The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 29

The beach here is formed of a low bank of sand which runs between the sea and a small shallow lagoon or fresh-water lake, whose surface is nearly on a level with that of the sea. Farther into the interior the land rises gradually to bare hills, clear of snow or only covered with a thin coating of powdered snow from the fall of the last few days. Lagoon formations, with either fresh or salt water, of the same kind as those which we saw here for the first time, are distinctive of the north-eastern coast of Siberia. It is these formations which gave rise to the statement that on the north coast of Siberia it is difficult to settle the boundaries between sea and land. In winter this may be difficult enough, for the low bank which separates the lagoon from the sea is not easily distinguished when it has become covered with snow, and it may therefore readily happen in winter journeys along the coast that one is far into the land while he still believes himself to be out on the sea-ice. But when the snow has melted, the boundary is sharp enough, and the sea by no means shallow for such a distance as old accounts would indicate. A continual ice-mud-work also goes on here during the whole summer. Quite close to the beach accordingly the depth of water is two metres, and a kilometre farther out ten to eleven metres. Off the high rocky promontories the water is commonly navigable even for vessels of considerable draught close to the foot of the cliffs.

The villages of the Chukches commonly stand on the bank of sand which separates the lagoon from the sea. The dwellings consist of roomy skin tents, which enclose a sleeping chamber of the form of a parallelepiped surrounded by warm well-prepared reindeer skins, and lighted and warmed by one or more train-oil lamps. It is here that the family sleep during summer, and here most of them live day and night during winter. In summer, less frequently in winter, a fire is lighted besides in the outer tent with wood, for which purpose a hole is opened in the top of the raised tent-roof. But to be compelled to use wood for heating the inner tent the Chukches consider the extremity of scarcity of fuel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHUKCH TENT. (After a photograph by L. Palander.) ]

We were received everywhere in a very friendly way, and were offered whatever the house afforded. At the time the supply of food was abundant. In one tent reindeer beef was being boiled in a large cast-iron pot. At another two recently shot or slaughtered reindeer were being cut in pieces. At a third an old woman was employed in taking out of the paunch of the reindeer the green spinage-like contents and cramming them into a sealskin bag, evidently to be preserved for green food during winter. The hand was used in this case as a scoop, and the naked arms were coloured high up with the certainly unappetising spinage, which however, according to the statements of Danish colonists in Greenland, has no unpleasant taste. Other skin sacks filled with train-oil stood in rows along the walls of the tent.

The Chukches offered train-oil for sale, and appeared to be surprised that we would not purchase any. In all the tents were found seals cut in pieces, a proof that the catch of seals had recently been abundant. At one tent lay two fresh walrus heads with large beautiful tusks. I tried without success to purchase these heads, but next day the tusks were offered to us. The Chukches appear to have a prejudice against disposing of the heads of slain animals. According to older travellers they even pay the walrus-head a sort of wors.h.i.+p.

Children were met with in great numbers, healthy and thriving. In the inner tent the older children went nearly naked, and I saw them go out from it without shoes or other covering and run between the tents on the h.o.a.rfrost-covered ground. The younger were carried on the shoulders both of men and women, and were then so wrapped up that they resembled b.a.l.l.s of skin. The children were treated with marked friendliness, and the older ones were never heard to utter an angry word. I purchased here a large number of household articles and dresses, which I shall describe further on.

On the morning of the 9th September we endeavoured to steam on, but were soon compelled by the dense fog to lie-to again at a ground-ice, which, when the fog lightened, was found to have stranded quite close to land. The depth here was eleven metres. At this place we lay till the morning of the 10th. The beach, was formed of a sandbank,[235] which immediately above high-water mark was covered with a close gra.s.sy turf, a proof that the climate here, notwithstanding the neighbourhood of the pole of cold, is much more favourable to the development of vegetation than even the most favoured parts of the west coast of Spitzbergen. Farther inland was seen a very high, but snow-free, range of hills, and far beyond them some high snow-covered mountain summits. No glaciers were found here, though I consider it probable that small ones may be found in the valleys between the high fells in the interior. Nor were any erratic blocks found either in the interior of the coast country or along the strand bank. Thus it is probable that no such ice-covered land as Greenland for the present bounds the Siberian Polar Sea towards the north. At two places at the level of the sea in the neighbourhood of our anchorage the solid rock was bare. There it formed perpendicular sh.o.r.e cliffs, nine to twelve metres high, consisting of magnesian slate, limestone more or less mixed with quartz, and silicious slate. The strata were nearly perpendicular, ran from north to south, and did not contain any fossils. From a geological point of view therefore these rocks were of little interest. But they were abundantly covered with lichens, and yielded to Dr. Almquist important contributions to a knowledge of the previously quite unknown lichen flora of this region.

