 |
On the 27th we continued our course in somewhat open water to Kolyutschin Bay. No large river debouches in the bottom of this great fjord, the only one on the north coast of Asia which, by its long narrow form, the configuration of the neighbouring shores, and its division into two at the bottom, reminds us of the Spitzbergen fjords which have been excavated by glaciers. The mouth of the bay was filled with very closely packed drift-ice that had gathered round the island situated there, which was inhabited by a large number of Chukch families. In order to avoid this ice the Vega made a considerable detour up the fjord. The weather was calm and fine, but new ice was formed everywhere among the old drift-ice where it was closely packed. Small seals swarmed by hundreds among the ice, following the wake of the vessel with curiosity. Birds on the contrary were seen in limited numbers. Host of them had evidently already migrated to more southerly seas. At 4.45 P.M. the vessel was anchored to an ice-floe near the eastern shore of the fjord. It could be seen from this point that the ice at the headland, which bounded the mouth of the fjord to the east, lay so near land that there was a risk that the open water next the shore would not be deep enough for the Vega.
Lieutenant Hovgaard was therefore sent with the steam launch to take soundings. He returned with the report that the water off the headland was sufficiently deep. At the same time, accompanied by several of the naturalists, I made an excursion on land. In the course of this excursion the hunter Johnsen was sent to the top of the range of heights which occupied the interior of the promontory, in order to get a view of the state of the ice farther to the east. Johnsen too returned with the very comforting news that a very broad open channel extended beyond the headland along the coast to the south-east. I was wandering about along with my comrades on the slopes near the beach in order, so far as the falling darkness permitted, to examine its natural conditions, when Johnsen came down; he informed us that from the top of the height one could hear bustle and noise and see fires at an encampment on the other side of the headland. He supposed that the natives were celebrating some festival. I had a strong inclination to go thither in order, as I thought, "to take farewell of the Chukches," for I was quite certain that on some of the following days we should sail into the Pacific. But it was already late in the evening and dark, and we were not yet sufficiently acquainted with the disposition of the Chukches to go by night, without any serious occasion, in small numbers and provided only with the weapons of the chase, to an encampment with which we were not acquainted. It was not until afterwards that we learned that such a visit was not attended with any danger. Instead of going to the encampment, as the vessel in any case could not weigh anchor this evening, we remained some hours longer on the beach and lighted there an immense log fire of drift-wood, round which we were soon all collected, chatting merrily about the remaining part of the voyage in seas where not cold but heat would trouble us, and where our progress at least would not be obstructed by ice, continual fog, and unknown shallows. None of us then had any idea that, instead of the heat of the tropics, we would for the next ten months be experiencing a winter at the pole of cold, frozen in on an unprotected road, under almost continual snow-storms, and with a temperature which often sank below the freezing-point of mercury.
The evening was glorious, the sky clear, and the air so calm that the flames and smoke of the log fire rose high against the sky. The dark surface of the water, covered as it was with a thin film of ice, reflected its light as a fire-way straight as a line, bounded far away at the horizon by a belt of ice, whose inequalities appeared in the darkness as the summits of a distant high mountain chain. The temperature in the quite draught-free air was felt to be mild, and the thermometer showed only 2 deg. under the freezing-point. This slight degree of cold was however sufficient to cover the sea in the course of the night with a sheet of newly-frozen ice, which, as the following days' experience showed, at the opener places could indeed only delay, not obstruct the advance of the Vega, but which however bound together the fields of drift-ice collected off the coast so firmly that a vessel, even with the help of steam, could with difficulty force her way through.
When on the following day, the 28th September, we had sailed past the headland which bounds Kolyutschin Bay on the east, the channel next the coast, clear of drift-ice, but covered with newly formed ice, became suddenly shallow. The depth was too small for the Vega, for which we had now to seek a course among the blocks of ground-ice and fields of drift-ice in the offing. The night's frost had bound these so firmly together that the attempt failed. We were thus compelled to lie-to at a ground-ice so much the more certain of getting off with the first shift of the wind, and of being able to traverse the few miles that separated us from the open water at Behring's Straits, as whalers on several occasions had not left this region until the middle of October.
As American whalers had during the last decades extended their whale-fishing to the North Behring Sea, I applied before my departure from home both directly and through the Foreign Office to several American scientific men and authorities with a request for information as to the state of the ice in that sea. In all quarters my request was received with special good-will and best wishes for the projected journey. I thus obtained both a large quantity of printed matter otherwise difficult of access, and maps of the sea between North America and North Asia, and oral and written communications from several persons: among whom may be mentioned the distinguished naturalist, Prof. W.H. DALL of Washington, who lived for a long time in the Territory of Alaska and the north part of the Pacific; Admiral JOHN RODGERS, who was commander of the American man-of-war, Vincennes, when cruising north of Behring's Straits in 1855; and WASHBURN MAYNOD, lieutenant in the American Navy. I had besides obtained important information from the German sea-captain E. DALLMANN, who for several years commanded a vessel in these waters for coast traffic with the natives. Space does not permit me to insert all these writings here. But to show that there were good grounds for not considering the season of navigation in the sea between Kolyutschin Bay and Behring's Straits closed at the end of September, I shall make some extracts from a letter sent to me, through the American Consul-General in Stockholm, N.A. ELVING, from Mr. MILLER, the president of the Alaska Commercial Company.
"The following is an epitome of the information we have received regarding the subject of your inquiry.
"The bark Massachusetts, Captain O. WILLIAMS, was in 74 deg. 30' N.L. and 173 deg. W.L. on the 21st Sept. 1807. No ice in sight in the north, but to the east saw ice. Saw high peaks bearing W.N.W. about 60'. Captain Williams is of opinion that Plover Island, so-called by Kellet, is a headland of Wrangel Land. Captain Williams says that he is of opinion from his observations, that usually after the middle of August there is no ice south of 70 deg.—west of 175 deg., until the 1st of October. There is hardly a year but that you could go as far as Cape North (Irkaipij), which is 180 deg., during the month of September. If the winds through July and August have prevailed from the S.W., as is usual, the north shore will be found clear of ice. The season of 1877 was regarded as an 'icy season,' a good deal of ice to southward. 1876 was an open season; as was 1875. Our captain, GUSTAV NIEBAUM, states that the east side of Behring's Straits is open till November; he passed through the Straits as late as October 22nd two different seasons. The north shore was clear of all danger within reasonable distance. In 1869 the bark Navy anchored under Kolyutschin Island from the 8th to the 10th October. On the 10th October of that year there was no ice south and east of Wrangel Land."
These accounts show that I indeed might have reason to be uneasy at my ill luck in again losing some days at a place at whose bare coast, exposed to the winds of the Polar Sea, there was little of scientific interest to employ ourselves with, little at least in comparison with what one could do in a few days, for instance, at the islands in Behring's Straits or in St. Lawrence Bay, lying as it does south of the easternmost promontory of Asia and therefore sheltered from the winds of the Arctic Ocean, but that there were no grounds for fearing that it would be necessary to winter there. I also thought that I could come to the same conclusion from the experience gained in my wintering on Spitzbergen in 1872-73, when permanent ice was first formed in our haven, in the 80th degree of latitude, during the month of February. Now, however, the case was quite different. The fragile ice-sheet, which on the 28th September bound together the ground-ices and hindered our progress, increased daily in strength under the influence of severer and severer cold until it was melted by the summer heat of the following year. Long after we were beset, however, there was still open water on the coast four or five kilometres from our winter haven, and after our return home I was informed that, on the day on which we were frozen in, an American whaler was anchored at that place.
Whether our sailing along the north coast of Asia to Kolyutschin Bay was a fortunate accident or not, the future will show. I for my part believe that it was a fortunate accident, which will often happen. Certain it is, in any case, that when we had come so far as to this point, our being frozen in was a quite accidental misfortune brought about by an unusual state of the ice in the autumn of 1878 in the North Behring Sea.
