“According to this account Vlamingh would have been near the house
of Barendsz or thereabout, but Witsen does not say that Vlamingh
went on shore there. This information leads us to conclude that
Vlamingh did not see the wintering house at all, but simply
presumed that he had been near to it or thereabout, or else surely
he would not have failed to have mentioned it.”
For the rest, the account of Witsen is rather vague, and exclusively
depends upon verbal communications. These old voyages of the Dutch
walrus-hunters, as well as those of the Norwegian fishermen in the
present day, clearly show us that here, as well as in every other part
of the Arctic Regions, a favourable season might allow the fortunate
navigator who happens to be on the spot to penetrate in a few days
further than any of his predecessors, notwithstanding their unequalled
perseverance and energy.
Within the last ten years the Norwegians, like the Dutch walrus-hunters
of old, have been making continual inroads into the Kara Sea. This has
been principally due to the discovery of rich fishing-grounds in that
direction. The first of these Norwegian explorers was Captain Carlsen.
With a small fishing-boat of Hammerfest he sailed through Pet Strait,
and, following the Siberian coast, he reached White Island, near the
mouth of the Obi river, without having fallen in with any signs of ice.
It was, indeed, a bold undertaking to penetrate thus with so small a
boat into the Kara Sea; but Captain Carlsen was fully rewarded for the
risk he had run, in making a vast capture of blubber-yielding animals,
which handed him over a profit of £1,100.
The voyage of the intrepid English walrus-hunter, Captain Palliser, who
in that same season sailed as far as the north coast of Novaya Zemlya,
was of no less importance. Being about half a degree north of Cape
Nassau, he fell in with extensive ice-fields, which, however, were soon
broken up by stormy weather.