From various papers in the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Marine Enterprise and Trade in Russia, together with information gathered by Mr. Oswald Cattley, it seems that Mr. M. K. Sidoroff of Petersburg was the agitator, and, in a certain sense, the originator, in modern times, of sea-trading adventure in the north of the Russian empire. He was largely interested in gold-mining in the Yenesei, and his efforts to open up marine communication with the north date from 1841. In 1860, thanks to his enterprise, the first foreign vessel entered the Bay of Petchora. At the Universal Exhibition of 1862, in London, Mr. Sidoroff exhibited, and obtained two medals for, products from the Turukhansk district—graphite, skins, coal, salt, mammoth tusks, etc.—all of which he presented to the South Kensington Museum. In 1867 he began agitating the possibility of communicating with Europe by sea viâ the Yenesei and Obi rivers and the Arctic Ocean. In 1868 he communicated with the Norwegian whalers, and at his initiative Captains Foyne, Carlsen, and others ventured into the Kara Sea, but none reached to the mouth of either of the two great rivers. This success was to be reaped by Captain Wiggins, of Sunderland, who fitted out, at his own expense, a small steamer, the Diana, in which he reached the mouth of the Obi in 1874. He was resolved upon repeating the voyage in 1875, and to that end invited capitalists to assist him in organizing a trade between Siberia and England. These overtures were not successful to any considerable extent, though two gentlemen came forward with subscriptions in Sunderland, and the captain added more from his own means; but the whole amounted to less than was needed for efficient operations. Determined, however, not to be baffled, Wiggins purchased a small cutter, the Whim, that might have been put in a good-sized drawing-room (it was only 45 feet long, and of 27 tons register!), and in that he sailed direct for the Kara Sea. The weather was adverse, and he was compelled to return in the autumn of 1875. Another explorer, however, had followed suit, for Professor Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins had done in 1874, took the same track in 1875, and reached the mouth of the Yenesei. Thence he sent back his walrus sloop to Hammerfest, ascended the river, and returned overland to Petersburg.

Captain Wiggins was now asked to meet his brother explorer, Nordenskiöld, at Petersburg, where they both addressed crowded audiences; after which the Russian merchants offered subscriptions towards the equipment of another expedition, under the command of Captain Wiggins, who was to return at once to England and secure a steamer suitable to the work. But jealousy of a “foreign element” subsequently seized some of the Russian merchants, and they desired that a Russian naval officer should head the expedition—in other words, that Captain Wiggins should be pilot, which he declined. Many of the Russian subscriptions were in consequence withheld, but not that of Mr. Sibiriakoff, who placed his money in the hands of the editor of the Times. This money, with the assistance furnished by Mr. Gardiner, of Goring, enabled Wiggins to attempt a third voyage, and he now purchased the screw-steamer Thames—doing so, however, under protest, for she was not the vessel he ought to have had. In this, in 1876, he started for the mouth of the Obi, and reached it; but, owing to the unsuitability of his ship, he could not ascend the river. He lay, therefore, in the Baidaratsky Gulf of the Kara Sea, employing himself usefully in making nautical surveys, dredging, etc. He then directed his course to the Yenesei, entered the river, and reached the village of Dudinsk, about 400 miles from the ocean. Here he was informed that the nearest port or river of safety was the Kureika. I have since been told, by one in Siberia, that this was a mistake, the river not being a suitable place for winter quarters. But the captain proceeded without chart, without pilot; time was of importance; and he had not got his steamer into the Kureika more than two or three days before the ice formed, and she was locked up for eight months. This had been anticipated; and the captain now returned overland, post-haste to London, which he reached in January 1877.

Meanwhile Professor Nordenskiöld had also been following up his discoveries, in proceeding again to the Yenesei, in 1876, with an object mostly, but not entirely, scientific. It was arranged that his expedition, consisting of Swedish geologists, botanists, zoologists, and men of science, should be divided into two parties; one going with the Professor, in the steamship Ymar, through the Kara Sea, was to enter the mouth of the river and ascend to Mesenkin; whilst the other party, under the direction of M. Théel, was to proceed overland to Krasnoiarsk, and then descend the river to meet their comrades. The Professor ascended to Mesenkin, but M. Théel could not get so far. The two parties therefore failed to effect a meeting; but they added much valuable information to what had been hitherto known of the natural history of the Yenesei, and which was printed in two reports—the one from Professor Nordenskiöld, and the other from M. Théel, addressed to Messrs. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, and Alexander Sibiriakoff, at whose joint expense the expedition had been sent.

In the spring of 1877 Wiggins went overland from England through Siberia, and down the Yenesei to the Thames, intending to steam back to Europe. But the vessel was damaged by the breaking-up of the ice, and became a wreck; and Wiggins was once more compelled to return by land. He had been accompanied on the outward journey by Mr. Henry Seebohm, who proceeded to the Yenesei to study its ornithology, and who has since published some of the results of his researches, as well as a book called “Siberia in Europe,” on the ornithology of North-eastern Russia and part of Siberia. Besides these travellers and their journeys, there have been several voyages undertaken, with a view to bring Siberia into maritime contact with Europe. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle for November 28th, 1878, records several voyages as having been made up to that time, with more or less success; and thus from the years 1875 to 1878 we learnt more than had ever been previously known of these two ancient rivers, the Obi and the Yenesei—to which latter, another vessel has made its way during the present year.

That Western Siberia is capable of being made to play an important part in the supply of European markets seems certain. The country possesses immense stores of minerals, from gold down to excellent coal, and agricultural produce both of fibre and cereals, the latter including wheat, to be purchased at from 12 to 15 shillings per quarter, first hand, which in England commands from 45 to 50 shillings. A thousand miles of land between the Tobol and the Obi is capable of producing an almost unlimited supply of wheat, oats, barley, rye, hay, linseed, flax, and hemp; and to these might be added for export, to be purchased very cheaply, hides, tallow, wool, and other products. Already, on the rivers of the Obi system alone, there are no less than 46 passenger and tug steamers plying annually, and ranging from 30 up to 120 horse-power. If, then, two central warehouses could be established, at, say, Tiumen and Tomsk, it would be easy from thence to purchase and carry produce to the mouth of the Obi. The difficult part of the navigation lies between the mouth of the Obi and the Kara or the Waigatz Straits, west of the Kara Sea; and what is required is a powerful steamer, adapted for working among ice if needed, to ply between the Obi Gulf and a depôt, say, on Waigatz Island, or even at the North Cape, whence ordinary vessels could bring the produce away. The ice steamer might then, in her last voyage for the season, return with foreign merchandise, to be sold at the establishments in the interior, and, in February, at the annual fair of Irbit where merchants congregate from all parts of Siberia. Mr. Seebohm goes so far as to say that, could the talked-of canal be formed from the Obi Gulf across the Yamal peninsula, it might prove almost as important as that across the Isthmus of Suez. Captain Wiggins thinks the canal impracticable, but is sanguine as to the possibilities of trade on the Obi; and it has been computed by Mr. Oswald Cattley that with a strong steamer, a tug, six barges, and a couple of lighters, there might be exported from Siberia, in a single navigation season, 6,000 tons of wheat; but, of course, this would involve the outlay of considerable capital, and the location of responsible agents in the country.