24 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



hand, protects the coast from the Polar ice proper, formed to the 

 north of the islands. The information I have received besides, 

 refers principally to the summer months. As in the Kara 

 Sea, which formerly had a yet worse reputation, the ice here, 

 too, perhaps, melts away for the most part during autumn, so 

 that at this season we may reckon on a pretty open sea. 



Most of the correspondents, who have given information 

 about the state of the ice in the Siberian Polar Sea, concern 

 themselves further with the reports current in Siberia, that 

 American whalers have been seen from the coaot far to the 

 westward. The correctness of these reports was always denied 

 in the most decided way : yet they rest, at least to some 

 extent, on a basis of fact. For I have myself met with a 

 whaler, who for three years in a steamer carried on trade with 

 the inhabitants of the coast from Cape Yakan to Behring's 

 Straits. He was quite convinced that some years at least it 

 would be possible to sail from Behring's Straits to the Atlantic. 

 On one occasion he had returned through Behring's Straits as 

 late as the 17th October. 



From what I have thus stated, it follows, — 

 That the ocean lying north of the north coast of Siberia, 

 between the mouth of the Yenisej and Tschaun Bay, has never 

 been ploughed by the keel of any proper sea-going vessel, still 

 less been traversed by any steamer specially fitted out for 

 navigation among ice : 



That the small vessels with which it has been attempted 

 to traverse this part of the ocean never ventured very far 

 from the coast : 



That an open sea, with a fresh breeze, was as destructive for 

 them, indeed more destructive, than a sea covered with drift 

 ice : 



That they almost always sought some convenient winter har- 

 bour, just at that season of the year when the sea is freest of 

 ice, namely, late summer or autumn : 



That, notwithstanding the sea from Cape Chelyuskin to 

 Behring's Straits has been repeatedly traversed, no one has yet 

 succeeded in sailing over the whole extent at once : 



That the covering of ice formed daring winter along the coast, 

 but probably not in the open sea, is every summer broken up, 

 ffivins origin to extensive fields of drift ice, which are driven, 

 now by a northerly wind towards the coast, now by a south 

 wind out to sea, yet not so far but that it comes back to the 

 coast after some days' northerly wind ; whence it appears 

 probable that the Siberian Sea is, so to say, shut off from 

 the Polar Sea proper, by a series of islands, of which, for the 

 present, we know only Wrangel's Land and the islands which 

 form New Siberia. 



