Birthday anniversary of Eduard V. Toll, polar explorer, geologist

14 March 1858

“All the guides on physical geography include the name of E. Toll as a founder of the

doctrine on the formation of fossilized ice – the doctrine which has became classical.”

V. A. Obruchev

 

March 2 (14), 1858 in Reval (Tallinn, Estonia) was born geologist, Arctic explorer, member of A. A. Bunge’s expedition to the New Siberian Islands (1885-1886), leader of the expedition to the northern regions of Yakutia and the Russian polar expedition on the schooner "Zarya" (1900-1902), Baron Eduard V. Toll .

In 1878, Toll enrolled in the University of Dorpat, Natural History Department, where he studied geology, mineralogy, medicine, history, zoology and biology.

Toll made his first trip as a member of a research expedition of Max Brown, professor of zoology, in the Mediterranean Sea. Upon returning to Dorpat, he received his Ph.D. in zoology and was stayed to teach at the university.

In 1885-1886, Eduard took part in the expedition of Alexander A. Bunge, organized by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences to study the New Siberian Islands. The research expedition was intended not only to survey the coast, but to conduct a comprehensive study of the archipelago. There were examined the Big Lyakhovsky Island, Bunge Land, Faddeevsky Island, the western coast of the Novaya Sibir Island, the Kotelny Island; extensive meteorological, biological and geological research was carried out. The expedition provided an extremely rich material on the nature of the Novosibirsk archipelago.

In 1893, Toll led a geological expedition of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences to the northern regions of Yakutia to explore the area between the lower reaches of the rivers Lena and Hatanga. There were first described the plateau between the rivers Anabar and Popigay, the ridge between the rivers Olenyok and Anabar. In 1894, the Imperial Russian Geographical Society awarded Toll with a Medal of N. M. Przhevalsky. In 1899, under the command of S. O. Makarov, Eduard took part in the navigation of the icebreaker "Yermak" to the shores of Spitsbergen.

In 1900-1902, Russian polar expedition led by Eduard Toll on the motor-sailing schooner "Dawn" went to to the New Siberian Islands. The team of "Dawn" included surveyor, meteorologist and photographer Fedor Mathisen; hydrographer, hydrologist, magnetologist, hydrochemist and cartographer Alexander Kolchak; zoologist and photographer Alexei Byalynitsky-Birulya; astronomer and magnetologist Friedrich Zyberg; bacteriologist and zoologist Walter Hermann and others; the commander of the schooner "Zarya" was the Navy lieutenant Nikolai Kolomeytsev. The aim of the expedition was to study ocean currents in the Arctic Ocean, as well as search for new lands, including Sannikov Land, which was first discovered in 1809 by a Siberian merchant and industrialist Yakov Sannikov.

During the navigation of the schooner and two wintering grounds off the northwest coast of the Taimyr Peninsula and the western coast of the Kotelny Island, Toll carried out a set of hydrological, physical, geographical and geological research. In July of 1902, Toll accompanied by Zyberg and industrialists V. Gorokhov and N. Dyakonov, went dog sledding to the Bennett Island, where "Zarya" was about to arrive two months later according to the plan. However, the ship was unable to break through the ice. Significantly damaged, in September 1902 the schooner was withdrawn to the Tiksi Bay in the southern part of the Laptev Sea, to the south-east of the mouth of the Lena River. Toll’s group, having failed to meet "Zarya," decided to move on its own to the south side of the continent. A rescue mission, went in 1903 under the guidance of A. V. Kolchak, did not find the travelers, only their diaries and collections.

Toll's name bear the mountains in the north-west of Novaya Zemlya and on the island of Bennett; a plateau on the Kotelny Island; a bay on the northwest coast of the Taimyr Peninsula, a cape on the island of Tsirkul in the skerries of Minin; a bay in the south-east of the Small Lyakhovsky Island; three glaciers in the valley of the Toll river in the Byrranga mountains on the Taimyr Peninsula; the rivers on the north-west coast of Taimyr and in the Byrranga mountains on the Taimyr Peninsula; a tributary of the River Klyuevka. In paleontology, zoology and botany many species of fauna and flora have also been named after Toll.

 

Lit.: Виттенбург П. В. Жизнь и научная деятельность Э. В. Толля. М.; Л., 1960; Врангель Ф. Ф. Русская полярная экспедиция // Записки по гидрографии. 1900. Вып. 22. С. 111; Катин-Ярцев В. Н. На Крайний Север. В Русской полярной экспедиции барона Э. В. Толля // Мир Божий. 1904. № 2. Ч. 2. С. 93; Коломейцев Н. Н. Русская полярная экспедиция под начальством барона Толля // Известия Императорского Русского географического общества. Вып. 3. Т. 38; Колчак А. В. Последняя экспедиция на остров Беннетта, снаряжённая Императорской Академией Наук для поисков барона Толля // Известия Императорского Русского Географического Общества. СПб., 1906. Вып. 2. Т. 42; Матисен Ф. А. Краткий обзор плавания яхты Русской полярной экспедиции «Заря» в навигацию 1901 г. // Известия Императорской Академии наук. 1902. Т. 16. № 5; Оноприенко В. И. Его звала Земля Санникова // Вестник Российской академии наук. Т. 77. № 11. 2007. С. 1026-1032; Толль Э. В. Плавание на яхте «Заря». М., 1959.

 

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Толль Э. В. Экспедиция Академии наук 1893 года на Ново-Сибирские острова и побережье Ледовитого океана. СПб., 1894;

Экспедиции на Ново-Сибирские острова. Эдуард Толль и Александр Колчак : [фрагменты кинохроники]. СПб., 2010.