4o8 GOLCHIKA 



a day for our meals, besides having to provide for our- 

 selves tea, coffee, sugar, and spirits. In the afternoon I 

 explored the island. It seemed to be about a square 

 mile in extent, very swampy, and thinly sprinkled with 

 rotten driftwood. I shot Arctic terns, red-throated pipit, 

 Lapland and snow-buntings, and Temminck's stint, and 

 saw red-necked phalaropes, and a long-tailed duck. As 

 I was leaving a boat passed, towing a couple of white 

 whales ; one was about six feet long and the other nine 

 or ten feet. Before I left the men were already begin- 

 ning to cut off the skin and blubber into strips : the skin 

 seemed to me half an inch and the blubber about two 

 inches in average thickness ; the former makes the 

 strongest leather known. Captain Wiggins told me it 

 fetched a rouble per lb. in St. Peterburg, where it is 

 largely used for reins and traces. 



On my return I found the captain and Schwanenberg 

 fighting over the Ibis. I had offered to take six hundred 

 roubles in a bill upon Sideroff for my half from Schwan- 

 enberg, or an I. O. U. for 500 roubles from Wiggins. 

 Schwanenberg wanted to go in her to St. Petersburg, 

 Wiggins wanted to go in her to the Ob. Schwanenberg's 

 crew were on excellent terms with their captain, and 

 were willing to risk their lives for, and with him. 

 Wiggins, on the other hand, was at loggerheads with his 

 men, who point-blank refused to go. It was a very 

 unpleasant position for the captain, but, to a certain 

 extent, he had himself to blame. He had unfortunately 

 not taken the right course to gain the affection of his 

 sailors ; and, considering the feeling existing between 

 them, it seemed to me unreasonable to expect the men to 

 follow him into further risks, which were never contem- 

 plated when they were first engaged. The captain was 

 evidently trying all he could to discover some combination 



