The next man to journey into the frozen North was Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld.[2] He was born in Finland and educated at its university; but when he was about twenty-two years of age he fell under the suspicion of the Russian government and was compelled to leave his native country. Nordenskjöld then took up his residence in Sweden, and in 1858 began his career as an Arctic explorer by going on a journey to Spitzbergen. Five voyages in the Arctic regions followed, during one of which Nordenskjöld visited Greenland and made an inland journey over the ice.

The interior of Greenland is believed to be one vast glacier, moving slowly to the sea. This movement causes the formation of deep chasms and clefts which are almost bottomless, and which prevent the traveler from making rapid progress.

Notwithstanding the dangers and hardships of the journey, Nordenskjöld advanced thirty miles over the glacier to a height of twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the sea. Upon returning to the coast, he visited Disco Fiord, and then went home to Sweden.

About the time that Nordenskjöld reached home, the Swedish government decided to send a sledge expedition from Spitzbergen to the North Pole. The nation which should first succeed in reaching the pole would gain the admiration of the civilized world, and Sweden hoped to win this glory.

The government began at once to look for a leader for this expedition, and very naturally selected Nordenskjöld, who had already made Arctic voyages and had thereby gained experience which made him a valuable commander.

The party was sent out in 1872, but did not succeed in advancing far toward the pole; yet the results of the journey were important, for the island of Spitzbergen was explored and a good deal of scientific information was acquired.

When Professor Nordenskjöld returned from Spitzbergen, he gave his attention to the northern coast of Asia. Some few whalers had sailed round Nova Zembla and entered the Kara sea, but the idea prevailed that this sea was always full of ice and dangerous to navigate. Nordenskjöld, however, made up his mind to explore the Kara sea and sail along the coast of Siberia to the mouth of the Yenisei river.

Supported by Mr. Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, Nordenskjöld sailed on the Proven. He first visited Nova Zembla, and then, passing through Jugor strait, entered the Kara sea, which was entirely free from ice, and reached the Yenisei river without much difficulty. During this journey, he and his assistants made valuable collections of the products of the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms. They succeeded in increasing the number of known insects to be found in Nova Zembla from seven to one hundred, and in the Kara sea, which had been thought barren, they found five hundred species of animal life. Upon reaching the mouth of the Yenisei river, Nordenskjöld sent the Proven home, while he and a few chosen companions proceeded up the river in a small boat.

It was summer time and the tundras were covered with a scanty vegetation. The tundras are the plains of Russia and Siberia which lie between the tree limit and the Arctic ocean. Most persons think of them as entirely barren; in some parts the soil is fertile and would be suitable for cultivation, if the climate permitted. In the winter they are frozen, but in the summer they afford pasture to herds of reindeer.

All Siberia is colder than other places in the same latitude. One of the best-known cold regions on the earth is in Siberia, in latitude 67° 54ʹ N. Here the average temperature of the winter months is often as low as -53°, while some days the thermometer falls to -75° and -85° F.

The tundras are inhabited by a tribe of Siberian Indians called Samoyeds. These natives travel about during the summer, hunting and fishing, setting up their skin tents wherever they find game plentiful. They usually have with them a large number of dogs, which they use for sledging in winter and drawing boats against the current during the summer. The dogs run alongshore and drag the boats after them up the river, very much as mules draw our canal boats. The Samoyeds are small of stature and very dirty. Their hair is matted and unkempt, and they wear clothes of skin, with sometimes a bright-colored cotton shirt over the skin blouse.

These people worship idols, which look like dolls made of skin, and which they always carry with them on their travels. Some of these idols, or gods, have faces of brass or copper, and some carry bows made of forged iron. The Samoyeds worship by making pilgrimages to certain spots, where they offer sacrifices and make vows; they eat the flesh of their victims, and besmear their idols with the blood. At these sacred places there are piles of bones and skulls of the reindeer, with the horns. Near by are also found quantities of old iron, and hundreds of small wooden sticks, carved to look like human faces.

It was to this Samoyed country that the Russian government used to send her criminals, and there are many exiles living there now; but the natives treat them very kindly and never inquire into the cause of their banishment.

As Nordenskjöld and his companions traveled on, they saw large masses of driftwood lying along the shores of the river. This driftwood is carried by the current out into the Arctic ocean, and is often picked up by explorers on the North American and Greenland shores, a fact which seems to prove that the ocean currents carry it across the polar sea. At length the travelers entered the region from which this driftwood comes. This is the great forest belt of Siberia, the largest in the world, extending, with but little interruption, from the Ural mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk. It consists mainly of enormous pines, growing thickly, and untouched by the ax of the lumberman. Many trees are withered with age; others are fallen, and their decayed trunks are covered with mosses and lichens. The wilderness is so vast that a man might wander hundreds of miles without meeting a human being.

