250 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
afternoon of tlie 30th July, and had almost, rotter^ as it was, 
suddenly brought the voyage of the Vega to a termination by 
pressing her ashore. Fortunately the danger was observed in 
time. Steam was got up, the anchor weighed, and the vessel 
removed to the open part of the fjord. As on this account 
several cubic feet of coal had to be used for getting up steam, as 
our hitherto abundant stock of coal must now be saved, and as 
in the last place I was still urged forward by th^ fear that a 
too lengthened delay in sending home despatches might not 
only cause much anxiety but also lead to a heavy expenditure 
of money, I preferred to sail on immediately rather than to 
enter a safer harbour in the neighbourhood from which the 
scientific work might continue to be prosecuted. 
The course was now shaped for the north-west point of St. 
Lawrence Island. A little off Senjavin Sound we saw drift-ice 
for the last time. On the whole the quantity of ice which drifts 
down through Behring’s Straits into the Pacific is not very 
great, and most of that which is met with in summer on the 
Asiatic side of the Behring Sea, is evidently formed in Qords and 
bays along the coast. South of Behring’s Straits accordingly I 
saw not a single iceberg nor any large block of glacier-ice, but 
only even and very rotten fields of bay-ice. 
The Vega was anchored on the 31st July in an open bay on 
the north-western side of St. Lawrence Island. This island, 
called by the natives Enguae, is the largest one between the 
Aleutian Islands and Behring’s Straits. It lies nearer Asia 
than America, but is considered to belong to the latter, for 
which reason it was handed over along with the Alaska 
Territory by Bussia to the United States. The island is inha¬ 
bited by a few Eskimo families, who have commercial relations 
with their Chukch neighbours on the Bussian side, and therefore 
have adopted some words from their language. Their dress also 
resembles that of the Chukches, with the exception that, want¬ 
ing reindeer-skin, they use jpesks made of the skins of birds and 