[Footnote 214: Further information on this point is given by A.J. Malmgren in a paper on the occurrence and extent of mammoth-finds, and on the conditions of this animal's existence in former times (Finska Vet.-Soc. Foerhandl 1874-5). ]
[Footnote 215: Compare Ph. Avril, Voyage en divers etats d'Europe et d'Asie entrepris pour decouvrir un nouveau chemin a la Chine, etc., Paris, 1692, p. 209. Henry H. Howorth, "The Mammoth in Siberia" (Geolog. Mag. 1880, p. 408). ]
[Footnote 216: As will be stated in detail further on, there were found during the Vega expedition very remarkable sub-fossil animal remains, not of the mammoth, however, but of various different species of the whale. ]
[Footnote 217: The word mummies is used by Von Middendorff to designate carcases of ancient animals found in the frozen soil of Siberia. ]
[Footnote 218: The calculation is probably rather too low than too high. The steamer alone, in which I travelled up the Yenisej in 1875, carried over a hundred tusks, of which however the most were blackened, and many were so decayed that I cannot comprehend how the great expense of transport from the tundra of the Yenisej could be covered by the value of this article. According to the statement of the ivory dealers the whole parcel, good and bad together, was paid for at a common average price. ]
[Footnote 219: Notices of yet other finds of mammoth carcases occur, according to Middendorff (Sib. Reise, IV. i. p. 274) in the scarce and to me inaccessible first edition of Witsen's Noord en Oost Tartarye (1692, Vol. II. p. 473). ]
[Footnote 220: E. Yssbrants Ides, Dreyjarige Reise nach China, etc., Frankfort, 1707, p. 55. The first edition was published in Amsterdam, in Dutch, in 1704. ]
[Footnote 221: Strahlenberg in Das Nord- und Ostliche Theil von Europa und Asia, Stockholm, 1730, p. 393, also gives a large number of statements regarding the fossil Siberian ivory, and mentions that the distinguished Siberian traveller Messerschmidt found a complete skeleton on the river Tom. ]
[Footnote 222: Tilesius, De skeleto mammonteo Sibirico (Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, T.V. pour l'annee 1812, p. 409). Middendorff, Sib. Reise, IV. i. p. 274. Von Olfers, Die Ueberreste vorweltlicher Riesenthiere in Beziehung zu Ostasia-tischen Sagen und Chinesischen Schriften (Abhandl. der Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin aus dem Jahre 1839, p 51). ]
[Footnote 223: P.S. Pallas, De reliquiis animalium exoticorum per Asiam borealem repertis complementum (Novi commentarii Acad. Sc. Petropolitanae, XVII. pro anno 1772, p. 576), and Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs, Th. III. St. Petersburg, 1776, p. 97. ]
[Footnote 224: Hedenstroem, Otrywki o Sibiri, St. Petersburg, 1830, p. 125. Ermann's Archiv, Part 24, p. 140. ]
[Footnote 225: Compare K.E. v. Baer's paper in Melanges Biologiques, T.V. St. Petersbourg, 1866, p. 691; Middendorff, IV. i. p. 277; Gavrila Sarytschev's Achtjaehrige Reise in nordoestlichen Sibirien, etc., translated by J.H. Busse, Th. 1, Leipzig, 1806, p. 106. ]
[Footnote 226: Adams' account is inserted at p. 431 in the work of Tilesius already quoted. Von Baer gives a detailed account of this and other important finds of the same nature in the above-quoted paper in Tome V. of Melanges Biologiques; St. Petersbourg, pp. 645-740. ]
[Footnote 227: Middendorff, IV. 1, p. 272. ]
[Footnote 228: Friedrich Schmidt, Wissenschastliche Resultate der sur Aussuchung eines Mammuthcadavers ausgesandten Expedition (Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, Ser. VII. T. XVIII. No. 1, 1872). ]
[Footnote 229: Brandt, Berichte der preussischen Akad. der Wissenchasten, 1846, p. 224. Von Schmalhausen, Bull de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, T. XXII. p. 291. ]
[Footnote 230: The find is described by Heir Czersky in the Transactions published by the East Siberian division of the St. Petersburg Geographical Society; and subsequently by Dr. Leopold von Schrenck in Mem. de l'Acad. de St. Petersbourg, Ser. VII. T. XXVII. No. 7, 1880. ]
[Footnote 231: The mean temperature of the different months is shown in the following table:—
JAN. -48 deg. 9 FEB. -47 deg. 2 MARCH -33 deg. 9 APRIL -14 deg. 9 MAY -0 deg. 40 JUNE +13 deg. 4 JULY +15 deg. 4 AUG. +11 deg. 9 SEPT. +2 deg. 3 OCT. -13 deg. 9 NOV. -39 deg. 1 DEC. -45 deg. 7 Of the Year. -16 deg. 7 ]
[Footnote 232: Hedenstroem, loc. cit. p. 128. To find stranded driftwood in an upright position is nothing uncommon. ]
[Footnote 233: Martin Sauer, An account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore Joseph Billings, London, 1802, p. 105. The walrus does not occur in the sea between the mouth of the Chatanga and Wrangel Land, and large whales are never seen at the New Siberian Islands, but during Hedenstroem's stay in these regions three narwhals were enclosed in the ice near the shore at the mouth of the Yana (Otrywki o Sibiri, p. 131). ]
[Footnote 234: Martin Sauer, An account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to the Northern parts of Russia by Commodore Joseph Billings, London, 1802, p. 103. A. Ermann, Reise um die Erde, Berlin, 1833-48, D. 1, B. 2, p. 258. Ermann's statement, that the knowledge of the existence of these islands was concealed from the government up to the year 1806, is clearly incorrect. ]
[Footnote 235: Of course the earth here at an inconsiderable depth under the surface is constantly frozen, but I have nowhere seen such alternating layers of earth and ice, crossed by veins of ice, as Hedenstroem in his oft-quoted work (Otrywki o Sibiri, p. 119) says he found at the sea-coast. Probably such a peculiar formation arises only at places where the spring floods bring down thick layers of mud, which cover the beds of ice formed during the winter and protect them for thousands of years from melting. I shall have an opportunity of returning to the interesting questions relating to this point. ]
[Footnote 236: Since we discovered the Chukches also bury their dead by laying them out on the tundra, we have begun to entertain doubts whether the collection of bones delineated here was actually a grave. Possibly these mounds were only the remains of fireplaces, where the Chukches had used as fuel train-drenched bones, and which they bad afterwards for some reason or other endeavoured to protect from the action of the atmosphere. ]
[Footnote 237: H. Rink, Groenland geographisk og statistisk beskrevet, Bd. 2, Copenhagen, 1857, p. 344. ]
[Footnote 238: C. von Dittmar, Bulletin hist.-philolog, de l'acad. de St. Petersbourg, XIII. 1856, p. 130. ]
[Footnote 239: Krascheninnikov, Histoire et Description du Kamtschatka, Amsterdam 1770, II. p. 95. A. Ennan, Reise urn die Erde, D.1, B.2, p. 255. ]
[Footnote 240: Ankali signifies in Chukch dwellers on the coast, and is now used to denote the Chukches living on the coast. A similar word, Onkilon, was formerly used as the name of the Eskimo tribe that lived on the coast of the Polar Sea when the Chukch migration reached that point. ]
[Footnote 241: The walrus now appears to be very rare in the sea north of Behring's Straits, but formerly it must have been found there in large numbers, and made that region a veritable paradise for every hunting tribe. While we during our long stay there saw only a few walruses, Cook, in 1778, saw an enormous number, and an interesting drawing of walruses is to be found in the account of his third voyage. A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc. Vol. III. (by James King), London, 1784, p. 259, pl. 52. ]
[Footnote 242: The greatest number of mammoth tusks is obtained from the stretches of land and the islands between the Chatanga and Chaum Bay. Here the walrus is wanting. The inhabitants of North Siberia therefore praise the wisdom of the Creator, who lets the walrus live in the regions where the mammoth is wanting, and has scattered mammoth ivory in the earthy layers of the coasts where the walrus does not occur (A. Erman, Reise um die Erde, Berlin, 1833—48, D.1, B.2, p. 264). ]
[Footnote 243: Among the bears' skulls brought home from this place Lieut. Nordquist found after his return home the skull of a sea-lion (Otaria Stelleri). It is, however, uncertain whether the animal was captured in the region, or whether the cranium was brought hither from Kamchatka. ]
[Footnote 244: Wrangel's Reise, Th. 2, Berlin, 1839, p. 220. ]
[Footnote 245: According to a paper in Deutsche Geografische Blaetter, B. IV. p. 54, Captain E. Dallmann, in 1866, as commander of the Havai schooner W.C. Talbot, not only saw but landed on Wrangel Land. As Captain Dallmann of recent years has been in pretty close contact with a large number of geographers, and communications from him have been previously inserted in geographical journals, it appears strange that he has now for the first time made public this important voyage. At all events, Dallmann's statement that the musk-ox occurs on the coast of the Polar Sea and on Wrangel Land is erroneous. He has here confused the musk-ox with the reindeer. ]
[Footnote 246: Cf. Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar 1872-73 (Bihang till Vet Ak. handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 91). ]
[Footnote 247: A more dangerous kind of icing down threatens the navigator in severe weather not only in the Polar Seas but also in the Baltic and the North Sea. For it happens at that season that the sea-water at the surface is over-cooled, that is, cooled below the freezing-point without being frozen. Every wave which strikes the vessel is then converted by the concussion into ice-sludge, which increases and freezes together to hard ice so speedily that all attempts to remove it from the deck are in vain. In a few hours the vessel may be changed into an unmanageable floating block of ice which the sailors, exhausted by hard labour, must in despair abandon to its fate. Such an icing down, though with a fortunate issue, befell the steamer Sofia in the month of October off Bear Island, during the Swedish Polar Expedition of 1868. ]
[Footnote 248: Irkaipij lies in 180 deg. long. from Greenwich. To bring our day-reckoning into agreement with that of the New World, we ought thus to have here lessened our date by one day, and have written the 17th for the 18th September. But as, with the exception of the short excursion to Port Clarence and St. Edward Island, we always followed the coasts of the Old World, and during our stay in the new hemisphere did not visit any place inhabited by Europeans, we retained during the whole of our voyage our European day-reckoning unaltered. If we had met with an American whaler, we would have been before him one day, our 27th September would thus have corresponded to his 26th. The same would have been the case on our coming to an American port. ]
CHAPTER X.
Wintering becomes necessary—The position of the Vega— The ice round the vessel—American ship in the neighbourhood of the Vega when frozen in—The nature of the neighbouring country—The Vega is prepared for wintering—Provision-depot and observatories established on land—The winter dress— Temperature on board—Health and dietary—Cold, wind, and snow —The Chukches on board—Menka's visit—Letters sent home— Nordquist and Hovgaard's excursion to Menka's encampment— Another visit of Menka—The fate of the letters—Nordquist's journey to Pidlin—Find of a Chukch grave—Hunting— Scientific work—Life on board—Christmas Eve.
