256 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
so far as his predecessors. I cannot therefore here find room 
for any account of his voyage to Novaya Zemlya; it may 
only be mentioned that two of his crew on the morning 
of the ^Jth of June, 1608, in 75° N.L., saw a mermaid. The 
following statement is taken from his journal: ''This morning 
one of the crew, as he looked over the side, saw a mermaid. 
Another of his comrades came up at his call. Slie was 
close to the vessel’s side, looking steadily at the men. Soon 
after she was thrown down by a wave. From the middle 
upwards her back and breast were like a woman’s. Her body 
was as large as a man’s, her skin very white, and long dark 
hair hung down her back. When she dived, they saw her 
tail, which resembled that of a dolphin and was spotted like 
a mackerel’s. The names of the men who saw her were 
Thomas Hiller and Robert Rayner.” It was probably a curious 
seal that gave occasion to this version of the old yarn. 
1611. William Gourdon, with the title " appointed chief 
pilote for discoverie to Ob,” brought this year a cargo of goods 
to Pustosersk, and sailed thence to Hovaya Zemlya. At the 
mouth of the Petchora he saw 24 lodjcts, manned with ten to 
16 men each, bound for " Mangansei ” east of Ob {PurcJms, iii. 
pp. 530, 634). While attempting to get further information 
regarding these voyages to Siberia, the Muscovy Company’s 
envoy learned that, at least as a rule, the question was only of 
carrying goods by sea to the bottom of Kara Bay, whence they 
were transported overland to Ob, advantage being taken of two 
small rivers and a lake {PurcJias, iii. p. 539). But other 
accounts lead us to infer that the Russian locljas actually sailed 
to Ob, even through Matotschkin Schar, as appears from 
statements in Purclias (iii. pp, 804, 805). At the same place 
we find the statement, already quoted, of a Russian, who in 
1584 offered for fifty roubles to act as guide overland from the 
Petchora to the Ob, that a West-European ship was wrecked 
at the mouth of the Ob, and its crew killed by the Samoyeds 
