that of Vaygats Island or Novaya Zemlya. The uniformity of the vegetation is perhaps caused, in a considerable degree, by the uniform nature of the terrain. There is no solid rock here. The ground everywhere consists of sand and sandy clay, in which I could not find a stone so large as a bullet or even as a pea, though I searched for a distance of several kilometres along the strand-bank. Nor did the dredge bring up any stones from the sea-bottom off the coast, a circumstance which, among other things, is remarkable, because it appears to show that the strand-ice from the Obi and Yenisej does not drift down to and melt in this part of the Kara Sea. Nor do the sand beds contain any sub-fossil shells, as is the case with the sand beds of the Yenisej tundra. 'Noah's wood' also appears to be absent here. To judge from our observations at this place, the peninsula between the Gulf of Obi and the Kara Sea thus differs very essentially from the tundra lying east of the Yenisej.
"We saw no inhabitants, but everywhere along the beach numerous traces of men—some of them barefoot—of reindeer, dogs and Samoyed sleighs, were visible. On the top of the strand-bank was found a place of sacrifice, consisting of forty-five bears' skulls of various ages placed in a heap, a large number of reindeer skulls, the lower jaw of a walrus, &c. From most of the bears' skulls the canine teeth were broken out, and the lower jaw was frequently entirely wanting. Some of the bones were overgrown with moss and lay sunk in the earth; others had, as the adhering flesh showed, been placed there during the present year. In the middle of the heap of bones stood four erect pieces of wood. Two consisted of sticks a metre in length with notches cut in them, serving to bear up the reindeer and bears' skulls, which were partly placed on the points of the sticks or hung up by means of the notches, or spitted on the sticks by four-cornered holes cut in the skulls. The two others, which clearly were the proper idols of this place of sacrifice, consisted of driftwood roots, on which some carvings had been made to distinguish the eyes, mouth, and nose. The parts of the pieces of wood, intended to represent the eyes and mouth, had recently been besmeared with blood, and there still lay at the heap of bones the entrails of a newly-killed reindeer. Close beside were found the remains of a fireplace, and of a midden, consisting of reindeer bones of various kinds and the lower jaws of bears. "As the sandy slopes of the beach offered no suitable breeding-place for looms, black guillemots, or other sea-fowl, and there were no islands along the coast which could serve as breeding-places for eiders and other species of geese which breed in colonies, the abundant bird-life of the Polar Sea was wanting here. At the mouth of the river, however, large flocks of eiders and long-tailed ducks flew about, and on the sandy banks along the shore, flocks of Calidris arenaria and a Tringa or two ran about restlessly seeking their food. The solitude of the tundra was broken only by a couple of larks and a pair of falcons (Falco peregrinus) with young. Traces of reindeer were also seen, and two fox-traps set on the strand-bank showed that foxes occur in these regions in sufficient numbers to be the object of capture.
"Later in the afternoon, when some solar altitudes had been taken, in order to determine the geographical position of the place, we rowed back to our vessel and sailed on, keeping at some distance from the coast, and at one place passing between the shore and a long series of blocks of ground-ice, which had stranded along the coast in a depth of nine to sixteen metres. During night we passed a place where five Samoyed tents were pitched, in whose neighbourhood a large number of reindeer pastured. The land was now quite low, and the sea had become considerably shallower. The course was therefore shaped for the N.W., in which direction deeper water was soon met with. Notwithstanding the slight salinity and high temperature (+ 7°.7) of the surface water a Clio borealisand a large number of Copepoda were taken at the surface."
The excursion now described and Almquist's and Hovgaard's landing in 1878 were, as far as I am aware, the only occasions on which naturalists have visited the northern part of that peninsula which separates the Kara Sea from the Obi. The Norwegian hunters also visit the place seldom, the main reasons being the inaccessibility of the shallow east coast, and the want of harbours. They now, however, land occasionally to take in water, and perhaps to barter the tobacco they have saved from their rations, knives they have no use for, and old-fashioned guns, gunpowder, lead, &c., for the products of the Samoyeds' reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing. At first the natives fled when they saw the Norwegians coming, and, when they could not make their escape, they saluted them with great humility, falling on their knees and bending their heads to the earth, and were unwilling to enter into any traffic with them or to show them their goods. But since the Samoyeds observed that the Norwegians never did them any harm, the mistrust and excessive humility have completely disappeared. Now a visit of Europeans is very agreeable to them, partly for the opportunity which it offers of obtaining by barter certain articles of necessity, luxury, or show, partly perhaps also for the interruption thereby caused in the monotony of the tundra life. When the walrus-hunters row or sail along that open coast, it often happens that natives run backwards and forwards on the shore, and by signs eagerly invite the foreigners to land; if they do so, and there are any wealthy Samoyeds in the neighbourhood, there immediately begins a grand entertainment, according to the customs of the people, with more than one trait reminding us of the sketches from the traditionary periods of the civilised nations.
What I have stated here is about all that we know of Yalmal, and we see from this that a very promising, yet untouched field for researches in ethnography and natural history here lies before future travellers to the Yenisej.
What sort of winter is there at the mouth of the Yenisej? We have for the present no information on this point, as no scientific man has wintered there. But on the other hand we have a very exciting narrative of the wintering of the Fin, NUMMELIN, at the Briochov Islands in the Yenisej in lat. 70° 48' north.
I visited the place on the 27th August 1875. It consisted of a fishing post, occupied only in summer, and at that season of the year very attractive, surrounded as it is by luxuriant vegetation of grass and bushes. The houses were situated on a sound running between the Briochov Islands, which form the northernmost group of the labyrinth of islands which occupy the channel of the Yenisej between 69-1/2° and 71° N.L. At the time of our visit the fishing was over for the season and the place deserted. But two small houses and a number of earth-huts (jordgammor), all in good repair, stood on the river bank and gave evidence, along with a number of large boats drawn up on land, and wooden vessels intended for salting fish, of the industry which had been carried on there earlier in the summer. It was at this place that Nummelin passed one of the severest winters that Arctic literature has to record.[101]