and
and Novaya Zemlya was rescued from oblivion, though unfortunately
almost exclusively in the form of unconfirmed statements of very
high latitudes, which had been occasionally reached. Three papers
mainly led to Wood's voyage. These were:--

1. A letter, inserted in the Transactions of the Royal Society,[150]
on the state of Novaya Zemlya, said to be founded on discoveries
which had been made at the express command of the Czar.
The letter was accompanied by a map, drawn by an artist named
Panelapoetski, who sent it from Moscow as a present to the writer.
The Kara Sea is said to be a freshwater inland lake which freezes
strongly in winter, and it is stated that according to the unanimous
accounts of the Samoyeds and Tartars it is quite possible to sail
north of Novaya Zemlya to Japan.

2. Another letter was inserted in the _Transactions_ of the Royal
Society,[151] in which the statement in the former letter on the
connection of Novaya Zemlya with the mainland is repeated, and the
difficulties which Barents met with ascribed to the circumstance
that he sailed too near the land, along which the sea is often
frozen; some miles from the shore, on the other hand, it never
freezes, even at the Pole, unless occasionally. It is also said that
some Amsterdam merchants sailed more than a hundred leagues eastward
of Novaya Zemlya, and on that account petitioned the States-General
for privileges.[152] However, in consequence of opposition from the
Dutch East India Company, their petition was not granted, on which
the merchants turned to Denmark. Here their proposal was immediately
received with favour. Two vessels were fitted out, but instead of
sailing to Japan, they went to Spitzbergen to the whale-fishing. It
is further stated in the letter that it would not be unadvisable to
let some persons live for a time with the Samoyeds, in order to find
out what they knew of the matter, and that, when a more complete
knowledge of the navigable waters was acquired, the whole voyage
from England to Japan might be accomplished in five or six weeks.
Were a wintering necessary, it would not be attended with any
danger, if, instead of a house of thick planks standing by itself,
earth huts were used.

3. A pamphlet, whose contents are given in the long and peculiar
title: "A brief Discourse of a Passage by the North-Pole to Japan,
China, etc. Pleaded by Three Experiments: and Answers to all
Objections that can be urged against a Passage t