IX.] INFORMATION REOARDINO THE ICE IN BEHRING’S SEA. 459 
with newly formed ice, became suddenly shallow. The depth 
was too small for the Vega, for which we had now to seek a 
course among the blocks of ground-ice and fields of drift-ice in 
the offing. The night’s frost had bound these so firmly together 
that the attempt failed. We were thus compelled to lie-to at a 
ground-ice so much the more certain of getting off with the 
first shift of the wind, and of being able to traverse the few 
miles that separated us from the open water at Behring’s Straits, 
as whalers on several occasions had not left this region until the 
middle of October. 
As American whalers had during the last decades extended 
their whale-fishing to the North Behring Sea, I applied before 
my departure from home both directly and through the Foreign 
Office to several American scientific men and authorities with a 
request for information as to the state of the ice in that sea. In 
all quarters my request was received with special good-will and 
best wishes for the projected journey. I thus obtained both a 
large quantity of printed matter otherwdse difficult of access, and 
maps of the sea between North America and North Asia, and 
oral and written communications from several persons: among 
whom may be mentioned the distinguished naturalist, Prof. 
W. H. Ball of Washington, who lived for a long time in the 
Territory of Alaska and the north part of the Pacific; Admiral 
John Eodgers, who was commander of the American man-of-war, 
Vincennes, when cruising north of Behring’s Straits in 1855 ; and 
Washburn Maynod, lieutenant in the American Navy. I had 
besides obtained important information from the German sea- 
captain E. Dallmann, who for several years commanded a 
vessel in these waters for coast traffic with the natives. Space 
does not permit me to insert all these writings here. But to 
show that there were good grounds for not considering the season 
of navigation in the sea between Kolyutschin Bay and Behring’s 
Straits closed at the end of September, I shall make some 
extracts from a letter sent to me, through the American Consul- 
