The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎291v] (85/154)

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RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN IN 1895-96.
the cause of changes of climate all over our globe, and one of the most vital geo
logical questions is now to ascertain what was the real composition of the Tertiary
flora, not only in the temperate zone, but especially in the arctic and antarctic
regions. What was the extent of change in climate which we are bound to admit?
Let me also add that, since botanists have so well proved lately that the flora
of each separate region of the globe is a direct descendant, and bears the stamp of
the flora which clothed that same region in Tertiary times, the thorough and full
knowledge of the Tertiary flora, in all the parts of the globe, becomes a matter of
first importance for the evolutional botanist.
Taking everything into consideration, it is no exaggeration to say that, once
there is a hope of discovering new beds of Tertiary plants in Sannikoff Land and
Bennet islands, this hope afone, apart from all other geographical and oceanographical
considerations so well indicated by Baron Toll, would he a sufficient reason for send
ing out an expedition for the exploration of these Tertiary deposits.
The same applies in full, and even much more, to the necessity of sending out
an antarctic expedition to explore the Tertiary plants, the presence of whigh has
been indicated by both Carlsen and Borchgrevink.
P. Kropotkin.
RUSSIAN NAVIGATORS IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN IN 1895-96.*
Communicated by Colonel J. SHOKALSKY.f
The special expedition organized by the Ministry of Marine in 1894 to explore
the estuaries of the Obi and Yenisei and part of the Kara sea, wintered at Yeniseisk,
and on the approach of spring was engaged in repairing the vessels—the s.s. Lieut.
Ovtsin and sailing barge Lieut. Skuratov, the former drawing 8£ feet of water.
In the previous year (1894) they had made a successful trial of the coal
obtained from the Alexander Nevsky mine, near one of the right tributaries of the
Yenisei—the Dudinka, and, finding its quality to be not inferior to that of English
■coal, decided on making exclusive use of it for the future.
While these preparations were being made, the commander of the expedition,
Lieut.-Colonel A. J. Vilkitsky, together with Lieut. K. V. Ivanov, determined by
telegraph the difference in longitude between Yeniseisk and Krasnoyarsk, the former-
serving as the base for the astronomical work of the expedition. Vilkitsky also '
conducted, in 1894 and 1896, a series of observations with an apparatus of reversible
pendulums by Kepsold belonging to the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, by
whose desire these observations were undertaken.
On June 15 the expedition left the town of Yeniseisk by the river, and on their
way down fixed the position of the village of Gelahino, and observed the magnetic
elements at this place and at Dudinsk, where they also took pendulum observa
tions. On July 17 they reached the estuary of the river, and entered the sea to
the west of Sibiriakov island. Finding, however, the Gulf of Yeniseisk still
* Map, p. 224.
f Colonel Shokalsky, who has obligingly forwarded this report containing data
from unpublished sources, and three charts of this northern navigation, corrected
according to recent observations, besides the sketch-map alluded to hereafter, is the
Secretary of the Physical Section of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. He
was one of the Russian delegates and a Vice-President at the International Geographical
Congress held in London in 1895, at which he communicated a paper on the “ Maritime
Route to Siberia (see ‘ Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress,’ p.