The New Siberian Islands ¹

Abstract

THE Expedition of MM. Bunge and Toll, who have explored the lower Yana and the islands of New Siberia during the last two years, was sent out by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Hedenstrom's description of the masses of petrified wood which is found on these islands, and the information gathered from the hunters as to the richness of the archipelago in remains of Quaternary mammals, were the chief inducements for sending out the Expedition.² The Expedition consisted of Dr. Bunge, who had just terminated his two years' stay at the Sagastyr Polar station at the mouth of the Lena; Baron Toll; two Cossacks, four Yakuts, and two Tunguses. After having explored the region at the mouth of the Yana during the summer of 1885,³ and spent the winter at the Kazatchie settlement, twenty miles to the south of Ust-Yansk, the Expedition started in the spring for the New Siberian Islands, and for better exploring them divided into two parties. Dr. Bunge undertook the exploration of the southern islands of the archipelago, and especially of the small Lyakhoff Island, while Baron Toll explored the northern islands (Kotelnyi, Thaddeus, and New Siberia), usually called the Anjou Islands.