The Voyage Of The Vega Round Asia And Europe Part 42

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

"As we were forced to desist from visiting the interior of Kolyutschin Bay, we determined to go to the ground where Yettugin's reindeer pastured. We therefore left the tent on the evening of the 15th and travelled E.N.E. The warmth, which had now commenced, began to make travelling over snow fields difficult, the dogs sank to the stomach, and not unfrequently we had to alight in order to help the poor animals to climb the hills we were obliged to ascend.

Scarcely however had they come to the reindeer tracks before even the most exhausted of them rushed along at the top of their speed, which might be pleasant enough uphill, but when they were coming down it was very dangerous, because the slope nearly always ends with a steep escarpment. We came once, without observing it, to the edge of such a precipice, and if we had not succeeded in time in slackening our speed a nice confused ma.s.s of men, dogs, and sledges would have tumbled over it. In order to excite their draught animals the Chukches avail themselves of their dogs' inclination to run after the reindeer, and during their journeys they endeavour to spur them on yet more by now and then imitating the reindeer's cry. After two or three hours travelling we fell in with the first reindeer, and then by degrees with more and more, until finally about 11 o'clock P.M. we came to a numerous herd, tended by Yettugin. I applied to him, asking him to barter a reindeer in good condition for a gun which I had brought along with me. After various evasions Yettugin at length promised to give us next day the reindeer for the gun. He would not however himself, or with his own knife, kill the reindeer, on which account I requested Dr. Almquist to give it the _coup de grace_.

"In consequence of the soft state of the snow we were obliged to defer the commencement of our return journey to the evening of the 16th. We now travelled over the chain of hills which unites Table Mount with Tenen, and descended their northern steep slope towards an extensive plain, studded for the most part with bogs and marshes. The 17th came in with mist and considerable warmth. The mist limited the circle of vision to a distance of some few metres, and the high temperature in a short time destroyed the crust which had been formed in the course of the preceding night on the surface of the snow, and melted the layers of snow which still covered the northern slopes of these two hills.

The southern slopes on the other hand were almost quite bare, and the valleys began to be filled with water. Four or five days as warm as these and I believe there scarcely would be any snow remaining round Kolyutschin Bay. The illusions caused by the white fog illuminated by the sunlight were very astonishing. Every small spot of ground appeared as an extensive snow-free field, every tuft of gra.s.s as a bush, and a fox in our immediate neighbourhood was for a moment taken for a gigantic bear. Besides, during such a fog the action of the sunlight on the eyes was exceedingly painful even in the case of those who carried preservers. During the return Rotschitlen lost his way in consequence of the numerous different tracks. Fortunately I had observed how we travelled, and could with the help of the compa.s.s pilot our two small craft to a good haven. On the 17th of June at 1.30 P.M. we were again in good condition on board the _Vega_."

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

May began with a temperature of -20.1. On the 3rd the thermometer showed -26.8, and in the "flower-month" we had only for a few hours mild weather with an air temperature +1.8.

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

Under what circ.u.mstances this took place is shown by the following abstract of the observations of temperature at Pitlekaj from the 13th June to the 18th July, 1879:--

Max Min Mean Max Min Mean

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

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

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

For the luminous arcs, which even in Scandinavia generally form starting-points for the radiant auroras, have here exhibited themselves undreamed by the more splendid forms of the aurora I have thus, undisturbed by subsidiary phenomena, been able to devote myself to the collection of contributions towards the ascertaining of the position of these luminous arcs, and I believe that I have in this way come to some very remarkable conclusions, which have been developed in detail in a separate paper printed in _The Scientific Work of the Vega Expedition_ (Part I. p. 400). Here s.p.a.ce permits me only to make the following statement.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COMMON AURORA ARC AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: AURORA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTERER QUARTERS, 3RD MARCH 1879, AT 9 P.M. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOUBLE AURORA ARCS SEEN 20TH MARCH 1879, AT 9.30 P.M. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ELLIPTIC AURORA SEEN 21ST MARCH, 1879, AT 2.15 A.M. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ELLIPTIC AURORA SEEN 21ST MARCH, 1879, AT 3 A.M. ]

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: SONG BIRDS IN THE RIGGING OF THE "VEGA." May 1879. ]

Long before the ground became bare and mild weather commenced, migratory birds began to arrive, first the snow-bunting on the 23rd April, then large flocks of geese, eiders, long-tailed ducks, gulls, and several kinds of waders and song-birds. First among the latter was the little elegant _Sylvia Ewersmanni_, which in the middle of June settled in great flocks on the only dark spot which was yet to be seen in the quarter--the black deck of the _Vega_.

All were evidently much exhausted, and the first the poor things did was to look out convenient sleeping places, of which there is abundance in the rigging of a vessel when small birds are concerned.

I need scarcely add that our new guests, the forerunners of spring, were disturbed on board as little as possible.

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

From the acquaintance I had made during my own preceding journeys and the study of others', with the bird-world of the high north, I had got the erroneous idea that about the same species of birds are to be met with everywhere in the Polar lands of Europe, Asia, and America.

