Note 61 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

On the present occasion, however, having the original statements of Anthony Marsh before us, we can have no hesitation in availing ourselves of Dr. Hamel’s comments on the same, and in agreeing with him61 that the present name Matochkin Shar appears to be merely a corruption of Matyushin Shar; Matyusha itself being the diminutive of the Russian proper-name Matvei, or Matthew, which name was probably that of the first discoverer of this passage. It would also seem that the expression “Mattuschan Yar”, made use of by Anthony Marsh, is intended for this Matyushin Shar, and not, as Dr. Hamel supposes,62 for the coast (yar?) lying opposite to Novaya Zemlya; and that the breadth attributed by Marsh to “Mattuschan Yar”, of “in some parts forty versts over, and in some parts not past six versts over”, is meant to apply to the supposed breadth of the passage itself.