204 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
Yalmal is not found in the older accounts of voyages from the 
European waters to the Obi. The first time I met with it 
was in the narrative of Skuratov’s journey in 1737, as the 
designation of the most north-easterly promontory of the 
peninsula which now bears that name. 
Yalmal’s grassy plains offer the Samoyeds during summer 
reindeer pastures which are highly valued, and the land is said 
to have a very numerous population in comparison with other 
regions along the shores of the Polar Sea, the greater portion, 
however, drawing southward towards winter with their large 
herds of reindeer. But the land is, notwithstanding this, among 
the most imperfectly known parts of the great Eussian empire. 
Some information regarding it we may obtain from sketches of 
the following journeys : 
Selifontov, 1737. In the months of July and August the 
surveyor Selifontov travelled in a reindeer sledge along the 
coast of the Gulf of Obi as far as to Beli Ostrov. About this 
journey unfortunately nothing else has been published than is 
to be found in Litke, Viermalige Reise, &c., Berlin, 1835, p. 66, 
and WeanGEL, Sibirisclie Reise, Berlin, 1839, p. 37. 
SuJEFF, in 1771, travelled under the direction of Pallas over 
the southern part of Yalmal from Obdorsk to the Kara Sea, and 
gives an instructive account of observations made during his 
journey in Pallas, Reise dureli mrsehiedene Provinzen des 
Tussisclien Reiches, St. Petersburg, 1771—76, III. pp. 14—35. 
Krusensteen, 1862. During his second voyage in the Kara 
Sea, which ended with the abandonment of the ship Yermak 
on the coast of Yalmal in about 69° 54" N. L., Krusenstern 
junior escaped with his crew to the shore, reaching it in 
a completely destitute condition. He had lost all, and would 
certaiidy have perished if he had not near the landing-place 
fallen in with a rich Samoyed, the owner of two thousand 
reindeer, who received the shipwrecked men in a very friendly 
way and conveyed them with his reindeer to Obdorsk, distant 