Assured that a few hours' southerly wind would be sufficient to break up the belt of ice, scarcely a Swedish mile[249] in breadth, that barred our way, and rendered confident by the above-quoted communications from experts in America concerning the state of the ice in the sea north of Behring's Straits, I was not at first very uneasy at the delay, of which we took advantage by making short excursions on land and holding converse with the inhabitants. First, when day after day passed without any change taking place, it became clear to me that we must make preparations for wintering just on the threshold between the Arctic and the Pacific Oceans. It was an unexpected disappointment, which it was more difficult to bear with equanimity, as it was evident that we would have avoided it if we had come some hours earlier to the eastern side of Kolyutschin Bay. There were numerous occasions during the preceding part of our voyage on which these hours might have been saved: the Vega did not require to stay so long at Port Dickson, we might have saved a day at Taimur Island, have dredged somewhat less west of the New Siberian Islands, and so on; and above all, our long stay at Irkaipij waiting for an improvement in the state of the ice, was fatal, because at least three days were lost there without any change for the better taking place.
The position of the vessel was by no means very secure. For the Vega, when frozen in, as appears from the sketch map to be found further on, did not lie at anchor in any haven, but was only, in the expectation of finding a favourable opportunity to steam on, anchored behind a ground-ice, which had stranded in a depth of 9-1/2 metres, 1,400 metres from land, in a road which was quite open from true N. 74 deg. W. by north to east. The vessel had here no other protection against the violent ice-pressure which winter storms are wont to cause in the Polar seas, than a rock of ice stranded at high water, and therefore also at high water not very securely fixed. Fortunately the tide just on the occasion of our being frozen in, appears to have been higher than at any other time during the course of the winter. The ice-rocks, therefore, first floated again far into the summer of 1879, when their parts that projected above the water had diminished by melting. Little was wanting besides to make our winter haven still worse than it was in reality. For the Vega was anchored the first time on the 28th September at some small ice-blocks which had stranded 200 metres nearer the land, but was removed the following day from that place, because there were only a few inches of water under her keel. Had the vessel remained at her first anchorage, it had gone ill with us. For the newly formed ice, during the furious autumn storms, especially during the night between the 14th and 15th December, was pressed over these ice-blocks. The sheet of ice, about half a metre thick, was thereby broken up with loud noise into thousands of pieces, which were thrown up on the underlying ground-ices so as to form an enormous toross, or rampart of loose, angular blocks of ice. A vessel anchored there would have been buried under pieces of ice, pressed aground, and crushed very early in the winter.
When the Vega was beset, the sea near the coast, as has been already stated, was covered with newly formed ice, too thin to carry a foot passenger, but thick enough to prevent the passage of a boat. In the offing lay, as far as the eye could see, closely packed drift-ice, which was bound together so firmly by the newly formed ice, that it was vain to endeavour to force a passage. Already, by the 2nd October, it was possible, by observing the necessary precautions, to walk upon the newly formed ice nearest the vessel, and on the 3rd October, the Chukches came on board on foot. On the 10th there were still weak places here and there between the vessel and the land, and a blue sky to the eastward indicated that there was still open water in that direction. That this "clearing" was at a considerable distance from the vessel was seen from an excursion which Dr. Almquist undertook in a north-easterly direction on the 13th October, when, after walking about twenty kilometres over closely packed drift-ice, he was compelled to turn without having reached the open water. It was clear that the Vega was surrounded by a band, at least thirty kilometres broad, of drift-ice fields, united by newly formed ice, which in the course of the winter reached a considerable thickness.[250]
In this immense ice-sheet there often arose in the course of the winter cracks of great length. They ran uninterruptedly across newly formed ice-fields, and old, high ground-ices. One of the largest of these cracks was formed on the night before the 15th December right under the bow of the vessel. It was nearly a metre broad, and very long. Commonly the cracks were only some centimetres broad, but, notwithstanding this, they were troublesome enough, because the sea-water forced itself up through them to the surface of the ice and drenched the snow lying next to it.
The causes of the formation of the cracks were twofold. Either they arose from a violent wind disturbing somewhat the position of the newly formed ice, or through the contraction of the ice in severe cold. The formation of the cracks took place with a more or less loud report, and, to judge from the number of these reports, more frequently than could be observed from the appearance of the snow-covered ice. Thus even during severe cold the apparently continuous ice-sheet was divided into innumerable pieces lying in the close proximity of each other, which either were completely loose or bound together only by the weak ice-band which was gradually formed under the snow on the surface of the water which had forced its way into the crack. Up to a distance of about six kilometres from the shore the ice in any case lay during the course of the whole winter nearly undisturbed, with the exception of the small cracks just mentioned. Farther out to sea, on the other hand, it was in constant motion. So-called polynias or open places probably occur here all the year round, and when the weather was favourable we could therefore nearly always see a blue water sky at the horizon from true N.W. to E. A southerly wind after some days brought the open water channel so near the vessel that it was possible to walk to it in a few hours. It then swarmed with seals—an indication that it was in connection with a sea that was constantly open. The neighbourhood of such a sea perhaps also accounts for the circumstance that we did not see a single seal-hole in the ice-fields that surrounded the vessel.
The ground-ice, to which the Vega was moored on the 29th September, and under which she lay during the course of the winter, was about forty metres long and twenty-five metres broad; its highest point lay six metres above the surface of the water. It was thus not very large, but gave the vessel good shelter. This ground-ice, along with the vessel and the newly formed ice-field lying between it and the shore, was indeed moved considerably nearer land during the violent autumn storms. A groan or two and a knocking sound in the hull of the vessel indicated that it did not escape very severe pressure; but the Vega did not during the course of the winter suffer any damage, either from this or from the severe cold, during which sharp reports often indicated that some crack in the woodwork had widened through the freezing of the water that had made its way into the vessel. "Cold so that the walls crack" is a well-known expression, with which we inhabitants of the North often connect memories from some stormy winter evening, passed by the home hearth; but here these reports heard in our cabins, especially at night, were unpleasant enough, giving rise to fears that the newly formed or widened cracks would cause dangerous leaks in the vessel's hull. In consequence of iron contracting more than wood under the influence of cold, the heads of the iron bolts, with which the ship's timbers were fastened together, in the course of the winter sank deep into the outside planking. But no serious leak arose in this way, perhaps because the cold only acted on that part of the vessel which lay above the surface of the water.
Already during the first days of our wintering we interpreted various lively accounts of the natives, which they illustrated by signs, to mean that a whaler would be found at Serdze Kamen, in the neighbourhood of the Vega's winter haven. On this account Lieutenant Brusewitz was sent out on the 4th October with two men and the little boat, Louise, built in Copenhagen for the expedition of 1872-73, and intended for sledge-journeys, with instructions to ascertain, if possible, if such was the case. He returned late at night the same day without having got sight of any vessel. We now supposed that the whole depended on our having misunderstood the accounts of the Chukches. But a letter which I received after our return, from Mr. W. BARTLETT, dated New Bedford, 6th January, 1880, shows that this had not been the case. For he writes, among other things:—
"The writer's son, GIDEON W. BAKTLETT, left San Francisco 1st June, 1878, in our freighter ship Syren, of 875 tons, for St. Lawrence Bay, arriving there July 8th, and, after loading 6,100 barrels of oil and 37,000 lbs. of bone from our whalers, she sailed for New Bedford direct, touching at Honolulu to land her bone, to come here via San Francisco, and he joined our whaler bark, Rainbow, at St. Lawrence Bay, and went on a tour of observation and pleasure, visiting Point Barrow and going as far east as Lion Reefs, near Camden Bay, and then returning to Point Barrow, and going over to Herald Island, and while there visiting our different whalers, seeing one "bow-head" caught and cut in, and September 25th he came down in the schooner W.M. Meyer to San Francisco, arriving there October 22nd. By a comparison of dates we find he passed near Cape Serdze September 29th, or one day after you anchored near Kolyutschin Bay."
The 29th September according to the American day-reckoning corresponds to the 30th according to that of the old world, which was still followed on board the Vega. The schooner W.M. Meyer thus lay at Serdze Kamen two days after we anchored in our winter haven. The distance between the two places is only about 70 kilometres.
The winter haven was situated in 67 deg. 4' 49" north latitude, and 173 deg. 23' 2" longitude west from Greenwich, 1.4 kilometres from land. The distance from East Cape was 120', and from Point Hope near Cape Lisburn on the American side, 180'.
The neighbouring land formed a plain rising gradually from the sea, slightly undulating and crossed by river valleys, which indeed when the Vega was frozen in was covered with hoarfrost and frozen, but still clear of snow, so that our botanists could form an idea of the flora of the region, previously quite unknown. Next the shore were found close beds of Elymus, alternating with carpets of Halianthus peploides, and further up a poor, even, gravelly soil, covered with water in spring, on which grew only a slate-like lichen, Gyrophora proboscidea, and a few flowering plants, of which Armeria sibirica was the most common. Within the beach were extensive salt and fresh-water lagoons, separated by low land, whose banks were covered with a pretty luxuriant carpet, formed of mosses, grasses, and Carices. But first on the neighbouring high land, where the weathered gneiss strata yielded a more fertile soil than the sterile sand thrown up out of the sea, did the vegetation assume a more variegated stamp. No trace of trees[251] was indeed found there, but low willow bushes, entensive carpets of Empetrum nigrum and Andromeda tetragona were seen, along with large tufts of a species of Artemisia. Between these shoot forth in summer, to judge partly from the dried and frozen remains of plants which Dr. Kjellman collected in autumn, partly from collections made in spring, a limited number of flowering plants, some of which are well known at home, as the red whortleberry, the cloudberry, and the dandelion.
