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In: Travel Writing·History - European·History - Modern (1750+)
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #24365.
The work is a comprehensive scientific and historical account of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld’s 1878‑79 expedition aboard the steam‑ship Vega, which finally succeeded in navigating the Northeast Passage and completing a circumnavigation of Asia and Europe. The opening pages explain that the author combines a narrative of the voyage with detailed observations of Siberian coastlines, flora, fauna and the peoples encountered, while also reviewing the many earlier attempts that paved the way. The volume is organized into clearly titled chapters that move from the departure and early challenges, through extensive natural‑history sketches, to exhaustive surveys of earlier Arctic voyages, and finally to the harsh wintering of the Vega and its scientific work. Maps, engravings and wood‑cuts accompany the text, providing visual context for the geographic and ethnographic material.
Written in a measured, nineteenth‑century scholarly voice, the book reflects the era’s blend of exploration, natural history and meticulous documentation. Its style is formal yet descriptive, with frequent references to measurements, temperatures and cartographic sources. Readers who relish detailed expedition reports, historic geography, or the early science of polar regions will appreciate Nordenskiöld’s careful narration and the wealth of illustrations that bring the Arctic’s ice, wildlife and cultures to life.
The opening · free to read
BY A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
In the work now published I have, along with the sketch of the voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, of the natural conditions of the north coast of Siberia, of the animal and vegetable life prevailing there, and of the peoples with whom we came in contact in the course of our journey, endeavoured to give a review, as complete as space permitted, of previous exploratory voyages to the Asiatic Polar Sea. It would have been very ungrateful on my part if I had not referred at some length to our predecessors, who with indescribable struggles and difficulties--and generally with the sacrifice of health and life--paved the way along which we advanced, made possible the victory we achieved. In this way besides the work itself has gained a much-needed variety, for nearly all the narratives of the older North-East voyages contain in abundance what a sketch of our adventures has not to offer; for many readers perhaps expect to find in a book such as this accounts of dangers and misfortunes of a thousand sorts by land and sea. May the contrast which thus becomes apparent between the difficulties our predecessors had to contend with and those which the Vega met with during her voyage incite to new exploratory expeditions to the sea, which now, for the first time, has been ploughed by the keel of a sea-going vessel, and conduce to dissipate a prejudice which for centuries has kept the most extensive cultivable territory on the globe shut out from the great Oceans of the World.
The work is furnished with numerous maps and illustrations, and is provided with accurate references to sources of geographical information. For this I am indebted both to the liberal conception which my publisher, Herr FRANS BEIJER, formed of the way in which the work should be executed, and the assistance I have received while it was passing through the press from Herr E.W. Dahlgren, amanuensis at the Royal Library, for which it is a pleasant duty publicly to offer them my hearty thanks.
A.E. NORDENSKIOeLD.
STOCKHOLM, 8th October, 1881.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Having been honoured by a request from Baron Nordenskioeld that I would undertake the translation of the work in which he gives an account of the voyage by which the North-East Passage was at last achieved, and Asia and Europe circumnavigated for the first time, I have done my best to reproduce in English the sense of the Swedish original as faithfully as possible, and at the same time to preserve the style of the author as far as the varying idioms of the two languages permit.
I have to thank two ladies for the help they kindly gave me in reading proofs, and my friend Herr GUSTAF LINDSTROeM, for valuable assistance rendered in various ways.
Where not otherwise indicated, temperature is stated in degrees of the Centigrade or Celsius thermometer. Longitude is invariably reckoned from the meridian of Greenwich.
Where distance is stated in miles without qualification, the miles are Swedish (one of which is equal to 6.64 English miles), except at page 372, Vol. I., where the geographical square miles are German, each equal to sixteen English geographical square miles.
ALEX. LESLIE.
CHERRYVALE, ABERDEEN, 24th November, 1881.
Typographical errors corrected, and alternative spellings noticed during the preparation of this text has been placed at the end.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Departure--Tromsoe--Members of the Exhibition--Stay at Maosoe--Limit of Trees--Climate--Scurvy and Antiscorbutics--The first doubling of North Cape--Othere's account of his Travels--Ideas concerning the Geography of Scandinavia current during the first half of the sixteenth century--The oldest Maps of the North--Herbertstein's account of Istoma's voyage--Gustaf Vasa and the North-East Passage--Willoughby and Chancellor's voyages.
Departure from Maosoe--Gooseland--State of the Ice--The Vessels of the Expedition assemble at Chabarova--The Samoyed town there--The Church--Russians and Samoyeds--Visit to Chabarova in 1875--Purchase of Samoyed Idols--Dress and dwellings of the Samoyeds--Comparison of the Polar Races--Sacrificial Places and Samoyed Grave on Waygats Island visited--Former accounts of the Samoyeds--Their place in Ethnography.
From the Animal World of Novaya Zemlya--The Fulmar Petrel--The Rotge or Little Auk--Bruennich's Guillemot--The Black Guillemot--The Arctic Puffin--The Gulls--Richardson's Skua--The Tern--Ducks and Geese--The Swan--Waders--The Snow Bunting--The Ptarmigan--The Snowy Owl--The Reindeer--The Polar Bear--The Arctic Fox--The Lemming--Insects--The Walrus--The Seal--Whales.
