Induced by these advantageous voyages, several Norwegian fishermen entered the Kara Sea in the following year.
Again the skilful Captain Johannesen made a cruise which almost surpassed his former one, having this time circumnavigated Novaya Zemlya, a feat never before achieved. He visited the east coast of that island, passing close to, but without perceiving, Barendsz’s winter quarters.
F. Torkildsen, commander of the schooner Alpha, was less fortunate. On the 24th of June he passed through Burrough Strait and entered the Kara Bay, where he, on the 13th of July, in 68° 40′ N. latitude and 68° E. longitude, lost his ship. The crew was, however, saved. Captain E. A. Ulve sailed with his schooner Samson along the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, and on the 1st of August attained the high [[xliv]]latitude of 76° 47′ in 59° 17′ E. longitude, without sighting any ice.
Entering on the 8th of August through Matthew’s Strait into the Kara Sea, and keeping between White Island and the Island of Vaigat, he, on the 24th of August, when homeward-bound, sailed through Burrough Strait.
F. E. Mack, with his schooner Polarstern, found, on the 5th of July, Matthew’s Strait blocked up with ice; but thirteen days afterwards he sailed through it, and after crossing the Kara Sea in all directions, returned on the 21st of August through Burrough Strait.
Another navigator, Captain P. Quale, pushed more eastwardly. With his yacht, the Johan Mary, he, in the latitude of 75° 20′ N., attained the longitude of 74° 35′, and thus found himself eastward of the meridian which goes across the mouth of the Obi River.
The following year, encouraged by the partial success of these cruises, we find the Norwegian seal-hunters again entering this new and prosperous ground. The southern entries being closed by the ice, the captains directed their course northwardly, in order to penetrate into the Kara Sea by rounding Novaya Zemlya.
Passing over in silence the cruises of Captain F. C. Mack and those of the brothers Johannesen, we come to the interesting voyage of Captain Carlsen, the first navigator, who, since 1597, has entered the Ice Harbour of Barendsz. Captain Elling Carlsen, with [[xlv]]his sloop The Solid, left the harbour of Hammerfest on the 22nd of May, 1871. When rounding the North Cape of Norway, he met with very heavy squalls and snow-storms from the north-west.
On the 28th he passed Vardo, and on the 10th of June, in 68° N. latitude and 40° 36′ E. longitude, at the northern outlet of the White Sea, he fell in with the first ice. On the 16th of June he met two other ships, of which the one had already killed five hundred and the other a thousand seals.
On the 19th of July Captain Carlsen reached the coast of Novaya Zemlya, in the neighbourhood of Mersduscharsky Island, and shaping his course towards the north, he passed Cape Nassau, rounded Novaya Zemlya, and anchored on the 18th of August at Cape Hooft, on the east coast.