DRIFTING IN ICE OFF HERALD ISLAND. 105 



with US, finally heading us at N. W. true. The surface 

 water ranged from 2° to 4° higher than the air in tem- 

 perature, but I was unable to detect positively an}^ 

 current, although it would seem natural to suppose that 

 the warmer w^ater set to the northward. The dredge 

 brought up from twenty- eight fathoms a fair collection. 



August 29th, Friday. — Before leaving St. Lawrence 

 Bay, I had decided to call at Cape Serdze Kamen to 

 seek tidings of Nordenskjold. While in San Francisco, 

 I had seen in the newspapers that he had passed 

 through Behring Strait; and I telegraphed to the 

 Navy Department asking if such a report was consid- 

 ered reliable. Before sailing, the Secretary of the 

 Navy sent me a copy of a communication from the Sec- 

 retary of State, giving the words of a cablegram from 

 Mr. Stevens, our Minister at Stockholm, who had been 

 telegraphed to for information: "Last at Serdze Kamen; 

 was to sail in May." Besides this, I had received a 

 cable from Mr. Sibiriakoff, of St. Petersburg, asking me 

 to leave papers for Captain Sengstaecke, commanding 

 the A. E. Nordenskjold, a vessel built by Mr. Sibiria- 

 koff, to go in search of the Vega. For these two rea- 

 sons, therefore, I determined visiting Serdze Kamen, 

 with the hope also of verifying the tidings received at 

 St. Lawrence Bay. 



The land to the northward and westward of Behring 

 Strait is so vaguely described in books of sailing direc- 

 tions, and so roughly delineated on the charts, that it 

 was very difficult to determine which cape was Cape 

 Serdze Kamen. We have had no observations for lat- 

 itude or longitude at noon, and are rather uncertain as 

 to our whereabouts. However, between noon and four 

 P. M. I stood in tow^ard the land for a kind of bay sur- 

 rounded by high round hills, and at four sighted a col- 



