466 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[OIIAP. 
the ice in severe cold. The formation of the cracks took place 
with a more or less loud report, and, to judge from the number of 
these reports, more frequently than could be observed from the 
appearance of the snow-covered ice. Thus even during severe cold 
the apparently continuous ice-sheet was divided into innumerable 
pieces lying in the close proximity of each other, which either 
were completely loose or bound together only by the weak ice- 
band which was gradually formed under the snow on the surface 
of the water which had forced its way into the crack. Up to 
a distance of about six kilometres from the shore the ice in any 
case lay during the course of the whole winter nearly undis¬ 
turbed, with the exception of the small cracks just mentioned. 
Farther out to sea, on the other hand, it was in constant motion. 
So-called polynias or open places probably occur here all the year 
round, and when the weather was favourable we could therefore 
nearly always see a blue water sky at the horizon from true N.W. to 
E. A southerly wind after some days brought the open water 
channel so near the vessel that it was possible to walk to it in a 
few hours. It then swarmed with seals—an indication that it was 
in connection with a sea that was constantly open. The neighbour¬ 
hood of such a sea perhaps also accounts for the circumstance 
that we did not see a single seal-hole in the ice-fields that 
surrounded the vessel. 
The ground-ice, to which the Vega was moored on the 29th 
September, and under which she lay during the course of the 
winter, was about forty metres long and twenty-five metres 
broad; its highest point lay six metres above the surface of the 
water. It was thus not very large, but gave the vessel good 
shelter. This ground-ice, along with the vessel and the newly 
formed ice-field lying between it and the shore, was indeed 
moved considerably nearer land during the violent autumn 
storms. A groan or two and a knocking sound in the hull of 
the vessel indicated that it did not escape very severe pressure ; 
hut the Vega did not during the course of the winter suffer any 
