Note 35 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

But to return to Pet, who after parting from Jackman continued his course eastwards, apparently following in Willoughby’s track, till, on the 4th of July, he saw land in latitude 71° 38′ north, being the coast of Novaya Zemlya, somewhere about the South Goose Cape. Thence he coasted along the south-western end of Novaya Zemlya, keeping the same in sight on the larboard side, as instructed to do, but not nearing it, on account of ice and fog.35 On the 10th of July, he approached the north-western extremity of Vaigatz Island, and landed on a small island near the coast, where he took in wood and water.36 Here he remained till the 14th, when he got out with difficulty on account of the ice, and “lay along the coast north-west, thinking it to be an island; but finding no end in rowing so long”, he “supposed it to be the maine of Noua Zembla”, in which, however, he was in error, and thereby missed the entrance into the Sea of Kara by Burrough’s Strait. He now altered his course, and on the 15th “lay south south-west with a flawne sheete, and so ranne all the same day”; and, after meeting with much more ice, he on the 17th came into the “Bay of Pechora”. Thence, again taking an eastward course, he on the 18th had sight of the southern extremity of Vaigatz, and on the following day entered the passage running between that portion of the island and the main land of the Samoede country; to which passage the Dutch, in the voyages which form the subject of the following pages, gave the name of “the Straits of Nassau”, and which the Russians call Yugorsky Schar, that is to say, the Ugorian Strait. Nevertheless, if the first European explorer on record be entitled to the credit of his discovery, this entrance into the Sea of Kara ought to bear the name of “Pet’s Strait,” in like manner as the passage into that sea at the other extremity of Vaigatz Island received the name of “Burrough’s Strait”.