NOVA ZEn aLA ( NORTHEAST PASSACE ) Airier the discovery of America came efforts to find northeast and northwest passages to India. Of early English explorers, Willoughby and Chancel lor in 1553 opened Archangel Bay; but Willough by and two of his three ships were involved in the first great Arctic tragedy, the leader and his 62 men perishing of scurvy during the winter; while Burrough (1556) and Pet (1580) discovered and explored the Waigat, the strait leading into the Kara Sea, south of Nova Zembla. Most success ful of early voyages were the three expeditions of a Dutchman, Willem Barents. In 1594 he traced northeastward the coast of Nova Zembla to the Orange Islands, 77° north. Failing next year to pass the W'aigat, Barents sailed in 159G under Jacob Ileemskerch, but parted from him and rounded the North Cape of Nova Zembla. In sailing south on the east coast the party was beset and obliged to winter in leehaven, Barents Sea. After great privations they abandoned their ship in the summer and retreated by boat to Kola, Barents dying en route. This last voy age of Barents was one of the most important of all the journeys to the unknown Arctic frontier. Ile showed the terrific pressure of the polar pack upon the north coast of Nova Zembla, and the existence nt least occasionally of much open water to the north, a fact that has expedited many voyages to and from Franz Josef Land. Out of Chancellor's voyage arose the Muscovy Company, to the incalculable advantage of Eng lish commerce. From Barents's voyage event ually resulted the Dutch whale fisheries.
Russian energy. taking up the problem, out lined between 1636 and 1648 great extents of coast line. Among the explorers who achieved prominence were Elis6 Busa, who traveled between Olenek and Yana, and Simeon Desh neff, whose voyage from Kolyma to Kam tchatka (1648) determined the separation of Asia and America. A century later came 'the great survey' and a score of expeditions. Chariton Laptieff and Tchelynskin discovered the North Cape of Asia (1742). Dmitri Laptieff (1737 42) skirted the coast from the Lena to Cape Baranov, thirty degrees of longitude, thus prac tically completing the Asiatic coast line.
Adolf Erik Nordenskjahl solved the vexatious problem of the circumnavigation of Asia and Europe. Leaving Tromsii in the Vega, in .June, 1878, Nordenskpld passed the Waigat and Kara Sea, rounded Cape Tchelyuskin, skirted the New Siberian Islands, and was definitely stopped by ice only 110 miles from Bering Strait. Forced to winter to the east of Cape Szerde Kamen, Nor denskjeild reached Yokohama in 1579, having made without disaster the Northeast Passage.
Another phase of Asiatic exploration somewhat related to the Northeast Passage is that of the islands of the Siberian Ocean. Liakhoff (1770) first visited the island of his name, and later added two others to the New Siberian Archi pelago. Ile was followed by Samkiff (1805), Sirovatskoff (1806), and Bjelkoff (1808), all ivory-hunt ers. The daring sled-journeys of Lieutenants F. v. Wrangell and P. F. Anjou (1820-23) skirted the New Siberian and Bear islands, but. had no material results, there being only open sea at Anjou's farthest, 76° 37' north, 138° east. In 1881 a northerly extension of this archipelago was discovered by De Long, com mander of the Jeannette, as is elsewhere stated. The most notable explorations of the New Sibe rian Islands, yielding a wealth of scientific data, afe those of Baron Von Toll, now extending over many years.
Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian, in 1893 passed the Waigat in the From on a novel and hazardous attempt to explore the vicinity of the North Pole by a drift voyage. The Siberian Ocean was very open. and the Pram was not beset until she had reached a comparatively high latitude (78° 50' N., 134° E.), northwest of Sannikoff Island, about 200 miles east of the place' where her predecessor, the Jeannette, sank in 1881. The From, under 0. Sverdrup. drifted almost uninterruptedly west-northwest until she reached 85° 57' N., 70° E., when the course changed gradually to west and southwest to northwestern Spitzbergen, where she escaped the iec after a besetment of thirty-five months. Nansen left the ship with Lieu tenant Johannesen in Alareit, 1895, on a sledge trip to reach the Pole. but unfavorable ice con ditions obliged their return from 86° 4' N., 96° E. They traveled south by sledge and by kayak as the sea opened. but it was 153 days before they reached Franz Josef Land. Building a lint, they lived on the plentiful game, and, start ing for Spitzherg,en in the spring, were, after a hazardous journey, saved by the Harmsworth Jackson expedition near Cape Flora in the south ern part of Franz Josef Land. The Frain found no land in the polar ocean, but in its place discovered that from 140° E. to lO° E. the sea is of great depth, with rich fauna. It had hitherto been supposed that this part of the polar sea was shallow. Nansen in his southward journey limited the northeast extension of Franz Josef Land and traced a part of its shores.