"The 14th was employed by me in astronomical and geodetical observations, and by Dr. Almquist in excursions in the neighbourhood of Yettugin's tent in order to investigate the fauna and flora of the neighbourhood. About 10 o'clock P.M. he returned, quite exhausted after eight hours' walking in deep water-drenched snow under a perceptible solar heat. The results of the excursion were in all respects exceedingly good, not only in consequence of a number of finds in natural history, but also through the discovery that the shore of Kolyutschin Bay runs three-quarters of a mile south-west of Yettugin's tent, which was situated in 66 deg. 42' 4" North Lat, and 186 deg. 24' 0" Long, east from Greenwich. Dr. Almquist had walked four or five miles along the eastern shore of the bay, which at most places is perpendicular with a height of fifteen metres. In consequence of this discovery we determined to continue our hydrographical observations as far as the bottom of the bay, which, according to Yettugin's account, was two days' march from the tent. But we could not carry out our plan in consequence of our guide's laziness, for he declared that on no conditions would he accompany us farther. Neither entreaties nor threats availed to disturb this his resolution. I endeavoured myself to drive the sledges, but the dogs would not move out of the spot, though, following Rotschitlen's system, I thrashed them very soundly.

"The place where Yettugin's tent was pitched offered us a view of an extensive snow-plain, which was enclosed on all sides by high hills. In the north and north-east Table Mount and the Tenen hill keep off the north winds, and to the south the encampment is protected by a long and high mountain chain from the winds coming from that quarter. I calculated the height of some of the mountains at from 1200 to 1500 metres, and their azure-blue colour furrowed by dark lines appeals to me to indicate the presence of ice on the slopes. One of the summits of this mountain chain was easily recognisable. It was a truncated cone, perhaps 1500 metres high. Kolyutschin Bay lies between these mountains and Yettugin's tent. Its western shore also appears to rise perpendicularly from the sea, and it is higher than the eastern. The bay, which appears to be much larger than it is represented on the maps, was covered with level ice, only here and there a piece of ice covered with snow was seen sticking up.

"As we were forced to desist from visiting the interior of Kolyutschin Bay, we determined to go to the ground where Yettugin's reindeer pastured. We therefore left the tent on the evening of the 15th and travelled E.N.E. The warmth, which had now commenced, began to make travelling over snow fields difficult, the dogs sank to the stomach, and not unfrequently we had to alight in order to help the poor animals to climb the hills we were obliged to ascend. Scarcely however had they come to the reindeer tracks before even the most exhausted of them rushed along at the top of their speed, which might be pleasant enough uphill, but when they were coming down it was very dangerous, because the slope nearly always ends with a steep escarpment. We came once, without observing it, to the edge of such a precipice, and if we had not succeeded in time in slackening our speed a nice confused mass of men, dogs, and sledges would have tumbled over it. In order to excite their draught animals the Chukches avail themselves of their dogs' inclination to run after the reindeer, and during their journeys they endeavour to spur them on yet more by now and then imitating the reindeer's cry. After two or three hours travelling we fell in with the first reindeer, and then by degrees with more and more, until finally about 11 o'clock P.M. we came to a numerous herd, tended by Yettugin. I applied to him, asking him to barter a reindeer in good condition for a gun which I had brought along with me. After various evasions Yettugin at length promised to give us next day the reindeer for the gun. He would not however himself, or with his own knife, kill the reindeer, on which account I requested Dr. Almquist to give it the coup de grace.

"In consequence of the soft state of the snow we were obliged to defer the commencement of our return journey to the evening of the 16th. We now travelled over the chain of hills which unites Table Mount with Tenen, and descended their northern steep slope towards an extensive plain, studded for the most part with bogs and marshes. The 17th came in with mist and considerable warmth. The mist limited the circle of vision to a distance of some few metres, and the high temperature in a short time destroyed the crust which had been formed in the course of the preceding night on the surface of the snow, and melted the layers of snow which still covered the northern slopes of these two hills. The southern slopes on the other hand were almost quite bare, and the valleys began to be filled with water. Four or five days as warm as these and I believe there scarcely would be any snow remaining round Kolyutschin Bay. The illusions caused by the white fog illuminated by the sunlight were very astonishing. Every small spot of ground appeared as an extensive snow-free field, every tuft of grass as a bush, and a fox in our immediate neighbourhood was for a moment taken for a gigantic bear. Besides, during such a fog the action of the sunlight on the eyes was exceedingly painful even in the case of those who carried preservers. During the return Rotschitlen lost his way in consequence of the numerous different tracks. Fortunately I had observed how we travelled, and could with the help of the compass pilot our two small craft to a good haven. On the 17th of June at 1.30 P.M. we were again in good condition on board the Vega."

In the society on board the prospects of an alteration in the constant north winds, the perpetual snow-storms and the unceasing cold, and the hope of a speedy release from the fetters of the ice, were naturally constantly recurring topics of conversation. During this time many lively word-battles were fought between the weather prophets in the gunroom, and many bets made in jest between the optimists and pessimists. The former won a great victory, when at noon on the 8th February the temperature lose to + 0.1 deg. C., but with the exception of this success fortune always went against them. The north wind, the drifting snow and the cold, would never cease. A blue water-sky indeed was often visible at the horizon to the north and north-east, but the "clearing" first reached our vessel a couple of hours before we left our winter haven for ever, and up to the 15th June the thickness of the ice was almost undiminished (1-1/2 metre) The sun rose higher and higher, but without forming any crust upon the snow, although upon the black hull of the Vega, perhaps with the help of the heat in the interior, it had by the 14th March melted so much snow that small icicles were formed at the gunwale. It was one of the many deceptive prognostications of spring which were hailed with delight. However, immediately after severe cold recommenced and continued during the whole of the month of April, during which the temperature of the an never rose above -4.6 deg., the mean temperature being -18.9 deg..

May began with a temperature of -20.1 deg.. On the 3rd the thermometer showed -26.8 deg., and in the "flower-month" we had only for a few hours mild weather with an air temperature +1.8 deg.. Even the beginning of June was very cold, on the 3rd we had -14.3 deg., with a mean temperature for the twenty-four hours of -9.4 deg.. Still on the 13th the thermometer at midnight showed -8.0 deg., but the same day at noon with a gentle southerly wind a sudden change took place, and after that date it was only exceptionally that the thermometer in the open air sank below the freezing-point. The melting and evaporation of snow now began, and went on so rapidly that the land in the end of the month was almost free of snow.

Under what circumstances this took place is shown by the following abstract of the observations of temperature at Pitlekaj from the 13th June to the 18th July, 1879:—

Max Min Mean Max Min Mean deg. deg. deg. deg. deg. deg. June 13 +3.6 -8.0 -1.95 July 1 +0.8 -0.6 +0.07 14 +2.6 +0.2 +1.47 2 +1.1 -1.0 +0.40 15 +3.1 +1.7 +2.28 3 +5.0 +1.0 +2.28 16 +1.6 -0.6 +0.90 4 +3.8 +1.4 +2.68 17 +3.0 +0.2 +1.22 5 +5.2 +2.0 +3.60 18 +2.4 -0.6 +1.23 6 +8.6 +1.0 +2.28 19 +3.6 +1.4 +2.43 7 +5.0 +1.4 +2.68 20 +3.5 +1.7 +2.50 8 +8.6 +0.6 +4.82 21 +2.6 +1.5 +2.07 9 +1.8 +0.4 +0.97 22 +3.0 +1.5 +2.28 10 +1.4 +0.5 +0.90 23 +4.1 +1.8 +3.00 11 +1.4 +0.6 +1.00 24 +6.8 +0.9 +3.18 12 +9.0 +0.5 +4.73 25 +4.4 +0.4 +2.30 13 +6.5 +3.7 +5.03 26 +3.8 +0.6 +1.77 14 +5.4 +1.8 +3.68 27 +1.4 +0.7 +1.02 15 +1.6 +0.6 +1.13 28 +2.1 +0.2 +0.92 16 +3.0 +0.6 +1.52 29 +0.9 -1.0 +0.12 17 +11.5 +8.8 +7.80 30 +1.0 -1.8 -0.27 18 +9.2 +6.2 +7.52

The figures in the maximum column, it will be seen, are by no means very high. That the enormous covering of snow, which the north winds had heaped on the beach, could disappear so rapidly notwithstanding this low temperature probably depends on this, that a large portion of the heat which the solar rays bring with them acts directly in melting the snow without sun-warmed air being used as an intermediate agent or heat-carrier, partly also on the circumstance that the winds prevailing in spring come from the sea to the southward, and before they reach the north coast pass over considerable mountain heights in the interior of the country. They have therefore the nature of foehn winds, that is to say, the whole mass of air, which the wind carries with it, is heated, and its relative humidity is slight, because a large portion of the water which it originally contained has been condensed in passing over the mountain heights. Accordingly when the dry foehn winds prevail, a considerable evaporation of the snow takes place. The slight content of watery vapour in the atmosphere diminishes its power of absorbing the solar heat, and instead increases that portion of it which is found remaining when the sun's rays penetrate to the snowdrifts, and there conduce, not to raise the temperature, but to convert the snow into water. [261]