The harvest of the higher land plants on the other hand was, in consequence of the far advanced season of the year, inconsiderable, if also of great scientific interest, as coming from a region never before visited by any botanist. In the sea Dr. Kjellman dredged without success for algae. Of the higher animals we saw only a walrus and some few seals, but no land mammalia. Lemmings must however occasionally occur in incredible numbers, to judge by the holes and pa.s.sages, excavated by these animals, by which the ground is crossed in all directions. Of birds the phalarope was still the most common species, especially at sea, where in flocks of six or seven it swam incessantly backwards and forwards between the pieces of ice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTION OF A CHURCH GRAVE.[236]

(After a drawing by A. Stuxberg.) _a._ Layer of burned bones, much weathered.

_b._ Layer of turf and twigs.

_c._ Stones. ]

No tents were met with in the neighbourhood of the vessel's anchorage, but at many places along the beach there were seen marks of old encampments, sooty rolled stones which had been used in the erection of the tents, broken household articles, and above all remains of the bones of the seal, reindeer, and walrus. At one place, a large number of walrus skulls lay in a ring, possibly remains from an entertainment following a large catch. Near the place where the tents had stood, at the mouth of a small stream not yet dried up or frozen, Dr. Stuxberg discovered some small mounds containing burnt bones. The cremation had been so complete that only one of the pieces of bone that were found could be determined by Dr.

Almquist. It was a human tooth. After cremation the remains of the bones and the ash had been collected in an excavation, and covered first with turf and then with small flat stones. The encampments struck me as having been abandoned only a few years ago, and even the collections of bones did not appear to me to be old. But we ought to be very cautious when we endeavour in the Arctic regions to estimate the age of an old encampment, because in judging of the changes which the surface of the earth undergoes with time we are apt to be guided by our experience from more southerly regions. To how limited an extent this experience may be utilised in the high north is shown by RINK'S a.s.sertion that on Greenland at some of the huts of the Norwegian colonists, which have been deserted for centuries, footpaths can still be distinguished,[237] an observation to which I would scarcely give credence, until I had myself seen something similar at the site of a house in the bottom of Jacobshaven ice-fjord in northwestern Greenland, which had been abandoned for one or two centuries. Here footpaths as sharply defined as if they had been trampled yesterday ran from the ruin in different directions. It may therefore very readily happen that the encampments in the neighbourhood of our present anchorage were older than we would be inclined at first sight to suppose. No refuse heaps of any importance were seen here.

This was the first time that any vessel had lain-to on this coast.

Our arrival was therefore evidently considered by the natives a very remarkable occurrence, and the report of it appears to have spread very rapidly. For though there were no tents in the neighbourhood, we had many visitors. I still availed myself of the opportunity of procuring by barter a large number of articles distinctive of the Chukches' mode of life. Eight years before I had collected and purchased a large number of ethnographical articles, and I was now surprised at the close correspondence there was between the household articles purchased from the Chukches, and those found in Greenland in old Eskimo graves.

My traffic with the natives was on this occasion attended with great difficulty. For I suffered from a sensible want of the first condition for the successful prosecution of a commercial undertaking, goods in demand. Because, during the expeditions of 1875 and 1876, I found myself unable to make use of the small wares I carried with me for barter with the natives, and found that Russian paper-money was readily taken. I had, at the departure of the _Vega_ from Sweden, taken with me only money, not wares intended for barter. But money was of little use here. A twenty-five rouble note was less valued by the Chukches than a showy soap-box, and a gold or silver coin less than tin or bra.s.s b.u.t.tons. I could, indeed, get rid of a few fifty-ore pieces, but only after I had first adapted them by boring to take the place of earrings.

