134 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[CHAr. 
low-lying part of South Novaya Zemlya, the reindeer, notwith¬ 
standing the abundance of the summer pasture, is so rare that, 
when one lands there, any reindeer-hunting is scarcely to be 
counted on. It first occurs in any considerable numbers farther 
to the north, on both sides of Matotschkin Schar. 
It deserves to be mentioned here that three hundred years 
ago, when the north part of Novaya Zemlya was for the 
first time visited by man, reindeer do not appear to have 
been more numerous there than now. In the narrative of 
Barents’ third voyage (De Veer, Diarium Nauticum, 2Ist 
June, 1596) it is expressly stated : Here it may be remarked 
that, although the land, which we consider as Greenland (the 
present Spitzbergen), lies under and over the 80th degree of 
latitude, there grow there abundant leaves and grass, and 
there are found there such animals as eat grass, as reindeer, 
while on the other hand, on Novaya Zemlya, under the 76th 
degree of latitude, there are neither leaves nor grass nor any 
grass-eating animal.” After this, however, traces of reins were 
found even at the winter station; a bear, for instance, was 
killed that had devoured a reindeer. 
On Spitzbergen the reindeer have been considerably diminished 
in numbers by the hunting, first of the Dutch and English, 
and afterwards of the Kussians and Norwegians. In the north¬ 
western part of the island, where the Dutch had their train-boiling 
establishments, the animal has been completely extirpated.* 
1 When Spitzbergen was first mapped, a great number of places were 
named after reindeer, which shows that the reindeer was found there in 
large numbers, and now just at these places it is completely absent. On 
the other hand, the Dutch and English explorers during the sixteenth 
century saw no reindeer on Novaya Zemlya. During the Swedish expedi¬ 
tion of 1875 no reindeer were seen on the west coast of this island south of 
Karmakul Bay, while a number were shot at Besimannaja Bay and Matot¬ 
schkin Schar. When some of the companions of the well-known walrus¬ 
hunting captain, Sievert Tobiesen, were compelled in 1872-73 to winter at 
North Goose Cape, they shot during winter and spring only eleven 
reindeer. Some Russians, who by an accident were obliged to pass six 