The aurora is, as is well-known, a phenomenon at the same time cosmic and terrestrial, which on the one hand is confined within the atmosphere of our globe and stands in close connection with terrestrial magnetism, and on the other side is dependent on certain changes in the envelope of the sun, the nature of which is as yet little known, and which are indicated by the formation of spots on the sun; the distinguished Dutch physicist, VON BAUMHAUER, has even placed the occurrence of the aurora in connection with cosmic substances which fall in the form of dust from the interstellar spaces to the surface of the earth. Thus splendid natural phenomenon besides plays, though unjustifiably, a great role in imaginative sketches of winter life in the high north, and it is in the popular idea so connected with the ice and snow of the Polar lands, that most of the readers of sketches of Arctic travel would certainly consider it an indefensible omission if the author did not give an account of the aurora as seen from his winter station. The scientific man indeed knows that this neglect has, in most cases, been occasioned by the great infrequency of the strongly luminous aurora just in the Franklin archipelago on the north coast of America, where most of the Arctic winterings of this century have taken place, but scarcely any journey of exploration has at all events been undertaken to the uninhabited regions of the high north, which has not in its working plan included the collection of new contributions towards dealing up the true nature of the aurora and its position in the heavens. But the scientific results have seldom corresponded to the expectations which had been entertained. Of purely Arctic expeditions, so far as I know, only two, the Austrian-Hungarian to Franz Josef Land (1872-74) and the Swedish to Mussel Bay (1872-73), have returned with full and instructive lists of auroras[262] Ross, PARRY, KANE, McCLINTOCK, HAYES, NARES, and others, have on the other hand only had opportunities of registering single auroras; the phenomenon in the case of their winterings has not formed any distinctive trait of the Polar winter night. It was the less to be expected that the Vega expedition would form an exception in this respect, as its voyage happened during one of the years of which we knew beforehand that it would be a minimum aurora year. It was just this circumstance, however, which permitted me to study, in a region admirably suited for the purpose, a portion of this natural phenomenon under uncommonly favourable circumstances. For the luminous arcs, which even in Scandinavia generally form starting-points for the radiant auroras, have here exhibited themselves undreamed by the more splendid forms of the aurora I have thus, undisturbed by subsidiary phenomena, been able to devote myself to the collection of contributions towards the ascertaining of the position of these luminous arcs, and I believe that I have in this way come to some very remarkable conclusions, which have been developed in detail in a separate paper printed in The Scientific Work of the Vega Expedition (Part I. p. 400). Here space permits me only to make the following statement.

The appearance of the aurora at Behring's Straits in 1878-79 is shown in the accompanying woodcuts. We never saw here the magnificent bands or draperies of rays which we are so accustomed to in Scandinavia, but only halo-like luminous arcs, which hour after hour, day after day, were unaltered in position. When the sky was not clouded over and the faint light of the aurora was not dimmed by the rays of the sun or the full moon, these arcs commonly began to show themselves between eight and nine o'clock P.M., and were then seen without interruption during midwinter till six, and farther on in the year to three o'clock in the morning. It follows from this that the aurora even during a minimum year is a permanent natural phenomenon. The nearly unalterable position of the arcs has further rendered possible a number of measurements of its height, extent, and position from which I believe I may draw the following inferences that our globe even during a minimum aurora year is adorned with an almost constant, single, double, or multiple luminous crown, whose inner edge is situated at a height of about 200 kilometres or 0.03 radius of the earth above its surface, whose centre, "the aurora-pole," lies somewhat under the earth's surface, a little north of the magnetic-pole, and which, with a diameter of 2,000 kilometres or 0.3 radius of the earth, extends in a plane perpendicular to the radius of the earth, which touches the centre of the circle.



I have named this luminous crown the aurora glory on account of its form and its resemblance to the crown of rays round the head of a saint. It stands in the same relation to the ray and drapery auroras of Scandinavia as the trade and monsoon winds in the south to the irregular winds and storms of the north. The light of the crown itself is never distributed into rays, but resembles the light which passes through obscured glass. When the aurora is stronger, the extent of the light-crown is altered double or multiple arcs are seen, generally lying in about the same plane and with a common centre, and rays are cast between the different arcs. Arcs are seldom seen which lie irregularly to or cross each other.

The area in which the common arc is visible is bounded by two circles drawn upon the earth's surface, with the aurora-pole for a centre and radii of 8 deg. and 28 deg. measured on the circumference of the globe. It touches only to a limited extent countries inhabited by races of European origin (the northernmost part of Scandinavia, Iceland, Danish Greenland), and even in the middle of this area there is a belt passing over middle Greenland, South Spitzbergen, and Franz Josef Land, where the common arc forms only a faint, very widely extended, luminous veil in the zenith, which perhaps is only perceptible by the winter darkness being there considerably diminished. This belt divides the regions where these luminous arcs are seen principally to the south from those in which they mainly appear on the northern horizon. In the area next the aurora-pole only the smaller, in middle Scandinavia only the larger, more irregularly formed luminous crowns are seen. But in the latter region, as in southern British America, aurora storms and ray and drapery auroras are instead common, and these appear to be nearer the surface of the earth than the arc aurora. Most of the Polar expeditions have wintered so near the aurora-pole that the common aurora arc there lay under or quite near the horizon, and as the ray aurora appears to occur seldom within this circle, the reason is easily explained why the winter night was so seldom illuminated by the aurora at the winter quarters of these expeditions, and why the description of this phenomenon plays so small a part in their sketches of travel.



Long before the ground became bare and mild weather commenced, migratory birds began to arrive, first the snow-bunting on the 23rd April, then large flocks of geese, eiders, long-tailed ducks, gulls, and several kinds of waders and song-birds. First among the latter was the little elegant Sylvia Ewersmanni, which in the middle of June settled in great flocks on the only dark spot which was yet to be seen in the quarter—the black deck of the Vega. All were evidently much exhausted, and the first the poor things did was to look out convenient sleeping places, of which there is abundance in the rigging of a vessel when small birds are concerned. I need scarcely add that our new guests, the forerunners of spring, were disturbed on board as little as possible.

We now began industriously to collect material for a knowledge of the avi- and mammal-fauna of the region. The collections, when this is being written, are not yet worked out, and I can therefore only make the following statement on this point:

From the acquaintance I had made during my own preceding journeys and the study of others', with the bird-world of the high north, I had got the erroneous idea that about the same species of birds are to be met with everywhere in the Polar lands of Europe, Asia, and America. Experience gained during the expedition of the Vega shows that this is by no means the case, but that the north-eastern promontory of Asia, the Chukch peninsula, forms in this respect a complete exception. Birds occur here in much fewer numbers, but with a very much greater variety of types than on Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, and Greenland, in consequence of which the bird-world on the Chukch peninsula has in its entirety a character differing wholly from that of the Atlantic Polar lands. We indeed meet here with types closely allied to the glaucous gull (Larus glaucus, Bruenn), the ivory gull (L. eburneus, Gmel.), the kittiwake (L. tridactylus, L.), the long-tailed duck (Harelda glacialis, L.), the king duck (Somateria spectabilis, L.),[263] the phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius, Bonap.), the purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima, Bruenn.), &c., of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, but along with these are found here many peculiar species, for instance the American eider (Somateria V-nigrum, Gray), a swanlike goose, wholly white with black wing points (Anser hyperboreus, Pall.), a greyish-brown goose with bushy yellowish-white feather-covering on the head (Anser pictus, Pall), a species of Fuligula, elegantly coloured on the head in velvet-black, white, and green, (Fuligula Stelleri, Pall), the beautifully marked, scarce Larus Rossii, Richards, of which Dr. Almquist on the 1st July, 1879, shot a specimen from the vessel, a little brown sandpiper with a spoonlike widened bill-point (Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus, L.) and various song-birds not found in Sweden, &c. Besides, a number of the Scandinavian types living here also, according to Lieutenant Nordquist, are distinguished by less considerable differences in colour-marking and size. The singular spoon-billed sandpiper was at one time in spring so common that it was twice served at the gunroom table, for which after our return home we had to endure severe reproaches from animal collectors. This bird is found only in some few museums. It was first described by LINNAEUS in Museum Adolphi Friderici, Tomi secundi predromus, Holmiae 1764, and then by C.P. THUNBERG in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy of Sciences for 1816 (p. 194), where it is stated that the homeland of this bird is tropical America. It has since been caught a few times in south-eastern Asia. Probably, like Sylvia Ewersmanni, it passes the winter in the Philippine group of islands, but in summer visits the high north. Like several other birds which appeared in spring with the first bare spots it disappeared in July. Perhaps it retired to the interior to breed in the bush, or, which is more probable, went farther north to the islands or continents not yet discovered by Europeans, which in all probability connect Wrangel Land with the Franklin Archipelago.