The only proper wares for barter I now had were tobacco and Dutch clay pipes. Of tobacco I had only some dozen bundles, taken from a parcel which Mr. Sibiriakoff intended to import into Siberia by the Yenisej. Certain as I was of reaching the Pacific this autumn, I scattered my stock of tobacco around me with so liberal a hand that it was soon exhausted, and my Chukch friends' wants satisfied for several weeks. I therefore, as far as this currency was concerned, already when-the _Vega_ was beset, suffered the prodigal's fate of being soon left with an empty purse. Dutch clay pipes, again, I had in great abundance, from the accident that two boxes of these pipes, which were to have been imported into Siberia with the expedition of 1876, did not reach Trondhjem until the _Ymer_ had sailed from that town. They were instead taken on the _Vega_, and now, though quite too fragile for the hard fingers of Chukches, answered well for smaller bargains, as gifts of welcome to a large number of natives collected at the vessel, and as gifts to children in order to gain the favour of their parents. I besides distributed a large quant.i.ty of silver coin with King Oscar's effigy, in order, if any misfortune overtook us, to afford a means of ascertaining the places we had visited.

For the benefit of future travellers I may state that the wares most in demand are large sewing and darning needles, pots, knives (preferably large), axes, saws, boring tools and other iron tools, linen and woollen s.h.i.+rts (preferably of bright colours, but also white), neckerchiefs, tobacco and sugar. To these may be added the spirits which are in so great request among all savages; a currency of which, indeed, there was great abundance on the _Vega_, but which I considered myself prevented from making use of. In exchange for this it is possible to obtain, in short, anything whatever from many of the natives, but by no means from all, for even here there are men who will not taste spirits, but with a gesture of disdain refuse the gla.s.s that is offered them. The Chukches are otherwise shrewd and calculating men of business, accustomed to study their own advantage. They have been brought up to this from childhood through the barter which they carry on between America and Siberia. Many a beaver-skin that comes to the market at Irbit belongs to an animal that has been caught in America, whose skin has pa.s.sed from hand to hand among the wild men of America and Siberia, until it finally reaches the Russian merchant. For this barter a sort of market is held on an island in Behring's Straits. At the most remote markets in Polar America, a beaver-skin is said some years ago to have been occasionally exchanged for a leaf of tobacco.[238] An exceedingly beautiful black fox-skin was offered to me by a Chukch for a pot.

Unfortunately I had none that I could dispense with. Here, too, prices have risen. When the Russians first came to Kamchatka, they got eight sable-skins for a knife, and eighteen for an axe, and yet the Kamchadales laughed at the credulous foreigners who were so easily deceived. At Yakutsk, when the Russians first settled there, a pot was even sold for as many sable-skins as it could hold.[239]

During the night before the 10th September, the surface of the sea was covered with a very thick sheet of newly-frozen ice, which was broken up again in the neighbourhood of the vessel by blocks of old ice drifting about. The _pack_ itself appeared to have scattered a little. We therefore weighed anchor to continue our voyage. At first a _detour_ towards the west was necessary to get round a field of drift-ice. Here too, however, our way was barred by a belt of old ice, which was bound together so firmly by the ice that had been formed in the course of the night, that a couple of hours' work with axes and ice-hatchets was required to open a channel through it. On the other side of this belt of ice we came again into pretty open water, but the fog, instead, became so dense that we had again to lie-to at a ground-ice, lying farther out to the sea but more to the west than our former resting-place. On the night before the 11th there was a violent motion among the ice. Fortunately the air cleared in the morning, so that we could hold on our course among pretty open ice, until on the approach of night we were obliged as usual to lie-to at a ground-ice.

