North-western Siberia.
While Anjou was surveying these islands, his friend Baron Wrangell was also occupied in exploration and research with his headquarters at Nijni Kolymsk. He made four sledge journeys over the Polar Sea from 1820 to 1823, in the narti or dog sledges already mentioned. He considered March to be the best time of the year for travelling, because it is then easier work for the dogs. The dogs were fed on frozen herrings. The men wore reindeer-skin shirts, leather boots lined with fur, a fur cap, and reindeer-skin gloves. The party had a reindeer-skin conical tent, 12 feet across on the ground and 10 feet high, with a light framework of six poles. When they camped they lighted a fire in the centre of it, and were half smothered by the smoke. Each man slept on a bear-skin, and there was a reindeer-skin coverlet for every two.
In his first journey Wrangell surveyed the coast from the mouth of the Kolyma eastward to Cape Chelagskoi, with the temperature sometimes as low as -31° Fahr. His second journey, starting on March 27th, 1821, was undertaken to see how far he could go over the ice to the northward, away from the Siberian coast. At a distance of two miles from the shore the party had to cross a chain of high and rugged hummocks five miles wide. Beyond, the ice was fairly level, but after advancing for 140 miles Wrangell found the ice to be weak and rotten owing to large patches of brine being lodged on the snow. It was therefore deemed prudent to commence their retreat on April 4th. They returned to Nijni Kolymsk on the 28th after an absence of 36 days, having travelled over 800 miles, averaging 22½ miles a day.
Wrangell was much struck by the wonderful skill displayed by the sledge drivers in finding their way by the wave-like ridges of snow formed by the wind. These, formed on the level sea ice by any wind of long continuance, are called sastrugi in Siberia. The ridges always indicate the quarter from which the prevailing winds blow. The inhabitants of the tundras often travel over several hundred miles with no other guide than these sastrugi. They know by experience at what angle they must cross the greater and lesser waves of snow in order to arrive at their destination, and they never err. It often happens that the true permanent sastrugi have been obliterated by temporary winds, but the traveller is not deceived. His practised eye detects the change, he carefully removes the recently drifted snow, and corrects his course by the lower sastrugi, and by the angle formed by the two.
On his third journey, Wrangell started northwards from the coast on March 16th, 1822, chiefly with the object of ascertaining the truth of a native rumour that there was high land in that direction. But again, after travelling for many days through ranges of hummocks, showing there must have been heavy ice pressure during the winter, he came to weak unsafe ice at a distance of 170 miles from the land. He was away 55 days and went over 900 miles, a little over 16 miles a day. May 5th saw them back at Nijni Kolymsk.
The fourth journey was begun on March 14th, 1823. At Cape Chelagskoi a Tchuktche chief told Wrangell that, on a clear summer’s day, snow-covered mountains might be descried at a great distance to the north, and that herds of reindeer sometimes came across the ice, probably from thence. The natives concurred in stating that Cape Jakan was the nearest point to this northern land. Wrangell struck off to the north when he had gone a little way beyond Cape Chelagskoi. A violent gale came on, and cracked and broke up the ice, placing the party in considerable danger. They only succeeded in crossing the cracks owing to the incredibly swift pace of the dogs. Wrangell was obliged to turn back at a distance of only 70 miles from the land. Even then the men had to ferry themselves across many cracks on pieces of ice, the dogs swimming and towing, the temperature of the sea being +28° Fahr. This was in the end of March. Lanes of water were opening in all directions and, without a boat, the little party was placed in a position of extreme danger. The gale dashed the pieces of ice together with a loud crashing noise, and broke some of the floes into fragments. The dogs alone saved them. Land was reached on the 27th March, and Wrangell continued the coast survey for some time longer, returning to Nijni Kolymsk on May 10th, after an absence of 78 days, having travelled over 1530 miles.
The unknown land sighted from Cape Jakan was seen by Captain Kellett in 1849, and by Captain Long, an American whaler. Captain Kellett landed on an islet near it in 71° 18′ N., 175° 24′ W., in 1849, which he found to be a solid mass of granite, almost inaccessible on all sides, about 4½ miles long by 2½ across. It was named Herald Isle. But it was not until 1881 that Lieutenant Berry, U.S.N., landed on and explored the land seen from Cape Jakan. It is in 70° 57′ N. and 178° 10′ W., and is 70 miles long from east to west. Its distance from the nearest point of the Siberian coast is 80 miles. Two ridges run parallel to the north and south shores, and between them is undulating country traversed by streams fed by the melting snow. Mammoth tusks and bones were found by Lieutenant Berry’s party, as well as relics of Siberian tribes. The hills rise to a height of 2500 to 3000 feet. It has been named Wrangell Island, after the Russian explorer who encountered such great dangers in seeking for it. The Russian explorers came to the conclusion that there was a great deal of open water in summer to the north of the Siberian coast.
In 1843 Middendorf was sent to explore the region which terminates in Cape Chelyuskin. He went by land, descending the river Khatanga, and reached the Taimyr lake in June. In August he got to the shores of the Polar Sea and sighted the Cape, whence he saw open water and no ice blink in any direction. The rise and fall of the tide was 36 feet. F. Schmidt was also sent by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg to examine the country between the Obi and Yenisei, and to amplify the work of Middendorf.
The Russians were also occupied with the exploration of Novaya Zemlya, an incentive being given to the merchants of Archangel by the belief that silver ore was to be found. As the search for the philosopher’s stone led to many discoveries in chemistry, and the quest for El Dorado had as its consequence important discoveries in South America, so this imaginary silver ore was the cause of the discoveries along the Novaya Zemlya coast.