about a hundred miles up the Yenesei, 

 and returned to Europe without any mishap. Captain 

 Wiggins was less fortunate. He left Sunderland on the 

 8th of July in the Thames, Arctic steam yacht (120 tons), 

 and entered the Kara Sea on the 3rd of August. The 

 ice prevented him from sailing direct to the mouths of 

 the great rivers, so he spent some time in surveying the 

 coast and the Baideratskerry Gulf, and did not reach the 

 mouth of the Ob until the 7th of September. Here he 

 lay at anchor some time in the hope that a favourable 