Although experience from preceding Polar journeys and specially from the Swedish expedition of 1872-73, showed that even at the 80th degree of latitude the sea may suddenly break up in the middle of winter, we however soon found, as has been already stated, that we must make preparations for wintering. The necessary arrangements were accordingly made. The snow which collected on deck, and which at first was daily swept away, was allowed to remain, so that it finally formed a layer 30 centimetres thick, of hard tramped snow or ice, which in no inconsiderable degree contributed to increase the resistance of the deck to cold, and for the same purpose snowdrifts were thrown up along the vessel's sides. A stately ice stair was carried up from the ice to the starboard gunwale. A large tent made for the purpose at Karlskrona was pitched from the bridge to the fore, so that only the poop was open. Aft the tent was quite open, the blast and drifting snow having also free entrance from the sides and from an incompletely closed opening in the fore. The protection it yielded against the cold was indeed greatly diminished in this way, but instead it did not have the least injurious action on the air on the vessel, a circumstance specially deserving of attention for its influence on the state of health on board. Often under this tent in the dark days of winter there blazed a brisk smithy fire, round which the Chukches crowded in curious wonder at the skill with which the smith fashioned the glowing iron. Here the cook dealt out to the Chukches the soup and meat that were left over, and the loaves of bread which at every baking were baked for them. Here was our reception saloon, where tobacco and sugar were distributed to the women and children, and where sometimes, if seldom, a frozen hunter or fisherman was treated to a little spirits. Here pieces of wood and vertebrae of the whale were valued and purchased, and here tedious negotiations were carried on regarding journeys in dog-sledges in different directions.
The violent motion which took place in the ice during the night before the 15th December, gave us a sharp warning that our position in the open road was by no means so secure as was desirable, but that there was a possibility that the vessel might be nipped suddenly and without any previous warning. If such a misfortune had happened, the crew of the Vega would certainly have had no difficulty in getting to land over the ice. But the yield of hunting appeared to be so scanty, and the Chukches were, as almost always, so destitute of all stock of provisions—for they literally obey the command to take no thought for to-morrow—that there was every probability that we, having come safe ashore, would die of hunger, if no provisions were saved from the vessel. This again, as the principal part of the provisions was of course down in the hold, would have been attended with great difficulty, if the Vega had been suddenly in the night cut into by the ice at the water-line. In order as far as possible to secure ourselves against the consequences of such a misfortune, a depot of provisions, guns, ammunition, &c., reckoned for 30 men and 100 days, was formed on land. Fortunately we did not require to depend upon it. The stores were laid up on the beach without the protection of lock or bolt, covered only with sails and oars, and no watch was kept at the place. Notwithstanding this, and the want of food which occasionally prevailed among the natives, it remained untouched both by the Chukches who lived in the neighbourhood, and by those who daily drove past the place from distant regions. All however knew very well the contents of the sail-covered heap, and they undoubtedly supposed that there were to be found there treasures of immense value, and provisions enough for the whole population of the Chukch peninsula for a whole year.
The Magnetical Observatory was erected, as will be told in greater detail further on, upon the beach a kilometre and a half from the vessel. To this house the observers had to walk to and fro at least four times in the twenty-four hours over an ice-field, covered with loose snow, as fine as dust, that was set in motion by the least puff of wind, and then in a few moments completely obliterated every footprint. When the moon did not shine, the winter nights were so dark, that it was impossible to distinguish the very nearest objects, and day after day during the course of the winter we had, besides, drifting snow so thick that the high dark hull of the vessel itself could be distinguished only when one was in its immediate neighbourhood! In walking from land during the darkness of the night and in drifting snow it would have been very difficult to find one's way to the vessel without guidance, and he would have been helplessly lost who went astray. To prevent such an accident, the precaution was taken of running a line over high ice-pillars between the Observatory and the vessel. Even with the help of the guideline it was often difficult enough to find our way.
The attempt to keep open a channel in the ice round the vessel during the whole winter had soon to be given up, but two holes were kept constantly open, one by the side of the vessel in case of fire, and the other for the tidal observations which Captain Palander set on foot during the winter. The latter hole was chosen by a little seal as its haunt for a long time, until one day we entertained ourselves by catching him with the necessary care, and making him pay an involuntary visit on board, where he was offered various delicacies, which however were disregarded. The seal was let loose again in his hole, but notwithstanding the friendliness we showed him, he never more returned.
From the meteorological observations it appears that the winter was not so cold as the winters in the Franklin archipelago or in the coldest parts of the mainland of Siberia.[252] On the other hand, it was exceedingly stormy at the Vega's winter station, and day after day, night after night, we have gone to and from the Observatory in a high wind and a cold of -30 deg. to -46 deg. C. In calm weather a cold of -40 deg. is scarcely very troublesome, but with only a slight draught a degree of cold of for instance -35 deg. is actually dangerous for one who goes against the wind, and without the necessary precautions exposes uncovered parts of the face, the hands, or the wrists, to the cold current of air. Without one's being warned by any severe pain frostbite arises, which, if it be not in time thawed by rubbing the injured part with the hand, or with melting snow, may readily become very serious. Most of those who for the first time took part in a wintering in the high north, were, when the first cold occurred, more or less frostbitten, on several occasions so that there arose high frost-blisters filled with bloody water, several square centimetres in extent, but fortunately never to such a degree that any serious bad results followed. After we, newcomers to the Polar regions, warned by experience, became more careful, such frostbites occurred but seldom. Nor did there occur a single case of frostbite in the feet. To this conduced our clothing, which was adapted to the climate, and, besides good winter clothes of the sort commonly used in Sweden, consisted of the following articles of dress brought with us specially for use in the high north:—
1. An abundant stock of good woollen under-clothing.
2. A carefully made blouse of sailcloth, provided with many pockets, intended to be drawn over the ordinary seaman's dress as a protection against wind and drifting snow. This proved to be very suitable for the purpose for which it was intended, and was much liked by the crew.
3. A Lapp "pesk" with leggings was not so often used, because it was so warm that it was only with difficulty one could walk with it any considerable distance. On the other hand, in the case of winter journeys with dogs or reindeer it was indispensable.
4. A pair of very large canvas boots with leather soles. Inside these was put hay of Carex vesicaria L. The foot itself was covered with one or two pairs of stockings, above which there was a foot-strip of felt. Our boots were thus intermediate between the foot-covering introduced by Parry for Arctic journeys, and the hay-filled komager of the Lapps. All who used these canvas boots are unanimous in thinking that they left nothing to desire. Even in the case of extended excursions in wet snow they are to be preferred to leather shoes; for the latter become heavy and drenched with water, and can with difficulty be dried in the open air in the course of a night's rest. Canvas boots and the long hay in them on the other hand are easily dried in a single night. They are also light when wet, and in that state little prejudicial to health on account of the change of air which the hay under the foot renders possible. I therefore am of opinion that we are warranted in giving such boots the highest recommendation for winter journeys and winter hunting excursions, even in our own land.
5. An Oeresund cap and a loose felt hood (baschlik) of the same sort as those which are used in the Russian army. I had bought the baschliks in St. Petersburg on account of the Expedition.
6. Fingerless gloves of sealskin and chamois, with an inside lining of sheepskin and at the wrists bordered with long-haired fur. They were commonly carried with a band from the neck, as children are wont to carry their gloves. For outside work these thick gloves were too inconvenient; then fingerless woollen mittens were used.
7. Coloured spectacles, which were distributed to all the men in the beginning of February. One must himself have lived in the Polar regions during winter and spring, "after the return of the sun," to understand how indispensable is such a protection from the monotonous white light which then surrounds the eye in every direction. The inexperienced, though warned, seldom observe the necessary precautions, and commonly pay the penalty by a more or less complete snowblindness, which indeed is not very dangerous, but is always exceedingly painful, and which lasts several days.
On board the vessel in our cabins and collection-rooms it was besides by no means so cold as many would suppose. The sides of the vessel in several places indeed, especially in the cabins, were covered with a thick sheet of ice, and so was the skylight in the gun-room. But in the inhabited parts of the vessel we had, a little from the sides, commonly a temperature of +12 deg. to +17 deg., that is to say about the same as we in the north are wont to have indoors in winter, and certainly higher than the temperature of rooms during the coldest days of the year in many cities in the south, as for instance in Paris and Vienna. By night however the temperature in the cabins sank sometimes to +5 deg. and +10 deg., and the boarding at the side of the berth became covered with ice. In the work-room 'tweendecks the thermometer generally stood about +10 deg., and even in the underhold, which was not heated, but lay under the water-line, the temperature was never under, commonly 1 deg. or 2 deg. above, the freezing-point.
Much greater inconvenience than from cold did we in the cabins suffer from the excessive heat and the fumes, which firing in large cast-iron stoves is wont to cause in small close rooms. When in the morning after a cold night the watch all too willingly obeyed the direction, which sounded from different quarters, to fire well, one had often his wish so thoroughly satisfied, that, in half an hour after, every man lay bathed in perspiration. There was no other help for it than to leave the cabin, take a cold bath and a good rub down, dress rapidly, rush on deck for fresh air, and cool in the temperature of -30 deg. to -40 deg. prevailing there. Other opportunities for bathing were also given both to the officers and crew, and the necessary care was taken to secure cleanliness, a sanitary measure which ought never to be neglected in Arctic winterings.
The state of health on board during the course of the winter was exceedingly good. Dr. Almquist's report enumerates only a few serious maladies, all successfully cured, among which may be mentioned stomach colds and slight cases of inflammation of the lungs, but not a single case of that insidious disease, scurvy, which formerly raged in such a frightful way among the crews in all long voyages, and which is still wont to gather so many victims from among Polar travellers.
This good state of health depended in the first place on the excellent spirit which inspired the scientific men, the officers and the crew of the Expedition, but it ought also to be ascribed to the suitable equipment of the Vega, arranged by Captain Palander at Karlskrona, and above all to adjustment to the climate of our dietary, which was settled on the ground of the experience gained in the expedition of 1872-73, and after taking the advice of its distinguished physician Dr. Envall. The dietary is shown in the following table:—
No. 1. SUNDAY.
