244 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
in a very hospitable and friendly manner, and informed them 
that in three or four weeks the cold would begin ; that in some 
years the drift-ice did not disappear; that during winter the 
whole sound and the bays and coves were frozen over, but that 
the sea on both sides did not freeze ; that beyond the mouth 
of the river Ob there were the mouths of two other rivers, 
of which the more remote was called the Molconsay,” the 
nearer, which was often visited by Hussian trading vessels, the 
Gillissy ; that the land continued beyond the Ob to a cape which 
projected towards Novaya Zemlya, and that lieyond this pro¬ 
montory there was a great sea, which extended along Tartary 
to warm regions.^ 
When the Dutch sailed into the Kara Sea they fell in with 
much ice, on which account they anchored at the island, Staten 
Eiland, where during the preceding voyage rock crystal had 
been found. Here two men were killed in the way that has 
already been described.^ Depressed by this unfortunate oc¬ 
currence and afraid to expose their vessels, laden with valuable 
goods, too late in the season, to the large quantity of ice which 
drifted about in the Kara Sea, the commanders determined to 
turn. The fleet returned to Holland without further adven¬ 
ture, passing through Vaygats Sound on the gth September. 
This expedition did not yield any new contribution to the 
knowledge of our globe. But it deserves to be noted that we 
can state with certainty, with the knowledge we now possess of 
the ice-conditions of the Kara Sea, that the Dutch during both 
their first and second voyages had the way open to the Obi and 
Yenisej. If they had availed themselves of this and continued 
their voyage till they came to inhabited regions on either of 
1 These remarkable statements are found in Linschoten’s above quoted 
work printed in 1601, and cannot therefore be spurious. They thus show 
that Taimur Land was inhabited by Samoyeds, and that the geography 
of this region was then well known. 
^ See above, p. 142. 
