150 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



burn the poles of their tent, and to keep their feet over the fire until the leather 

 became soft. On May 18, the thirty-fourth day of his journey, Ziwolka re- 

 turned to his commander, after having explored the east coast northward to a 

 distance of 150 versts. 



Meanwhile Pachtussow had been busy building a boat eighteen feet long, 

 with which he intended to pi'oceed along the western coast to the northern ex- 

 tremity of the island, and, the elements permitting, to return to the straits 

 along its eastern shores. About the beginning of June the migratory birds 

 made their appearance, and introduced a very agreeable change in the monoton- 

 ous fare of the navigators, who, a few weeks later, enjoyed the sight of bloom- 

 ing flowers, and gathered antiscorbutic herbs in large quantities. 



Thus the high northern land had assumed its most friendly aspect, and looked 

 as cheerfully as it possibly could, when, on July 11, Pachtussow and Ziwolka 

 set out for the north with the boat and the transport, the schooner being left 

 behind in the straits with the surgeon and a few invalids. At first the wind 

 and weather favored their course, but on July 21 the boat was smashed be- 

 tween two pieces of ice, so that they had hardly time to escape upon the land 

 with the nautical instruments, a sack of flour, and some butter. 



In this unpleasant situation they were obliged to remain for thirteen days, 

 until at last a walrus-hunter appeared, who took the shipwrecked explorers 

 on board, and brought them safely back to their winter-quarters on August 22. 



Thus this first attempt ended in complete disappointment, and the season was 

 already too far advanced to permit of its renewal. Yet Pachtussow, resolving 

 with praiseworthy zeal to make the most of the last days of the short summer, 

 set out again on August 26 for the eastern entrance of the straits, and proceeded 

 along the coast, until he was stopped by the ice at some distance beyond the 

 small islands which bear his name. 



Convinced of the fruitlessness of all further efforts, Pachtussow bade adieu 

 with a sorrowful heart to the coast, which still stretched out before him in un- 

 discovered mystery, and sailed back again to Archangel on September 20. Soon 

 after his return he fell ill, and four weeks later his mourning friends carried him 

 to his grave. 



The Arctic Ocean is so capricious that in the following year the walrus- 

 hunter Issakow, of Kem, who had no discoveries in view, was able to round 

 without difficulty the north-eastern extremity of Nova Zembla, but, fearful of 

 encountering the dangers of that dreadful coast, he almost immediately returned. 



During the two winters he spent in Nova Zembla, the steersman Ziwolka 

 had daily consulted the thermometer, and the result of his observations gave 

 to the western entrance of Mathew's Straits a mean annual temperature 

 of -fl7°. 



Thus Nova Zembla is colder than the west coast of Spitzbergen, which, al- 

 though still farther to the north, is more favorably situated with regard to the 

 winds and currents, and from five to ten degrees warmer than the high north- 

 ern parts of Siberia and continental America, which sustain a comparatively 

 numerous population, while Nova Zembla is uninhabited. Hence this want, 

 and the circumstance that the vegetation of these islands scarcely rises a span 



