IVORY ISLANDS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. Al 
size, but with the exception of some high mountains, it seemed 
to be wholly composed of ice and sand. Such was the 
enormous quantity of mammoths’ remains, that it seemed to 
Chwoinoff that the island was actually composed of the bones 
and tusks of elephants, cemented together by icy sand. The 
horns of buffaloes (or rather of musk-oxen) and rhinoceroses 
were also wonderfully abundant. The sandy shores and slopes 
were full of mammoths’ tusks, and when the ice cementing 
the cliffs was thawed by the heat of the sun, the sand fell down 
in great quantities, bringing with it great numbers of elephants’ 
tusks, of which these cliffs seemed to be full. 
About fifteen miles from Liakoff’s Island was the second 
island discovered by him, and afterwards called Maloi, and here 
also Liakoff’s people had collected a rich supply of the bones 
and tusks of the mammoth. The surface of the island consisted 
of a bed of thick moss on which many beautiful flowers were 
erowing, but underneath were cliffs of pureice. It was possible 
to strip off the moss like a carpet from a floor, and beneath was 
pure ice which never thawed. 
Chwoinoff now started northwards for the third island or 
Kotelnoi, and found the straits beneath it and Maloi to be 
about 75 miles in breadth. He travelled along the shore, and 
having discovered a considerable river, he named it in honour 
of the Empress, the Czarina River. All the shores were covered 
with driftwood. He discovered three large rivers which were 
full of fish, and the waters of which brought down large 
quantities of driftwood from the interior of the island. This 
last discovery shows that iérees once existed in this island 
(Kotelnoi) in great abundance. Chwoinoff climbed to the top of 
a lofty mountain, and as the weather was clear he obtained an 
extensive view, which consisted of lofty mountains, which 
stretched away to the east, west, and north, for a long distance. 
He passed the summer on Kotelnoi, and returned in the autumn 
to Svaiatoi Noss.* 
For thirty years Liakoff enjoyed the sole right of carrying 
away the vast stores of fossil ivory from these wonderful 
islands. He built huts and formed settlements for his people 
on them, and his agents went to them in sledges over the 
* The account of these discoveries was given by Protodiakonoff to 
Martin Saur when the latter was at Yakutsk in 1788. Saur wished to 
hear of them from Liakoff himself, but Liakoff being old referred him to 
Protodiakonoff, who related the narrative to him. The account may be 
found in Saur’s Narrative of an Expedition to the Northern Part of Russia, 
by Captain Joseph Billings, pp. 103-106. 
DZ 