The following day, the 12th September, when we had pa.s.sed Irkaipij, or Cape North, a good way, we fell in with so close ice that there was no possibility of penetrating farther. We were therefore compelled to return, and were able to make our way with great difficulty among the closely packed ma.s.ses of drift ice. Here the vessel was anch.o.r.ed in the lee of a ground-ice, which had stranded near the northernmost spur of Irkaipij, until a strong tidal current began to carry large pieces of drift-ice past the vessel's anchorage. She was now removed and anch.o.r.ed anew in a little bay open to the north, which was formed by two rocky points jutting out from the mainland. Unfortunately we were detained here, waiting for a better state of the ice, until the 18th September. It was this involuntary delay which must be considered the main cause of our wintering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IRKAIPIJ. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ]

Irkaipij is the northernmost promontory in that part of Asia, which was seen by Cook in 1778. It was, therefore, called by him Cape North, a name which has since been adopted in most maps, although it is apt to lead to confusion from capes similarly named being found in most countries. It is also incorrect, because the cape does not form the northernmost promontory either of the whole of Siberia, or of any considerable portion of it. For the northernmost point of the mainland of Siberia is Cape Chelyuskin, the northernmost in the land east of the Lena Svjatoinos, the northernmost in the stretch of coast east of Chaun Bay, Cape Chelagskoj, and so on. Cape North ought, therefore, to be replaced by the original name Irkaipij, which is well known to all the natives between Chaun Bay and Behring's Straits.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REMAINS OF AN ONKILON HOUSE.

_a._ Seen from the side.

_b._ From above. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ]

On the neck of land which connects Irkaipij with the mainland, there was at the time of our visit a village consisting of sixteen tents.

We saw here also _ruins_, viz. the remains of a large number of old house-sites, which belonged to a race called _Onkilon_[240] who formerly inhabited these regions, and some centuries ago were driven by the Chukches, according to tradition, to some remote islands in the Polar Sea. At these old house-sites Dr. Almquist and Lieutenant Nordquist set on foot excavations in order to collect contributions to the ethnography of this traditional race. The houses appear to have been built, at least partly, of the bones of the whale, and half sunk in the earth. The refuse heaps in the neighbourhood contained bones of several species of the whale, among them the white whale, and of the seal, walrus, reindeer, bear, dog, fox, and various kinds of birds. Besides these remains of the produce of the chase, there were found implements of stone and bone, among which were stone axes, which, after lying 250 years in the earth, were still fixed to their handles of wood or bone. Even the thongs with which the axe had been bound fast to, or _wedged into_, the handle, were still remaining. The tusks of the walrus[241] had to the former inhabitants of the place, as to the Chukches of the present, yielded a material which in many cases may be used with greater advantage than flint for spear-heads, bird-arrows, fishhooks, ice-axes, &c.

Walrus tusks, more or less worked, accordingly were found in the excavations in great abundance. The bones of the whale had also been employed on a great scale, but we did not find any large pieces of mammoth tusks, an indication that the race was not in any intimate contact with the inhabitants of the regions to the westward, so rich in the remains of the mammoth.[242] At many places the old Onkilon houses were used by the Chukches as stores for blubber; and at others, excavations had been made in the refuse heaps in search of walrus tusks. Our researches were regarded by the Chukches with mistrust. An old man who came, as it were by chance, from the interior of the country past the place where we worked, remained there a while, regarding our labours with apparent indifference, until he convinced himself that from simplicity, or some other reason unintelligible to him, we avoided touching the blubber-stores, but instead rooted up in search of old fragments of bone or stone-flakes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THE RUINS OF AN ONKILON HOUSE.

1. Stone chisel-with bone handle, one-half the natural size.

2., 4. Knives of slate, one-third.

3., 7. Spear heads of slate, one-third.

5. Spear-head of bone, one-third.

6. Bone spoon, one-third. ]

Remains of old dwellings were found even at the highest points among the stone mounds of Irkaipij, and here perhaps was the last asylum of the Onkilon race. At many places on the mountain slopes were seen large collections of bones, consisting partly of a large number (at one place up to fifty) of bears' skulls overgrown with lichens, laid in circles, with the nose inwards, partly of the skulls of the reindeer, Polar bear,[243] and walrus, mixed together in a less regular circle, in the midst of which reindeer horns were found set up. Along with the reindeer horns there was found the coronal bone of an elk with portions of the horns still attached. Beside the other bones lay innumerable temple-bones of the seal, for the most part fresh and not lichen-covered. Other seal bones were almost completely absent, which shows that temple-bones were not remains of weathered seal skulls, but had been gathered to the place for one reason or another in recent times. No portions of human skeletons were found in the neighbourhood. These places are sacrificial places, which the one race has inherited from the other.

