ch. xxxvi] The North-East Passage 
327 
and came home without cargoes, thus thoroughly dis- 
crediting the enterprise. Wiggins gave it up in disgust, 
but some years afterwards, encouraged by Sir Robert 
Morier, the English Ambassador at Petrograd, he was 
induced to take the Phoenix of 273 tons to the Yenisei, 
and he made several other voyages until 1896. This 
fine specimen of an English master mariner had become 
a perfect pilot of the Kara Sea, and a most worthy 
successor of Burrough, Pet, and Jackman. I had the 
pleasure of presenting him with one of the awards of the 
Royal Geographical Society for his excellent services in 
the Kara Sea, and he received other recognitions. He 
died, aged 73, on September 13th, 1905 
Another expedition, connected more or less with the 
voyage of Nordenskiold and the Siberian Sea, was planned 
and commanded by Lieutenant George W. De Long of 
the United States Navy, and financed by Mr Gordon 
Bennett of the New York Herald. The expedition had 
the great advantage of being under naval discipline, the 
commander receiving instructions from the Secretary of 
the Navy. Mr Gordon Bennett induced Sir Allen Young 
to sell him the Pandora as the vessel for the new expedi- 
tion. At this time Lieutenant De Long was in England, 
and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. He 
was a good seaman, a scientific officer, and an agreeable 
companion. Trained to the management and care of 
seamen De Long was undoubtedly the best of all the 
American arctic commanders, and he well fulfilled the 
trust that was placed in him. The Pandora was taken 
to San Francisco — for the object of the expedition was 
1 Sir Fridtjof Nansen, in an Appendix to his Through Siberia, has lately 
made a record of all voyages across the Kara Sea from the voyage of 
Burrough in 1556 to the present day, -with notes on the state of the ice in 
each year. His conclusion is that in the great majority of years it is possible 
to reach the Siberian rivers through the Kara Sea, though there are great 
variations in the quantity of ice in different years. He thinks it very im- 
probable that these differences are caused by winds and sea currents from 
the north. His conclusion is that the ice that is met with is formed in the 
Kara Sea itself, and that the differences of ice conditions are caused by 
differences in the winters. In a cold winter, with little precipitation, more 
ice will be formed, and little ice will melt in a cold spring and summer. 
When there is a warm winter and heavy snowfall succeeded by a warm 
spring and summer, the melting of the ice will proceed rapidly, and there will 
be a fairly ice-free Kara Sea. Nanscn's remarks on the navigation of the 
Kara Sea are extremely valuable, based on the most complete information 
and long experience of ice conditions. 