The higher animal forms which, along with the Polar traveller, dare to brave the cold and darkness of the Arctic night, exert on him a peculiar attraction. Regarding these, Lieutenant Nordquist has given me the following notes:—

"The mammal most common in winter on the north coast of the Chukch peninsula is the hare. It differs from the fell hare (Lepus borealis, Lillj.) by its larger size, and by the bones of its nose not tapering so rapidly. It is generally met with in flocks of five or six on the hills in the neighbourhood of the tents, which are covered only with a thin layer of snow, notwithstanding the large number of hungry dogs which wander about there.

"The Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus, L.) are very numerous. The common fox (Vulpes vulgaris, Gray) appears also to be common. A red fox, which Lieutenant Brusewitz shot from the vessel in October, differed considerably from the common fox, and approached the Arctic fox. The food of the fox appears in winter to consist of hares, ptarmigan, and lemmings. I have twice seen holes in the snow about a metre deep and at the mouth not more than thirty centimetres wide, which the Chukches said were excavated by foxes searching for lemmings.

"Of the lemming I have seen three varieties, viz. Myodes obensis, M. torquatus, and Arvicola obscurus. There is found here, also, according to the statements of the Chukches, a little mouse, in all probability a Sorex. Myodes torquatus were got the first time on the 12th January, Myodes obensis on the 13th February. Both species were afterwards frequently brought on board by Chukches, and during the winter lemmings were seen not unfrequently running on the snow. Myodes obensis appeared to be more numerous than the other species. It is singular that all the nine specimen of Myodes torquatus I obtained during the winter were males. Differing from both these species, Arvicola obscurus does not appear to show itself above the snow during winter. Of the latter I got eight specimens from the village Tjapka, lying between Yinretlen and Behring's Straits. I afterwards got another from the village Irgunnuk, situated five English miles east of Yinretlen.



"The more uncommon land mammals wintering in these regions are the wolf and the wild reindeer. Footprints of the latter were seen on the 23nd March, in the mountain region, fifteen to twenty miles south of Yinretlen. According to the Chukches' account some few reindeer remain on the hills along the coast, while the greater number migrate southwards towards winter. Besides these, two other mammals live here during winter, though they are only seen during summer and autumn, because they hibernate the rest of the time. These are the land bear and the marmot (Arctomys sp.). We saw no land bear, but on the 8th October Lieutenant Hovgaard and I found traces of this animal two or three English miles from the coast. The Chukches say that the land bear is not uncommon in summer. The marmot occurs in large numbers. It was brought on board for the first time by a Chukch, and the following day I myself saw it sitting on the top of a little hill, where it had its dwelling.

"Besides the animals enumerated above the natives talked of another, which is called by them nennet, and is said to live by the banks of rivers. According to their description it appears to be the common otter. As at most places where the lemming is common the weasel (Mustela vulgaris, Briss.) is also found here. I got from the Chukches two skins of this animal. Whether the beaver occurs in the part of Chukch Land which we visited I cannot say with certainty. It is probable, because the Chukches informed me that there was found here a weasel which has the point of the tail black.

"Only two sea mammals have been seen in this region in the course of the winter, viz. the rough or bristled seal and the Polar bear. On two occasions traces of the latter have been observed in the neighbourhood of land. They appear, however, for the most part to keep by openings in the ice farther out to sea, where during our stay two of them were killed by Chukches from the neighbouring villages. The rough seal is probably the only species that occurs near the coast during winter. It is caught in great numbers, and forms, along with fish and various vegetable substances, the main food of the Chukches.

"Of land birds there winter in the region only three species, viz. an owl (Strix nyctea, L.), a raven (Corvus sp.), and a ptarmigan (Lagopus subalpina, Nilss.); the last-named is the most common. On the 14th December, during a sledge journey into the country I saw, about ten or twelve English miles from the coast, two large coveys of ptarmigan, one of which probably numbered over fifty. Nearer the coast, on the other hand, there were found, especially during spring, for the most part only single birds. The raven is common at the Chukch villages, and builds its nest in the neighbouring cliffs. The first egg was got on the 31st May. The mountain owl was seen for the first time on the 11th March, but, according to the statements of the Chukches, it is to be met with during the whole winter. In April and May we also saw some mountain owls, on the 21st May I saw two.

"At open places in the sea there are found here in winter, the Chukches say, two swimming birds, the loom (Uria Bruennichii, Sabine) and the Black guillemot (Uria grylle, L.) Of the former we obtained two specimens for the first time on the 1st May, of the latter on the 19th of the same month. Possibly there winter in open places of the sea besides these birds a species of Mergulus, one of which came to the winter quarters of the Vega on the 3rd November, and a Fuligula, a specimen of which was sold to us on the 9th March by a Chukch, who said he had killed it at a clearing off the coast."

After the arrival of the migratory birds hunting excursions began to form a welcome interruption in our monotonous winter life, and the produce of the hunting a no less agreeable change from the preserved provisions. The Chukches besides offered us daily a large number of different kinds of birds, especially when they observed that we paid a higher price for many rare kinds of birds, though small and of little use for food, than for a big, fat goose. The Chukches killed small birds either by throwing stones, or by shooting them with bow and arrows, in connection with which it may be observed that most of them were very poor archers. They also caught them with whalebone snares set on bare spots on the beach, generally between two vertebrae of the whale. For pebbles are very scarce, but the bones of the whale are found, as has been already stated, at most places in large numbers on the strand-banks where the tents are pitched. In June we began to get eggs of the gull, eider, long-tailed duck, goose, and loom, in sufficient number for table use. The supply, however, was by no means so abundant as during the hatching season on Greenland, Spitzbergen, or Novaya Zemlya.

A little way from the vessel there were formed, in the end of May, two "leads," a few fathoms in breadth. On the 31st May I sent some men to dredge at these places. They returned with an abundant yield, but unfortunately the openings closed again the next day, and when I and Lieutenant Bove visited the place there was a large, newly-formed toross thrown up along the edge of the former channel. Another "lead" was formed some days after, but closed again through a new disturbance of the position of the ice, a high ice-rampart, formed of loose blocks, heaped one over another, indicating the position of the former opening. Even the strongest vessel would have been crushed in such a channel by the forcing together of the ice. Of a different sort from both these occasional leads was an extensive opening, which showed itself a kilometre or two north of the vessel. It is probable that with few interruptions, which, however, might have been difficult to pass, it extended as far as Behring's Straits, where, according to the statements of the Chukches, several whalers had already made their appearance. Round the vessel itself, however, the ice still lay fast and unbroken. Nor did the Chukches appear to expect that it would break up very soon, to judge by the number of vehicles drawn by dogs or reindeer which still passed us, both to the east and west. One of these travellers must here be specially mentioned, as his journey has been talked about as an expedition sent to our relief.



It was the 19th June. A large number of Chukches travelling past us as usual came on board, partly to receive the tribute of hospitality to which they considered themselves entitled, partly to satisfy an easily understood curiosity and gossip a little about the most important occurrences of the preceding day. One of them, a middle-aged man, whom we had not seen before, with a friendly and self-satisfied bearing, whose face was a mere collection of wrinkles, and over whose pesk was drawn an old velvet shirt, presented himself with a certain pretentiousness as the chief NOAH ELISEJ. Since the mistake with the stately Chepurin, and since even Menka's supposed slave declared himself to be at least as good as Menka, we had begun to be rather indifferent to the rank of chief among the Chukches. Noah Elisej however, notwithstanding he thus brought forward his pretensions, was received like a common man, at which he appeared to be a little offended. But our behaviour soon changed, when Notti, or some other of our daily guests, who had become quite familiar with our fancies, tastes weaknesses, informed us that Noah Elisej had with him a large, a very large letter. Old Noah thus carried a mail, perhaps a European mail. At once he became in our eyes a man of importance. After being stormed for a time with questions, he took from a bag which hung from his neck the ordinary pieces of board fastened together, which here serve as a postbag. They were found however to contain only a letter of a couple of lines from a Russian official at Nischm Kolymsk, without any news from Europe, but informing us that chief Noah Elisej was sent to us to assist us, if necessary. Noah first patted his stomach to indicate that he was hungry and wanted food, and hawked and pointed with his finger at his throat to let us know that a ram would taste well. He then told us something which we did not then exactly understand, but which we now have reason to interpret as a statement that Noah was the leader of an expedition sent by the Siberian authorities to our relief, and that he was therefore willing in return for suitable compensation to give us some reindeer I availed myself of the offer, and purchased three animals for sugar, tea, and a little tobacco. Noah besides was a friendly and easy-going man, who, Christian though he was, travelled about with two wives and a large number of children, who all of course would see the vessel and get their treat of tobacco, clay pipes, sugar, ram, &c.



