The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XII, No. 2 [‎290r] (82/154)

PROPOSAL FOR AN EXPEDITION TO SANNIKOFF LAND.
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a ship should attempt to return the same summer with a cargo of goods exported from
Siberia. Besides, the visit to the mouth of the Lena by a strong ice-resisting ship,
under the guidance of an experienced Norwegian walrus-hunting captain, and the
experience which would be thus won in the navigation of the Arctic sea in the
waters surrounding New Siberia, would be an epoch-making fact. A successful
navigation of the New Siberia waters would mean, on the one side, the beginning
of a solid scientific exploration, and of a systematic study of the mammoth tusks
wealth of these islands ; and on the other side, it would be a prelude to the naviga
tion eastwards of the Lena, to the mouth of the Kolyma, which would answer to
a most pressing need of the population settled along this river. As an illustration
of this need, it may be mentioned that, in consequence of the difficulties of transport
by land, along the nearly 670 miles’ long road from Yakutsk, across the 5000-feet-
high Takulan pass of the Verkhoyansk range, the pud (36 lbs.) of rye-flour costs
the Government 7 roubles 57 copeks (15s. 4rf.) at Verkhoyansk; and from this last
place the flour has to be taken nearly another 670 miles, until it reaches Kolymsk.
What is the price of a pud of rye-flour at Nijni-Kolymsk, I don’t know,* while
the price of flour at Verkhoyansk is taken from an official communication which
was made to me, in the year 1893, by the governor of the province of Yakutsk.
It is evident that if the flour were sent every year on board ship from the mouth
of the Lena, along the coast, to the mouth of the Kolyma, as also of the Indigirka,
the Government would find in this mode of transport a great benefit.
As for the sale of European goods, if such be shipped from Europe, they would
find, first, the Yakutsk market, and then the market of the gold-mines scattered on
the large tributaries of the Lena. The returns of the Yakutsk fair, which takes
place in summer, from July to the end of August, attain, according to official data,
the figure of 2,000,000 roubles (£200,000), of which one-half represents the
value of imports—chiefly cotton and woollen goods, china and earthenware, various
colonial produce (excepting tea), and different chemical produce, while the other
half represents the exports of far goods and mammoth tusks.
As to the gold-mines, they are situated chiefly on the tributaries of the Vitim
and the Olekma, and lately have been spread to those of the Aldan. The adminis
trations of the two former regions spent, in 1889, the sum of 4,174,150 roubles
•(£417,415) for goods sold to the workers only. As to the needs of the gold-mines
for technical purposes, it will be sufficient to name only dynamite, of which about
1300 puds (about 33,000 lbs.) were used in 1889. It is certain that the orders for
goods from one single of the larger gold-mines would be sufficient to richly pay the
journey of a steamer via the polar sea to the mouth of the Lena.
The idea of a navigation between the mouths of the Lena and the Kolyma
is so little new that Baron A. E. Nordenskjbld, more than twenty years ago,
made the proposal to open a regular navigation between the Lena and Bering
strait, and soon after that proved the possibility of realizing his scheme by his
Vega journey. I was brought to the idea of the Lena and Kolyma navigation
partly through my own knowledge of part of these regions, and partly directly by
a considerable Siberian export firm, Gromoff & Co., and their representative, M.
Pikhtin. This shows that there is already a demand for that navigation. My
proposal is certainly not meant to be oppo.-ed to Nordenskjbld’s plan, but, on the
contrary, I consider its realization as equally desirable and practical.
* According to the testimony of a gold medallist of the Russian Geographical
Society, who stayed at Kolymsk for four years and wrote a book about those regions,
signed “ Dioneo,” the price of a pud of rye-flour is 14 roubles 70 copecs (£1 10s.). As to
salt, its price raises to 1 rouble (2s.) the pound in the spring, and none is to be had at
any price. All fish is eaten frozen and raw, for want of salt. {Note of the translator.')