d the fisheries require railway
communication with the rest of Europe. That will certainly come in a
few years, nor will it be long before the telegraph has spun its
net, and regular steam communication has commenced along the coast
of the Arctic Ocean far beyond the sea which was opened by Chancelor
to the commerce of the world.

[Illustration: COAST LANDSCAPE FROM MATOTSCHKIN SCHAR. After Svenske. ]

[Footnote 15: In many Polar expeditions, sealskin has been used as
clothing instead of reindeer skin. The reindeer skin, however, is
lighter and warmer, and ought therefore to have an unconditional
preference as a means of protection against severe cold. In mild
weather, clothing made of reindeer skin in the common way has indeed
the defect that it is drenched through with water, and thereby
becomes useless, but in such weather it is in general unnecessary to
use furs. The coast Chukchis, who catch great numbers of seals, but
can only obtain reindeer skins by purchase, yet consider clothing
made of the latter material indispensable in winter. During this
season they wear an overcoat of the same form as the Lapps' _pesk_,
the suitableness of whose cut thus appears to be well proved. On
this account I prefer the old-world Polar dress to that of the new,
which consists of more closely fitting clothes. The Lapp shoes of
reindeer skin (_renskallar, komager_) are, on the other hand, if one
has not opportunity to change them frequently, nor time to take
sufficient care of them, quite unserviceable for Arctic journeys. ]

[Footnote 16: Haugan had formerly for a long series of years carried
his own vessel to Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, and was known as
one of the most fortunate walrus-hunters of the Norwegian Polar Sea
fleet. ]

[Footnote 17: The original of this drawing, for which I am indebted
to Councillor of Justice H. Rink, of Copenhagen, was painted by a
German painter at Beigen, in 1654. The painting has the following
inscription:--

Mit Ledern Schifflein auff dem Meer De groenleinder fein bein undt
her Boen Thieren undt Bogelen haben see Ire tracht Das falte lands
bon winter nacht ]

[Footnote 18: The birch which grows here is the sweet-scented birch
(_Betula odorata_, Bechst.), not the dwarf birch (_Betula nana_,
L.), which is found as far north as Ice Fjord in Spitzbergen (78
degree 7' N.L.), though there it only rises a few inches above
ground. ]

[Footnote 19: According to Latkin, _Die Lena und ihr Fluss