426 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
of the ground ice found on the coasts of the Polar lands. The 
water which is obtained by melting sea-ice is not completely 
free from salt, but the older it is the less salt does it contain. 
East of the Bear Islands heavy sea-ice in pretty compact 
masses had drifted down towards the coast, but still left an 
open ice-free channel along the land. Here the higher animal 
world was exceedingly poor, which, as far as the avi-fauna was 
concerned, must be in some degree ascribed to the late season 
of the year. For Wrangel mentions a cliff at the Bear Islands 
which was covered with numberless birds’ nests. He saw 
besides, on the largest of these islands, traces of the bear, wolf, 
fox, lemming, and reindeer (WrangeFs Beise, i. pp. 304 and 
327). Now the surrounding sea was completely deserted. No 
Polar bear saluted us from the ice-floes, no walruses, and only 
very few seals were visible. During many watches not a single 
natatory bird was seen. Only the phalarope was still met with 
in large numbers, even pretty far out at sea. Perhaps it was 
then migrating from the north. The lower animal world was 
more abundant. From the surface of the sea the drag-net 
brought up various small surface Crustacea, inconsiderable in 
themselves, but important as food for larger animals; and from 
the sea-bottom were obtained a large number of the same animal 
forms as from the sound at Svjatoinos, and in addition some 
beautiful asterids and a multitude of very large beaker sponges. 
On the 3rd September, after we had sailed past the Bear 
Islands, the course was shaped right for Cape Chelagskoj. This 
course, as will be seen by a glance at the map, carried us far 
from the coast, and thus out of the channel next the land, in 
which we had hitherto sailed. The ice was heavy and close, 
although at first so distributed that it was navigable. But with 
a north wind, which began to blow on the night before the 
1st September, the temperature fell below the freezing-point, 
and the water between the pieces of drift-ice was covered with a 
