lx.] DISCOVERY OF LJACHOFFS ISLAND. 419 
Svjatoinos towards the south, and whose track came over the 
ice from the north. On the correct supposition that the reindeer 
came from some land lying to the north, Ljachoff followed the 
track in a dog-sledge, and thus discovered the two most southerly 
of the New Siberian Islands, a discovery which was rewarded 
by the Czarina Catherine II. with the exclusive right to hunt 
and collect ivory on them.^ 
ljachoff’s island. 
After a drawing by O. Nordquist, 
Ljachoff states the breadth of the sound between the main¬ 
land and the nearest large island at 70 versts or 40'. On 
Wrangel’s map again the breadth is not quite 30'. On the 
1 Martin Sauer, An account of a Geogra^liical and Astronomical Expedition 
to the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore Joseph Billings^ London, 
1802, p. 103. A. Ermann, Reise urn die Erde, Berlin, 1833—48, D. 1, B. 2, 
p. 258. Ermann’s statement, that the knowledge of the existence of these 
islands was concealed from the government up to the year 1806, is clearly 
incorrect. 
E E 2 
