282 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
because the crew wore the Samoyed dress. But the snow¬ 
storms were so severe, that sometimes it was impossible for eight 
days at a time to leave the house, which was so snowed up that 
the opening in the roof for smoke had several times to be used 
as a door. The house had no true chimney, but was built like a 
Lapp hut. Eleven of the bears, who came in large numbers 
to the hut, were killed, one of them on the roof and another in 
the porch. During winter the crew were kept in constant em¬ 
ployment in killing foxes and at other work. Their state of 
health was also very good for the circumstances of the time. 
Only two men died. In spring Matotschkin Sound and part of 
the east coast of the North Island were surveyed by means of 
sledge journeys, after which an attempt was made during summer 
to circumnavigate the North Island, but without success. Light¬ 
ning accompanied by heavy rain was observed on the ^th June. 
On the September they sailed back to Archangel. Unfortu¬ 
nately soon after his arrival there Pachtussov fell ill of nervous 
fever and died on the fth November, 1835. It was a great loss, 
for by his devotion to the task he had undertaken, by judgment, 
courage, and endurance, he takes one of the foremost places 
among the Polar explorers of all countries. Besides, few of the 
older Arctic expeditions have brought home such a series of 
valuable astronomical determinations of position, geodetical 
measurements, meteorological and tidal observations, &c., as 
Pachtussov.^ 
In 1837 the famous naturalist K. E. VON Baer undertook a 
voyage to Novaya Zemlya, accompanied by Lieutenant ZivOLKA, 
Lehmann the geologist, Boder the draughtsman, and Philippov 
^ The details of Pachtussov’s voyages are taken partly from von Baer’s 
work already quoted, partly from Carl Svenske, Novaya Zemlya, &c., St. 
Petersburg, 1866 (in Russian, published at the expense of M. K. Sidoroif), 
and J. Sporer, Nowaja Semld in geograjphischer, naturhistorischer und 
volkswirthschaftlicJier Beziehung, nacli den Quellen hearheitet. Erganz-Heft. 
No. 21 zu Peterm. Geogr. Mittheiluvgen, Gotha, 1867. 
