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THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA 
without needing to fear the least hindrance from ice. For 
several decades hack, however, in consequence of want of 
knowledge of the proper season and the proper course, the 
case has been quite different—as is sufficiently evident from 
the account of the difficulties and dangers which the renowned 
Russian navigator. Count Llitke, met with during his repeated 
voyages four summers in succession (1821-1824) along the west 
coast of Novaya Zemlj^a. A skilful walrus-hunter can now, with a 
common walrus-hunting Vessel, in a single summer, sail further 
in this sea than formerly could an expedition, fitted out with 
all the resources of a naval yard, in four times as long time. 
There are four ways of passing from the Murman Sea to 
the Kara Sea, viz :— 
a. Yugor Sound—the Fretum Kassovicum of the old Dutch¬ 
men—between Vaygats Island and the mainland. 
h. The Kara Port, between Vaygats Island and Novaya 
Zemlya. 
c. Matotschkin Sound, which between 73° and 74° N. Lat. 
divides Novaya Zemlya into two parts, and, finally, 
d. The course north of the double island. The course past 
the northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya is not commonly 
clear of ice till the beginning of the month of September, 
and perhaps ought, therefore, not to be chosen for an expedition 
having for its object to penetrate far to the eastward in this 
sea. Yugor Sound and the Kara Port are early free of fast 
ice, but instead, are long rendered difficult to navigate by con¬ 
siderable masses of drift ice, which are carried backwards and 
forwards in the bays on both sides of the sound by the cur¬ 
rents which here alternate with the ebb and flow of the tide. 
Besides, at least in Yugor Sound, there are no good harbours, 
in consequence of which the drifting masses of ice may greatly 
inconvenieuce the vessels, which by these routes attempt to 
enter the Kara Sea. Matotschkin Sound, again, forms a 
channel nearly 100 kilometres long, deep and clear, with the 
exception of a couple of shoals, the position of which is known, 
which indeed is not usually free from fast ice until the latter 
half of July, but, on the other hand, in consequence of the 
configuration of the coast, is less subject to be obstructed by 
drift ice than the southern straits. There are good harbours 
at the eastern mouth of the sound. In 1875 and 1876 both 
the sound and the sea lying off it were completely open in 
the end of August, but the ice was much earlier broken up 
also on the eastern side, so that a vessel could without 
danger make its way among the scattered pieces of drift ice. 
