THE TREASURE OF EDUARD TOLL
Scientific expedition to the Taymyr peninsula

"…Here I have given my instructions to bury the box with 48 canisters of preserved shchi, soldered canisters with 6 kg of dried bread, a soldered canister with 6 kg of oatmeal, soldered canister, containing about 1,6 kg of sugar, 4 kg of chocolate, 7 plates and 1 brick of tea. This hole was marked by the wooden cross".

This inscription, dated September 9, 1900, was made in his diary by Eduard Vasiljevich Toll, a Russian polar explorer, who buried the food depot in the permafrost of the Taymyr peninsular, which he himself did not use.

Hundred years later the expedition of the Federal Agency of State Reservoirs, the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Adventure Club under the information support of the "Rossiiskaia Gazetta" and the magazine "Vokrug Sveta", set out in search of the treasure, conserved at the coast of the Kara Sea.

Prehistory

In 1900-1902 the Russian Polar Expedition, mounted by the Russian Academy of Sciences and led by arctic geologist and prominent scientist Baron Eduard von Toll on the vessel "Zarya", sailed along the northern shores of Russia.

When the winter came "Zarya" was near the western coast of Taymyr and the Zarya peninsular, near the Cape which was afterwards named as the Depot Cape.

The main objective of Eduard V. Toll was a search of new lands, in particular a landmass "Zemlya Sannikova". In this regard he made several food depots along his route. One of which he did not use. The leader of the Expedition perished during his heroic crossing from the Bennett Island to the Novya Sibir Island.

In 1909 the diaries of Eduard Toll were published in Germany, and in 1959 their translation was published in the USSR under the title "Sailing on the yacht "Zarya".

In 1973 three groups of the polar scientific sport expedition "Komsomolskaia Pravda" were working at the Taymyr peninsular. One of the groups, headed by Yuri Khmelevsky, carried out a purposeful search of the depot of Eduard Toll. The food depot was discovered. The participants of the expedition brought to Moscow a cubical canister lifted from the permafrost, where they found 6 kg of oatmeal. The carried research works showed that despite the age of 73 years, cereals were excellently preserved. Scientist, specializing on nutrition and specialists in long-term food preservation, showed their interest to this discovery.

In 1974 there was organized a research scientific expedition. Partially the products, manufactured in 1900, were taken out and partially some of them were left for further storage so that they can be taken out in 1980, 2000, 2050. In order to proceed with the experiment, unintentionally started by Eduard Toll, the part of the food depot was left for the permanent storage. The expedition put in the depot the samples of the food, manufactured in 1974, together with the historical samples (at the 1,5 metres depth).

In 1980 specialists, scientists and participants of the polar expedition "Komsomolskaia Pravda" continued to work at the Cape Depo in accordance with the plan.