Beyond the forest belt lie the fertile plains, which are partly cultivated and which supply Europe with wheat. Nordenskjöld visited these plains, or steppes, and then proceeded homeward overland, by way of St. Petersburg. The next year, 1876, Nordenskjöld made a second voyage from Sweden to the mouth of the Yenisei river, proving beyond a doubt that there is a sea route from the Atlantic to the mouth of the great Siberian river. For this achievement he was regarded by Russia as a national benefactor and publicly thanked.

Nordenskjöld hoped that the rich produce of central Asia, the gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal, the ivory, timber, wheat, and furs, might now be shipped through the rivers to the Arctic ocean and thence to Europe. The dangers of navigation through the ice, however, are so great that it is doubtful whether this route can ever become an important one for purposes of commerce.

Nordenskjöld was not yet satisfied with the work he had accomplished in the Arctic regions. He longed to do what Arctic explorers had been trying to do for three hundred years; namely, to find a northeast passage to the Pacific. Supported by King Oscar of Sweden and by Mr. Oscar Dickson of Gothenburg, Nordenskjöld sailed from Tromsö in his ship, the Vega, July 21, 1878, accompanied by three other vessels. Two of the vessels left him at the mouth of the Yenisei and proceeded up that river, while the other, the Lena, accompanied the Vega eastward. The fog caused the sailors more trouble than the ice, but one day the mist rose, showing a dark ice-free cape. Then Nordenskjöld knew that he had succeeded in reaching the northernmost point of the Old World, Cape Tcheliuskin (Chelyuskin).

More than a century earlier, Lieutenant Tcheliuskin, a Russian officer, had succeeded in reaching this most northern point of Siberia, traveling overland by sledge. Many explorers had tried to reach Cape Tcheliuskin by water, but up to this time all had failed. Nordenskjöld and his companions were very proud of their success. Flags were hoisted, salutes fired, and the officers drank toasts in honor of the occasion.

A heap of stones, called a cairn, was erected on shore as a memorial, and soon the two vessels started again on their journey eastward. When the mouth of the Lena river was reached, the ship Lena headed toward it and, after exploring the river, returned home.

After parting from the Lena, the Vega continued her voyage to the New Siberian islands and thence along the coast of Asia, nearly to Bering strait. When within a day’s journey of the strait, the Vega was beset in the ice; and, much to Nordenskjöld’s regret, he was obliged to pass the winter at the very entrance to the Pacific ocean. Had he been a few hours earlier, he might have forced his way through the ice and completed the northeast passage in 1878. But in that case we should never have known all the interesting facts which he has told us about the strange people who inhabit the northeastern peninsula of Asia.

These people are a Siberian tribe, called Tchuktches.[3] There are two divisions of the tribe, the reindeer Tchuktches and the coast Tchuktches. The former own herds of reindeer, and travel about, pitching their tents wherever the pasture is good. They also trade in skins, hides, furs, and whalebones with the most northern Indian tribes of America and with the Russian fur dealers, often making long journeys for this purpose. The coast Tchuktches live along the shore, and hunt and fish for their living.

The reindeer Tchuktches were encamped near the Vega’s winter quarters. As soon as these people saw a strange ship anchored off the coast, they launched a large skin boat very skillfully, and men, women, and children jumped in and rowed through the thin, newly formed ice to the vessel. They climbed aboard and seemed as pleased to see the white men as if they had been old friends. The deck of the Vega became a reception room, for not a day passed without a visit from the natives.

The Tchuktches are a strong, hardy race, but very lazy. Nothing but want of food induces them to work. Many are tall, with brown skin and raven-black hair, and a large nose like that of our North American Indians. Some have high cheek bones and slanting eyes, like the Mongolian race. They live in tents, which are made double to insure warmth during the winter. The inner tent is the sleeping room. The framework is of wood, and over this are spread thick reindeer skins. The floor is a walrus skin, and at night extra reindeer skins are thrown down like a carpet. The inner tent is heated by three train-oil lamps, which, together with the heat from the bodies of the many human beings who are packed in this small space, raise the temperature in the tent to such a degree that even in the most severe weather, the natives strip off all their clothing. In the winter they live, cook, and work in the inner tent; the outer tent, used in summer, is built around the inner tent. The skins of the outer tent are older and thinner than those of the inner one.

The Tchuktche women work very hard. They take care of the children, cook, sew, and keep the tent in order. They receive the game and cut it up, in winter in the tent and in summer on the beach. They help with the fishing; they tan the hides and prepare thread from the sinews. The men provide the food, which they obtain by fishing, hunting, and trading. But in and around the tent they do nothing but put their hunting tools in order, or play with the children.

