Yl.j 
THE VOYAGE OF THE PROEVEN, 1875. 
311 
nautical miles broad, and it is therefore probable that even in 
those years there would have been no obstacle to prevent a 
passage eastwards by this route in autumn. 
In 1874, on the contrary, the «tate of the ice became very 
favourable, and many walrus-hunters again as formerly sailed 
in all directions across the Kara Sea, which this year was also 
visited by an Englishman, Captain J. WiGGlNS. None of them, 
however, penetrated farther to the east or north than Johannesen, 
Carlsen, Mack, and others had done during the years 1869-70. 
It was not until the following year that the North-east 
voyages took a step forward, important both in a purely 
geographical as well as a practical point of view, when I 
succeeded in a walrus-hunting sloop, the Proeven, commanded 
by the walrus-hunting Captain Isaksen, in sailing through 
Yugor Straits, which were passed on 2nd August, and over the 
nearly ice-free Kara Sea as far as to the mouth of the Yenisej. 
The Proeven anchored there on the 15th August 1875, in, or 
more correctly immediately off, the same splendid haven where 
the Vega expedition lay at anchor from the 6th to the 10th 
August, 1878. Hence I sailed under various difficulties along 
with Dr. Stuxberg and Dr. Lundstrom and three men in a 
Nordland boat, up the river to Saostrovskoj, where we fell in 
with a steamer, in which we afterwards travelled to Yenisejsk. 
On leaving Port Dickson I handed over the command to Dr. 
Kjellman, who along with Dr. Theel returned by sea to Europe 
across the Kara Sea and through Matotschkin Schar, which 
was passed during the return voyage on the 4th to the 11th 
September. 
By this voyage of 1875 I was the first who succeeded in 
penetrating from the Atlantic Ocean in a vessel to the mouths 
of the great Siberian rivers. One of the objects which the old 
North-east voyagers had aimed at was thus at last accomplished, 
and that in a way that promised to be of immense practical 
importance for the whole of Siberia. The voyage was also 
