The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1885-12-12
AN ARCTIC ENTtnuslAn.

An ARCTIC ENTHUSIAST.
Es Rsssns R6orts 10 Reach the Siberian
Rivers BY sss.
A very wealthy Russian named NJ.
Siberiakof has made himself famous BY
nis persistent and costly efforts to
demonstrate that q trade route a be
opened through . part of the Arctic
Ocean. His experiments have cost
hundreds Of thousands OF dollars, but
no reverse has yet discouraged him,
and year after year he repeats his at-
tempt to send steam vessels from Eu-
rope to the mouths Of two of the great
rivers Of Siberia on the shores Of the
Arctic Sea.
The thing has been done several
times, and what NJ. Siberiakoff believes
and has been trying to demonstrate Is
that every year European freight can
be taken by steamer to the Oh
and Yenesei Rivers, and then
through those great streams to
the Siberian settlements on their
banks, the vessels returning to Europe
laden with Asiatic products. OF course
if this route were practicable it would
make the rich products and population
of North Asia far more accessible to
the merchants of Western Europe than
they can be by any other route.
In 1875 Nordenskjold reached the Yen
esei in a little vessel, steamed up the
river for some distance, and returned
to Europe in the same season con-
vinced that late every summer it was
practicable to reach the Oh and Yene-
sci. Then followed his famous voyage
along the entire north coast Of Asia.
M. Siberiakoff bore q part Of the cost,
and his steamer, the Lena, accom-
panied N~ordenskjold to the Lena
River, which it assembled to Yakutsk.
Nordenskjold came home nor firmly
than ever persuaded that steam vessels
could reach the great Siberian rivers
every summer.
Every year since 1879 N. Siberiakof
has despatched expeditions from Europe
for the Oh and Yenesei Rivers. Only
one Of his vessels has reached its des-
tination. That was the steamer Oscar
Dickson, which reached the Oh in the
fall of 1880, but in the following year,
before she had started on her return
trip, she was crushed in the ice and
sank. Nothing daunted, NJ. Siberiakof
loaded the steamer Nordenskjold with
English merchandise and sent her off,
with instructions to return the follow
ing season with a cargo Of Asiatic
produce which he had sent down the
Yenesei to meet his vessel. The Nor
~denskjold found the ice-bsrrier in the
Kara sea impenetrable, and had to put
back to Europe. In 1882 the indomit-
able Russian sent three steam vessels
on the same voyage. He had estab-
lished a merchandise depot at Sastor-
ovski, on the Yenesei, and he sem the
steamer Oh to ply between that point
and the mouth Of the river. The Nor
~denskjold also steamed away well
loaded, and hoped to return richly
freighted the following year. The third
vessel took out materials to build a
large warehouse at the south end of
Navaya Zemlya where in bad ice years
steamers that failed to push through
the great ice-ields could unload their
cargoes instead of taking them back to
Europe. The warehouse WAS erected,
but none Of the vessels reached the
Siberian rivers. 1t was in this excep-
tionably bad ice season that the explor-
ing vessels Dijmphna and Varna were
caught in the foes of Kara Sea. The
Varna went to the bottom and the
Dijmphns had to return to Europe in o
damaged condition.
NJ. Siberiakof7s ventures in the
Arctic Ocean have now cost him about
five hundred thousand dollars. He
has not received a dollar In return.
Only one of his vessels has reached the
rivers, and it was crushed in the ice
pack before it turned homeward. Still
the Russian millionaire does not seem
discouraged. His vessels set out as
regularly as the seasons come around.
In July last he started himself from
Archangel o. the ~Nordenskjold, but,
in consequence Of the compact masses
Of ice in the Kara Sea, he had to re-
turn. He has recently been impressed
with q new idea, and, perhaps, it will
dislodge the ruling passion that has
cost him SO much money. He has this
summer been building a wagon road
between Plethora, which Is a point in
Russia on the Arctic Ocean, and a
navigable afiuent of the OF River,
and he is confident that by this means
he will greatly facilitate commerce be-
tween Siberia and Western Europe
NJ Y Sun |