XIV.] VISIT TO rORT CLARENCE. 569 



an excellent haven south of the westernmost promontory of Asia, 

 Cape Prince of Wales. It ivas the first time the Vega anchored 

 in a proper haven, since on the 18th Ancjiist 1878 she left Actinia 

 Haven on Taimur Island. During the intermediate time 

 she had been constantly anchored or moored in open roads 

 without the least land shelter from sea, wind, and drift-ice. The 

 vessel was, however, thanks to Captain Palander's judgment and 

 thoughtfulness, and the ability of the officers and crew, still not 

 only quite free from damage, but even as seaworthy as when she 

 left the dock at Karlskrona, and we had still on board provisions 

 for nearly a year, and about 4,000 cubic feet of coal. 



Towards the sea Port Clarence is protected by a long low 

 sandy reef, between the north end of which and the land there 

 is a convenient and deep entrance. There a considerable river 

 falls into the interior of the harbour, the mouth of which widens 

 to a lake, which is separated from the outer harbour by a sandy 

 neck of land. This lake also forms a good and spacious harbour, 

 but its entrance is too shallow for vessels of any considerable 

 draught. The river itself, on the contrary, is deep, and about 

 eighteen kilometres from its mouth flows through another lake, 

 from the eastern shore of wdiich rugged and shattered mountains 

 rise to a height which I estimate at 800 to 1,000 metres ; but it 

 is quite possible that their height is twice as great, for in making 

 such estimates one is liable to fall into error. South of the river 

 and the harbour the land rises abruptly from the river bank, 

 which is from ten to twenty metres high. On the north side, on 

 the other hand, the bank is for the most part low, but farther 

 into the interior the ground rises rapidly to rounded hills from 

 300 to 400 metres high. Only in the valleys and at other places 

 where very large masses of snow had collected during the winter, 

 were snow-drifts still to be seen. 0-n the other hand, we saw no 

 glaciers, though we might have expected to find them on the 

 sides of the high mountains which bound the inner lake on the 

 east. It was also clear that during the recent ages no widely 

 extended ice-sheet was to be found here, for in the many 

 excursions we made in different directions, among others up the 

 river to the lake just mentioned, we saw nowhere any moraines, 

 erratic blocks, striated rock-surfaces, or other traces of a past 

 ice-age. Many signs, on the other hand, indicate that during 

 a not very remote geological period glaciers covered consider- 

 able areas of the opposite Asiatic shore, and contributed to 

 excavate the fjords there — Kolyutschin Bay, St. Lawrence Bay, 

 Metschigme Bay, Konyam Bay, &c. 



When we appoached the American side we could see that the 

 shore cliffs were foiTned of stratified rocks. 1 therefore hoped 

 to be able, at last, to make a rich collection of fossils, -something 

 that I had no opportunity of doing during the preceding part of 



