IX.] 
KOLYUTSCHIN BAY. 
457 
where among the old drift-ice where it was closely packed. 
Small seals swarmed by hundreds among the ice, following the 
wake of the vessel with curiosity. Birds on the contrary were 
seen in limited numbers. Most of them had evidently already 
migrated to more southerly seas. At 4.45 P.M. the vessel was 
anchored to an ice-floe near the eastern shore of the fjord. It 
could be seen from this point that the ice at the headland, which 
bounded the mouth of the fjord to the east, lay so near land 
that there was a risk that the open water next the shore would 
not be deep enough for the Vega. 
Lieutenant Hovgaard was therefore sent with the steam 
launch to take soundings. He returned with the report that 
the water off the headland was sufficiently deep. At the same 
time, accompanied by several of the naturalists, I made an 
excursion on land. In the course of this excursion the hunter 
Johnsen was sent to the top of the range of heights which 
occupied the interior of the promontory, in order to get a view 
of the state of the ice farther to the east. Johnsen too returned 
with the very comforting news that a very broad open channel 
extended beyond the headland along the coast to the south-east. 
I was wandering about along with my comrades on the slopes 
near the beach in order, so far as the falling darkness permitted, 
to examine its natural conditions, when J ohnsen came down; 
he informed us that from the top of the height one could hear 
bustle and noise and see fires at an encampment on the other 
side of the headland. He supposed that the natives were 
celebrating some festival. I had a strong inclination to go 
thither in order, as I thought, “to take farewell of the Chukches,” 
for I was quite certain that on some of the following days we 
should sail into the Pacific. But it was already late in the 
evening and dark, and we were not'yet sufficiently acquainted 
with the disposition of the Clpikches to go by night, without 
any serious occasion, in small numbers and provided only with 
the weapons of the chase, to an encampment with which we 
