XI.] 
IIELEASE. 
G7 
bottomed boat. But when we had travelled a little way into 
the country it appeared that the river had fallen considerably 
during the day that Yettugin passed on the vessel. So certain 
was I however that the ice-barrier would not yet for a long 
time be broken up, that I immediately after my return from the 
excursion, which had thus been rendered unsuccessful, made 
arrangements for a new journey in order with other means of 
transport to reach the goal. 
While we were thus employed the forenoon of the 18th passed. 
We sat down to dinner at the usual time, without any suspicion 
that the time of our release was now at hand. During dinner 
it was suddenly observed that the vessel was moving slightly. 
Palander rushed on deck, saw that the ice was in motion, ordered 
the boiler fires to be lighted, the engine having long ago been 
put in order in expectation of this moment, and in two hours, by 
3.30 P.M. on the 18th July, the Vega, decked with flags, was 
under steam and sail again on the way to her destination. 
We now found that a quite ice-free “ lead ” had arisen between 
the vessel and the open water next the shore, the ice-fields 
west of our ground-ices having at the same time drifted farther 
out to sea, so that the clearing along the shore had widened 
enough to give the Vega a sufficient depth of water. The 
course was shaped at first for the N.W. in order to make a 
dUcv.r round the drift-ice fields lying nearest us, then along the 
coast for Behring’s Straits. On the height at Yinretlen there 
stood as we passed, the men, women, and children of the village 
all assembled, looking out to sea at the fire-horse—the Chukches 
would perhaps say fire-dog or fire-reindeer—which carried their 
friends of the long winter months for ever away from their 
cold, bleak shores. Whether they shed tears, as they often said 
they would, we could not see from the distance which now 
parted us from them. But it may readily have happened that 
the easily moved disposition of the savage led them to do this. 
Certain it is that in many of us the sadness of separation 
F 2 
