468 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
St. Lawrence Bay, arriving there July 8th, and, after loading 
6,100 barrels of oil and 37,000 lbs, of bone from our whalers, 
she sailed for ITew Bedford direct, touching at Honolulu to 
land her bone, to come here via San Francisco, and he joined 
our whaler bark, Bainhoio, at St. Lawrence Bay, and went on 
a tour of observation and pleasure, visiting Point Barrow and 
going as far east as Lion Beefs, near Camden Bay, and then 
returning to Point Barrow, and going over to Herald Island, 
and while there visiting our different whalers, seeing one “ bow- 
head ” caught and cut in, and September 25th he came down 
in the schooner W. M. Meyer to San Francisco, arriving there 
October 22nd. By a comparison of dates we find he passed 
near Cape Serdze September 29th, or one day after you anchored 
near Kolyutschin Bay.” 
The 29th September according to the American day-reckoning 
corresponds to the 30th according to that of the old world, which 
was still followed on board the Vega. The schooner W. M. 
Meyer thus lay at Serdze Kamen two days after we anchored in 
our winter haven. The distance between the two places is only 
about 70 kilometres. 
The winter haven was situated in 67° 4' 49” north latitude, 
and 173° 23' 2” longitude west from Greenwich, 1*4 kilo¬ 
metres from land. The distance from East Cape was 120', 
and from Point Hope near Cape Lisburn on the American 
side, 180'. 
The neighbouring land formed a plain rising gradually from 
the sea, slightly undulating and crossed by river valleys, which 
indeed when the Vega was frozen in was covered with hoarfrost 
and frozen, but still clear of snow, so that our botanists could 
form an idea of the flora of the region, previously quite unknown. 
'Next the shore were found close beds of Elymus, alternating 
with carpets of HaliantJms g)eploides, and further up a poor, even, 
gravelly soil, covered with water in spring, on which grew only 
a slate-like lichen, Gyrophora prohoseidea, and a. few flowering 
plants, of which Arrmria sihirica was the most common. 
Within the beach were extensive salt and fresh-water lagoons, 