Experience gained during the expedition of the _Vega_ shows that this is by no means the case, but that the north-eastern promontory of Asia, the Chukch peninsula, forms in this respect a complete exception. Birds occur here in much fewer numbers, but with a very much greater variety of types than on Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, and Greenland, in consequence of which the bird-world on the Chukch peninsula has in its entirety a character differing wholly from that of the Atlantic Polar lands. We indeed meet here with types closely allied to the glaucous gull (_Larus glaucus_, Brunn), the ivory gull (_L. eburneus_, Gmel.), the kittiwake (_L. tridactylus_, L.), the long-tailed duck (_Harelda glacialis_, L.), the king duck (_Somateria spectabilis_, L.),[263] the phalarope (_Phalaropus fulicarius_, Bonap.), the purple sandpiper (_Tringa maritima_, Brunn.), &c., of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, but along with these are found here many peculiar species, for instance the American eider (_Somateria V-nigrum_, Gray), a swanlike goose, wholly white with black wing points (_Anser hyperboreus_, Pall.), a greyish-brown goose with bushy yellowish-white feather-covering on the head (_Anser pictus_, Pall), a species of Fuligula, elegantly coloured on the head in velvet-black, white, and green, (_Fuligula Stelleri_, Pall), the beautifully marked, scarce _Larus Rossii_, Richards, of which Dr. Almquist on the 1st July, 1879, shot a specimen from the vessel, a little brown sandpiper with a spoonlike widened bill-point (_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, L.) and various song-birds not found in Sweden, &c. Besides, a number of the Scandinavian types living here also, according to Lieutenant Nordquist, are distinguished by less considerable differences in colour-marking and size. The singular spoon-billed sandpiper was at one time in spring so common that it was twice served at the gunroom table, for which after our return home we had to endure severe reproaches from animal collectors. This bird is found only in some few museums. It was first described by LINNaeUS in _Museum Adolphi Friderici, Tomi secundi predromus_, Holmiae 1764, and then by C.P. THUNBERG in the _Transactions_ of the Swedish Academy of Sciences for 1816 (p. 194), where it is stated that the homeland of this bird is tropical America. It has since been caught a few times in south-eastern Asia. Probably, like _Sylvia Ewersmanni_, it pa.s.ses the winter in the Philippine group of islands, but in summer visits the high north. Like several other birds which appeared in spring with the first bare spots it disappeared in July. Perhaps it retired to the interior to breed in the bush, or, which is more probable, went farther north to the islands or continents not yet discovered by Europeans, which in all probability connect Wrangel Land with the Franklin Archipelago.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPOON BILLED SANDPIPER FROM CHURCH LAND.

_Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus_, L. At the side the bird's bill seen from above, of the natural size. ]

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

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

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

"Of the _lemming_ I have seen three varieties, viz. _Myodes obensis, M. torquatus_, and _Arvicola obscurus_. There is found here, also, according to the statements of the Chukches, a little mouse, in all probability a Sorex.

_Myodes torquatus_ were got the first time on the 12th January, _Myodes obensis_ on the 13th February. Both species were afterwards frequently brought on board by Chukches, and during the winter lemmings were seen not unfrequently running on the snow. _Myodes obensis_ appeared to be more numerous than the other species. It is singular that all the nine specimen of _Myodes torquatus_ I obtained during the winter were males. Differing from both these species, _Arvicola obscurus_ does not appear to show itself above the snow during winter. Of the latter I got eight specimens from the village Tj.a.pka, lying between Yinretlen and Behring's Straits. I afterwards got another from the village Irgunnuk, situated five English miles east of Yinretlen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARMOTS FROM CHUKCH LAND. ]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEGOCEPHALUS KESSLERI (STUXB). Natural size. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SABINEA SEPTEMCARINATA (SABINE). Natural size.

EVERTEBRATES FROM THE SEA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ACANTHOSTEPHIA MALMGRENI, (GOeS). Magnified twice. ]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPHIOGLYPHA NODOSA, (LuTKEN). Magnified twice EVERTEBRATES FROM THE SEA AT THE "VEGA'S" WINTER QUARTERS. ]

It was the 19th June. A large number of Chukches travelling past us as usual came on board, partly to receive the tribute of hospitality to which they considered themselves ent.i.tled, partly to satisfy an easily understood curiosity and gossip a little about the most important occurrences of the preceding day. One of them, a middle-aged man, whom we had not seen before, with a friendly and self-satisfied bearing, whose face was a mere collection of wrinkles, and over whose _pesk_ was drawn an old velvet shirt, presented himself with a certain pretentiousness as the chief NOAH ELISEJ. Since the mistake with the stately Chepurin, and since even Menka's supposed slave declared himself to be at least as good as Menka, we had begun to be rather indifferent to the rank of chief among the Chukches. Noah Elisej however, notwithstanding he thus brought forward his pretensions, was received like a common man, at which he appeared to be a little offended. But our behaviour soon changed, when Notti, or some other of our daily guests, who had become quite familiar with our fancies, tastes weaknesses, informed us that Noah Elisej had with him a large, a very large letter. Old Noah thus carried a mail, perhaps a European mail. At once he became in our eyes a man of importance. After being stormed for a time with questions, he took from a bag which hung from his neck the ordinary pieces of board fastened together, which here serve as a postbag.

They were found however to contain only a letter of a couple of lines from a Russian official at Nischm Kolymsk, without any news from Europe, but informing us that chief Noah Elisej was sent to us to a.s.sist us, if necessary. Noah first patted his stomach to indicate that he was hungry and wanted food, and hawked and pointed with his finger at his throat to let us know that a _ram_ would taste well. He then told us something which we did not then exactly understand, but which we now have reason to interpret as a statement that Noah was the leader of an expedition sent by the Siberian authorities to our relief, and that he was therefore willing in return for suitable compensation to give us some reindeer I availed myself of the offer, and purchased three animals for sugar, tea, and a little tobacco. Noah besides was a friendly and easy-going man, who, Christian though he was, travelled about with two wives and a large number of children, who all of course would see the vessel and get their treat of tobacco, clay pipes, sugar, _ram_, &c.

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

So much flood water had now begun to collect on the ice, especially near the land, that it was exceedingly difficult to walk from the vessel to the sh.o.r.e and back. Many a proposed land excursion was broken off by somebody, immediately after leaving the vessel, sinking into some deep hole in the ice and thus getting a cold bath.

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