garding this peninsula, along with
the necessary bibliographical references.

First as to its name, it is sometimes also written "Yelmert
Land,"[97] but this is quite incorrect.

"Yalmal" is of Samoyed origin, and has, according to a private
communication from the well-known philologist Dr. E.D. EUROPAEUS,
the distinctive meaning "land's-end." YELMERT again was a boatswain
with the Dutch whale-fisher VLAMINGH, who in 1664 sailed round the
northern extremity of Novaya Zemlya to Barents' winter haven, and
thence farther to the south-east. Vlamingh himself at his
turning-point saw no land, though all signs showed that land ought
to be found in the neighbourhood; but several of the crew thought
they saw land, and the report of this to a Dutch mapmaker, DICK
REMBRANTSZ. VAN NIEROP, led to the introduction of the supposed land
into a great many maps, commonly as a large island in the Kara Sea.
This island was named Yelmert Land. The similarity between the names
Yelmert Land and Yalmal, and the doubt as to the existence of the
Yelmert Island first shown on the maps, have led to the transfer of
the name Yelmert Land to the peninsula which separates the Gulf of
Obi from the Kara Sea. It is to be remarked, however, that the name
Yalmal is not found in the older accounts of voyages from the
European waters to the Obi. The first time I met with it was in the
narrative of Skuratov's journey in 1737, as the designation of the
most north-easterly promontory of the peninsula which now bears that
name.

Yalmal's grassy plains offer the Samoyeds during summer reindeer
pastures which are highly valued, and the land is said to have a
very numerous population in comparison with other regions along the
shores of the Polar Sea, the greater portion, however, drawing
southward towards winter with their large herds of reindeer. But the
land is, notwithstanding this, among the most imperfectly known
parts of the great Russian empire. Some information regarding it we
may obtain from sketches of the following journeys:

SELIFONTOV, 1737. In the months of July and August the surveyor
Selifontov travelled in a reindeer sledge along the coast of the
Gulf of Obi as far as to Beli Ostrov. About this journey
unfortunately nothing else has been published than is to be found in
LITKE, _Viermalige Reise_, &c., Berlin, 1835, p. 66, and WRANGEL,
_Sibirische Reise_, Berlin, 1839, p. 37.

SUJEFF, in 1771, travelled under the direction of Pallas over the