Vegetation was much more luxuriant and richer in species than at Cape Chelyuskin, and naturally bore a more southern stamp, not only in consequence of the more southerly position of the island, but also on account of its shores being washed by the water of the Chatanga river, which is warm during summer.[198]
Unfortunately, on account of the advanced season of the year 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 on the night between the 27th and 28th August, after Captain Johannesen had been signalled to come on board the Vega, to receive orders, passport,[199] 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 of the Lena would never have been obstructed by ice, and I am convinced that this will happen year after year during the close of August, at least between the Yenisej and the Lena. For I believe that the place where ice-obstacles will perhaps be met with most frequently will not be the north point of Asia, but the region east of the entrance to the Kara Sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[189] Namely, according to Dr. Kjellman's determination, the following:
Saxifraga oppositifolia L.
Saxifraga rivularis L.
Saxifraga cæspitosa L.