Breakfast: butter 6 ort, coffee 10 ort, sugar 7.5 ort.[253]
Dinner: salt pork or dried fish 75 ort, sourkrout 75 ort, preserved or fresh potatoes 12 ort, preserved vegetables 5.5 ort, extract of meat 1.5 ort, raisins 5 ort, rice 50 ort, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches.
Supper: butter 6 ort, tea 1.5 ort, sugar 7.5 ort, barley-groats 10 cubic inches, cheese 12 ort.
No. 2. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY.
Breakfast same as No. 1.
Dinner: preserved meat or fish 1 portion, preserved potatoes 12 ort, preserved vegetables 5.5 ort, preserved leeks 1 portion, extract of meat 1.5 ort, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches.
Supper same as No. 1 without cheese.
No. 3. THURSDAY.
Breakfast same as No. 1.
Dinner: salt pork 1 lb., peas 10 cubic inches, extract of meat 1.5 ort, barley-groats 2 cubic inches, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches.
Supper same as No. 2.
No. 4. TUESDAY.
Breakfast: butter 6 ort, chocolate 10 ort, sugar 7.5 ort.
Dinner: salt meat 1 lb., maccaroni 15 ort (or brown beans 10 cubic inches or green peas 1 portion), fruit soup 1 portion, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches.
Supper same as No. 2.
No. 5. SATURDAY.
Breakfast same as No. 4.
Dinner: preserved beeksteak or stewed beef 1 portion, preserved or fresh, potatoes 12 ort, preserved leeks 1 portion, fruit soup 1 portion, brandy or rum 2 cubic inches.
Supper same as No. 2.
Every man besides had served out to him daily 1-1/4 lb. dried bread or flour (2/3 wheat and 1/3 rye), 3 ort tobacco and 2 cubic inches vinegar; and weekly 1 lb. wheat-flour, 30 ort butter, 21 ort salt, 7 ort mustard, 3 ort pepper, and two cubic inches vinegar.
Besides what is included in the above list, "multegroet" (preserved cloudberries), mixed with rum, was served out twice a week from the 15th February to the 1st April. I would willingly have had a larger quantity of this, according to northern experience, excellent antidote to scurvy, but as the cloudberry harvest completely failed in 1877, I could not, at any price, procure for the Expedition the quantity that was required. There was purchased in Finland instead, a large quantity of cranberry-juice, which was regularly served out to the crew and much liked by them. We carried with us besides a pair of living swine, which were slaughtered for the Christmas festivities.[254] All the men at that time had an opportunity of eating fresh pork twice a week, an invaluable interruption to the monotonous preserved provisions, which in its proportion conduced, during this festival, to which we inhabitants of the North are attached by so many memories, to enliven and cheer us.
The produce of hunting was confined during the course of the winter to some ptarmigan and hares, and thus did not yield any contribution worth mentioning to the provisioning of the vessel. On the other hand, I was able by barter with the natives to procure fish in considerable abundance, so that at certain seasons the quantity was sufficient to allow of fresh fish being served out once a week. The kind of fish which was principally obtained during the winter, a sort of cod with greyish-green vertebrae, could however at first only be served in the gun-room, because the crew, on account of the colour of its bones, for a long time had an invincible dislike to it.
On many of the ground-ices in the neighbourhood of the vessel there were fresh-water collections of considerable depth, which indeed were already hard frozen on the surface, but long yielded us splendid water for drinking and washing. After the 14th of December, when all the smaller fresh-water collections were almost frozen to the bottom, and salt-water had made its way into the largest ones and those on which we most depended, it became necessary to procure water by melting ice.
The meteorological observations were made every fourth hour up to the 1st November; after that to the 1st April every hour; after that again six times in the twenty-four hours. From the 27th November to the 1st April the thermometers were set up on land at the magnetical observatory; before and after that time in the immediate neighbourhood of the vessel. During winter the charge of the meteorological observations was intrusted to Dr. Stuxberg, who at that season, when all around us was covered with ice, was compelled to let his own zoological researches rest.
The state of the weather of course had a very sensible influence on our daily life, and formed the touchstone by which our equipment was tested. Space does not permit me to give in this work the detailed results of the meteorological observations. I shall therefore only state the following facts.
The greatest cold which was observed during the different months was in
October the 24th—20.8 deg. March the 29th—39.8 deg. November the 30th—27.2 deg. April the 15th—38.0 deg. December the 23rd—37.1 deg. May the 3rd—26.8 deg. January the 25th—45.7 deg. June the 3rd—14.3 deg. February the 2nd—43.8 deg. July the 2nd—1.0 deg.
Twice we had the barometer uncommonly high, viz.:
On the 22nd December 6 A.M. 782.0 (0 deg.) mm. On the 17th February 6 A.M. 788.1 (0 deg.) mm.
The lowest atmospheric pressure, 728.8 (0 deg.) mm., occurred on the 31st December at two o'clock P.M.
The weather during the winter was very stormy, and the direction of the wind nearest the surface of the earth almost constantly between north-west and north-north-west. But already in atmospheric strata of inconsiderable height there prevailed, to judge by the direction of the clouds, a similar uninterrupted atmospheric current from the south-east, which when it occasionally sank to the surface of the earth brought with it air that was warmer and less saturated with moisture. The reason of this is easy to see, if we consider that Behring's Straits form a gate surrounded by pretty high mountains between the warm atmospheric area of the Pacific and the cold one of the Arctic Ocean. The winds must be arranged here approximately after the same laws as the draught in the door-opening between a warm and a cold room, that is to say, the cold current of air must go below from the cold room to the warm, the warm above from the warm room to the cold. The mountain heights which, according to the statement of the natives, are to be found in the interior of the Chukch peninsula besides conduce to the heat and dryness of the southerly and south-easterly winds. For they confer on the sea winds that pass over their summits the properties of the foehn winds. Our coldest winds have come from S.W. to W., that is to say, from the Old World's pole of cold, situated in the region of Werchojansk. On the existence of two currents of air, which at a certain height above the surface of the earth contend for the mastery, depends also the surprising rapidity with which the vault of heaven in the region of Behring's Straits becomes suddenly clouded over and again completely clear. Already the famous Behring's Straits' navigator, RODGERS, now Admiral in the American Navy, had noticed this circumstance, and likened it very strikingly to the drawing up and dropping of the curtain of a theatre.
In our notes on the weather a difference was always made between snoeyra (fall of snow in wind) and yrsnoe (snow-storm without snow-fall). The fall of snow was not very great, but as there was in the course of the winter no thaw of such continuance that the snow was at any time covered with a coherent melted crust, a considerable portion of the snow that fell remained so loose that with the least puff of wind it was whirled backwards and forwards. In a storm or strong breeze the snow was carried to higher strata of the atmosphere, which was speedily filled with so close and fine snow-dust, that objects at the distance of a few metres could no longer be distinguished. There was no possibility in such weather of keeping the way open, and the man that lost his way was helplessly lost, if he could not, like the Chukch snowed up in a drift, await the ceasing of the storm. But even when the wind was slight and the sky clear there ran a stream of snow some centimetres in height along the ground in the direction of the wind, and thus principally from N.W. to S.E. Even this shallow stream heaped snowdrifts everywhere where there was any protection from the wind, and buried more certainly, if less rapidly, than the drifting snow of the storm, exposed objects and trampled footpaths. The quantity of water, which in a frozen form is removed in this certainly not deep, but uninterrupted and rapid current over the north coast of Siberia to more southerly regions, must be equal to the mass of water in the giant rivers of our globe, and play a sufficiently great role, among others as a carrier of cold to the most northerly forest regions, to receive the attention of meteorologists.
The humidity of the air was observed both by August's psychrometer and Saussure's hygrometer. But I do not believe that these instruments give trustworthy results at a temperature considerably under the freezing-point. Moreover the degree of humidity at the place where there can be a question of setting up a psychrometer and hygrometer during a wintering in the high north, has not the meteorological importance which has often been ascribed to it. For the instruments are as a rule set up in an isolated louvre case, standing at a height above the surface convenient for reading. While the snow is drifting almost uninterruptedly it is impossible to keep this case clear of snow. Even the air, which was originally quite dry, must here be saturated with moisture through evaporation from the surrounding layers of snow and from the snow dust which whirls about next the surface of the earth. In order to determine the true degree of humidity in the air, I would accordingly advise future travellers to these regions to weigh directly the water which a given measure of air contains by absorbing it in tubes with chloride of calcium, calcined sulphate of copper, or sulphuric acid. It would be easy to arrange an instrument for this purpose so that the whole work could be done under deck, the air from any stratum under the mast-top being examined at will. If I had had the means to make such an examination at the Vega's winter quarters, it would certainly have appeared that the relative humidity of the air at a height of some few metres above the surface of the earth was for the most part exceedingly small.
The sandy neck of land which on the side next the vessel divided the lagoons from the sea, was bestrewn with colossal bones of the whale, and with the refuse of the Chukches, who had lived and wandered about there for centuries, and besides with portions of the skeleton of the seal and walrus, with the excreta of men, dogs, birds, &c. The region was among the most disagreeable I have seen in any of the parts inhabited by fishing Lapps, Samoyeds, Chukches, or Eskimo. When the Vega was beset there were two Chukch villages on the neighbouring beach, of which the one that lay nearest our winter haven was called Pitlekaj. It consisted at first of seven tents, which in consequence of want of food their inhabitants removed gradually in the course of the winter to a region near Behring's Straits, where fish were more abundant. At the removal only the most indispensable articles were taken along, because there was an intention of returning at that season of the year when the chase again became more productive. The other encampment, Yinretlen, lay nearer the cape towards Kolyutschin Bay, and reckoned at the beginning of our wintering likewise seven tents, whose inhabitants appeared to be in better circumstances than those of Pitlekaj. They had during the autumn made a better catch and collected a greater stock. Only some of them accordingly removed during winter.