So much flood water had now begun to collect on the ice, especially near the land, that it was exceedingly difficult to walk from the vessel to the shore and back. Many a proposed land excursion was broken off by somebody, immediately after leaving the vessel, sinking into some deep hole in the ice and thus getting a cold bath. Excursions on land however began to be exceedingly interesting to the botanists and zoologists, and therefore to avoid the inconveniences mentioned I caused a tent to be pitched by the side of the large lagoon between Pitlekaj and Yinretlen, and a light boat to be carried thither. The bottom of the lagoon was still filled with ice, above which however the water stood so high that the boat floated in it. The naturalists settled by turns in the tent, and from it made excursions in different directions, as I hope with the result that the neighbourhood of Pitlekaj is now the best known tract on the north of Asia, which after all is not saying much. The first plant in flower (Cochlearia fenestrata, R. Br.) was seen on the 23rd June.[264] A week after the ground began to grow green and flowers of different kinds to show themselves in greater and greater numbers.[265] Some flies were seen on a sunshiny day in May (the 27th) in motion on the surface of the snow, but it was not until the end of June that insects began to show themselves in any large numbers, among them many Harpalids, two large species of Carabus, and a large Curculionid. The insects occurring here however are not very numerous either in respect of species or individuals, which is not strange when we consider that the earth at a limited depth from the surface is constantly frozen. As even the shallow layer, which thaws in summer, is hard frozen in winter, all the insects which occur here must in one or other phase of their development endure being frozen solid for some time. But it may be remarked with reason with reference to this, that if life in an organism may so to speak be suspended for months by freezing stiff without being destroyed, what is there to prevent this suspension being extended over years, decades, or centuries?

The common idea, that all animal life ceases, when the interior animal heat sinks under the freezing-point of water, is besides not quite correct. This is proved by the abundant evertebrate life which is found at the bottom of the Polar Sea, even where the water all the year round has a temperature of -2 deg. to -2.7 deg. C, and by the remarkable observation made during the wintering at Mussel Bay in 1872-73, that small Crustacea can live by millions in water-drenched snow at a temperature of from -2 deg. to -10.2 deg. C. On this point I say in my account of the expedition of 1872-73:—[266]



"If during winter one walks along the beach on the snow which at ebb is dry, but at flood tide is more or less drenched through by sea-water, there rises at every step one takes, an exceedingly intense, beautiful, bluish-white flash of light, which in the spectroscope gives a one-coloured labrador-blue spectrum. This beautiful flash of light arises from the snow, before completely dark, when it is touched. The flash lasts only a few moments after the snow is left untouched, and is so intense, that it appears as if a sea of fire would open at every step a man takes. It produces indeed a peculiar impression on a dark and stormy winter day (the temperature of the air was sometimes in the neighbourhood of the freezing-point of mercury) to walk along in this mixture of snow and flame, which at every step one takes splashes about in all directions, shining with a light so intense that one is ready to fear that his shoes or clothes will take fire."



On a closer examination it appeared that this light-phenomenon proceeded from a minute crustacean, which according to the determination of Prof W. LILLJEBORG belongs to the species Metridia armata, A. Boeck, and whose proper element appears to be snow-sludge drenched with salt water cooled considerably under 0 deg. C. First when the temperature sinks below -10 deg. does the power of this small animal to emit light appear to cease. But as the element in which they live, the surface of the snow nearest the beach, is in the course of the winter innumerable times cooled twenty degrees more, it appears improbable that these minute animals suffer any harm by being exposed to a cold of from -20 deg. to -30 deg., a very remarkable circumstance, as they certainly do not possess in their organism any means of raising the internal animal heat in any noteworthy degree above the temperature of the surrounding medium.

We did not see these animals at Pitlekaj, but a similar phenomenon, though on a smaller scale, was observed by Lieut. BELLOT[267] during a sledge-journey in Polar America. He believed that the light arose from decaying organic matter.



After the Chukches had told us that an exceedingly delicious black fish was to be found in the fresh-water lagoon at Yinretlen, which is wholly shut off from the sea and in winter freezes to the bottom, we made an excursion thither on the 8th July. Our friends at the encampment were immediately ready to help us, especially the women, Artanga, and the twelve-year-old, somewhat spoiled Vega-favourite Reitinacka. They ran hither and thither like light-hearted and playful children, to put the net in order and procure all that was needed for the fishing. We had carried with us from the vessel a net nine metres long and one deep. Along its upper border floats were fixed, to the lower was bound a long pole, to which were fastened five sticks, by which the pole was sunk to the bottom of the lagoon, a little way from the shore. Some natives wading in the cold water then pushed the net towards the land with sticks and the pole, which glided easily forward over the bottom of the lake, overgrown as it was with grass. In order to keep the fish from swimming away, the women waded at the sides of the net with their pesks much tucked up, screaming and making noise, and now and then standing in order to indicate by a violent shaking that the water was very cold. The catch was abundant. We caught by hundreds a sort of fish altogether new to us, of a type which we should rather have expected to find in the marshes of the Equatorial regions than up here in the north. The fish were transported in a dog sledge to the vessel, where part of them was placed in spirits for the zoologists and the rest fried, not without a protest from our old cook, who thought that the black slimy fish looked remarkably nasty and ugly. But the Chukches were right it was a veritable delicacy, in taste somewhat resembling eel, but finer and more fleshy. These fish were besides as tough to kill as eels, for after lying an hour and a half in the air they swam, if replaced in the water, about as fast as before. How this species of fish passes the winter is still more enigmatical than the winter life of the insects. For the lagoon has no outlet and appears to freeze completely to the bottom. The mass of water which was found in autumn in the lagoon therefore still lay there as an unmelted layer of ice not yet broken up, which was covered with a stratum of flood water several feet deep, by which the neighbouring grassy plains were inundated. It was in this flood water that the fishing took place.

After our return home the Yinretlen fish was examined by Professor F.A. SMITT in Stockholm, who stated, in an address which he gave on it before the Swedish Academy of Sciences, that it belongs to a new species to which Professor Smitt gave the name Dallia delicatissima. A closely allied form occurs in Alaska, and has been named Dallia pectoralis, Bean. These fishes are besides nearly allied to the dog-fish (Umbra Krameri, Fitzing), which is found in the Neusidler and Platten Lakes, and in grottos and other water-filled subterranean cavities in southern Europe. It is remarkable that the European species are considered uneatable, and even regarded with such loathing that the fishermen throw them away as soon as caught because they consider them poisonous, and fear that their other fish would be destroyed by contact with it. They also consider it an affront if one asks them for dog-fish.[268] If we had known thus we should not now have been able to certify that Dallia delicatissima, SMITT, truly deserves its name.



In the beginning of July the ground became free of snow, and we could now form an idea of how the region looked in summer in which we had passed the winter. It was not just attractive. Far away in the south the land rose with terrace-formed escarpments to a hill, called by us Table Mount, which indeed was pretty high, but did not by any steep or bold cliffs yield any contribution to such a picturesque landscape border as is seldom wanting on the portions of Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the north part of Novaya Zemlya which I have visited, south Novaya Zemlya has at least at most places bold picturesque shore-cliffs. If I except the rocky promontory at Yinretlen, where a cliff inhabited by ravens rises boldly out of the sea, and some cliffs situated farther in along the beach of Kolyutschin Bay, the shore in the immediate neighbourhood of our wintering station consisted everywhere only of a low beach formed of coarse sand. Upon this sand, which was always frozen, there ran parallel with the shore a broad bank or dune, 50 to 100 metres broad, of fine sand, not water-drenched in summer, and accordingly not bound together by ice in winter. It is upon this dune that the Chukches erect their tents. Marks of them are therefore met with nearly everywhere, and the dune accordingly is everywhere bestrewed with broken implements or refuse from the chase. Indeed it may be said without exaggeration that the whole north-eastern coast of the Siberian Polar Sea is bordered with a belt of sweepings and refuse of various kinds.

The coarse sand which underlies the dune is, as has been stated, continually frozen, excepting the shallow layer which is thawed in summer. It is here that the "frost formation" of Siberia begins, that is to say, the continually frozen layer of earth, which, with certain interruptions, extends from the Polar Sea far to the south, not only under the treeless tundra, but also under splendid forests and cultivated corn-fields.[269] To speak correctly, however, the frozen earth begins a little from the shore under the sea.[270] For on the coast the bottom often consists of hard frozen sand—"rock-hard sand," as the dredgers were accustomed to report. The frost formation in Siberia thus embraces not only terrestrial but also marine deposits, together with pure clear layers of ice, these last being formed in the mouths of rivers or small lakes by the ice of the river or lake frozen to the bottom being in spring covered with a layer of mud sufficiently thick to protect the ice from melting during summer. The frozen sea-bottom again appears to have been formed by the sand washed down by the rivers having carried with it when it sank some adhering water from the warm and almost fresh surface strata. At the sea-bottom the sand surrounded by fresh water freezing at 0 deg. C thus met a stratum of salt water whose temperature was two or three degrees under 0 deg., in consequence of which the grains of sand froze fast together. That it may go on thus we had a direct proof when in spring we sank from the Vega the bodies of animals to be skeletonised by the crustacea that swarmed at the sea-bottom. If the sack, pierced at several places, in which the skeleton was sunk was first allowed to fill with the slightly salt water from the surface and then sink rapidly to the bottom, it was found to be so filled with ice, when it was taken up a day or two afterwards, that the crustacea were prevented from getting at the flesh. We had already determined to abandon the convenient cleansing process, when I succeeded in finding means to avoid the inconvenience, this was attained by drawing the sack, while some distance under the surface, violently hither and thither so that the surface water carried down with it was got rid of. Frozen clay and ooze do not appear to occur at the bottom of the Polar Sea. Animal life on the frozen sand was rather scanty, but algae were met with there though in limited numbers.

