Treasure Islands in the Polar Sea.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 26 April 1895, Page 8

Treasure Islands in the Polar Sea.

— 0 Paragraphs appear in the newspapers (says a writer in ' Chambers' Journal ') from time to time, and down to the year of grace 1894, about a wealth of mammoth- ivory on the dpserb coasts fend islands of the Northern Siberia ; but many people eeetn to regard such tales as mora or lesa fabulous, and may be glad to have a connected account of what is really known about New Siberia and its mammoth tuaku. Tho chief interest is the fact that the islands contain, in extraordinary abundance, relics of a world that has long since passed away. Here, amidsb icy solitudes, and surrouuded by a sea covered with floating iceberg*?, wrapped for months of the year in perfect darkness, illuminated only by the red glare of the Aurora, there has been found a mine of wealth which constitutes the3e dreary islanda perfect treasure-houßeß in the frozen ocean. Few stretches of the Polar Sea are more dismal and dangorous than that portion of it which lies to the north of Siberia. Tho honor of discovering aod of surveying this icy eea belongs to the Russians, for, until Norkenakiold's voyage, olher European nations sailed no father thanihe Kara Se*, whore they were stopped, either by the cold or by the immense ma?se3 of floating ice. The "Russians, however, accuetomed to endiite the severest cold, voyaged along the whole northern coast of Siberia, and descended the Obi and Lena in vessels constructed at Tobolsk and Irkutsk $ and from the mouths of those great rivers they explored the coast in all directions. For a long time the Bussians had known of the vast amount of bones of the fossil elephant — the mammoth — which abounded all over Northern Siberia, and an extensive trade in fossil ivory had been carried on for a considerable period. While voyaging along the shores of Siberia, the Eussianß from time to time caught glimpses of islands in the sea far to the north ; but none landed on them or laid them down on the map with accuracy. In 1760 a Yakut named Eterikan, saw a large island to the north of the Lena, and his account raised the interest of fur-hunters. Amongst these zealous traders, none was more active or more successful than an adventurer Liakoff or Lirchoy, who for a Jong time had been collecting mammoths' bone 3 and tusks on the plaius of Northern Siberia. When Liakoff was at the Holy Capp, the ocean was fasb frozen* and presented a dreary aspect of ice, ridged here and there by gigantic icy furrows and hummocks. As he looked over the vast frozen expanse, he saw a long line of black objects approaching over the ica from the north, and perceiving that they were reindeer, he concluded that they were returning to Siberia from Rome unknown land to the north. He at once started in a Bledge drawn by dogs over the ic>, and after he had followed the tracks of the reindeer for sixty miles he came to an '.eland, where he passed the night. Next day, he followed the tracks to the north, and discovered another island smaller than the first. The reindeer track still continued to the north; but immense hummocks of ice rendered the further progrees of the bold explorer impossible. Liakoff obtained permission from the liuesian Government to call the islands by his name, and — what was far more important— he obtained the sole right to collect mammoths' bones and tho skins of stone-foxes in the newlvdiECovered islands. Three years afterwards he rovisiled the islands, accompanied by a friend named Profcodiakonoff, and as it was now summer, j they made the voyage in a five-oared boat. They found tha first island to be Bimply packed full of the bones and tusks of mammoths. Then they voyaged to the next island, where they found cliffs of solid ice. Leaving thie, they steered boldly to the north, and after a voyage of one hundred miles, they reached a large island (afterwards named Kotelnoi), which was also full of the remains of fossil elephants (mammoths). For many years Liakoff enjoyed the complete monopoly of carrying away these wonderful stores of ivory. His agents and workmen went every year to the island in sledges and boat?, and on the first of the islands he had discovered they built huts, and formed a great magazine; In 1775 the .Russian Government, hearing of the richeß of the island, sent Ohwoinoff, a surveyor to examine tham- He found that the first of the islands — containing the huts of the ivory diggers — was of considerable size, and containing such amazing quantities of the tusks and teeth of elephants, that it seemed to be com" posed of these remains, cemented together with saod and gravel. In the middle of the island was a lake with banks formed of slopes of solid ice, and in the brief summot these ice-banks split open by the action of the sun • and on looking down iuto those crackp' it could be seen that they were full of the tusks of elephants and of the horns of buffaloes ! A few years ago moat valaable scientific researches were carried on in these wonderful islands by Baron von Toll and Prafeesor Bungo. These explorers carried on their investigations in 18SG, Dr. Bunge visited the Liakoff group, while Von Toll explored tho New Siberian Islands. The latter explorer examined the famous "wood-hill" in New Siberia, and made a complete circuit; of Kotelnoi in forty dayp, an undertaking which was vpry difficult, owing to the whole coast of the island being blocked with enormous masses of ioe. From the northern point of Kotelnoi, Von Toll was fortunate enough to obtain a [view of the unknown land which Sannikoff had seen eighty years ago from Kotelnoi and New Siberia. This island—which wan called Sannikofl Land after its discoverer — has never yet been visited by European.?, and lion — according to Von Toll's estimate — ono hundred miles to the norlh of New Siberia. In Liakoff'a Island Dr Bunge

( found gruat quantities of bones of the / mammoth, rhinoceros, musk.ox, and wild oxen, and this accumulation of the bones of so many animals proves Low temperate the climate must have been formerly. In 1889 news was received at St. Petersburg that the body of a mammoth had been found in Northern Siberia, and Baron von Toll was once more sent into this deaolute region to verify the discovery. He did not roach the spot, however — which was near tbeSvaiatoiNos3 — until 1893, and waß then too late to find anything but fragments of the skeleton and portions of the skin, which were covered with hair. From the Holy Cape Von Toll went to one of the Liakoff Islands called Maloi, and fouad here complete fossil trees fifteen feet in length. Elephants' bones abounded, showing that great trees grew at (he time when mammoths and rhinoceroses wandered over these islands ; and beneath were cliffs of solid ice. What great convulsions of nature destroyed these myriads of gigantic beast?, and piled their bones in vast masses upon the islands of the Polar Sea? What cataclysm sank the verdan t plains beneath the waves, and changed Northern Siberia into a waste and empty wilderness ? And what catastrophe occurred on the land and in the sea which altered the climate of Northern Siberia from one of a genial, or at leaßt temperate clnrajter, to one of awful cold aud of Arctic severity ? We cannot fully answer these questions. It seems, probable, however, that great floods of rushing water must have poured over these lands, and, when these deluges subsided and the water retired, the land was covered with the remains of the drowned animals, and in some as yet unexplained manner the climate changed, and Northern Siberia, which was formerly a beautiful and verdant region, became an icy wilderness and a land of Death.