oast of Novaya Zemlya, toasts
were drunk in champagne, and it is said that this liquor was very much
relished by the Samoyeds.[185]

As little as Tobiesen could any other walrus-hunter make his way,
either in 1872 or 1873, into the Kara Sea, the entrances of which
were during these summers blocked by a compact belt of ice, which
extended along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island to
the mainland. In the belief of a large number of experienced
walrus-hunters, with whom I have conversed on the subject, this belt
of ice was only some few nautical miles broad, and it is therefore
probable that even in those years there would have been no obstacle
to prevent a passage eastwards by this route in autumn.

In 1874, on the contrary, the state of the ice became very
favourable, and many walrus-hunters again as formerly sailed in all
directions across the Kara Sea, which this year was also visited by
an Englishman, Captain J. WIGGINS. None of them, however, penetrated
farther to the east or north than Johannesen, Carlsen, Mack, and
others had done during the years 1869-70.

It was not until the following year that the North-east voyages took
a step forward, important both in a purely geographical as well as a
practical point of view, when I succeeded in a walrus-hunting sloop,
the _Proeven_, commanded by the walrus-hunting Captain Isaksen, in
sailing through Yugor Straits, which were passed on 2nd August, and
over the nearly ice-free Kara Sea as far as to the mouth of the
Yenisej. The _Proeven_ anchored there on the 15th August 1875, in,
or more correctly immediately off, the same splendid haven where the
_Vega_ expedition lay at anchor from the 6th to the 10th August,
1878. Hence I sailed under various difficulties along with Dr.
Stuxberg and Dr. Lundstroem and three men in a Nordland boat, up the
river to Saostrovskoj, where we fell in with a steamer, in which we
afterwards travelled to Yenisejsk. On leaving Port Dickson I handed
over the command to Dr. Kjellman, who along with Dr. Theel returned
by sea to Europe across the Kara Sea and through Matotschkin Schar,
which was passed during the return voyage on the 4th to the 11th
September.

By this voyage of 1875 I was the first who succeeded in penetrating
from the Atlantic Ocean in a vessel to the mouths of the great
Siberian rivers. One of the objects which the old North-east
voyagers had aimed at was thus at last accomplished, and that in a
way that promise