270 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
wreck with two vessels on Serapoa Koska (Serapov’s Bank), 
probably situated in the Southern part of the Kara Sea. The 
ice was thrown up hfere in winter into lofty ice-casts with 
such a crashing^ noise that “the world was believed to be coming^ 
to an end,” and at high water with a strong breeze the whole 
island was submerged with the exception of some knolls. On 
one of these the winter house was erected. It was built of clay, 
which was kneaded with the blood and hair of the seal and 
walrus. This mixture hardened to a solid mass, of which the 
walls were built with the help of boards from the vessel. 
The house thus afforded good protection not only from cold and 
bad weather, but also from bears. A furnace was also built 
inside the house and fired with driftwood collected on the beach. 
Train oil from the captured animals was used for lighting. 
There wintered here fifteen men in all, of whom eleven died 
of scurvy. Want of exercise perhaps mainly conduced to bring 
on this disease. For most of them did not leave the house 
during the winter night, five weeks long. Those were most 
healthy who had most exercise, as, for instance, the mate, who 
was the youngest among the crew, and therefore had to go round 
the island to collect wood. Another cause of the great mortality 
was the total want of provisions brought from home. For the 
first eight days their food consisted of seaweed dredged up from 
the bottom of the sea, with which some meal was mixed. After¬ 
wards they ate the flesh of the seal and walrus, and of the Polar 
bear and the fox. The flesh of the bear and the walrus, how¬ 
ever, was considered unclean,'^ on which account it was eaten 
1 The stringent regulations regarding fasting of the Russians, especially 
the Old Believers, if they be literally observed, form an insuperable obstacle 
to the colonisation of high-northern regions, in which, to avoid scurvy, 
man requires an abundant supply of fresh flesh. Thus, undoubtedly, 
religious prejudices against certain kinds of food caused the failure of the 
colony of Old Believers which was founded in 1767 on Kolgujev Island, 
in order that its members might undisturbed use their old church books 
and cross themselves in the way they considered most proper. The 
