1844 Adam von Krusenstern - RUSSIAN ARCTIC - Siberia

KRUSENSTERN, Admiral Von

Title: Narrative of M. Middendorf's Journey in Northern Siberia.
Publisher: London: Royal Geographical Society, 1844

Notes & Condition:   Krusenstern shares a most captivating account of a perilous contemporary expedition to the Taimyr Peninsula and the frozen Arctic waters of north Siberia, which would be fateful of all but two expedition members. He draws in part from a memoir by KE Von Baer, and vividly describes Middendorf's struggle for survival. Middendorf, leader of the expedition was trecking alone in a vast desolate region when in the distance he saw the party's only other survivor, with a Samoyed native, returning on sledge to rescue him, that he may continue his important work. These are original text pages printed in 1844, in excellent condition. 13 pages, attractively bound booklet style in modern blue paper covers with label.

Excerpts from the Text: "In the spring of 1843, M. Middendorf commenced his preparations for exploring a region almost wholly unknown..." "....the clothes of the travellers, steeped in water, froze upon them...the pains of hunger were severly felt...thus the boat-wreck party found themselves without provisions... the wreck of the boat served them for constructing a sledge and they proceeded." "....Middendorf ordered his four companions to go in search of the Samoyedes...he remained alone, ill, without shelter at the approach of an arctic winter..." End Excerpts.

Alexander Theodor von Middendorff was a Russian zoologist and explorer. In 1837 he took part in Karl Ernst von Baer's expedition to the Kola Peninsula. From 1843 to 1845 he travelled to the Taimyr Peninsula on behalf of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He published his findings in "Reise in den äussersten Norden und Osten Sibiriens" (Travels in the extreme north and east of Siberia) (1848-75), which included an account of the effects of permafrost on the spread of animals and plants. Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler, Novaya Zemlya (Cape Middendorff), Kodiak Bear, and Taymyr Peninsula (Middendorff Bay) are named after him.