Tchuktche children are healthy and hearty. They often cross from one tent to another entirely naked, when the weather is bitterly cold. The children are petted and treated very kindly. The older people never utter an angry word to them, or punish them. For playthings they have dolls, bows, and windmills with sails. Tchuktche children are very well-behaved. A little girl fell down the ship’s stairs head first, and received so severe a blow that her hearing was nearly destroyed, yet she scarcely uttered a cry. A small boy of four years once visited the ship. He was so wrapped up in furs that he looked like a ball and could hardly move. He fell into a ditch which had been cut in the ice on the deck, and could not get out. The small Tchuktche did not make a sound, but waited patiently until some one saw him lying there and rescued him.

When the ice became solid, the natives came on their dog sleds from villages far away. Sometimes they brought skins and whalebones to exchange for tobacco and brandy, but they obtained very little of the latter from the men on the Vega. As winter advanced, the natives’ provisions gave out. Then they gathered around the ship at the time when they knew the crew were at dinner, and begged for food so hard that one day the cook himself came out with a large kettle full of meat soup. The Tchuktches seized it like starving animals and bailed it out with spoons, empty tin cans, and even with their hands. Nordenskjöld gave them all the food he could spare, but in spite of his kindness the plump little babies grew thin and hollow-eyed. One day the Tchuktche hunters killed a polar bear and several seals. Then begging ceased for a few days, and they rested from hunting and lived on the fat of the land, without any thought of the future.

A few days later a procession of Tchuktches was again seen, coming in single file over the ice toward the ship, each man carrying a piece of ice on his shoulder. This he gave to the cook, begging for something to eat in return; and you may be sure that all the food that could be spared was given to these poor people.

One morning a number of men approached the ship, dragging a dog sledge on which a man lay so quietly that Nordenskjöld thought he must be ill or dead. To his surprise, when the sledge reached the side of the vessel, the man climbed rapidly to the deck and saluted. He then informed Nordenskjöld in broken Russian that he was the great chief of the Tchuktches, and, as a mark of his high rank, he had been drawn over the ice by men instead of dogs.

This man’s name was Menka. He gave Nordenskjöld two roasts of reindeer meat, and in return received some tobacco and a woolen shirt. Finding that Menka was going to a Russian town some distance away, Nordenskjöld asked him to carry a letter to the Russian authorities there, as he wanted to let King Oscar know where he was. Menka consented, and Nordenskjöld wrote the letter and gave it to him. Whether Menka misunderstood or not, no one knows; but when he reached shore he assembled the Tchuktches, opened the letter, and, holding it upside down, gravely read it in his own language to his admiring audience. His hearers thought him very learned indeed.

The next day the great chief again visited the Vega, but no one mentioned the letter for fear of hurting his feelings. Menka doubtless meant no harm. The Tchuktches seem to have been very democratic in their sentiments; they refused to admit that Menka was their chief, saying that they were just as good as he was.

When Christmas came, some of the whites persuaded the Tchuktches to bring them a load of willows from the valleys in the south. They took a piece of wood for the stem and, tying on the willow bushes for branches, called it a Christmas tree, and decorated it with flags, colored papers, and wax lights. A box of Christmas presents had been placed on board by their friends at home; this was opened and the presents distributed. Then the men danced a polka around the tree and drank the good health of all their friends.

The spring came slowly, and time dragged, though the men were very busy collecting specimens and noting the curious changes in the atmosphere and vegetation. It seemed as if the ice would never break up. On July 18, 1879, Nordenskjöld and his companions sat down to dinner as usual. During the meal the vessel, which had been motionless for months, moved slightly. It was a moment of intense excitement, and everybody rushed on deck. The ice was moving! It did not take long for the engineer to light the boiler fires, and in two hours the Vega was free and on her way to Bering strait. There was not much time to say farewell to the Tchuktches, who gathered on the shore and watched the departure of their white friends.

The Vega encountered but little ice, and at 11 o’clock on the morning of July 20, 1879, she sailed into the middle of the strait that connects the Arctic and Pacific oceans. Salutes were fired and flags raised. The northeastern passage was accomplished. In a single voyage Nordenskjöld had succeeded in doing what Arctic explorers had been trying to achieve for three hundred years.

On his way home Nordenskjöld visited Japan. He remained there two weeks, collecting facts which contributed a great deal to our knowledge of that country. When Nordenskjöld reached home, King Oscar made him a baron, and commander of the Order of the North Star. The remainder of his life was spent in scientific work. In August, 1901, this great man passed away, leaving behind him a lasting fame.