CHAP. X.] 
THE POSITION OF THE VEGA. 
463 
did not require to stay so long at Port Dickson, we might have 
saved a day at Taimur Island, have dredged somewhat less west 
of the New Siberian Islands, and so on; and above all, our long 
stay at Irkaipij waiting for an improvement in the state of the 
ice, was fatal, because at least three days were lost there without 
any change for the better taking place. 
The position of the vessel was by no means very secure. For 
the Vega, when frozen in, as appears from the sketch map to be 
found further on, did not lie at anchor in any haven, but was 
only, in the expectation of finding a favourable opportunity to 
steam on, anchored behind a ground-ice, which had stranded 
in a depth of 9|- metres, 1,400 metres from land, in a road 
which was quite open from true N. 74° W. by north to east. 
The vessel had here no other protection against the violent ice- 
pressure which winter storms are wont to cause in the Polar 
seas, than a rock of ice stranded at high water, and therefore 
also at high water not very securely fixed. Fortunately the tide 
just on the occasion of our being frozen in, appears to have been 
higher than at any other time during the course of the winter. 
The ice-rocks, therefore, first floated again far into the summer 
of 1879, when their parts that projected above the water had 
diminished by melting. Little was wanting besides to make 
our winter haven still worse than it was in reality. For the 
Yega was anchored the first time on the 28th September at 
some small ice-blocks which had stranded 200 metres nearer the 
land, but was removed the following day from that place, because 
there were only a few inches of water under her keel. Had the 
vessel remained at her first anchorage, it had gone ill with us. 
For the newly formed ice, during the furious autumn storms, 
especially during the night between the 14th and 15th 
December, was pressed over these ice-blocks. The sheet of ice, 
about half a metre thick, was thereby broken up with loud noise 
into thousands of pieces, which were thrown up on the underly¬ 
ing ground-ices so as to form an enormous toTOS8, or rampart of 
