The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎286v] (75/154)

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PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPEDITION TO SANNIKOFF LAND.
ifs left bank, and this view was still maintained by Ernst Curtins in
his latest work, ‘ Stadtgeschichte von Athen ’ (1891). But Dr. Dorp-
feld, relying on the statements of ancient writers concerning the objects
which are in its neighbourhood, and especially on the remark of Calli
machus, that in his time its water was so foul that cattle would not
drink of it, concludes that the Eridanus flowed from the south-western
slopes of Mount Lycabettus, and passed through the northern part of
Athens, in doing which it would easily be converted into a public sewer ;
and these arguments appear to Mr. Frazer to be conclusive.
The maps and plans which accompany these volumes are of great
service in elucidating the text, and the numerous illustrations will be
invaluable to students of Greek sculpture. Altogether, Mr. Frazer is
to be congratulated on having produced a monumental work, which is a
storehouse of learning and research.
PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPEDITION TO SANNIKOFF LAND.
By Baron E. von TOLL.
On the oldest map of the New Siberia islands, dating from the year 1811, the
outlines of two lands are marked, and they bear the inscription, “ Land sighted by
Sannikoff.” One of these stretches on the map from the meridian of the northern
point of the Fadeyev island to the longitude of the “ High Cape ” of the New Siberia
island, while the other is marked in the north-west of the island Kotelnyi.
Jacob Sannikoff was a Yakutsk merchant,* who undertook a series of bold
journeys to the New Siberia islands from 1805 to 1811, and was first a promy-
shlennik (hunter) in the service of Syrovatski, who had then the monopoly of
exploitation of mammoth-tusks in the Liakhov islands; later on he accompanied
Mathias Hedenstrbm in his journeys. Sannikoff was one of the discoverers of the
New Siberia islands, and we are indebted to him for some very important informa
tion concerning the peculiar nature of the islands, which information was trans
mitted to the world through Hedenstriim’s writings. The first, although
unsatisfactory, topographical survey of the islands was made by the topographer
Pshenitsyn. Sannikoff was also the first to spend a full summer on the northern
island of the New Siberia archipelago. During that stay, he had the opportunity
of sighting with his sharp eyes, on clear summer days, those two lands situated
the north of the islands, Kotelnyi, Fadeyev and New Siberia, and their supposed
outlines were maiked on the above-mentioned map according to his indications.
His and Hcdenstibm s attempts to reach those lands in sledges drawn by dogs
-were, however, unsuccessful, because open spaces amidst the ice (polynias) soon
compelled both explorers to return.
Ten years after the completion of the Hedenstrbm and SannikofTs journeys,
the Imperial Russian Ministry of the Navy sent out the well-known expedition of
Lieut. Anjou, which had to settle the topography of the New Siberia Islands, as
well as the question relative to the existence of the lands sighted by Sannikoff.
After two unsuccessful attempts, made in 1821 and 1822, to overcome with dog-
sledges the obstacles offered by the torosses (ice-heaps) and polynias, Lieut. Anjou
declared, in a report addressed to the authorities in 1822, that he was ready to
renew the attempt in a boat, starting from the island Kotelnyi, or Fadeyev, but
* More correctly a burger (myeschanin) of Zyryan origin, as his descendants said.