fter the complete conquest of
Siberia the land route over the Ural mountains, formerly regarded
with such superstitious feelings, was preferred to the unsafe sea
route across the Kara Sea, and as if the Government even put
obstacles in the way of the latter by setting watches at Matvejev
Island and at Yugor Straits.[162] These were to receive payments
from the hunters and merchants, and the regulations and exactions
connected with this arrangement deprived the Polar Sea voyages of
just that charm which had hitherto induced the bravest and hardiest
of the population to devote themselves to the dangerous traffic to
the Ob, and to the employment of hunting, in which they were exposed
to so many dangers, and subject to so great privations.

The circumstance to which we have referred may also be the reason
why we do not know of a single voyage in this part of the Polar Sea
during the period which elapsed from the voyage of Rodivan Ivanov to
"the great Northern Expedition." It examined, among other parts of
the widely extended north coast of the Russian empire, the southern
portion also of the navigable waters here in question, in the years
1734, 35, under Muravjev and Paulov, and in 1736, 37 under Malygin,
Skuratov, and Suchotin. Their main working field however did not lie
here, but in Siberia itself; and I shall give an account of their
voyages in the Kara Sea further on, when I come to treat of the
development of our knowledge of the north coast of Asia. Here I will
only state that they actually succeeded, after untold exertions, in
penetrating from the White Sea to the Ob, and that the maps of the
land between that river and the Petchora, which are still in use,
are mainly grounded on the work of the great northern expedition,
but that the bad repute of the Kara Sea also arose from the
difficulties to which these explorers were exposed, difficulties
owing in no small degree to the defective nature of the vessels, and
a number of mistakes which were made in connection with their
equipment, the choice of the time of sailing, &c.

[Illustration: AMMONITE WITH GOLD LUSTRE. From Novaya Zemlya.
_Ammonites alternans_. V. BUCH. ]

Like all distant unknown regions, Novaya Zemlya was of old renowned
for its richness in the noble metals. The report indeed has never
been confirmed, and probably was occasioned only by the occurrence
of traces of ore, and the beautiful gold-glancing film of pyrites
with which a number of the fossi