The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎290v] (83/154)

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PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPEDITION TO SANNIKOFF LAND.
The realization of the expedition would be, in short words, as follows :—
!• Next summer, in 1899, the ship—a good sea-going Norwegian walrus-hunter
—ought to try to make its way via to Kara sea and past Cape Chelyuskin, to the
mouth of the Lena. If the ship succeeds, as was the case with the Lena in 1878,
to make its way through one of the arms of the mouth of the Lena, it must go up
the river to Yakutsk, and, after having unloaded its cargo of goods, winter at
Yakutsk or above that town in the Lena. If, however, no passage which would be
suitable for the draught of the ship could be found in the delta of the Lena, the
ship would find a good anchorage on the west coast of the Borkhaya bay. With
the establishment of the winter, the goods could be easily carried by reindeer over
the usual commercial road, about 67 miles long, and over the 1500-feet-high pass,
across the 250-feet-high Kharaulakh mountains, to Bulun on to Lena, and from this
depot they would be carried further on on board the steamer Lena.
2. Next summer the expedition would start, after having provided itself at the
mouth of the Lena with a number of the best dogs and reindeer, and previously,
with a few Yakut ponies and with the necessary provisions for the animals. In
August, taking advantage of the favourable Lena drift, the expedition could easily
call at the New Siberia islands in order to establish there depots. Then, judging
from the experience of the Fram, it could reach the coast of Sannikoff Land in a
few days. It would be desirable, if open water permits it, to penetrate as far north
as possible, and to stop at one of the farthest northern spots of the discovered
archipelago, or at the north end of Bennet island, in case the latter has a greater
extension towards the north than Sannikoff Land.
3. Here the expedition would land, and the ship return to the mouth of the
Lena. One part of the expedition would begin then the building of the house which
they would bring with them, for establishing their winter quarters, and begin at
once the meteorological and magnetical observations which would have to be carried
on for a full year. In the mean time, the other part of the expedition may carry
on the topographical and geological survey of the archipelago, so long as weather
permits this to be done. In the spring and the summer the same work would be
continued, so long as the ship does not come to take the expedition home.
4. On the return journey it is desirable to enlarge the field of observations by
taking some other course, such as along the eastern coast of New Siberia, in which
case a landing at the Wood Mountains ” would be most necessary in order to
widely explore them and to make collections.
5. As to the composition of the expedition, it would be sufficient for me to
have three collaborators,—an astronomer, a meteorologist, and a topographer.
Besides, I would choose among the best promyshlenniki (hunters) a few Yakuts
or funguses to act as hunters and dog-drivers.
Note by the Translator.
t ^ ansla * or of Baron Toll’s admirable paper asks the author’s permission to
add the following considerations. If five-and-twenty years ago the necessity of
exploring the flora of the Tertiary deposits as near to the pole as possible was con
sidered as a weighty argument in favour of arctic exploration, the force of this
argument is only the greater now. Four important sets of facts have been brought
to bear since upon the solution of the question indicated by Baron Toll On the
one side it has lately been maintained that the Tertiary vegetation which was
iscovered in polar regions may not have been so much sub-tropical as it had been
supposed to be. But making full allowance for possible exaggeration of the amount
of sun-heat (though not of light) that would be required by the Tertiary plants to
grow in high latitudes, and fully admitting that these plants may have grown in