148 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



though it never reached that point, it returned home with a rich cargo of wal- 

 rus-teeth. 



The third ship, finally, under Pachtussow's command, was to penetrate 

 through the gate of Kara, and from thence to proceed along the eastern coast. 

 When Pachtussow, according to his instructions, had reached the straits, all 

 his efforts to effect a passage proved ineffectual. It was in vain he more than 

 once steered to the east ; the stormy weather and large masses of drift ice con- 

 stantly threw him back, the short summer approached its end, and thus he was 

 obliged to put off all further attempts to the next year, and to settle for the 

 winter in Rocky Bay within the gate of Kara. A small hut was built out of 

 the drift-wood found on the spot, and joiued by means of a gallery of sail-cloth 

 to a bathing-room, that indispensable comfort of a Russian. The laying of 

 traps, in which many Arctic foxes were caught, and the carrying of the wood, 

 which had sometimes to be fetched from a distance of ten versts, occupied the 

 crew during fair weather. In April a party under Pachtussow's command 

 set out for the purpose of exploring the western coast. On this expedition 

 they were overtaken on the twenty-fourth day of the month by a terrible snow- 

 storm, which obliged them to throw themselves flat upon the ground to avoid 

 being swept away by the wind. They remained three days without food under 

 the snow, as it was impossible for them to reach the depot of provisions buried 

 a few versts off. 



On June 24 the gate of Kara was at length open, and Pachtussow would 

 gladly have sailed through the passage, but his ship was fast in the ice. He 

 therefore resolved, in order to make the best use of his time, to examine the 

 eastern coast in a boat, and reached in this manner the small Sawina River, 

 where he found a wooden cross with the date of 1742. Most likely it had 

 been placed there by Loschkin, his predecessor on the path of discover)^ He 

 now returned with his boat to the ship, which, after an imprisonment of 297 

 days, was at length, July 11, able to leave the bay. 



On Stadolski Island, near Cape Menschikoff, they found a wretched hut, 

 which proved that they were not the first to penetrate into these deserts. But 

 the hut was tenantless, and a number of human bones were strewn over the 

 ground. One of Pachtussow's companions now related that in 1822 a Samo- 

 jede, named Mawei, had gone with his wife and children to Nova Zembla, and 

 had never returned. On gathering the bones, they were found to compose the 

 skeletons of two children and of a woman, but no remains could be discovered 

 of the man. Most likely the unfortunate savage had been surprised by a snow- 

 storm, or had fallen a prey to a hungry ice-bear, on one of his excursions, and 

 his family, deprived of their support, had died of hunger in the hut. 



On July 19 they reached the river Stawinen, and on the 21st Liitke's Bay, 

 where a number of white dolphins and seals of an unknown species were found. 

 Here contrary winds arrested the progress of the navigators during eighteen 

 days. On August 13 Pachtussow entered Matoschkin Schar, and reached its 

 western mouth on the 19th, Thus he succeeded at least in circumnavigating 

 the southern island, which no one had achieved before him, and as his exhaust- 

 ed provisions did not allow him to spend a second winter in Nova Zembla, he 



