226 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA, 
[chap. 
the Vega, I would willingly have remained at this place, so 
important and interesting in a scientific point of view, at least for 
some days, had not the ice-belts and ice-fields drifting about in 
the offing been so considerable that if a wind blowing on land 
had risen unexpectedly, they might readily have been dangerous 
to our vessel, which even now was anchored in a completely 
open road, for the splendid haven situated farther in in 
St. Lawrence Bay was still covered with ice, and consequently 
inaccessible. On the afternoon of 21st July, accordingly, when 
all were assembled on hoard pleased and delighted with the 
results of the morning visit to land, I ordered the anchor to 
be weighed that the Vega might steam across to the American 
side of Behring’s Straits. As in all the Polar seas of the 
northern hemisphere, so also here, the eastern side of the Straits 
was ice-bestrewn, the western, on the other hand, clear of ice. 
The passage was at all events a rapid one, so that by the after¬ 
noon of the 21st July we were able to anchor in Port Clarence, 
an excellent haven south of the westernmost promontory of Asia, 
Cape Prince of Wales. It ivas the first time the Vega anehored 
in a proper haven, since on the 18th August 1878 she left Actinia 
Haven on Taimur Island. During the intermediate time 
she had been constantly anchored or moored in open roads 
without the least land shelter from sea, wind, and drift-ice. The 
vessel was, however, thanks to Captain Palander’s judgment and 
thoughtfulness, and the ability of the officers and crew, still not 
only quite free from damage, but even as seaworthy as v/hen she 
left the dock at Karlskrona, and we had still on hoard provisions 
for nearly a year, and about 4,000 cubic feet of coal. 
Towards the sea Port Clarence is protected by a long low 
sandy reef, between the north end of which and the land there 
is a convenient and deep entrance. There a considerable river 
falls into the interior of the harbour, the mouth of which widens 
to a lake, which is separated from the outer harbour by a sandy 
neck of land. This lake also forms a good and spacious harbour, 