The following encampments lay at a somewhat greater distance from our winter quarters, but so near, however, that we were often visited by their inhabitants:
Pidlin, on the eastern shore of Kolyutschin Bay, four tents.
Kolyutschin, on the island of the same name, twenty-five tents. This village was not visited by any of the members of the Vega Expedition.
Rirajtinop, situated six kilometres east of Pitlekaj, three tents.
Irgunnuk, seven kilometres east of Pitlekaj, ten tents, of which, however, in February only four remained. The inhabitants of the others had for the winter sought a better fishing place farther eastward.
The number of the persons who belonged to each tent was difficult to make out, because the Chukches were constantly visiting each other for the purpose of gossip and talk. On an average it may perhaps be put at five or six persons. Including the inhabitants of Kolyutschin Island, there thus lived about 300 natives in the neighbourhood of our winter quarters.
When we were beset, the ice next the shore, as has been already stated, was too weak to carry a foot passenger, and the difficulty of reaching the vessel from the land with the means which the Chukches had at their disposal was thus very great. When the natives observed us, there was in any case immediately a great commotion among them. Men, women, children, and dogs were seen running up and down the beach in eager confusion; some were seen driving in dog-sledges on the ice street next the sea. They evidently feared that the splendid opportunity which here lay before them of purchasing brandy and tobacco, would be lost. From the vessel we could see with glasses how several attempts were made to put out boats, but they were again given up, until at last a boat was got to a lane, clear of ice or only covered with a thin sheet, that ran from the shore to the neighbourhood of the vessel. In this a large skin boat was put out, which was filled brimful of men and women, regardless of the evident danger of navigating such a boat, heavily laden, through sharp, newly formed ice. They rowed immediately to the vessel, and on reaching it most of them climbed without the least hesitation over the gunwale with jests and laughter, and the cry anoaj anoaj (good day, good day). Our first meeting with the inhabitants of this region, where we afterwards passed ten long months, was on both sides very hearty, and formed the starting-point of a very friendly relation between the Chukches and ourselves, which remained unaltered during the whole of our stay.
Regard for cleanliness compelled us to allow the Chukches to come below deck only exceptionally, which at first annoyed them much, so that one of them even showed a disposition to retaliate by keeping us out of the bedchamber in his tent. Our firmness on this point, however, combined with friendliness and generosity, soon calmed them, and it was not so easy for the men to exclude us from the inner tent, for in such visits we always had confections and tobacco with us, both for themselves and for the women and children. On board the vessel's tent-covered deck soon became a veritable reception saloon for the whole population of the neighbourhood. Dog-team after dog-team stood all day in rows, or more correctly lay snowed up before the ice-built flight of steps to the deck of the Vega, patiently waiting for the return of the visitors, or for the pemmican I now and then from pity ordered to be given to the hungered animals. The report of the arrival of the remarkable foreigners must besides have spread with great rapidity. For we soon had visits even from distant settlements, and the Vega finally became a resting-place at which every passer-by stopped with his dog-team for some hours in order to satisfy his curiosity, or to obtain in exchange for good words or some more acceptable wares a little warm food, a bit of tobacco, and sometimes when the weather was very stormy, a little drop of spirits, by the Chukches called ram, a word whose origin is not to be sought for in the Swedish-Norwegian dram, but in the English word rum.
All who came on board were allowed to go about without let or hindrance on our deck, which was encumbered with a great many things. We had not however to lament the loss of the merest trifle. Honesty was as much at home here as in the huts of the reindeer Lapps. On the other hand, they soon became very troublesome by their beggary, which was kept in bounds by no feeling of self-respect. Nor did they fail to take all possible advantage of what they doubtless considered the great inexperience of the Europeans. Small deceptions in this way were evidently not looked upon as blameworthy, but as meritorious. Sometimes, for instance, they sold us the same thing twice over, they were always liberal in promises which they never intended to keep, and often gave deceptive accounts of articles which were exposed for sale. Thus the carcases of foxes were offered, after having been flayed and the head and feet cut off, on several occasions as hares, and it was laughable to see their astonishment at our immediately discovering the fraud. The Chukches' complete want of acquaintance with money and our small supply of articles for barter for which they had a liking besides compelled even me to hold at least a portion of our wares at a high price. Skins and blubber, the common products of the Polar lands, to the great surprise of the natives, were not purchased on the Vega. On the other hand a complete collection of weapons, dresses, and household articles was procured by barter. All such purchases were made exclusively on account of the Expedition, and in general the collection of natural and ethnographical objects for private account was wholly forbidden, a regulation which ought to be in force in every scientific expedition to remote regions.
As the Chukches began to acquire a taste for our food, they never neglected, especially during the time when their hunting failed, to bring daily on board driftwood and the vertebrae and other bones of the whale. They bartered these for bread. A load of five bits of wood, from four to five inches in diameter and six feet long, was commonly paid for with two or three ship biscuits, that is to say with about 250 gram bread, the vertebra of a whale with two ship biscuits, &c. By degrees two young natives got into the habit of coming on board daily for the purpose of performing, quite at their leisure, the office of servant. The cook was their patron, and they obtained from him in compensation for their services the larger share of the left victuals. So considerable a quantity of food was distributed partly as payment for services rendered or for goods purchased, partly as gifts, that we contributed in a very great degree to mitigate the famine which during midwinter threatened to break out among the population.
None of the natives in the neighbourhood of the Vega's winter station professed the Christian religion. None of them spoke any European language, though one or two knew a couple of English words and a Russian word of salutation. This was a very unfortunate circumstance, which caused us much trouble. But it was soon remedied by Lieut. Nordquist specially devoting himself to the study of their language, and that with such zeal and success that in a fortnight he could make himself pretty well understood. The natives stated to DE LONG in the autumn of 1879 that a person on the "man of war" which wintered on the north coast, spoke Chukch exceedingly well. The difficulty of studying the language was increased, to a not inconsiderable degree, by the Chukches in their wish to co-operate with us in finding a common speech being so courteous as not to correct, but to adopt the mistakes, in the pronunciation or meaning of words that were made on the Vega. As a fruit of his studies Lieut. Nordquist has drawn up an extensive vocabulary of this little known language, and given a sketch of its grammatical structure.[255] The knowledge of the Chukch language, which the other members of the Expedition acquired, was confined to a larger or smaller number of words; the natives also learned a word or two of our language, so that a lingua franca somewhat intelligible to both parties gradually arose, in which several of the crew soon became very much at home, and with which in case of necessity one could get along very well, although in this newly formed dialect all grammatical inflections were totally wanting. Besides, I set one of the crew, the walrus-hunter Johnsen, free for a consideral time from all work on board, in order that he might wander about the country daily, partly for hunting, partly for conversing with the natives. He succeeded in the beginning of winter in killing some ptarmigan and hares, got for me a great deal of important information regarding the mode of life of the Chukches, and procured several valuable ethnographical objects. But after a time, for what reason I could never make out, he took an invincible dislike to visit the Chukch tents more, without however having come to any disagreement with their inhabitants.
On the 5th October the openings between the drift-ice fields next the vessel were covered with splendid skating ice, of which we availed ourselves by celebrating a gay and joyous skating festival. The Chukch women and children were now seen fishing for winter roach along the shore. In this sort of fishing a man, who always accompanies the fishing women, with an iron-shod lance cuts a hole in the ice so near the shore that the distance between the under corner of the hole and the bottom is only half a metre. Each hole is used only by one woman, and that only for a short time. Stooping down at the hole, in which the surface of the water is kept quite clear of pieces of ice by means of an ice-sieve, she endeavours to attract the fish by means of a peculiar wonderfully clattering cry. First when a fish is seen in seen in the water an angling line, provided with a hook of bone, iron or copper, is thrown down, strips of the entrails of fish being employed as bait. A small metre-long staff with a single or double crook in the end was also used as a fishing implement. With this little leister the men cast up fish on the ice with incredible dexterity. When the ice became thicker, this fishing was entirely given up, while during the whole winter a species of cod and another of grayling were taken in great quantity in a lagoon situated nearer Behring's Straits. The coregonus is also caught in the inland lakes, although, at least at this season of the year, only in limited quantity.
On the morning of the 6th October, we saw from the vessel an extraordinary procession moving forward on the ice. A number of Chukches drew a dog-sledge on which lay a man. At first we supposed it was a man who was very ill, and who came to seek the help of the physician, but when the procession reached the vessel's side, the supposed invalid climbed very nimbly up the ice-covered rope-ladder (our ice-stair was not yet in order), stepped immediately with a confident air, giving evidence of high rank, upon the half-deck, crossed himself, saluted graciously, and gave us to know in broken Russian that he was a man of importance in that part of the country. It now appeared that we were honoured with a visit from the representative of the Russian empire, WASSILI MENKA, the starost among the reindeer-Chukches. He was a little dark man, with a pretty worn appearance, clad in a white variegated "pesk" of reindeer skin, under which a blue flannel shirt was visible. In order immediately on his arrival to inspire us with respect, and perhaps also in order not to expose his precious life to the false Ran's treachery, he came to the vessel over the yet not quite trustworthy ice, riding in a sledge that was drawn not by dogs but by his men. On his arrival he immediately showed us credentials of his rank, and various evidences of the payment of tribute (or market tolls), consisting of some few red and some white fox-skins, reckoning the former at 1 rouble 80 copecks, the latter at 40 copecks each.
