The Sea of Kara.--Loschkin.--Rosmysslow.--Lütke.--Krotow.-- Pachtussow.--Sails along the eastern Coast of the Southern Island to Matoschkin Schar.--His second Voyage and Death.-- Meteorological Observations of Ziwolka.--The cold Summer of Nova Zembla.--Von Baer’s scientific Voyage to Nova Zembla.--His Adventures in Matoschkin Schar.--Storm in Kostin Schar.--Sea Bath and votive Cross.--Botanical Observations.--A natural Garden.-- Solitude and Silence.--A Bird Bazar.--Hunting Expeditions of the Russians to Nova Zembla. The sea of Kara, bounded on the west by Nova Zembla, and on the east by the vast peninsula of Tajmurland, is one of the most inhospitable parts of the inhospitable Polar Ocean. For all the ice which the east-westerly marine currents drift during the summer along the Siberian coasts accumulates in that immense land-locked bay, and almost constantly blocks the gate of Kara, as the straits have been named that separate Nova Zembla from the island of Waigatz. The rivers Jenissei and Obi, which remain frozen over until late in June, likewise discharge their vast masses of ice into the gulf of Kara, so that we can not wonder that the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, fronting a sea which opposes almost insuperable obstacles to the Arctic navigator, has remained almost totally unknown until 1833, while the western coast, exposed to the Gulf Stream, and bathed, in summer at least, by a vast open ocean, has long been traced in all its chief outlines on the map. The walrus-hunter Loschkin is indeed said to have sailed along the whole eastern coast of Nova Zembla in the last century, but we have no authentic records of his voyage, and at a later period Rosmysslow, who, penetrating through Mathew’s Straits, or Matoschkin Schar, found Nova Zembla to consist of two large islands, investigated but a small part of those unknown shores. From 1819 to 1824 the Russian Government sent out no less than five expeditions to the sea of Kara; the famous circumnavigator Admiral Lütke endeavored no less than four times to advance along the eastern coast of Nova Zembla, but all these efforts proved fruitless against the superior power of a stormy and ice-blocked sea. Yet in spite of these repeated failures, two enterprising men--Klokow, a chief inspector of forests, and Brandt, a rich merchant of Archangel--fitted out three ships in 1832 for the purpose of solving the mysteries of the sea of Kara. One of these vessels, commanded by Lieutenant Krotow, was to penetrate through Mathew’s Straits, and, having reached their eastern outlet, to sail thence across the sea to the mouth of the Obi and the Jenissei; but nothing more was heard of the ill-fated ship after her first separation from her companions at Kanin Nos.