m ourselves to the
thought that we were so near and yet so far from our destination."

Fortunately they were near the shore and the little settlement of
Pitlekai, where in eight tents dwelt a party of Chukches. These little
people helped them to pass the long monotonous winter, and many an
expedition inland was made in Chukche sledges drawn by eight or ten
wolf-like dogs. Snowstorms soon burst upon the little party of Swedish
explorers who had made the _Vega_ their winter home. "During November
we have scarcely had any daylight," writes Nordenskiold; "the storm
was generally howling in our rigging, which was now enshrouded in a
thick coat of snow, the deck was full of large snowdrifts, and snow
penetrated into every corner of the ship where it was possible for
the wind to find an opening. If we put our heads outside the door we
were blinded by the drifting snow."

Christmas came and was celebrated by a Christmas tree made of willows
tied to a flagstaff, and the traditional rice porridge.

By April large flocks of geese, eider-ducks, gulls, and little
song-birds began to arrive, the latter perching on the rigging of the
_Vega_, but May and June found her still icebound in her winter
quarters.

[Illustration: THE _VEGA_ FROZEN IN FOR THE WINTER. From a drawing
in Hovgaard's _Nordenskiold's Voyage_.]

It was not till 18th July 1879 that "the hour of deliverance came at
last, and we cast loose from our faithful ice-block, which for two
hundred and ninety-four days had protected us so well against the
pressure of the ice and stood westwards in the open channel, now about
a mile wide. On the shore stood our old friends, probably on the point
of crying, which they had often told us they would do when the ship
left them."

For long the Chukches stood on the shore--men, women, and
children--watching till the "fire-dog," as they called the _Vega_,
was out of sight, carrying their white friends for ever away from their
bleak, inhospitable shores.

"Passing through closely packed ice, the _Vega_ now rounded the East
Cape, of which we now and then caught a glimpse through the fog. As
soon as we came out of the ice south of the East Cape, we noticed the
heavy swell of the Pacific Ocean. The completion of the North-East
Passage was celebrated the same day with a grand dinner, and the _Vega_
greeted the Old and New Worlds by a display of flags and the firing
of a Swedish salute. Now for the first time after the lapse of three