376 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
the natural conditions of the Ob-Irtisch and the Lena differ 
considerably from those of the Yenisej, the Ob-Irtisch flowing 
through lower, more fertile, and more thickly peopled regions, 
the Lena again through a wilder, more beautiful, but less 
cultivated country. 
When one travels up the river from Port Dickson, the broad 
sound between Sibiriakoff’s Island and the mainland is first 
passed, but the island is so low that it is not visible from the 
eastern bank of the river arm which is usually followed in 
sailing up or down the river. The mainland, on the other hand, 
is at first high-lying, and in sailing along the coast it is possible 
to distinguish various spurs of the range of hills, estimated to 
be from 150 to 200 metres high, in the interior. These are 
free of snow in summer. A little south of Port Dickson they 
run to the river bank, where they form a low rock and rocky 
island projecting into the river, named after some otherwise 
unknown Siberian Polar trapper, Yefremov Kamen. 
Sibiriakoff’s Island has never, so far as we know, been visited 
by man, not even during the time when numerous simovies were 
found at the mouth of the Yenesej. For no indication of this 
island is found in the older maps of Siberia, although these, as 
appears from the fac-simile reproduced at page 192, give the 
names of a number of simovies at the mouth of the Yenisej, 
now abandoned. Nor is it mentioned in the accounts of the 
voyages of the great northern expeditions. The western strand 
of the island, the only one I have seen, completely bore the 
stamp of the tundra described below. Several reindeer were 
seen pasturing on the low grassy eminences of the island, giving 
promise of abundant sport to the hunter who first lands 
there. 
Still at Yefremov Kamen we saw in 1875 three Polar bears 
who appeared to pasture in all peacefulness among the rocks, 
and did not allow themselves to be disturbed by the enormous 
log-fire of driftwood we lighted on the strand to make our 
