Novaya Zemlya is a long narrow strip of land stretching away N.E. for some 500 miles with the Barentsz Sea on its western and the Kara Sea on its eastern side, and separated at its southern extremity from Waigatz Island by Burrough Strait. It is divided into two islands by the narrow Matyushin Strait.
The southern island is 160 miles long, and there are a few Samoyed settlements on its shores. The northern island is quite uninhabited. The southern part of it is called Lutke Land after the Russian Admiral who surveyed the western coast, and the northern part is Barentsz Land. The two islands form an arc or curve with the concave side towards the Kara Sea from lat. 70° 30′ to nearly 77° N. They are a continuation of the Ural system and consist of a range of mountains with peaks of black clay and slate chiefly, rising to 4000 feet, and land covered by an ice sheet, with glaciers sometimes descending to the water’s edge. The rocks are Upper Silurian or Devonian. The climate is colder than that of Spitsbergen.
Opposite to Waigatz is Cape Menschikoff, the southern point of Novaya Zemlya, the coast trending thence westward to the deep bay called Kostin Shar, with the island of Meshdusharsky at its entrance. The Kostin Shar hills have a formation of grey primitive limestone, like the northern part of the Ural mountains. North of the Kostin Shar, on the west coast, is Goose Land, a low stretch of coast extending from 71° 30′ to 72° 10′, a distance of 40 miles. It consists of grass flats and small lakes, the breeding-place of geese and swans, and in the short summer the flowering plants cover the land with as beautiful a carpet as on the Waigatz. Belusha Bay, where there is a Samoyed settlement, is on the South Goose coast, and there are submerged reefs, as well as rocks and islets, which render the navigation dangerous. Goose Land ends to the north at Moller Bay, the northern termination of which is Cape Britvin (= Razor). Here the coast line rises to 300 or 400 feet, in raised beaches, and there is a depth of only 10 to 20 fathoms four miles from the shore. Nameless Bay is bounded on all sides but the west by high hills, from 800 to 1500 feet above the sea, which slope downwards, and terminate in precipitous limestone cliffs, with a sheer face of a hundred feet, broken by narrow ledges. These cliffs form the famous “loomeries,” extending along the southern side of the bay for three miles, and here, during the breeding season, the birds congregate in countless myriads.
The entrance to the Matyushin Strait has Cape Saulen on the south side, and Silver Cape, 1885 feet high, on the north. On both sides of the strait the mountains rise in a series of lofty peaks, covered with snow, and with glaciers resting on their sides. Through this mountainous region the deep and narrow channel called the Matyushin Shar winds from the Barentsz to the Kara Sea. It is nowhere two miles across, and in some places contracts to a quarter of a mile, and the winding of the strait gives the appearance of passing through a succession of lakes surrounded by lofty mountains and overhanging precipices, while many glaciers pour down the mountain sides almost to the water’s edge. At the eastern end there is a deep inlet on the northern side. Throughout this region the raised terraces give evidence of the land having been upheaved to a height of from 500 to 600 feet. The eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya is comparatively low and barren. It has many bays and harbours and all the promontories terminate in steep cliffs. The beautiful little grass, Pleuropogon Sabinii, which is found in Franz Josef Land, but is very rare in other parts of the Arctic regions, grows in profusion in Novaya Zemlya and was found by Colonel Feilden at Belusha Bay of South Goose Land, in Nameless Bay, and in the valleys on both sides of the Matyushin Strait.
The west coast of Lutke Land forms a succession of large indentations, and there are glaciers at the head of almost every bay, winding between the mountain ranges. Beyond Admiralty Peninsula the coast trends more to the east, and at Cape Nassau, in 76° 20′ N., it turns almost due east. Here many glaciers extend along the coast, and the hills appear to be from 1000 to 2000 feet in height. Off the northern coast are the two Orange Islands, each about half a mile long, with precipitous sides and flat summits about a hundred feet above the sea. The eastern shores of Barentsz and Lutke Lands are low and barren.
The first circumnavigation of Novaya Zemlya is attributed to a pilot named Loshkin in 1760, and eight years afterwards Lieutenant Rosmyssloff wintered in the Matyushin Shar and made a survey. From 1821 to 1824 Admiral Lutke made an admirable survey of the whole west coast of Novaya Zemlya during four summers. Subsequently the pilot Zinvolka made several exploring voyages, in one of which he was accompanied by Professor Baer[105], who made large botanical and zoological collections. Zinvolka’s last voyage was in 1838, when he died during the winter in Cross Bay.
The Russians also made expeditions to Spitsbergen. Their plan was to form a depôt in Bell Sound, and Lieutenant Nemtinoff built five houses there in 1764, where stores were landed. In May 1765 Captain Vassili Tchitschakoff sailed from Archangel in command of three small vessels, did battle with the ice during two months, but could never get further north than 80° 26′. He returned to Archangel, and was sent to make another attempt in the following year. He reached a latitude of 80° 30′ and then gave it up. The Russians had passed two winters in Bell Sound, in charge of the stores.
The praise which Baron Wrangell bestows on the gallant Russian officers and sailors, who faced and overcame hardships and dangers of no ordinary kind, and did such splendid exploring work during more than two centuries, is justly their due. It is satisfactory to reflect that the Arctic discoveries of the Russians led to no barren results. They were the direct causes of the establishment of a lucrative fur trade, and of an equally flourishing trade in fossil ivory. Such have been the almost inevitable results of Arctic enterprises, which enrich communities while they confer great benefits on science.
CHAPTER XXI
THE BRITISH WHALE FISHERY AND THE SCORESBYS
A history of polar discovery would be incomplete without some notice of the whaling trade in the Spitsbergen Seas and in Davis Strait, for scientific observations were taken by some of the whaling captains, and many discoveries were made. Their duties, of course, obliged them to give the first place to the work on which they were employed. Sir Martin Conway puts it very well when he says of Scoresby that “he never neglected business in the cause of science, but was always mindful of science when business permitted.”