Wrangel gives the following account of the tribe which lived here in former times:--

"As is well known the sea-coast at Anadyr Bay is inhabited by a race of men, who, by their bodily formation, dress, language, differ manifestly from the Chukches, and call themselves Onkilon--seafolk. In the account of Captain Billing's journey through the country of the Chukches, he shows the near relations.h.i.+p the language of this coast tribe has to that of the Aleutians at Kadyak, who are of the same primitive stem as the Greenlanders. Tradition relates that upwards of two hundred years ago these Onkilon occupied the whole of the Chukch coast, from Cape Chelagskoj to Behring's Straits, and indeed we still find along the whole of this stretch remains of their earth huts, which must have been very unlike the present dwellings of the Chukches; they have the form of small mounds, are half sunk in the ground and closed above with whale ribs, which are covered with a thick layer of earth.

A violent quarrel between Krachoj, the chief of these North-Asiatic Eskimo, and an _errim_ or chief of the reindeer Chukches, broke out into open feud. Krachoj drew the shorter straw, and found himself compelled to fly, and leave the country with his people; since then the whole coast has been desolate and uninhabited. Of the emigration of these Onkilon, the inhabitants of the village Irkaipij, where Krachoj appears to have lived, narrated the following story. He had killed a Ohukch _errim_, and was therefore eagerly pursued by the son of the murdered man, whose pursuit he for a considerable time escaped. Finally Krachoj believed that he had found a secure asylum on the rock at Irkaipij, where he fortified himself behind a sort of natural wall, which can still be seen. But the young Chukch _errim_, driven by desire to avenge his father's death, finds means to make his way within the fortification and kills Krachoj's son. Although the blood-revenge was now probably complete according to the prevailing ideas, Krachoj must have feared a further pursuit by his unrelenting enemy, for during night he lowers himself with thongs from his lofty asylum, nearly overhanging the sea, enters a boat, which waits for him at the foot of the cliff, and, in order to lead his pursuers astray, steers first towards the east, but at nightfall turns to the west, reaches Schalaurov Island, and there fortifies himself in an earth hut, whose remains we (Wrangel's expedition) have still seen. Here he then collected all the members of his tribe, and fled with them in 15 "baydars" to the land whose mountains the Chukches a.s.sure themselves they can in clear suns.h.i.+ne see from Cape Yakan. During the following winter a Chukch related to Krachoj disappeared in addition with his family and reindeer, and it is supposed that he too betook himself to the land beyond the sea. With this another tradition agrees, which was communicated to us by the inhabitants of Kolyutschin Island. For an old man informed me (Wrangel) that during his grandfather's lifetime a "baydar" with seven Chukches, among them a woman, had ventured too far out to sea. After they had long been driven hither and thither by the wind, they stranded on a country unknown to them, whose inhabitants struck the Chukches themselves as coa.r.s.e and brutish. The s.h.i.+pwrecked men were all murdered.

Only the woman was saved, was very well treated, and taken round the whole country, and shown to the natives as something rare and remarkable. So she came at last to the Kargauts, a race living on the American coast at Behring's Straits, whence she found means to escape to her own tribe. This woman told her countrymen much about her travels and adventures; among other things she said that she had been in a great land which lay north of Kolyutschin Island, stretched far to the _west_, and was probably connected with America. This land was inhabited by several races of men; those living in the west resembled the Chukches in every respect, but those living in the east were so wild and brutish, that they scarcely deserved to be called men. The whole account, both of the woman herself and of the narrators of the tradition, is mixed up with so many improbable adventures, that it would scarcely be deserving of any attention were it not remarkable for its correspondence with the history of Krachoj."[244]

When Wrangel wrote that, he did not believe in the existence of the land which is to be found set out on his map in 177 E.L. and 71 N.L., and which, afterwards discovered by the Englishman Kellet, according to the saying, _lucus a non lucendo_, obtained the name of Wrangel Land. Now we know that the land spoken of by tradition actually exists, and therefore there is much that even tells in favour of its extending as far as to the archipelago on the north coast of America.