The Origin of the names Yugor Schar and Kara Sea--Rules for Sailing through Yugor Schar--The "Highest Mountain" on Earth--Anchorages--Entering the Kara Sea--Its Surroundings--The Inland-ice of Novaya Zemlya--True Icebergs rare in certain parts of the Polar Sea--The Natural Conditions of the Kara Sea--Animals, Plants, Bog-ore--Passage across the Kara Sea--The Influence of the Ice on the Sea-bottom--Fresh-water Diatoms on Sea-ice--Arrival at Port Dickson--Animal Life there--Settlers and Settlements at the Mouth of the Yenisej--The Flora at Port Dickson--Evertebrates--Excursion to White Island--Yalmal--Previous Visits--Nummelin's Wintering on the Briochov Islands.
The history of the North-east Passage from 1556 to 1878--Burrough, 1556--Pet and Jackman, 1580--The first voyage of the Dutch, 1594--Oliver Brunel--The second voyage, 1595--The third voyage, 1596--Hudson, 1608--Gourdon, 1611--Bosman, 1625--De la Martiniere, 1653--Vlamingh, 1664--Snobberger, 1675--Roule reaches a land north of Novaya Zemlya--Wood and Flawes, 1676--Discussion in England concerning the state of the ice in the Polar Sea--Views of the condition of the Polar Sea still divided--Payer and Weyprecht, 1872-74.
The North-east Voyages of the Russians and Norwegians--Rodivan Ivanov, 1690--The Great Northern Expedition 1734-37--The supposed Richness in metals of Novaya Zemlya--Iuschkov, 1757--Savva Loschkin, 1760--Rossmuislov, 1768--Lasarev, 1819--Luetke, 1821-24--Ivanov, 1822-28--Pachtussov, 1832-35--Von Baer, 1837--Zivolka and Moissejev, 1838-39--Von Krusenstern, 1860-62--The Origin and History of the Polar Sea Hunting--Carlsen, 1868--Ed. Johannesen, 1869-70--Ulve, Mack, and Quale, 1870--Mack, 1871--Discovery of the Relics of Barent's wintering--Tobiesen's wintering 1872-73--The Swedish Expeditions 1875 and 1876--Wiggins, 1876--Later voyages to and from the Yenisej.
Departure from Port Dickson--Landing on a rocky island east of the Yenisej--Self-dead animals--Discovery of crystals on the surface of the drift-ice--Cosmic dust--Stay in Actinia Bay--Johannesen's discovery of the island Ensamheten--Arrival at Cape Chelyuskin--The natural state of the land and sea there--Attempt to penetrate right eastwards to the New Siberian Islands--The effect of the mist--Abundant dredging-yield--Preobraschenie Island--Separation from the Lena at the mouth of the river Lena.
The voyage of the Fraser and the Express up the Yenisej and their return to Norway--Contract for the piloting of the Lena up the Lena river--The voyage of the Lena through the delta and up the river to Yakutsk--The natural state of Siberia in general--The river territories--The fitness of the land for cultivation and the necessity for improved communications--The great rivers, the future commercial highways of Siberia--Voyage up the Yenisej in 1875--Sibiriakoff's Island--The _tundra_--The primeval Siberian forest--The inhabitants of Western Siberia: the Russians, the Exiles, the "Asiatics"--Ways of travelling on the Yenisej, dog-boats, floating trading stores propelled by steam--New prospects for Siberia.
The new Siberian Islands--The Mammoth--Discovery of Mammoth and Rhinoceros mummies--Fossil Rhinoceros horns--Stolbovoj Island--Liachoff Island--First discovery of this island--Passage through the sound between this island and the mainland--Animal life there--Formation of ice in water above the freezing point--The Bear Islands--The quantity and dimensions of the ice begin to increase--Different kinds of sea-ice--Renewed attempt to leave the open channel along the coast--Lighthouse Island--Voyage along the coast to Cape Schelagskoj--Advance delayed by ice, shoals, and fog--First meeting with the Chukches--Landing and visits to Chukch villages--Discovery of abandoned encampments--Trade with the natives rendered difficult by the want of means of exchange--Stay at Irkaipij--Onkilon graves--Information regarding the Onkilon race--Renewed contact with the Chukches--Kolyutschin Bay--American statements regarding the state of the ice north of Behring's Straits--The Vega beset.
Wintering becomes necessary--The position of the _Vega_--The ice round the vessel--American ship in the neighbourhood of the Vega when frozen in--The nature of the neighbouring country--The Vega is prepared for wintering--Provision-depot and observatories established on land--The winter dress--Temperature on board--Health and dietary--Cold, wind, and snow--The Chukches on board--Menka's visit--Letters sent home--Nordquist and Hovgaard's excursion to Menka's encampment--Another visit of Menka--The fate of the letters--Nordquist's journey to Pidlin--_Find_ of a Chukch grave--Hunting--Scientific work--Life on board--Christmas Eve.
PORTRAITS.
Engraved on Steel by G.J. Stodart of London.
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