Vladimir Rusanov Ocean via the Northern Sea Route. Their ship "Gerkules" was too small for the kind of expedition Rusanov had in mind. The last to be heard of Rusanov's expedition was a telegram left at Matochkin Shar on Novaya Zemlya, which reached St. Petersburg on 27 September 1912. In it, Rusanov indicated that he intended rounding the northern tip of Novaya Zemlya, and heading east across the Kara Sea but nothing was heard from the "Gerkules" thereafter. He and his 11-man team, including Alexander Kuchin, disappeared without trace a year later in the Kara Sea, off the northern coast of Siberia.
Arctic lemming Arctic lemming The Arctic lemming ("Dicrostonyx torquatus") is a species of rodents in the family Cricetidae. Although generally classified as a "least concern" species, the Novaya Zemlya subspecies "(Dicrostonyx torquatus ungulatus)" is considered a vulnerable species under Russian nature conservation legislation (included in Red Book of Russian Federation since 1998). It is found only in the Arctic biomes in the Russian Federation, and it is the commonest mammal on Severnaya Zemlya. Specimens were once found in England, but they are now extirpated. For the most part, lemmings of the genus "Lemmus" can coexist with those of genus "Dicrostonyx". Arctic lemmings