He was immediately invited down to the gunroom, entertained after the best of our ability, and bothered with a number of questions which he evidently understood with difficulty, and answered in very unintelligible Russian. He was in any case the first with whom some of us could communicate, at least in a way. He could neither read nor write. On the other hand, he could quickly comprehend a map which was shown him, and point out with great accuracy a number of the more remarkable places in north-eastern Siberia. Of the existence of the Russian emperor the first official of the region had no idea; on the other hand, he knew that a very powerful person had his home at Irkutsk. On us he conferred the rank of "Ispravnik" in the neighbouring towns. At first he crossed himself with much zeal before some photographs and copper-plate engravings in the gunroom, but he soon ceased when he observed that we did not do likewise. Menka was accompanied by two badly-clad natives with very oblique eyes, whom we took at first for his servants or slaves. Afterwards we found that they were owners of reindeer, who considered themselves quite as good as Menka himself, and further on we even heard one of them speak of Menka's claim to be a chief with a compassionate smile. Now, however, they were exceedingly respectful, and it was by them that Menka's gift of welcome, two reindeer roasts, was carried forward with a certain stateliness. As a return present we gave him a woollen shirt and some parcels of tobacco. Menka said that he should travel in a few days to Markova, a place inhabited by Russians on the river Anadyr, in the neighbourhood of the old Anadyrsk. Although I had not yet given up hope of getting free before winter, I wished to endeavour to utilize this opportunity of sending home accounts of the Vega's position, the state of matters on board, &c. An open letter was therefore written in Russian, and addressed to his Excellency the Governor-General at Irkutsk, with the request that he would communicate its contents to his Majesty, King Oscar. This was placed, along with several private sealed letters between a couple of pieces of board, and handed over to Menka with a request to give them to the Russian authorities at Markova. At first it appeared as if Menka understood the letter as some sort of farther credentials for himself. For when he landed he assembled, in the presence of some of us, a circle of Chukches round himself, placed himself with dignity in their midst, opened out the paper, but so that he had it upside down, and read from it long sentences in Chukch to an attentive audience, astonished at his learning. Next forenoon we had another visit of the great and learned chief. New presents were exchanged, and he was entertained after our best ability. Finally he danced to the chamber-organ, both alone and together with some of his hosts, to the great entertainment of the Europeans and Asiatics present.
As the state of the ice was still unaltered, I did not neglect the opportunity that now offered of making acquaintance with the interior of the country. With pleasure, accordingly, I gave Lieutenants Nordquist and Hovgaard permission to pay a visit to Menka's encampment. They started on the morning of the 8th October. Lieut. Nordquist has given me the following account of their excursion:—
"On Tuesday, the 8th October, at 10 o'clock A.M. Lieut Hovgaard and I travelled from Pitlekaj in dog-sledges into the interior in a S.S.E. direction. Hovgaard and I had each a Chukch as driver. Menka had with him a servant, who almost all the time ran before as guide. My comrade's sledge, which was heaviest, was drawn by ten dogs, mine by eight, and Menka's, which was the smallest and in which he sat alone, by five. In general the Chukches appear to reckon four or five dogs sufficient for a sledge with one person.
"The tundra, with marshes and streams scattered over it, was during the first part of our way only gently undulating, but the farther we went into the interior of the country the more uneven it became, and when, at 8 o'clock next morning, we reached the goal of our journey—Menka's brother's camp—we found ourselves in a valley, surrounded by hills, some of which rose about 300 metres above their bases. A portion of the vegetable covering the tundra could still be distinguished through the thin layer of snow. The most common plants on the drier places were Aira alpina and Poa alpina; on the more low-lying places there grew Glyceria, Pedicularis, and Ledum palustre; everywhere we found Petasites frigida and a species of Salix. The latter grew especially on the slopes in great masses, which covered spots having an area of twenty to thirty square metres. At some places this bush rose to a height of about a metre above the ground. The prevailing rock appeared to be granite. The bottoms of the valleys were formed of post-Tertiary formations, which most frequently consisted of sand and rolled stones, as, for instance, was the case in the great valley in which ilenka's brother's camp was pitched.
"When, on the morning of the 9th, we came to the camp there met us some of the principal Chukches. They saluted Menka in the Russian way, by kissing him first on both cheeks and then on the mouth. The Chukches however, appear to be very averse to this ceremony, and scarcely ever touched each other with the mouth. Us they saluted in the common way, by stretching out the hand and bowing themselves. We then went into Menka's brother's tent, in front of which the whole inhabitants of the encampment were speedily assembled to look at us. The camp consisted of eighteen tents, pitched on both sides of a river which ran through the valley. The tents were inhabited by reindeer-Chukches, who carry on traffic between the Russians and a tribe living on the other side of Behring's Straits, whom they call Yekargaules. Between the tents we saw a great number of sledges, both empty and loaded. Some of these were light and low sledges for driving in, with runners bent upwards and backwards, others were heavier pack-sledges, made of stronger wood, with the runners not bent back. Some of the light sledges were provided with tilts of splints covered with reindeer skins; others were completely covered, having an entrance only in front.
"The knives, axes, boring tools, &c., which I saw were of iron and steel, and had evidently been obtained from Americans or Russians. The household articles in Menka's brother's tent consisted of some copper coffee-pots, which were used for boiling water, a german-silver beaker with an English inscription, two teacups with saucers, flat wooden trays, and barrels. The dress of the reindeer-Chukches is similar to that of the coast-Chukches, only with this difference, that the former use reindeer-skins exclusively, while the latter employ seal-skin in addition. Some, on our arrival, put on blouses of variegated cloth, probably of Russian manufacture. Among ornaments may be mentioned glass-beads, strung on sinews, which were worn in the ears or on the neck, chiefly by the women. These were tattooed in the same way as those of the coast-Chukches. I saw here, however, an old woman, who, besides the common tattooing of the face, was tattooed on the shoulders, and another, who, on the outside of the hands, had two parallel lines running along the hand and an oblique line connecting them. The men were not tattooed. Two of them carried crosses, with Slavonic inscriptions, at the neck, others carried in the same way forked pieces of wood. Whether these latter are to be considered as their gods or as amulets I know not.
"As we could not obtain here the reindeer that we wished to purchase on account of the expedition, we betook ourselves with our dogs on the afternoon of the same day along with Menka to his son-in-law's encampment, which we reached at 8 o'clock in the evening. We were received in a very friendly way, and remained here over night. All the inhabitants of the tent sleep together in the bedchamber of it, which is not more than 2 to 2.4 metres long, 1.8 to 2 metres broad, and 1.2 to 1.5 metres high. Before they lie down they take supper. Men and women wear during the night only a cingulum pudicitiae, about fifteen centimetres broad, and are otherwise completely naked. In the morning the housewife rose first and boiled a little flesh, which was then served in the bedchamber, before its inmates had put on their clothes. She cut the meat in slices in a tray, and distributed them afterwards. In the morning we saw the Chukches catch and slaughter their reindeer. Two men go into the herd, and when they have got sight of a reindeer which they wish to have, they cast, at a distance of nine or ten metres, a running noose over the animal's horns. It now throws itself backwards and forwards in its attempts to escape, and drags after it for some moments the man who holds the noose. The other man in the meantime endeavours to approach the reindeer, catches the animal by the horns and throws it to the ground, killing it afterwards by a knife-stab behind the shoulder. The reindeer is then handed over to the women, who, by an incision in the side of the belly, take out the entrails. The stomach is emptied of its contents, and is then used to hold the blood. Finally th skin is taken off.
"About 10 o'clock A.M. we commenced our homeward journey. At nightfall we sought to have a roof over our head in a wretched Chukch tent on the shore of Lake Utschunutsch. It was partly sunk in one of the small mounds which are found here along the shore, and which are probably the remains of old Onkilon dwellings. The present inhabitants, two old men and an old woman, had their habitation arranged in the following way:—In the bottom of a cylindrical pit, one metre deep and three and a half to four and a half metres in diameter, a vertical pole was erected, against the upper end of which rested a number of obliquely placed bars, rising from the edge of the pit, which were covered with skins. The enclosure or bedchamber, peculiar to the Chukch tent, was not wanting here. Otherwise the whole dwelling bore the stamp of poverty and dirt. The food of the inmates appeared to be fish. Of this, besides the fish we obtained here, the nets hanging in front of the tent afforded evidence. Some clothes, an iron pot, two wooden vessels, and a Shaman drum were the only things I could discover in the tent.
"Next morning we continued our journey. On the other side of Lake Utschunutsch we saw two dwellings, which only consisted of boats turned upside down with some hides drawn over them. The rest of the way we came past Najtskaj and through Irgunnuk, where we were received in an exceedingly friendly fashion. By 7 o'clock in the evening of the 11th October we were again on board the Vega."
From Lieutenant Hovgaard's report, which principally relates to the topography of the region passed through, we make the following extract relating to the endurance which the Chukches and their dogs showed:—
"During our outward journey, which lasted twenty-one and a half hours, Menka's attendant, the before-mentioned reindeer owner, whom we at first took to be Menka's slave or servant, ran without interruption before the sledges, and even when we rested he was actively searching for the track, looking after the dogs, &c. When we came to the camp he did not sleep, and, notwithstanding, was as fresh during the following day's journey. During the time he got no spirituous liquor, by express order of Menka, who said that if he did he would not be able to continue to run. Instead he chewed a surprising quantity of tobacco. The dogs, during the whole time, were not an instant unyoked; in the mornings they lay half snowed up, and slept in front of the sledges. We never saw the Chukches give them any food: the only food they got was the frozen excrements of the fox and other animals, which they themselves snapped up in passing. Yet even on the last day no diminution in their power of draught was observable."