With this fresh light thrown upon it, the old Chukch woman's story ought to furnish a valuable hint for future exploratory voyages in the sea north of Behring's Straits, and an important contribution towards forming a judgment of the fate which has befallen the American _Jeannette_ expedition, of which, while this is being written, accounts are still wanting.[245] Between us and the inhabitants of the present Chukch village at Irkaipij there soon arose very friendly relations. A somewhat stout, well-grown, tall and handsome man named Chepurin, we took at first to be chief. He was therefore repeatedly entertained in the gunroom, on which occasions small gifts were given him to secure his friends.h.i.+p. Chepurin had clearly a weakness for gentility and grandeur, and could now, by means of the barter he carried on with us and the presents he received, gratify his love of show to a degree of which he probably had never before dreamed. When during the last days of our stay he paid a visit to the _Vega_ he was clad in a red woollen s.h.i.+rt drawn over his "pesk," and from either ear hung a gilt watch-chain, to the lower end of which a perforated ten-ore piece was fastened. Already on our arrival he was better clothed than the others, his tent was larger and provided with two sleeping apartments, one for each of his wives.

But notwithstanding all this we soon found that we had made a mistake, when, thinking that a society could not exist without government, we a.s.signed to him so exalted a position. Here, as in all Chukch villages which we afterwards visited, absolute anarchy prevailed.

At the same time the greatest unanimity reigned in the little headless community. Children, healthy and thriving, tenderly cared for by the inhabitants, were found in large numbers. A good word to them was sufficient to pave the way for a friendly reception in the tent. The women were treated as the equals of the men, and the wife was always consulted by the husband when a more important bargain than usual was to be made; many times it was carried through only after the giver of advice had been bribed with a neckerchief or a variegated handkerchief. The articles which the man purchased were immediately committed to the wife's keeping. One of the children had round his neck a band of pearls with a Chinese coin having a square hole in the middle, suspended from it; another bore a perforated American cent piece. None knew a word of Russian, but here too a youngster could count ten in English. They also knew the word "s.h.i.+p." In all the tents, reindeer stomachs were seen with their contents, or sacks stuffed full of other green herbs. Several times we were offered in return for the bits of sugar and pieces of tobacco which we distributed, wrinkled root-bulbs somewhat larger than a hazel nut, which had an exceedingly pleasant taste, resembling that of fresh nuts. A seal caught in a net among the ice during our visit was cut up in the tent by the women. On this occasion they were surrounded by a large number of children, who were now and then treated to b.l.o.o.d.y strips of flesh. The youngsters carried on the work of cutting up _con amore_, coquetting a little with their b.l.o.o.d.y arms and faces.

The rock which prevails in this region consists mainly of gabbro, which in the interior forms several isolated, black, plateau-formed hills, 100 to 150 metres high, between which an even, gra.s.sy, but treeless plain extends. It probably rests on sedimentary strata. For on the western side of Irkaipij the plutonic rock is seen to rest on a black slate with traces of fossils, for the most part obscure vegetable impressions, probably belonging to the Permian Carboniferous formation.

Uneasy at the protracted delay here I made an excursion to a hill in the neighbourhood of our anchorage, which, according to a barometrical measurement, was 129 metres high, in order, from a considerable height, to get a better view of the ice than was possible by a boat reconnaisance. The hill was called by the Chukches Hammong-Ommang. From it we had an extensive view of the sea. It was everywhere covered with closely packed drift-ice. Only next the land was seen an open channel, which, however, was interrupted in an ominous way by belts of ice.

The plutonic rock, of which the hill was formed, was almost everywhere broken up by the action of the frost into angular blocks of stone, so that its surface was converted into an enormous stone mound. The stones were on the wind side covered with a translucent gla.s.sy ice-crust, which readily fell away, and added considerably to the difficulty of the ascent. I had previously observed the formation of such an ice-crust on the northernmost mountain summits of Spitzbergen.[246] It arises undoubtedly from the fall of super-cooled mist, that is to say of mist whose vesicles have been cooled considerably below the freezing-point without being changed to ice, which first takes place when, after falling, they come in contact with ice or snow, or some angular hard object. It is such a mist that causes the icing down of the rigging of vessels, a very unpleasant phenomenon for the navigator, which we experienced during the following days, when the tackling of the _Vega_ was covered with pieces of ice so large, and layers so thick, that accidents might have happened by the falling of the ice on the deck.[247]

The dredgings here yielded to Dr. Kjellman some algae, and to Dr.

