396 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



On New Year's Day, in order to see the state of the ice farther 

 out to sea, Lieut. Bove, accompanied by the hunter Johnsen, 

 again made an excursion to the open water. Of this he gave 

 the following account : — 



" I left the vessel on the forenoon of 1st January and reached 

 the open water after four hours' steady walking. The deep 

 loose snow made walking very fatiguing, and three rows of 

 torosses also contributed to this, mainly in consequence of the 

 often snow-covered cracks, which crossed the ice-sheet in their 

 neighbourhood. One of the torosses was ten metres high. The 

 size of the blocks of ice, which were here heaped on each other, 

 showed how powerful the forces were which had caused the 

 formation of the torosses. These ice ramparts now afford a 

 much needed protection to the Vegas winter haven. About 

 halfway between the open water and the vessel the way was 

 crossed by cracks running from east to west, and clearly indi- 

 cating that the opening in the ice would have extended to the 

 distance of a kilometre from the vessel, if the violent storm in 

 December had lasted twelve hours longer. The Vega would 

 thereby have been in great danger. The edge of the ice towards 

 the oj)en water was evenly cut, as with an immense knife, and 

 was so strong that one could walk along it as on a rock. Even 

 from the top of a five-metre-high ice-rampart no boundary of 

 the open water could be seen to the north-east or north. Partly 

 from this, partly from the extension of the water-sky in this 

 direction, I draw the conclusion that the breadth of the open 

 water was at least thirty-five kilometres. The " clearing " was 

 bounded on the east by an ice-rampart running north, which at 

 a distance of nine or ten kilometres appeared to bend to the 

 east. Possibly farther to the east beyond this ice-rampart there 

 was another open water basin. The depth at the edge of the 

 ice was twenty-one metres, the temperature of the water 2" C 

 The water ran at a considerable speed right out from the 

 coast (i.e. from S.S.E.). As it ran here nearly in a straight 

 line, the current may have been a tidal one. The open 

 water swarmed with seals, according' to Johnsen both bearded 

 and rough. Neither Polar bears, walnisses, nor birds were 

 seen." 



Lieut. Bove's report confirmed me in my supposition that the 

 open water, as towards the end of January 1873 at Mussel Bay, 

 might possibly extend as far as our anchorage and open for us 

 the way to Behring's Straits, in which case we could not refrain 

 from continuing our voyage, however unpleasant and dangerous 

 it might be at this season of the year. The Chukches also 

 declared repeatedly that the open water in January would 