From the shore a plain commences, which is studded with extensive lagoons and a large number of small lakes. In spring this plain is so water-drenched and so crossed by deep rapid snow-rivulets, that it is difficult, often impossible, to traverse it. Immediately after the disappearance of the snow a large number of birds at all events had settled there. The Lapp sparrow had chosen a tuft projecting from the marshy ground on which to place its beautiful roofed dwelling, the waders in the neighbourhood had laid their eggs in most cases directly on the water-drenched moss without trace of a nest, and on tufts completely surrounded by the spring floods we met with the eggs of the loom, the long-tailed duck, the eider and the goose. Already during our stay, the water ran away so rapidly, that places, which one day were covered with a watery mirror, over which a boat of light draught could be rowed forward, were changed the next day to wet marshy ground, covered with yellow grass-straws from the preceding year. At many places the grassy sward had been torn up by the ice and carried away, leaving openings sharply defined by right lines in the meadows, resembling a newly worked off place in a peat moss.

In summer there must be found here green meadows covered with pretty tall grass, but at the time of our departure vegetation had not attained any great development, and the flowers that could be discovered were few. I presume however that a beautiful Arctic flower-world grows up here, although, in consequence of the exposure of the coast-country to the north winds, poor in comparison with the vegetation in sheltered valleys in the interior of the country. There are found there too pretty high bushes, but on the other hand trees are represented at Pitlekaj only by a low species of willow which creeps along the ground.



We did not, however, see even this "wood" in full leaf. For in order that full summer heat may begin it is necessary, even here, that the ice break up, and this longed-for moment appeared to be yet far distant. The ice indeed became clear of snow in the beginning of July, and thus the slush and the flood water were lessened, which during the preceding weeks had collected on its surface and made it very difficult to walk from the vessel to land. Now, again pretty dry-shod and on a hard blue ice-surface, we could make excursions in the neighbourhood of the vessel. We had however to be cautious. The former cracks had in many places been widened to greater or smaller openings by the flood water running down, and where a thin black object—a little gravel, a piece of tin from the preserved provision-cases, &c.—had lain on the ice there were formed round holes, resembling the seal-holes which I saw in spring laid bare after the melting of the snow on the ice in the fjords of Spitzbergen. The strength of the ice besides was nearly unaltered, and on the 16th July a heavily loaded double sledge could still be driven from the vessel to the shore.

On the 17th the "year's ice" next the land at last broke up, so that an extensive land clearing arose. But the ground-ices were still undisturbed, and between these the "year's ice" even lay so fast, that all were agreed that at least fourteen days must still pass before there was any prospect of getting free.

When on the 16th the reindeer-Chukch Yettugin came on board, and, talking of the collection of whale-bones in which we had been engaged some days before, informed us that there was a mammoth bone at his tent, and that a mammoth tusk stuck out at a place where the spring floods had cut into the bank of a river which flows from Table Mount to Riraitinop, I therefore did not hesitate to undertake an excursion to the place. Our absence from the vessel was reckoned at five or six days. It was my intention to go up the river in a skin boat belonging to Notti to the place where the mammoth tusk was, and thence to proceed on foot to Yettugin's tent. Yettugin assured us that the river was sufficiently deep for the flat-bottomed boat. But when we had travelled a little way into the country it appeared that the river had fallen considerably during the day that Yettugin passed on the vessel. So certain was I however that the ice-barrier would not yet for a long time be broken up, that I immediately after my return from the excursion, which had thus been rendered unsuccessful, made arrangements for a new journey in order with other means of transport to reach the goal.

While we were thus employed the forenoon of the 18th passed. We sat down to dinner at the usual time, without any suspicion that the time of our release was now at hand. During dinner it was suddenly observed that the vessel was moving slightly Palander rushed on deck, saw that the ice was in motion, ordered the boiler fires to be lighted, the engine having long ago been put in order in expectation of this moment, and in two hours, by 3:30 P.M. on the 18th July, the Vega, decked with flags, was under steam and sail again on the way to her destination.

We now found that a quite ice-free "lead" had arisen between the vessel and the open water next the shore, the ice-fields west of our ground-ices having at the same time drifted farther out to sea, so that the clearing along the shore had widened enough to give the Vega a sufficient depth of water. The course was shaped at first for the N.W. in order to make a detour round the drift-ice fields lying nearest us, then along the coast for Behring's Straits. On the height at Yinretlen there stood as we passed, the men, women, and children of the village all assembled, looking out to sea at the fire-horse—the Chukches would perhaps say fire-dog or fire-reindeer—which carried their friends of the long winter months for ever away from their cold, bleak shores. Whether they shed tears, as they often said they would we could not see from the distance which now parted us from them. But it may readily have happened that the easily moved disposition of the savage led them to do this. Certain it is that in many of us the sadness of separation mingled with the feelings of tempestuous joy which now rushed through the breast of every Vega man.

The Vega met no more ice-obstacles on her course to the Pacific. Serdze Kamen was passed at 1:30 A.M. of the 19th, but the fog was so dense that we could not clearly distinguish the contours of the land. Above the bank of mist at the horizon we could only see that this cape, so famous in the history of the navigation of the Siberian Polar Sea, is occupied by high mountains, split up, like those east of the Bear Islands, into ruin-like gigantic walls or columns. The sea was mirror-bright and nearly clear of ice, a walrus or two stuck up his head strangely magnified by the fog in our neighbourhood, seals swam round us in large numbers, and flocks of birds, which probably breed on the steep cliffs of Serdze Kamen, swarmed round the vessel. The trawl net repeatedly brought up from the sea bottom a very abundant yield of worms, molluscs, crustacea, &c. A zoologist would here have had a rich working field.

The fog continued, so that on the other side of Serdze Kamen we lost all sight of land, until on the morning of the 20th dark heights again began to peep out. These were the mountain summits of the easternmost promontory of Asia, East Cape, an unsuitable name, for which I have substituted on the map that of Cape Deschnev after the gallant Cossack who for the first time 230 years ago circumnavigated it.

By 11 A.M. we were in the middle of the sound which unites the North Polar Sea with the Pacific, and from this point the Vega greeted the old and new worlds by a display of flags and the firing of a Swedish salute.



Thus finally was reached the goal towards which so many nations had struggled, all along from the time when Sir Hugh Willoughby, with the firing of salutes from cannon and with hurrahs from the festive-clad seamen, in the presence of an innumerable crowd of jubilant men certain of success, ushered in the long series of North-East voyages. But, as I have before related, then hopes were grimly disappointed. Sir Hugh and all his men perished as pioneers of England's navigation and of voyages to the ice-encumbered sea which bounds Europe and Asia on the north. Innumerable other marine expeditions have since then trodden the same path, always without success, and generally with the sacrifice of the vessel and of the life and health of many brave seamen. Now for the first time, after the lapse of 336 years, and when most men experienced in sea matters had declared the undertaking impossible, was the North-East Passage at last achieved. This has taken place, thanks to the discipline, zeal, and ability of our man-of-war's-men and their officers, without the sacrifice of a single human life, without sickness among those who took part in the undertaking, without the slightest damage to the vessel, and under circumstances which show that the same thing may be done again in most, perhaps in all years, in the course of a few weeks. It may be permitted us to say, that under such circumstances it was with pride we saw the blue-yellow flag rise to the mast-head and heard the Swedish salute in the sound where the old and the new worlds reach hands to each other. The course along which we sailed is indeed no longer required as a commercial route between Europe and China. But it has been granted to this and the preceding Swedish expeditions to open a sea to navigation, and to confer on half a continent the possibility of communicating by sea with the oceans of the world.

[Footnote 258: And Hellant, Anmaerkningar om en helt ovanlig koeld i Torne (Remarks on a Quite Unusual Cold in Torne), Vet.-akad. Handl. 1759, p. 314, and 1760, p. 312. In the latter paper Hellant himself shows that the column of mercury in a strongly cooled thermometer for a few moments sinks farther when the ball is rapidly heated. This is caused by the expansion of the glass when it is warmed before the heat has had time to communicate itself to the quicksilver in the ball, and therefore of course can happen only at a temperature above the freezing-point of mercury. ]

[Footnote 259: That mercury solidifies in cold was discovered by some academicians in St. Petersburg on the 25th December, 1759, and caused at the time a great sensation, because by this discovery various erroneous ideas were rooted out which the chemists had inherited from the alchemists, and which were based on the supposed property of mercury of being at the same time a metal and a fluid. ]

[Footnote 260: During the market the Russian priest endeavours to make proselytes, he succeeds, too, by distributing tobacco to induce one or two to subject themselves to the ceremony of baptism. No true conversion, however, can scarcely come in question on account of the difference of language. As an example of how this goes on, the following story of Wrangel's may be quoted. At the market a young Chukch had been prevailed upon, by a gift of some pounds of tobacco, to allow himself to be baptised. The ceremony began in presence of a number of spectators. The new convert stood quiet and pretty decent in his place till he should step down into the baptismal font, a large wooden tub filled with ice-cold water. In this, according to the baptismal ritual, he ought to dip three times. But to this he would consent on no condition. He shook his head constantly, and brought forward a large number of reasons against it, which none understood. After long exhortations by the interpreter, in which promises of tobacco probably again played the principal part, he finally gave way and sprang courageously down into the ice-cold water, but immediately jumped up again trembling with cold; crying, "My tobacco! my tobacco!" All attempts to induce him to renew the bath were fruitless, the ceremony was incomplete, and the Chukch only half baptised. ]

