232 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



several successful voyages to Novaya Zemlya, some of which 

 were also remarkable from a geographical point of view, and in 

 1872 he was also on a hunting expedition to the same regions. 

 As he could not enter the Kara Sea, he sailed up along the'' west 

 coast, where in the middle of September he was beset in the 

 neighbourhood of the Cross Islands. Hence seven of the crew 

 travelled south in a boat to seek for a vessel, but Tobiesen him- 

 self, his son and two men, remained on board. Their stock of 

 provisions consisted of only a small barrel of bread, a sack of 

 corners and fragments of ship biscuit, a small quantity of coffee, 

 tea, sugar, syrup, groats, salt meat, salt fish, a few pounds of 

 pork, a couple of tin canisters of preserved vegetables, a little 



tobiesen"s winter house on bear island. 

 (After a sketch by the Author.) 



bad butter, &c. There was abundance of wood on board and 

 on the land. Notwithstanding the defective equipment they 

 went on bravely and hopefully with the preparations for winter- 

 ing, gathered drift-wood in heaps on the beach, threw a tent of 

 sails over the vessel, threw up snow about its sides, covered the 

 deck with the hides of the seals and walruses that had been 

 captured during summer, did what could be done to bring 

 about good ventilation on board, &c. A large number ol" 

 bears came to the winter station at the commencement of 

 the Avintering, affording an abundant supply of fresh bears' 

 flesh. So long as this lasted, the health of the party was 



