352 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



appearance of the snow-covered ice. Thus even during severe cold 

 the apparently continuous ice-sheet was divided into innumerable 

 pieces lying in the close proximity of each other, which either 

 were completely loose or bound together only by the weak ice- 

 band which was gradually formed under the snow on the surface 

 of the water which had forced its way into the crack. Up to 

 a distance of about six kilometres from the shore the ice in any 

 case lay during the course of the whole winter nearly undis- 

 turbed, with the exception of the small cracks just mentioned. 

 Farther out to sea, on the other hand, it was in constant motion. 

 So-called polynias or open places probably occur here all the year 

 round, and when the weather was favourable we could therefore 

 nearly always see a blue water sky at the horizon from true N.W. to 

 E. A southerly wind after some days brought the open water 

 channel so near the vessel that it was possible to walk to it in a 

 few hours. It then swarmed with seals — an indication that it was 

 in connection with a sea that was constantly open. The neighbour- 

 hood of such a sea perhaps also accounts for the circumstance 

 that we did not see a single seal-hole in the ice-fields that 

 surrounded the vessel. 



The ground-ice, to which the Vega was moored on the 29th 

 September, and under which she lay during the course of the 

 winter, was about forty metres long and twenty-five metres 

 broad ; its highest point lay six metres above the surface of the 

 water. It was thus not very large, but gave the vessel good 

 shelter. This ground-ice, along with the vessel and the newly 

 formed ice-field lying between it and the shore, was indeed 

 moved considerably nearer land during the violent autumn 

 storms. A groan or two and a knocking sound in the hull of 

 the vessel indicated that it did not escape very severe pressure ; 

 but the Vega did not during the course of the winter suffer any 

 damage, either from this or from the severe cold, during which 

 sharp reports often indicated that some crack in the wood- 

 work had widened throufjh the freezino- of the water that had 

 made its way into the vessel. " Cold so that the walls crack " 

 is a well-known expression, with which we inhabitants of the 

 North often connect memories from some stormy winter even- 

 ing, passed by the home hearth ; but here these reports heard in 

 our cabins, especially at night, were unpleasant enough, giving 

 rise to fears that the newly formed or widened cracks would 

 cause dangerous leaks in the vessel's hull. In consequence of 

 iron contracting more than wood under the influence of cold, 

 the heads of the iron bolts, with which the ship's timbers 

 were fastened together, in the course of the winter sank deep 

 into the outside j)lanking. But no serious leak arose in this 

 way, perhaps because the cold only acted on that part of the 

 vessel which lay above the surface of the water. 



