282 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBERGEN. 
Nova Zembla all the summer, in consequence of the 
late winter having been long and severe; and, accord¬ 
ing to their information, the Strait north of Waigatz 
Island, between that and Nova Zembla, was yet full of 
ice. They said vessels of their country went every 
year through the Waigatz, and eastward beyond the 
River Ob, to a place called Ugolita, where they carried 
clothes and other merchandise, and were sometimes 
obliged to winter. That they always endeavoured to 
pass the winter near forests, and sometimes were ne¬ 
cessitated to go many miles inland to find them. They 
thought it would be yet nine or ten weeks before the 
passage of the Waigatz would be entirely closed by the 
ice ; but that immediately after the first appearance of 
the sea freezing, it generally became all at once frozen 
over, so that people could go on the ice, over the sea, 
to Tartary.* They said, that beyond the Ob was a 
large river, named the Gillisse or Jenisei, towards 
which the Russians went in their loddies to traffic. 
On the 30th, the Hollanders were yet in the Wai¬ 
gatz Strait, having been much incommoded by ice. 
This day one of their boats landed on the south side 
of the Strait, “ the Continent/' and met there twenty 
or twenty-five Samoyedes, who showed themselves 
* “Seconde Partie de la Navig. par le ISford,” p. 10. And “Kec. des 
Voy. de la Comp.” Vol. i. p. 75. 
