210 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



which he carefully surveyed and took soundings in. From a 

 high mountain at its eastern mouth he saw on the itr-^*" the 



O 30th Aug. 



Kara Sea completely free of ice — and the way to the Yenisej 

 thus open ; but his vessel was useless for further sailing. He 

 therefore determined to winter at a bay named Tjalanaja Guba, 

 near the eastern entrance to Matotschkin Sound. To this place 

 he removed a house which some hunters had built on the sound 

 farther to the west, and erected another house, the materials 

 of which he had brought from home, on a headland jutting out 

 into the sound a little more to the east. The latter I visited 

 in 1876. The walls were then still standing, but the flat roof. 



VIEW FROM MATOTSCHKIN SCHAB, 



(After a drawing by Hj. Theel. 1875.) 



loaded with earth and stones, had fallen in, as is often the case 

 with .deserted wooden houses in the Polar regions. The house 

 was small, and had consisted of a lobby and a room with an 

 immense fireplace, and sleeping places fixed to the walls. 



On the ''';^— , Matotschkin Sound was frozen over, and some 



20th Sept.' ' 



days after the Kara Sea was covered with ice as far as the eye 

 could reach. Storms from the north-east, v.-est, and north-west, 

 with drifting snow of such violence prevailed during the course 

 of the winter that one could scarcely go ten fathoms from the 

 house. In its neighbourhood a man was overtaken by such 

 a storm of drifting snow while hunting a reindeer. When he 



