460 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
General in Stockholm, N. A. Elving, from Mr. Miller, the 
president of the Alaska Commercial Company. 
“ The following is an epitome of the information we have 
received regarding the subject of your inquiry. 
‘‘ The bark Massaclmsetts, Captain O. Williams, was in 74° 
30' N.L. and 173° W.L. on the 21st Sept. 1867. No ice in 
sight in the north, but to the east saw ice. Saw high peaks 
bearing W.N.W. about 60'. Captain Williams is of opinion that 
Plover Island, so-called by Kellet, is a headland of Wrangel 
Land. Captain Williams says that he is of opinion from his 
observations, that usually after the middle of August there is 
no ice south of 70°—west of 175°, until the 1st of October. 
There is hardly a year but that you could go as far as Cape 
North (Irkaipij), which is 180°, during the month of September. 
If the winds through July and August have prevailed from the 
S.W., as is usual, the north shore will be found clear of ice. 
The season of 1877 was regarded as an Gey season/ a good deal 
of ice to southward. 1876 was an open season; as was 1875. 
Our captain, Gustav Niebaum, states that the east side of 
Behring’s Straits is open till November; he passed through 
the Straits as late as October 22nd two different seasons. The 
north shore was clear of all danger within reasonable distance. 
In 1869 the bark Navy anchored under Kolyutschin Island from 
the 8th to the 10th October. On the 10th October of that year 
there was no ice south and east of Wrangel Land.” 
These accounts show that I indeed might have reason to be 
uneasy at my ill luck in again losing some days at a place at 
whose bare coast, exposed to the winds of the Polar Sea, there 
was little of scientific interest to employ ourselves with, little at 
least in comparison with what one could do in a few days, for 
instance, at the islands in Behring’s Straits or in St. Lawrence 
Bay, lying as it does south of the easternmost promontory of 
Asia and therefore sheltered from the winds of the Arctic Ocean, 
but that there were no grounds for fearing that it would be 
necessary to winter there. I also thought that I could come to 
the same conclusion from the experience gained in my wintering 
on Spitzbergen in 1872-73, when permanent ice was first formed 
in our haven, in the 80th degree of latitude, during the month of 