[Footnote 261: In Lapland, too, the melting of the snow in spring is brought about in no inconsiderable degree by similar causes, i.e. by dry warm winds which come from the fells. On this point the governor of Norbotten laen, H.A. Widmark, has sent me the following interesting letter—"However warm easterly and southerly winds may be in the parts of Swedish Lapland lying next the Joleen mountains, they are not able in any noteworthy degree to melt the masses of snow which fall in those regions during the winter months. On the other hand there comes every year, if we may rely on the statements of the Lapps, in the end of April or beginning of May, from the west (i.e. from the fells), a wind so strong and at the same time so warm, that in quite a short time—six to ten hours—it breaks up the snow-masses, makes them shrink together, forces the mountain sides from their snow covering, and changes the snow which lies on the ice of the great fell lakes to water. I have myself been out on the fells making measurements on two occasions when this wind came. On one occasion I was on the Great Lule water in the neighbourhood of the so-called Great Lake Fall. The night had been cold but the day became warm. Up to 1 o'clock P.M. it was calm, but immediately after the warm westerly wind began to blow, and by 6 o'clock P.M. all the snow on the ice was changed to water, in which we went wading to the knees. The Lapps in general await these warm westerly winds before they go to the fells in spring. Until these winds begin there is no pasture there for their reindeer herds." ]

[Footnote 262: I do not include La Recherche's wintering in 1838-39 at Bosekop, in the northernmost part of Norway, as it took place in a region which is all the year round inhabited by hundreds of Europeans. During this expedition very splendid auroras were seen, and the studies of them by LOITIN, BRAVAIS, LILLIEHOeOeK, and SILJESTROeOeM, are among the most important contributions to a knowledge of the aurora we possess, while we have to thank the draughtsmen of the expedition for exceedingly faithful and masterly representations of the phenomenon. ]

[Footnote 263: The common eider (S. mollissima, L.) is absent here, or at least exceedingly rare. ]

[Footnote 264: During the expedition of 1861, when we were shut up by ice in Treurenberg Bay on Spitzbergen (79 deg. 57' N.L.) the first flower (Saxifraga oppositifolia, L.), was pulled on the 22nd June. After the wintering in 1872-73, Palander and I during our journey round North-east Land, saw the first flower on the same species of saxifrage as early as the 15th June, in the bottom of Wahlenberg Bay (79 deg. 46' N.L.) ]

[Footnote 265: For the sake of completeness, I shall here also enumerate the plants which Dr. Kjellman found at Pitlekaj. Those marked with an * either themselves occur in Scandinavia or are represented by nearly allied forms.

Leucanthemum arcticum (L.) DC. Artemisia arctica LESS. * ,, vulgaris L. f. Tilesii LEDEB. Cineraria frigida RICHARDS. * ,, palustris L. f. congesta HOOK. * Antennaria alpina (L.) R. BR. f. Friesiana TRAUTV. * Petasites frigida. * Saussurea alpina (L.) DC. f. angustifolia (DC.) * Taraxacum officinale WEB. Valeriana capitata PALL. Gentiana glauca PALL. Pedicularis sudetica WILLD. ,, Langsdorffii FISCH. ,, lanata WILLD. f. leiantha TRAUTV. ,, capitata ADAMS. * Polemonium coeruleum L. * Diapensia lapponica L. * Armeria sibirica TURCZ. Primula nivalis PALL. f. pygmaea LEDEB. ,, borealis DUBY. * Loiseleuria procumbens (L.) DESV. * Ledum palustre L. f. decumbens AIT. * Vaccinium vitis idaea L. * Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) SPRENG. * Cassiope tetragona (L.) DON. Hedysarum obscurum L. Oxytropis nigrescens (PALL.) FISCH. f. pygmaea CHAM. ,, species? * Rubus Chamaemorus L. * Comarum palustre L. Potentilla fragiformis L. f. parviflora TRAUTV. f. villosa (PALL.) * Sibbaldia procumbens L. * Dryas octopetala L. Spiraea betulaefolia PALL. f. typica MAXIM. * Hippuris vulgaris L. * Saxifraga stellaris L f. comosa POIR. ,, punctata L. * ,, cernua L. * ,, rivularis L. * Rhodiola rosea L. * Empetrum nigrum L. * Cardamine bellidifolia L. Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. f. typica MALMGR. f. prostrata MALMGR. Ranunculus Pallasii SEHLECHT. * ,, nivalis L. * ,, pygmaeus WG. * ,, hyperboreus ROTTB. * Aconitum Napellus L. f. delphinifolia REICHENB. Claytonia acutifolia WILLD. * Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR. * Stellaria longipes GOLDIE. f. humilis FENZL. * ,, humifusa ROTTB. Cerastium maximum L. * ,, alpinum L. f. hirsuta KOCH. * Halianthus peploides (STEV.) FENZL. Alsine artica (STEV.) FENZL. * Sagina nivalis (LINDBL.) FR. * Polygonum Bistorta L. * ,, viviparum L. * polymorphum L. f. frigida CHAM. Rumex arcticus TRAUTV. * Oxyria digyna (L.) HILL. Salix boganidensis TRAUTV. f. latifolia. Salix Chamissonis ANDERS. ,, arctica PALL. ,, euneata TURCZ. * ,, reticulata L. ,, species? Betula glandulosa MICHX. f. rotundifolia REGEL. Elymus mollis TRIN. * Festuca rubra L. f. arenaria OSB. * Poa flexuosa WG. Arctophila effusa J. LGE. Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR. ,, vaginata J. LGE. f. contracta J. LGE. * Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR. * Colpodium latifolium R. BR. Dupontia Fischeri R. BR. * Trisetum subspicatum (L.) P.B. * Aira caespitosa L. f. borealis TRAUTV. Alopecurus alpinus SM. * Hierochloa alpina (LILJEBL.) ROEM. and SCH. * Carex rariflora (WG.) SM. * ,, aqvatilis f. epijegos LAEST. * ,, glareosa WG. * ,, lagopina WG. * Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH. * ,, vaginatum L. * ,, russeolum FR. * Luzula parviflora (EHRH.) DESV. * ,, Wahlenbergii RUPR. * ,, arcuata (WG.) SW. f. confusa LINDEB. * Juncus biglumis L. Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB. ]

[Footnote 266: Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar 1872-73. Bihang till Vet.-Akad. Handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 52. ]

[Footnote 267: Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires. Paris, 1854. Pp. 177 and 223. ]

[Footnote 268: Heckel and Kner, Die Suesswasserfische Oesterreichs, p. 295. ]

[Footnote 269: Even pretty far south, in Scandinavia, there occur places with frozen earth which seldom thaws. Thus in Egyptinkorpi mosses in Nurmi and Pjeli parishes in Finland pinewoods are found growing over layers or "tufts" of frozen sand, but also, in other places in Eastern Finland, we find layers containing stumps, roots, &c., of different generations of trees, alternating with layers of frozen mould, according to a communication from the agronomic Axel Asplund. A contribution to the knowledge of the way, or one of the ways, in which such formations arise, we obtain from the known fact that mines with an opening to the air, so far south as the middle of Sweden, are filled in a few years with a coherent mass of ice if the opening is allowed to remain open. If it is shut the ice melts again, but for this decades are required. ]

[Footnote 270: Middendorff already states that the bottom of the sea of Okotsk is frozen (Sibirische Reise, Bd. 4, 1, p. 502). ]



CHAPTER XII.

The history, physique, disposition, and manners of the Chukches.

The north coast of Siberia is now, with the exception of its westernmost and easternmost parts, literally a desert. In the west there projects between the mouth of the Ob and the southern portion of the Kara Sea the peninsula of Yalmal, which by its remote position, its grassy plains, and rivers abounding in fish, appears to form the earthly paradise of the Samoyed of the present day. Some hundred families belonging to this race wander about here with their numerous reindeer herds. During winter they withdraw to the interior of the country or southwards, and the coast is said then to be uninhabited. This is the case both summer and winter, not only with Beli Ostrov and the farthest portion of the peninsula between the Ob and the Yenisej (Mattesol), but also with the long stretch of coast between the mouth of the Yenisej and Chaun Bay. During the voyage of the Vega in 1878 we did not see a single native. No trace of man could be discovered at the places where we landed, and though for a long time we sailed quite near land, we saw from the sea only a single house on the shore, viz, the before-mentioned wooden hut on the east side of Chelyuskin peninsula. Russian simovies and native encampments are indeed still found on the rivers some distance from their mouths, but the former coast population has withdrawn to the interior of the country or died out,[271] and the north coast of Asia first begins again to be inhabited at Chaun Bay, namely, by the tribe with whom we came in contact during the latter part of the coast voyage of the Vega in 1878 and during the wintering.

