350 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



just on the occasion of our being frozen in, appears to have been 

 higher than at any other time during the course of the winter. 

 The ice-rocks, therefore, first floated again far into the summer 

 of 1879, when their parts that projected above the water had 

 diminished by melting. Little was wanting besides to make 

 our winter haven still worse than it was in reality. For the 

 Vega was anchored the first time on the 28th September at 

 some small ice-blocks which had stranded 200 metres nearer the 

 land, but was removed the following day from that place, because 

 there were only a few inches of water under her keel. Had the 

 vessel remained at her first anchorage, it had gone ill with us. 



TOROSS. 



From the neighbourhood of the Vega's winter quarters. 



For the newly formed ice, during the furious autumn storms, 

 especially during the night between the 14th and 15th 

 December, was pressed over these ice-blocks. The sheet of ice, 

 about half a metre thick, was thereby broken up with loud noise 

 into thousands of pieces, which were thrown up on the under- 

 lying ground-ices so as to form an enormous toross, or rampart of 

 loose, angular blocks of ice. A vessel anchored there would 

 have been buried under pieces of ice, pressed aground, and 

 crushed very early in the winter. 



When the Vega was beset, the sea near the coast, as has been 



