XI.] BOVE'S EXCURSION TO THE OPEN WATER. 397 



continue for a considerable time, and in expectation of this got 

 their simple tishing implements ready. But both they and we 

 were disappointed in our expectation. The Vegas ice-fetters 

 remained undisturbed, and the blue border at the horizon grew 

 less and again disappeared. This caused so great a want of 

 food, and above all of train oil, among the natives, that all the 

 inhabitants of Pitlekaj, the village nearest to us, were compelled 

 to remove to the eastward, n(jtwith standing that in order to 

 mitigate the scarcity a considerable quantity of food was served 

 out daily at the vessel. 



It appears, however, as if an actual experience from the pre- 

 ceding year had been the ground of the Chiikches' weather 



THE OPEN WATIF,. 



prediction. For on the 6th February a south-east wind began 

 to blow, and the severe cold at once ceased. The temperature 

 rose for a few hours to and even above the freezing-point. A 

 water-sky was again formed along the horizon of the ice from 

 north-east to north, and from the heights at the coast there was 

 seen an extensive opening in the ice-fields, which a little east 

 of Irgunnuk nearly reached the shore. Some kilometres farther 

 east even the shore itself was free of ice, and from tlie hills our 

 sailors thought they saw a heavy sea in the blue water bordei 

 which bounded the circle of vision. Tf this was not an illusion 

 caused by the unequal heating and oscillatory motion of the 

 lower stratum of the atmosphere, the open water may have been 

 of great extent. Perliaps the statement of the natives was 