Nordquist brought with him, among other things, two reindeer, bought for a rouble and a half each. They were still very serviceable, though badly slaughtered. But the reindeer we purchased farther on in the winter were so poor that no one on board could persuade himself to eat them.
On the 18th October, by which time we believed that Menka would be already at Markova, we were again visited by him and his son-in-law. He said he had no akmimil (fire-water) to keep holiday with, and now came to us to exchange three slaughtered reindeer for it. Our miscalculation with respect to the letters, which we hoped were long ago on their way to their destination, and my dislike to the mode of payment in question—I offered him, without success, half-imperials and metal rouble pieces instead of brandy—made his reception on this occasion less hearty, and he therefore left us soon. It was not until the 9th. February, 1879, that we again got news from Menka by one of the Chukches, who had attended him the time before. The Chukch said that in ten days he had traversed the way between the Vega's winter haven and Markova, which would run to about ninety kilometres a day. According to his statement Menka had travelled with the letters to Yakutsk. The statement seemed very suspicious, and appeared afterwards to have been partly fabricated, or perhaps to have been misunderstood by us. But after our return to the world of newspapers we found that Menka had actually executed his commission. He, however, did not reach Anadyrsk until the 7th March/23rd February. Thence the packet was sent to Irkutsk, arriving there on the 10th May/28th April. The news reached Sweden by telegraph six days after, on the 16th May, just at a time when concern for the fate of the Vega, was beginning to be very great, and the question of relief expeditions was seriously entertained.[256]
In order to relieve the apprehensions of our friends at home, it was, however, exceedingly important to give them some accounts of the position of the Vega during winter, and I therefore offered all the purchasing power which the treasures of guns, powder, ball, food, fine shirts, and even spirits, collected on board, could exert, in order to induce some natives to convey Lieutenants Nordquist and Bove to Markova or Nischni Kolymsk. The negotiations seemed at first to go on very well, an advance was demanded and given, but when the journey should have commenced the Chukches always refused to start on some pretext or other—now it was too cold, now too dark, now there was no food for the dogs. The negotiations had thus no other result than to make us acquainted with one of the few less agreeable sides of the Chukches' disposition, namely the complete untrustworthiness of these otherwise excellent savages, and their peculiar idea of the binding force of an agreement.
The plans of travel just mentioned, however, led to Lieutenant Nordquist making an excursion with dog-sledges in order to be even with one of the natives, who had received an advance for driving him to Markova, but had not kept his promise. Of this journey Lieutenant Nordquist gives the following account:—
"On the 5th December, at 7.50 A.M., I started with a dog-sledge for the village Pidlin, lying on Kolyutschin Bay. I was driven by the Chukch Auango from Irgunnuk. He had a small, light sledge, provided with runners of whalebone, drawn by six dogs, of which the leader was harnessed before the other five, which were fastened abreast in front of the sledge, each with its draught belt. The dogs were weak and ill managed, and therefore went so slowly that I cannot estimate their speed at more than two or three English miles an hour. As the journey both thither and back lasted eight to nine hours, the distance between Pitlekaj and Pidlin may be about twenty-five English miles.
"Pidlin and Kolyutschin Island are the only inhabited places on Kolyutschin Bay. At the former place there are four tents, pitched on the eastern shore of the bay, the number of the inhabitants being a little over twenty persons. I was received in front of the tents by the population of the village and carried to the tent, which was inhabited by Chepcho, who now promised to go with me in February to Anadyrsk. My host had a wife and three children. At night the children were completely undressed; the adults had short trousers on, the man of tanned skin, the woman of cloth. In the oppressive heat, which was kept up by two train-oil lamps burning the whole night, it was difficult to sleep even in the heavy reindeer-skin dresses. Yet they covered themselves with reindeer skins. Besides the heat there was a fearful stench—the Chukches obeyed the calls of nature within the bedchamber—which I could not stand without going out twice to get fresh air. When we got up next morning our hostess served breakfast in a flat tray, containing first seals' flesh and fat, with a sort of sourkrout of fermented willow-leaves, then seals' liver, and finally seals' blood—all frozen.
"Among objects of ethnographical interest I saw, besides the Shaman drum which was found in every tent, and was not regarded with the superstitious dread which I have often observed elsewhere, a bundle of amulets fastened with a small thong, a wolf's skull, which was also hung up by a thong, the skin together with the whole cartilaginous portion of a wolf's nose and a flat stone. The amulets consisted of wooden forks, four to five centimetres long, of the sort which we often see the Chukches wear on the breast. My host said that such an amulet worn round the neck was a powerful means of preventing disease. The wolf's skull which I had already got, he took back, because his four- or five-year-old son would need it in making choice of a wife. What part it played in this I did not however ascertain.
"While my driver harnessed the dogs for the journey home, I had an opportunity of seeing some little girls dance, which they did in the same way as that in which I had seen girls dance at Pitlekaj and Yinretlen. Two girls then place themselves either right opposite to or alongside of each other. In the former case they often lay their hands on each other's shoulders, bend by turns to either side, sometimes leap with the feet held together and wheel round, while they sing or rather grunt the measure.
"The journey home was commenced at eight o'clock in the morning. In the course of it my driver sang Chukch songs. These are often only imitations of the cries of animals or improvisations without any distinct metre or rhythm, and very little variation in the notes; only twice I thought I could distinguish a distinct melody. In the afternoon my driver told me the Chukch names of several stars. At five o'clock in the afternoon I reached the Vega."
On the 10th October, the new ice at many places in the neighbourhood of the vessel was still so weak that it was impossible to walk upon it, and blue water-skies at the horizon indicated, that there were still considerable stretches of open water in the neighbourhood. But the drift-ice round about us lay so rock-fast, that I could already take solar altitudes from the deck of the vessel with a mercurial horizon. In order to ascertain the actual state of the case with reference to the open water, excursions were undertaken on the 13th October, in different directions. Dr. Kjellman could then, from the rocky promontory at Yinretlen, forty-two metres high, see large open spaces in the sea to the northward. Dr. Almquist went right out over the ice, following the track of Chukches, who had gone to catch seals. He travelled about twenty kilometres over closely packed drift-ice fields, without reaching open water, and found the newly frozen ice, with which the pieces of drift-ice were bound together, still everywhere unbroken. The Chukches, who visited the vessel in dog-sledges on the 28th October, informed us, however, that the sea a little to the east of us was still completely open.
On the 15th October the hunter Johnsen returned from a hunting expedition quite terrified. He informed us that during his wanderings on the tundra, he had found a murdered man and brought with him, with the idea that, away here in the land of the Chukches, similar steps ought to be taken as in those lands which are blessed by a well-ordered judiciary, as species facti, some implements lying beside the dead man, among which was a very beautiful lance, on whose blade traces of having been inlaid in gold could still be discovered. Fortunately he had come with these things through the Chukch camp unobserved. From the description which was given me, however, I was able immediately to come to the conclusion that the question here was not of any murder, but of a dead man laid out on the tundra. I requested Dr. Almquist to visit the place, in order that he might make a more detailed examination. He confirmed my conjecture. As wolves, foxes, and ravens had already torn the corpse to pieces, the doctor considered that he, too, might take his share, and therefore brought home with him from his excursion, an object carefully wrapped up and concealed among the hunting equipment, namely, the Chukch's head. It was immediately sunk to the sea-bottom, where it remained for a couple of weeks to be skeletonised by the crustacea swarming there, and it now has its number in the collections brought home by the Vega. This sacrilege was never detected by the Chukches, and probably the wolves got the blame of it, as nearly every spring it was seen that the corpse, which had been laid out during autumn, lost its head during winter. It was, perhaps, more difficult to explain the disappearance of the lance, but of this, too, the maws of the wolves might well bear the blame.
Our hunters now made hunting excursions in different directions, but the supply of game was scanty. The openings in the ice probably swarmed with seals, but they were too distant, and without a boat it was impossible to carry on any hunting there. Not a single Polar bear now appeared to be visible in the neighbourhood, although bears' skulls are found at several places on the beach, and this animal appears to play a great part in the imagination of the natives, to judge of the many figures of bears among the bone carvings I purchased from the Chukches. The natives often have a small strip of bear's skin on the seat of their sledges, but I have not seen any whole bear's skin here; perhaps the animal is being exterminated on the north coast of Siberia. Our wintering, therefore, will not enrich Arctic literature with any new bear stories—a very sensible difficulty for the writer himself. Wolves, on the other hand, occur on the tundra in sufficient abundance, even if one or other of the wolves found in mist and drifting snow, and saluted with shot, turned out, on a critical determination of species, to be our own dogs. At least, this was the case with the "wolf," that inveigled one of the crew into shooting a ball one dark night right through the thermometer case, fortunately without injuring the instruments, and with no other result than that he had afterwards to bear an endless number of jokes from his comrades on account of his wolf-hunt. Foxes, white, red and black, also occurred here in great numbers, but they were at that season difficult to get at, and besides they had perhaps withdrawn from the coast. Hares, on the other hand, maintained themselves during the whole winter at Yinretlen, by day partly out on the ice partly on the cape, by night in the neighbourhood of the tents. Sweepings and offal from the proceeds of the chase had there produced a vegetation, which, though concealed by snow, yielded to the hares in winter a more abundant supply of food than the barren tundra. It was remarkable that the hares were allowed to live between the tents and in their neighbourhood without being disturbed by the score of lean and hungry dogs belonging to the village. When farther into the winter for the sake of facilitating the hare-hunting I had a hut erected for Johnsen the hunter, he chose as the place for it the immediate neighbourhood of the village, declaring that the richest hunting-ground in the whole neighbourhood was just there. The shooters stated that part of the hares became snow-blind in spring. The hares here are larger than with us, and have exceedingly delicious flesh. |
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