VII.] 
PARTING OF THE VEGA AND THE LENA. 
355 
I could only allow the Vega to remain a few hours off this 
interesting island, and at 10.30 p.m. accordingly the anchor was 
weighed and our voyage along the coast resumed. 
On the 25th, 26th and 27th August we had for the most 
part calm, fine weather, and the sea was completely free of ice. 
The temperature of the water again rose to +5°”8, and its 
salinity diminished considerably. But the depth now decreased 
so much, that, for instance, on the night before the 26th we had 
great difficulty in getting past some shoals lying west of the 
delta of the Lena, off the mouth of the Olonek. 
It had originally been my intention to let the Vega separate 
from the Lena at some anchorage in one of the mouth-arms of 
the Lena river. But on account of the shallowness of the 
water, the favourable wind and the ice-free sea, that now lay 
before us to the eastward, I determined to part from the Lena 
in the open sea off Tumat Island. This parting took place (5n 
the night between the 27th and 28th August, after Captain 
Johannesen had been signalled to come on board the Vega, to 
receive orders, passport,^ and letters for home. As a parting 
salute to our trusty little attendant during our voyage round 
the north point of Asia some rockets were fired, on which we 
steamed or sailed on, each to his destination. 
During our passage from Norway to the Lena we had been 
much troubled with fog, but it was only when we left the 
navigable water along the coast to the east of Cape Chelyuskin 
that we fell in with ice in such quantity that it was an obstacle 
to our voyage. If the coast had been followed the whole time, 
if the weather had been clear and the navigable water sufficiently 
surveyed, so that it had been possible to keep the course of 
* 
the vessel near the land, the voyage of the Vega to the mouth 
^ Before our departure, I had through the Swedish Foreign Office obtained 
from the Russian Government letters patent in which the Russian authorities 
with whom we might come in contact were instructed to give us all the 
assistance that circumstances might call for. 
A A 2 
