Note 486 — THE THIRD VOYAGE NORTH-WARD TO THE KINGDOMES OF CATHAIA and China, in Anno 1596.

There is little doubt of their having actually seen the country round the estuaries of the rivers Obi and Yenisei. Lütke says (p. 42) that “the distance of the two countries from one another is not known exactly, but there is reason for believing it to be less than 120 Italian miles. That the Hollanders really saw Siberia, and not (as some imagine) the Island of Maksimok, is corroborated by the tradition, which is mentioned even by Witsen (pp. 762, 897, 922), that at times Novaya Zemlya is, in like manner, seen from the Siberian coast.” ↑