310 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
truncated boat ten days, until they reached a fast ice-border at 
the Vaygats Island, where they again fell in with Samoyeds. 
Even by these, who could speak neither Russian nor Quaen, and 
by whom they could with difficulty make themselves under¬ 
stood, they were well received. They remained there eight 
days and got good entertainment. These Samoyeds had tame 
reindeer, with which they sent the shipwrecked men on their 
way southwards, till they fell in with a vessel, with which four 
returned to Norway. Lars Larsen now did not wish to go 
home, preferring to remain with the Samoyed family which he 
had last met with. Samoyed life, however, must not be so 
pleasant after all, for in a year or two both the men who had 
remained among the Samoyeds returned home. As a reward 
for the hospitality which the shipwrecked walrus-hunters had 
received from the Samoyeds on Gooseland, the Norwegian 
Government presented them with a number of gifts, consisting 
of clothes, pearls, breechloaders, with ammunition, &c., which 
were handed over to them with festive speeches and toasts on 
the I7th July, 1880. During the entertainment which took 
place on this occasion on the coast of Novya Zemlaya, toasts 
were drunk in champagne, and it is said that this liquor was 
very much relished by the Samoyeds.^ 
As little as Tobiesen.could any other walrus-hunter make his 
way, either in 1872 or 1873, into the Kara Sea, the entrances of 
which were during these summers blocked by a compact belt of 
ice, which extended along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya and 
Vaygats Island to the mainland. In the belief of a large 
number of experienced walrus-hunters, with whom I have 
conversed on the subject, this belt of ice was only some few 
^ The statements made here regarding the wintering of Tobiesen and 
his companions are taken partly from a copy which I caused to be made of 
his journal, partly from an account of the adventures of the seven hunters, 
copied from Finmarhsposten into Aftonbladet for 1873, No. 220. Finally, 
the account of the distribution of presents to the Samoyeds is copied from 
Norwegian journals into Aftonbladet for 1880, No. 197. 
