CHAPTER IX. 
NOVA ZEMBLA AND LANDS BEYOND. 
THE preceding notice of the Land of the Samoides, to 
which we have been led by taking notice of the northern 
coast lands of Lapland, has led us out from the forests, if 
not beyond the forest-lands, of Northern Russia; and 
having ventured so far, surely we may venture across the 
narrow strait beyond, and take a glance at Nova Zembla, 
or Novaia Zemblia—the New Land—before we betake 
ourselves to the study of the forest economy of the land 
whither we have found our way. This projects from the 
most northern point of Russia in Europe, near to its 
eastern boundary, from which it is separated by the 
Waygatz Shoals. With an exception, which will after- 
wards be referred to, it may be said to be uninhabited ; 
but it is visited by fishermen and hunters, who are sent 
out by the merchants of Archangel and Mezen to obtain 
whales and walrusses. It is generally spoken of as one 
island, but being traversed by a narrow crooked passage 
from west to east, there are two large islands, with some 
lesser ones on the coast. Coal and asphaltum have been 
found in the interior, and there exists a salt lake there. 
A writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, in the issue for Sep- 
tember 1883, who appears to be keenly alive to the plea- 
sure experienced in the chase, and who came home with 
the crew of the ill-fated ‘ Eira, supplies some interesting 
details in regard to this land, amongst others these :— 
‘Being far out of the way of all our merchant routes, 
and only approachable during the summer -over the, even 
then, ice-encumbered sea, Nova Zembla will probably long 
remain one of the last refuges of the reindeer; while its 
