168 COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON THE FLORA OF KOLGUEV. 
vr. 
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE FLORA OF KOLGUEV. 
By Colonel II. W. Feilden and Mr. Herbert I). Geldart. 
Read 2Jf.ih February , 1896. 
An expedition, organised by Mr. IT. J. Pearson, left England in the 
end of May, 1895, with the intention of visiting Novaya Zemlya. 
The members of the party were Mr. IT. L Pearson, Mr. C. E. Pearson, 
the Rev. II. H. Slater, and Colonel II. W. Feilden. Leaving Vardo 
in the Steam Yacht “Saxon,” June 14th, a course was laid for 
Novaya Zemlya. The ice conditions in Barents Sea were found to 
be extremely unfavourable. Impenetrable pack-ice was met with 
about eighty miles from the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, trending 
towards the north-west, and several days were spent in cruising 
along the edge of that ice to the south-east. Every likely bight in 
the pack was entered, and in some cases these indentations were 
followed up for twenty to thirty miles, but invariably heavy 
compact ice barred further progress, and the yacht had to return 
to open water. Recalling Milton’s lines : 
“ Mountains of ice that stop the imagined, way, 
Beyond Petsora easterly, to the rich 
Cathaian coast.” 
Coal running short, the little vessel bore up for Vardo to refill. 
The members of the expedition were landed on the Murman Coast 
of Russian Lapland, near Sviatoi Nos, where they went into camp. 
A week was profitably spent there in ornithological, botanical, and 
geological investigations. On the return of the yacht from Vardo, 
a second attempt was made to reach Novaya Zemlya. The ice-pack 
was again met with in about the same meridian as before, but a 
lead showing, the vessel ran some forty miles through the ice-fields, 
and reached within eight or ten miles of that part of Novaya 
Zemlya known as Goose Land. There again, an impenetrable pack, 
eight to ten miles in width, was wedged against the shore. Every 
attempt to find a way through this failed, and after running many 
risks another retreat had to be attempted. This was very fortunately 
