INTRODUCTION 
As Kolguev Island lies but fifty miles off the coast of 
Arctic Europe it may fairly be regarded as European. 
A glance at the map will show that it is the only island 
in that part of the Arctic Ocean known as Barents Sea. 
It seemed time that something more certain should 
be known about it than could be gathered from chance 
references in the old books. Also, lying thus between 
east and west, it held out to a naturalist promise of 
interesting things. 
In the autumn of 1893 I crossed in a trading vessel 
from this country to the White Sea, with the object of 
finding out something about Kolguev. I failed. | 
asked the Governor of the Archangel Province. He 
was kindness itself, but confessed himself uninformed 
on the subject. ‘But,’ he added, ‘when my gun-boat 
goes next year to Novaya Zemblya they might pos- 
sibly be able to set you down.’ It was a kind offer, 
but the gun-boat would be going altogether too late for 
my purpose. I asked of the traders and fishermen, I 
asked of the monks on Solovetsk—but with no result. 
They knew nothing of Kolguev; only they were agreed 
