;U0 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



suspended from it ; another bore a perforated American cent piece. 

 None knew a word of Russian, but here too a youngster could count 

 ten in English. They also knew the word " ship." In all the tents, 

 reindeer stomachs were seen with their contents, or sacks stuffed 

 full of other green herbs. Several times we were offered in 

 return for the bits of sugar and pieces of tobacco which we dis- 

 tributed, wrinkled root-bulbs somewhat larger than a hazel nut, 

 which had an exceedingly pleasant taste, resembling that of fresh 

 nuts. A seal caught in a net among the ice during our visit was 

 cut up in the tent by the women. On this occasion they were 

 surrounded by a large number of children, who were now and 

 then treated to bloody strips of flesh. The youngsters carried 

 on the work of cutting up co7i amove, coquetting a little with 

 their bloody arms and faces. 



The rock which prevails in this region consists mainly of gabbro, 

 which in the interior forms several isolated, black, plateau-formed 

 hills, 100 to 150 metres high, between which an even, grassy, 

 but treeless plain extends. It probably rests on sedimentary 

 strata. For on the western side of Irkaipij the plutonic rock is 

 seen to rest on a black slate with traces of fossils, for the most 

 part obscure vegetable impressions, probably belonging to the 

 Permian Carboniferous formation. 



Uneasy at the protracted delay here I made an excursion to 

 a hill in the neighbourhood of our anchorage, which, according 

 to a barometrical measurement, was 129 metres high, in order, 

 from a considerable height, to get a better view of the ice than 

 was possible by a boat reconnaisance. The hill was called by 

 the Chukches Hammong-Ommang. From it we had an exten- 

 sive view of the sea. It was everywhere covered with closely 

 packed drift-ice. Oidy next the land was seen an open channel, 

 which, however, was interrupted in an ominous way by belts of ice. 



The plutonic rock, of which the hill was formed, was almost 

 everywhere broken up by the action of the frost into angular 

 blocks of stone, so that its surface was converted into an enor- 

 mous stone mound. The stones were on the wind side covered 

 with a translucent glassy ice-crust, which readily fell away, 

 and added considerably to the difficulty of the ascent. I had 

 previously observed the formation of such an ice-crust on the 

 northernmost mountain summits of Spitzbergen.'- It arises 

 undoubtedly from the fall of super-cooled mist, that is to say of 

 mist whose vesicles have been cooled considerably below the 

 freezing-point without being changed to ice, which first takes 

 place when, after falling, they come in contact with ice or snow, or 

 some angular hard object. It is such a mist that causes the icing 

 down of the rigging of vessels, a very unpleasant phenomenon 



^ Cf. Redogorelse for den svensha polarexjnditionen ar 1S72-73 (Bihang 

 till Vet. Ak. handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 91). 



