VI.] 
RODIVAN IVANOV. 
271 
only in case of necessity, and the flesh of the fox had an un¬ 
pleasant flavour. Sometimes the want of food was so great 
that they were compelled to eat the leather of their boots and 
furs. The number of the seals and walruses which they caught 
was so great, “that the killed animals, laid together, would 
have formed a heap ninety fathoms in length, of the same 
breadth, and six feet high.” ^ They found, besides, on the island 
a stranded whale. 
In spring Samoyeds came from the mainland, and plundered 
the Eussians of part of their catch. Probably for fear of the 
Samoyeds, the surviving hunters did not go over the ice to the 
mainland, but remained on the desert island until by a fortunate 
accident they were rescued by some of their countrymen engaged 
in a hunting expedition. In connection with the account of this 
voyage Witsen states that the previous year a Eussian hunting 
vessel stranded east of the Oh. 
It is probable that towards the close of the sixteenth century 
the Eussian hunting voyages to Novaya Zemlya had already 
fallen off considerably. The commercial voyages perhaps had 
long before altogether ceased. It appears as if after the com¬ 
plete conquest of Siberia the land route over the Ural mountains, 
same cause also perliaps conduced to the failure of the attempts which 
are said to have been made after the destruction of Novgorod by Ivan 
the Terrible in 1570 by fugitives from that town to found a colony on 
Novaya Zemyla (Historische Nachrichten von den Samojeden und den 
Lappldndern^ Riga und Mietau, 1769, p. 28). This book was first printed in 
French at Konigsberg in 1762. The author was Klingstedt, a Swede in 
the Russian service, who long lived at Archangel. 
1 The statement is incredible, and probably originated in some mistake. 
To form such a heap of walruses at least 50,000 animals would'have been 
required, and it is certain that fifteen men could not have killed so many. 
If we assume that in the statement of the length and breadth, feet ought 
to stand in place of fathoms, we get the still excessive number of 1,500 
to 3,000 killed animals. Probably instead of 90 we should have 9, in 
which case the heap would correspond to about 500 walruses and seals 
killed. The walrus tusks collected weighed 40 pood, which again indicates 
the capture of 150 to 200 animals. 
