262 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



other side of Taimur Land, but without meeting with any 

 serious obstacles. We fell in also with some very large ice- 

 floes, but not with any icebergs. We were besides again 

 attended by so close a mist that we could only see ice-fields 



and pieces of ice in the 

 immediate neighbourhood 

 of the vessel. Besides 

 species of Lestris and 

 kittiwakes we now also 

 saw looms, birds that are 

 almost wanting in the Kara 

 Sea. Johannesen was of 

 opinion that the presence 

 of these birds showed that 

 the sea is not completely 

 frozen over in winter, 

 because it is not probable 

 that the loom in autumn 

 and spring would fly across 

 the frozen Kara Sea to 

 seek in this distant region 

 their food and their breed- 

 ing-haunts. 



The night before the 

 22nd we steamed through 

 pretty close ice. The whole 

 day so thick a fog still 

 prevailed that we could 

 not see the extent of the 

 ice-fields in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the vessel. 

 Towards noon we were, 

 therefore, compelled to 

 take a more southerly 

 course. When we found 

 that we could not advance 

 in this direction, we lay- 

 to at a large ice-floe, wait- 

 ing for clear weather, until 

 in the afternoon the fog 

 aofain lightened somewhat, 

 so that we could continue 

 our voyage. But it was 

 not long before the fog again became so thick that, as the 

 sailors say, you could cut it with a knife. There was now 

 evidently a risk that the Vega, while thus continuing to "box the 

 compass " in the ice- labyrinth, in which we had entangled our- 



OPHIURID FROM THE SEA NORTH OF CAPE 

 CHELYUSKIN. 



Ophiacantha bidentata, Eetz. 

 One and one-third of the natural .size. 