I have already, it is true, given an account of various traits of the Chukches' disposition and mode of life, but I believe at all events that a more exhaustive statement of what the Vega men experienced in this region will be interesting to my readers, even if in the course of it I am sometimes compelled to return to subjects of which I have already treated.

In West-European writings the race, which inhabits the north-easternmost portion of Asia, is mentioned for the first time, so far as I know, by WITSEN, who in the second edition of his work (1705, p. 671) quotes a statement by VOLODOMIR ATLASSOV, that the inhabitants of the northernmost portions of Siberia are called Tsjuktsi, without, however, giving any detailed description of the people themselves. In maps from the end of the seventeenth century names are still inscribed on this portion of land which were borrowed from the history of High Asia, as "Tenduc," "Quinsai," "Catacora," &c., but these are left out in VAN KEULEN'S atlas of 1709, and instead there stands here Zuczari. From about the same time we fall in with some accounts of the Chukches in the narrative of the distinguished painter CORNELIS DE BRUIN'S travels in Russia. A Russian merchant, MICHAEL OSTATIOF, who passed fourteen years in travelling in Siberia, gave de Bruin some information regarding the countries he had travelled through; among others he spoke of Korakie and Socgtsie The latter were sketched as a godless pack, who worship the devil and carry with them then fathers' bones to be used in their magical arts. The same Russian who made these statements had also come in contact with "stationary" (settled) Soegtsi, so called "because they pass the whole winter hibernating, lying or sitting in their tents."[272] I have found the first somewhat detailed accounts of the race in the note on p. 110 of the under-quoted work, Histoire genealogique des Tartares, Leyden, 1726. They are founded on the statements of Swedish prisoners of war in Siberia.

The Russians, however, had made a much earlier acquaintance with the Chukches; for during their conquest of Siberia they came in contact with this race before the middle of the seventeenth century. A company of hunters in 1646 sailed down the Kolyma river to the Polar Sea. East of the Kolyma they fell in with the Chukches, with whom they dealt in this way they laid down their goods on the beach and then retired, on which the Chukches came thither, took the goods, and laid furs, walrus tusks, or carvings in walrus ivory, in their place.[273] How such journeys were repeated and finally led to the circumnavigation of the north-easternmost promontory of Asia belongs to a following chapter.

During these journeys the Russians often came in contact with the tribe which inhabited the north-eastern part of Asia, a contact which in general was not of a friendly nature. The bold hunters who contributed powerfully to the conquest of Siberia, and who even at their own hand entered into conflicts with whole armies from the heavenly empire, appear not to have behaved well when confronted with the warriors of the Chukch race. Even the attempts that were made with professional soldiers to conquer the land of the Chukches were without result, less however, perhaps, on account of the armed opposition which the Chukches made than from the nature of the country and the impossibility of even a small body of troops supporting themselves. The following may be quoted as examples of these campaigns which throw light upon the former disposition and mode of life of this tribe.

In 1701 some Yukagires who were tributary to Russia determined to make an attack on the Chukches, and requested from the commandant at Anadyrsk assistance against these enemies. A body of troops numbering twenty-four Russians and 110 Yukagires, was accordingly sent on a campaign along the coast from Anadyrsk to Chukotskojnos. By the way they fell in with thirteen tents, inhabited by Chukches who owned no reindeer. The inhabitants were required to submit and pay tribute. This the Chukches refused to do, on which the Russians killed most of the men and took the women and children prisoners. The men who were not cut down killed one another, preferring death to the loss of freedom. Some days after there was another fight with 300 Chukches, which, however, was so unfortunate for the latter that 200 are said to have fallen. The rest fled, but returned next day with a force ten times as strong, which finally compelled the Russo-Yukagnean troop to return with their object unaccomplished.

A similar campaign on a small scale was undertaken in 1711, but with the same issue. On a demand for tribute the Chukches answered: "the Russians have before come to us to demand tribute and hostages, but this we have refused to give, and thus we also intend to do in future."[274]

About fifteen years after this resultless campaign the Cossack colonel AFFANASSEJ SCHESTAKOV proposed to the Government again to subdue this obstinate race, intending also to go over to the American side, yet known only by report, in order to render the races living there tributary to the Russians. The proposal was accepted. A mate, JACOB HENS, a land-measurer, MICHAEL GVOSDEV, an ore-tester, HERDEBOL, and ten sailors were ordered by the Admiralty to accompany the expedition. At Yekaterinenburg Schestakov was provided with some small cannon and mortars with ammunition, and at Tobolsk with 400 Cossacks. In consequence of a great number of misfortunes, among them shipwreck in the sea of Okotsk, there stood however but a small portion of this force at his disposal when he began his campaign by marching into the country from the bottom of Penschina Bay. This campaign too was exceedingly unfortunate. After only a few days' march he came unexpectedly on a large body of Chukches, who themselves had gone to war with the Koryaeks. A fight took place on the 25th/14th March, 1730, in which Schestakov himself fell, hit by an arrow, and his followers were killed or put to flight.

Among those who were ordered to accompany Schestakov in this unfortunate campaign was Captain DMITRI PAULUTSKI. Under his command a new campaign was undertaken against the Chukches With a force of 215 Russians, 160 Cossacks and 60 Yukagires, Paulutski left Anadyrsk on the 23rd/12th March, 1731, and marched east of the sources of the Anadyr to the Polar Sea, which was only reached after two mouths' march. Then he went along the coast, partly by land, partly on the ice, to the eastward. After fourteen days he fell in with a large Chukch army, and having in vain summoned it to surrender, he delivered a blow on the 18/7th June, and obtained a complete victory over the enemy. During the continuation of the campaign along the coast he was compelled to fight on two other occasions, one on the 11th July/30th June and the other on the 26/11th July, at Chukotskojnos itself, over which promontory he wished to march to the mouth of the Anadyr. In both cases the victory lay with the Russians, who, according to Mueller's account based on the official documents, in all three engagements lost only three Cossacks, one Yukagire and five Koryaeks. But notwithstanding all these defeats the Chukches refused to submit and pay tribute to the Russians, on which account the only gain of the campaign was the honour of avenging Schestakov's defeat and of marching in triumph over Chukotskojnos. For this, ten days were required. On the promontory, hills of considerable height had to be passed. It appears as if Paulutski followed the shore of Kolyutschin Bay to the south, and then marched over the tongue of land which separates this bay from Anadyr Bay, or to express it otherwise, which unites the Chukch peninsula to the mainland of Siberia.

Many mistakes in comprehending the accounts of old travels to these regions have arisen from our ignorance of the great southern extension of Kolyutschin Bay, and from the same name being frequently used to distinguish different places on the coasts of Siberia. Thus we find on the map by A. ARROW-SMITH annexed to Sauer's account of Billings' travels a Seidze Kamen on the south side of Chukch peninsula, and it was perhaps just this Seidze Kamen, known and so named by the dwellers on the Anadyr, that is mentioned in Mueller's account of Paulutski's campaign.

On the 1st Nov./21st Oct. Paulutski returned to Anadyrsk, crowned with victory indeed, but without having brought his adversaries to lasting submission. No new attempt was made to induce the Chukches to submit, perhaps because Paulutski's campaign had rendered it evident that it was easier to win victories over the Chukches than to subdue them, and that the whole treasures of walrus tusks and skins belonging to the tribe would scarcely suffice to pay the expenses of the most inconsiderable campaign.

Perhaps too the accounts of Paulutski's victories may not be quite correct, at least the old repute of Chukches as a brave and savage race remained undiminished. Thus we read in a note already quoted at page 110 of the Histoire genealogique des Tartares [275] "The north-eastern part of Asia is inhabited by two allied races, Tzuktzchi and Tzchalatzki, and south of them on the Eastern Ocean by a third, called Olutorski. They are the most savage tribe in the whole north of Asia, and will have nothing to do with the Russians, whom they inhumanly kill when they fall in with them, and when any of them fall into the hands of the Russians they kill themselves". On the map of LOTTERUS (1765) the Chukch Peninsula is coloured in a way differing from Russian Siberia, and there is the following inscription Tjukzchi natio ferocissima et bellicosa Russorum inimica, qui capti se invicem interficiunt. In 1777 GEORGIUS says in his Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs (part ii., p. 350) of the Chukches "They are more savage, coarse, proud, refractory, thievish, false, and revengeful, than the neighbouring nomads the Koryaeks. They are as bad and dangerous as the Tunguses are friendly. Twenty Chukches will beat fifty Koryaeks. The Ostrogs (fortified places) lying in the neighbourhood of their country are even in continual fear of them, and cost so much that the Government has recently withdrawn the oldest Russian settlement in those regions, Anadyrsk". Other statements to the same effect might be quoted, and even in our day the Chukches are, with or without justification, known in Siberia for stubbornness, courage, and love of freedom.

But what violence could not effect has been completely accomplished in a peaceful way.[276] The Chukches indeed do not pay any other taxes than some small market tolls, but a very active traffic is now carried on between them and the Russians, and many travellers have without inconvenience traversed their country, or have sailed along its pretty thickly inhabited coast.

