Note 67 — INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Had the name Kostin Shar, in any of its chameleon forms,67 been retained in its proper place, at the same time that the new name Matfeiof tsar was introduced to designate the more northerly channel,—and the map constructed by Gerrit de Veer from William Barents’s observations, does not warrant the former’s being carried much higher up than the 71st parallel,—there would most probably have been no occasion to notice this grave error. But the passage between Novaya Zemlya (Proper) and Matvyéeva Zemlya not having been observed by Barents and his companions, and De Veer having in his journal expressed the opinion that “Constinsarck” goes “through to the Tartarian Sea”,68 the corrector of Massa’s map was led to suppose that this passage must be the same as the “Matfeiof tsar” of the Russians, and he accordingly placed over the latter the name “Costint sarch” in faint letters. That in subsequent maps the former name should have been omitted, and the latter alone retained, is only natural: it is the usual progress of error. Accordingly, in Gerard’s map of Russia, dedicated to the emperor Michael Fedorowich in 1614,69 we find “Costint sarch” made to extend right across and through the land from west to east, its latitude being, however, brought down to nearly the same as in Gerrit de Veer’s map, from which the western coast-line of Novaya Zemlya is, in general, taken, while the more northerly passage is altogether lost sight of.