The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II

by A. E. Nordenskiöld

In order to get a good astronomical determination of the position of this important point I remained there until the 20th August at noon. The Lena was ordered to steam out to dredge during this time. Eight minutes north of the bay, where we lay at anchor, heavy and very close ice was met with. There the depth of the sea increased rapidly. Animal life at the sea-bottom was very abundant, among other things in large asterids and ophiurids.

According to the plan of the voyage I now wished to steam from this point right eastwards towards the New Siberian Islands, in order to see if we should fall in with land on the way. On the 20th and 21st we went forward in this direction among scattered drift-ice, which was heavier and less broken up than that which we had met with on the other side of Taimur Land, but without meeting with any serious obstacles. We fell in also with some very large ice-floes, but not with any icebergs. We were besides again attended by so close a mist that we could only see ice-fields and pieces of ice in the immediate neighbourhood of the vessel. Besides species of Lestris and kittiwakes we now also saw looms, birds that are almost wanting in the Kara Sea. Johannesen was of opinion that the presence of these birds showed that the sea is not completely frozen over in winter, because it is not probable that the loom in autumn and spring would fly across the frozen Kara Sea to seek in this distant region their food and their breeding-haunts.

The night before the 22nd we steamed through pretty close ice. The whole day so thick a fog still prevailed that we could not see the extent of the ice-fields in the neighbourhood of the vessel. Towards noon we were, therefore, compelled to take a more southerly course. When we found that we could not advance in this direction, we lay-to at a large ice-floe, waiting for clear weather, until in the afternoon the fog again lightened somewhat, so that we could continue our voyage. But it was not long before the fog again became so thick that, as the sailors say, you could cut it with a knife. There was now evidently a risk that the Vega, while thus continuing to "box the compass" in the ice-labyrinth, in which we had entangled ourselves, would meet with the same fate that befell the Tegetthoff. In order to avoid this, it became necessary to abandon our attempt to sail from Cape Chelyuskin straight to the New Siberian Islands, and to endeavour to reach as soon as possible the open water at the coast.

When it cleared on the morning of the 23rd, we therefore began again to steam forward among the fields of drift-ice, but now not with the intention of advancing in a given direction, but only of getting to open water. The ice-fields we now met with were very much broken up, which was an indication that we could not be very far from the edge of the pack. But notwithstanding this, all our attempts to find penetrable ice in an easterly, westerly, or southerly direction were unsuccessful. We had thus to search in a northerly direction for the opening by which we had sailed in. This was so much the more unpleasant as the wind had changed to a pretty fresh N.W. breeze, on which account, with the Vega's weak steam-power, we could make way only slowly. It was not until 6.30 p.m. that we at last came to the sack-formed opening in the ice through which we had sailed in at noon of the previous day.

One can scarcely, without having experienced it, form any idea of the optical illusions, which are produced by mist, in regions where the size of the objects which are visible through the fog is not known beforehand, and thus does not give the spectator an idea of the distance. Our estimate of distance and size in such cases depend wholly on accident. The obscure contours of the fog-concealed objects themselves, besides, are often by the ignorance of the spectator converted into whimsical fantastic forms. During a boat journey in Hinloopen Strait I once intended to row among drift-ice to an island at a distance of some few kilometres. When the boat started the air was clear, but while we were employed, as best we could, in shooting sea-fowl for dinner, all was wrapt in a thick mist, and that so unexpectedly, that we had not time to take the bearings of the island. This led to a not altogether pleasant row by guess among the pieces of ice that were drifting about in rapid motion in the sound. All exerted themselves as much as possible to get sight of the island, whose beach would afford us a safe resting-place. While thus occupied, a dark border was seen through the mist at the horizon. It was taken for the island which we were bound for, and it was not at first considered remarkable that the dark border rose rapidly, for we thought that the mist was dispersing and in consequence of that more of the land was visible. Soon two white snow-fields, that we had not observed before, were seen on both sides of the land, and immediately after this was changed to a sea-monster, resembling a walrus-head, as large as a mountain. This got life and motion, and finally sank all at once to the head of a common walrus, which lay on a piece of ice in the neighbourhood of the boat; the white tusks formed the snow-fields and the dark-brown round head the mountain. Scarce was this illusion gone when one of the men cried out "Land right a head—high land!" We now all saw before us a high Alpine region, with mountain peaks and glaciers, but this too sank a moment afterwards all at once to a common ice-border, blackened with earth. In the spring of 1873 Palander and I with nine men made a sledge journey round North-east Land. In the course of this journey a great many bears were seen and killed. When a bear was seen while we were dragging our sledges forward, the train commonly stood still, and, not to frighten the bear, all the men concealed themselves behind the sledges, with the exception of the marksman, who, squatting down in some convenient place, waited till his prey should come sufficiently within range to be killed with certainty. It happened once during foggy weather on the ice at Wahlenberg Bay that the bear that was expected and had been clearly seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his usual supple zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to nose himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners for food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time during the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which we rested the cook, who was employed outside, cry out: "A bear! a great bear! No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!" The same instant a well-directed shot was fired, and the bear-reindeer was found to be a very small fox, which thus paid with its life for the honour of having for some moments played the part of a big animal. From these accounts it may be seen how difficult navigation among drift-ice must be in unknown waters.

On the two occasions on which the vessel was anchored to ice-floes the trawl-net was used, and the hempen tangles. The net was drawn forward slowly with the ice which was drifting to the north-west before a fresh S.E. breeze which was blowing at the time. The yield of the trawling was extraordinarily abundant; large asterids, crinoids, sponges, holothuria, a gigantic sea-spider (Pycnogonid), masses of worms, crustacea, &c. It was the most abundant yield that the trawl-net at any one time brought up during the whole of our voyage round the coast of Asia, and this from the sea off the northern extremity of that continent.

Among the forms collected here we may specially refer to the large sea-spider, of which a drawing is given (p. 349); and three specimens of small stalked crinoids. The depth varied between 60 and 100 metres. The temperature of the water was at the surface +0° to—0°.6; at the bottom—1°.4 to 1°.6; its salinity was considerable, both at the bottom, where it was very nearly equal to that of the other great oceans, and at the surface, where it was indeed about a fifth-part less, but yet much greater than that of the surface-water in the Kara Sea.

It is singular that a temperature under the freezing-point of pure water should be advantageous for the development of an animal life so extremely rich as that which is found here, and that this animal life should not suffer any harm from the complete darkness, which during the greater portion of the year prevails at the bottom of the ice-covered sea.