Among former travellers on the Chukch peninsula, who visited the encampments of the coast Chukches, besides Behring, Cook, and other seafarers, the following may be mentioned:—

The Cossack, PETER ILIIN SIN POPOV, was sent in 1711 with two interpreters to examine the country of the Chukches, and has left some interesting accounts of his observations there (MUeLLER, Sammlung Russischer Geschichten, iii. p. 56).[277]

BILLINGS, with his companions SAUER, SARYTSCHEV, &c., visited Chukch-land in 1791. Among other things, accompanied by Dr. MERK, two interpreters and eight men, he made a journey from Metschigme Bay over the interior of Chukch-land to Yakutsk. Unfortunately the account we have of this remarkable journey is exceedingly incomplete.[278]

FERDINAND VON WRANGEL during his famous Siberian travels was much in contact with the Chukches, and among his other journeys travelled in the winter of 1823 in dog sledges along the coast of the Polar Sea from the Kolyma to Kolyutschin Island (Wrangel, Reise, ii. pp. 176-231). There are besides many notices of the Chukches at other places in the same work (i. pp. 267-293, ii. pp. 156, 168, &c.).

FRIEDRICH VON LUeTKE in the course of his circumnavigation of the globe in 1826-29, came in contact with the population of the Chukch peninsula, whom he described in detail in Erman's Archiv (iii. pp. 446-464). Here it ought to be noted that, while the population on the North coast consists of true Chukches, the coast population of the region which Luetke visited, the stretch between the Anadyr and Cape Deschnev consists of a tribe, Namollo, which differs from the Chukches, and is nearly allied to the Eskimo on the American side of Behring's Straits.

The English Franklin Expedition in the Plover, commanded by Captain MOORE, wintered in 1848-49 at Chukotskojnos, and, both at the winter station and in the course of extensive excursions with dogs along the coast and to the interior of the country, came much into contact with the natives. The observations made during the wintering were published in a work of great importance for a knowledge of the tribes in question by Lieutenant W.H. HOOPER, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski, London, 1853.

C VON DITTMAR[279] travelled in 1853 in the north part of Kamchatka, and there came in contact with the reindeer nomads, especially with the Koryaeks. The information he gives us about the Chukches (p. 126) he had obtained from the Nischni-Kolymsk merchant, TRIFONOV, who had traded with them for twenty-eight years, and had repeatedly travelled in the interior of the country.

Interesting contributions to a knowledge of the mode of living of the reindeer-Chukches were also collected by Baron G. VON MAYDELL, who, in 1868 and 1869, along with Dr. CARL VON NEUMANN and others, made a journey from Yakutsk by Sredni-Kolymsk and Anjui to Kolyutschin Bay. Unfortunately, with regard to this expedition, I have only had access to some notices in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (vol. 21, London 1877, p. 213), and Das Ausland (1880, p. 861). The proper sketch of the journey is to be found in Isvestija, published by the Siberian division of the Russian Geographical Society, parts 1 and 2.

With reference to the other travellers whose writings are usually quoted as sources for a knowledge of the Chukches, it may be mentioned that STELLER and KRASCHENINNIKOV only touch in passing on the true Chukches, but instead give very instructive and detailed accounts of the Koryaeks, who are as nearly allied to the Chukches as the Spaniards to the Portuguese, but yet differ considerably in their mode of life, also that a part of these authors' statements regarding the Chukches do not at all refer to that tribe, but to the Eskimo. It appears indeed that recently, after the former national enmity had ceased, mixed races have arisen among these tribes. But it ought not to be forgotten that they differ widely in origin, although the Chukches as coming at a later date to the coast of the Polar Sea have adopted almost completely the hunting implements and household furniture of the Eskimo; and the Eskimo again, in the districts where they come in contact with the Chukches, have adopted various things from their language.

Like the Lapps and most other European and Asiatic Polar races, the Chukches fall into two divisions speaking the same language and belonging to the same race, but differing considerably in their mode of life. One division consists of reindeer nomads, who, with their often very numerous reindeer herds, wander about between Behring's Straits, and the Indigirka and the Penschina Bays. They live by tending reindeer and by trade, and consider themselves the chief part of the Chukch tribe. The other division of the race are the coast Chukches, who do not own any reindeer, but live in fixed but easily moveable and frequently moved tents along the coast between Chaun Bay and Behring's Status. But beyond East Cape there is found along the coast of Behring's Sea another tribe, nearly allied to the Eskimo. This is Wrangel's Onkilon, Luetke's Namollo. Now, however, Chukches also have settled at several points on this line of coast, and a portion of the Eskimo have adopted the language of the superior Chukch race. Thus the inhabitants at St. Lawrence Bay spoke Chukch, with little mixture of foreign words, and differed in their mode of life and appearance only inconsiderably from the Chukches, whom during the course of the winter we learned to know from nearly all parts of the Chukch peninsula. The same was the case with the natives who came on board the Vega while we sailed past East Cape, and with the two families we visited in Konyam Bay. But the natives in the north-west part of St. Lawrence Island talked an Eskimo dialect, quite different from Chukch. There were, however, many Chukch words incorporated with it. At Port Clarence on the contrary there lived pure Eskimo. Among them we found a Chukch woman who informed us that there were Chukch villages also on the American side of Behring's Strait, north of Prince of Wales Cape. These cannot, however, be very numerous or populous, as they are not mentioned in the accounts of the various English expeditions to those regions, they die not noticed for instance in Dr. JOHN SIMPSON'S instructive memoir on the Eskimo at Behring's Straits.

We were unable during the voyage of the Vega to obtain any data for estimating the number of the reindeer-Chukches. But the number of the coast Chukches may be arrived at in the following way. Lieutenant Nordquist collected from the numerous foremen who rested at the Vega information as to the names of the encampments which are to be found at present on the coast between Chaun Bay and Behring's Straits, and the number of tents at each village. He thus ascertained that the number of the tents in the coast villages amounts to about 400. The number of inhabitants in every tent may be, according to our experience, averaged at five. The population on the line of coast in question may thus amount to about 2,000, at most to 2,500, men, women, and children. The number of the reindeer-Chukches appears to be about the same. The whole population of Chukch Land may thus now amount to 4,000 or 5,000 persons. The Cossack Popov already mentioned, reckoned in 1711 that all the Chukches, both reindeer-owning and those with fixed dwellings, numbered 2,000 persons. Thus during the last two centuries, if these estimates are correct, this Polar race has doubled its numbers.

In order to give the reader an idea of the language of the Chukches, I have in a preceding chapter given an extract from the large vocabulary which Nordquist has collected. There appear to be no dialects differing very much from each other. Whether foreign words borrowed from other Asiatic languages have been adopted in Chukch we have not been able to make out. It is certain that no Russian words are used. The language strikes me as articulate and euphonious. It is nearly allied to the Koryaek, but so different from other, both East-Asiatic and American, tongues, that philologists have not yet succeeded in clearing up the relationship of the Chukches to other races.

Like most other Polar tribes, the Chukches now do not belong to any unmixed race. This one is soon convinced of, if he considers attentively the inhabitants of a large tent-village. Some are tall, with tallowlike, raven-black hair, brown complexion, high aquiline nose—in short, with an exterior that reminds us of the descriptions we read of the North American Indians. Others again by their dark hair, slight beard, sunk nose or rather projecting cheek-bones and oblique eyes, remind us distinctly of the Mongolian race, and finally we meet among them with very fair faces, with features and complexion which lead us to suspect that they are descendants of runaways or prisoners of war of purely Russian origin. The most common type is—straight, coarse, black hair of moderate length, the brow tapering upwards, the nose finely formed, but with its root often flattened eyes by no means small, well-developed black eyebrows, projecting cheeks often swollen by frostbite, which is specially observable when the face is looked at from the side, light, slightly brown complexion, which in the young women is often nearly as red and white as in Europeans. The beard is always scanty. Nearly all are stout and well grown, we saw no cripples among them. The young women often strike one as very pretty if one can rid oneself of the unpleasant impression of the dirt, which is never washed away but by the drifting snow of winter, and of the nauseous train-oil odour which in winter they carry with them from the close tent-chamber. The children nearly always make a pleasant impression by their healthy appearance, and their friendly and becoming behaviour.



The Chukches are a hardy race, but exceedingly indolent when want of food does not force them to exertion. The men during their hunting excursions pass whole days in a cold of -30 deg. to -40 deg. out upon the ice, without protection and without carrying with them food or fuel. In such cases they slake their thirst with snow, and assuage their hunger, if they have been successful in hunting, with the blood and flesh of the animals they have killed. Women nearly naked often during severe cold leave for a while the inner tent, or tent-chamber, where the train-oil lamp maintains a heat that is at times oppressive. A foreigner's visit induces the completely naked children to half creep out from under the curtain of reindeer skin which separates the sleeping chamber from the exterior tent, in which, as it is not heated, the temperature is generally little higher than that of the air outside. In this temperature the mothers do not hesitate to show their naked children, one or two years of age, to visitors for some moments.