Stuxberg ma.s.ses of a species of c.u.macea, _Diastylis Rathkei_ Kr., of _Acanthostephia Malmgreni_ Goes, and _Liparis gelatinosus_ Pallas, but little else. On the steep slopes of the north side of Irkaipij a species of cormorant had settled in so large numbers that the cliff there might be called a true fowl-fell. A large number of seals were visible among the ice, and along with the cormorant a few other birds, princ.i.p.ally phalaropes. Fish were now seen only in exceedingly small numbers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALGA FROM IRKAIPIJ. _Laminaria solidungula_ (J G. Ag.). ]

Even in the summer, fis.h.i.+ng here does not appear to be specially abundant, to judge from the fact that the Chukches had not collected any stock for the winter. We were offered, however, a salmon or two of small size.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORMORANT FROM IRKAIPIJ. _Graculus bicristatus_ (Pallas). ]

On the 18th September[248] the state of the ice was quite unchanged.

If a wintering was to be avoided, it was, however, not advisable to remain longer here. It had besides appeared from the hill-top which I visited the day before that an open water channel, only interrupted at two places by ice, was still to be found along the coast. The anchor accordingly was weighed, and the _Vega_ steamed on, but in a depth of only 6 to 8 metres. As the _Vegas_ draught is from 4.8 to 5 metres, we had only a little water under the keel, and that among ice in quite unknown waters. About twenty kilometres from the anchorage, we met with a belt of ice through which we could make our way though only with great difficulty, thanks to the _Vega's_ strong bow enabling her to withstand the violent concussions. Our voyage was then continued, often in yet shallower water than before, until the vessel, at 8 o'clock in the morning, struck on a ground ice foot. The tide was falling, and on that account it was not until next morning that we could get off, after a considerable portion of the ground-ice, on whose foot the _Vega_ had run up, had been hewn away with axes and ice-hatchets. Some attempts were made to blast the ice with gunpowder, but they were unsuccessful. For this purpose dynamite is much more efficacious, and this explosive ought therefore always to form part of the equipment in voyages in which belts of ice have to be broken through.

On the 19th we continued our voyage in the same way as before, in still and for the most part shallow water near the coast, between high ma.s.ses of ground-ice, which frequently had the most picturesque forms. Later in the day we again fell in with very low ice formed in rivers and shut-in inlets of the sea, and came into slightly salt water having a temperature above the freezing-point.

After having been moored during the night to a large ground-ice, the _Vega_ continued her course on the 20th September almost exclusively among low, dirty ice, which had not been much pressed together during the preceding winter. This ice was not so deep in the water as the blue ground-ice, and could therefore drift nearer the coast, a great inconvenience for our vessel, which drew so much water. We soon came to a place where the ice was packed so close to land that an open channel only 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 metres deep remained close to the sh.o.r.e. We were therefore compelled after some hours' sailing to lie-to at a ground-ice to await more favourable circ.u.mstances. The wind had now gone from west to north and north-west. Notwithstanding this the temperature became milder and the weather rainy, a sign that great open stretches of water lay to the north and north-west of us. During the night before the 21st it rained heavily, the wind being N.N.W. and the temperature +2. An attempt was made on that day to find some place where the belt of drift-ice that was pressed against the land could be broken through, but it was unsuccessful, probably in consequence of the exceedingly dense fog which prevailed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PIECES OF ICE FROM THE COAST OF THE CHUKCH PENINSULA.

(After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ]

Dredging gave but a scanty yield here, probably because the animal life in water so shallow as that in which we were anch.o.r.ed, is destroyed by the ground-ices, which drift about here for the greater part of the year. Excursions to the neighbouring coast on the other hand, notwithstanding the late season of the year, afforded to the botanists of the _Vega_ valuable information regarding the flora of the region.

On the 22nd I made, along with Captain Palander, an excursion in the steam launch to take soundings farther to the east. We soon succeeded in discovering a channel of sufficient depth and not too much blocked with ice, and on the 23rd the _Vega_ was able to resume her voyage among very closely packed drift-ice, often so near the land that she had only a fourth of a metre of water under her keel.