n tents on land. The
invitation was accepted with pleasure by several of the _Vega_ men, who
rowed to land and went from tent to tent. In one of them reindeer meat
was boiling in a cast-iron pot over the fire. Outside another two
reindeer were being cut up. Each tent contained an inner sleeping-room
of deerskin, which was lighted and warmed by lamps of train oil. There
played small stark-naked children, plump and chubby as little pigs, and
sometimes they ran in the same light attire out over the rime between
the tents. The tiniest were carried, well wrapped up in furs, on the
backs of their fathers and mothers, and whatever pranks they played
these small wild cats never heard a harsh word from their elders.

The next day the _Vega_ tried to continue her voyage, but the fog was
too dense, and the shelter of a mass of ground ice had again to be
sought. Nordenskioeld was, however, sure of gaining the Pacific Ocean in
a short time, and when fresh visitors came on board he distributed
tobacco and other presents among them with a lavish hand. He also
distributed a number of _krona_[21] pieces and fifty earrings which, if
any misfortune happened to the _Vega_, would serve to show her course.

During the following days the ice closed up and fog lay dense over the
sea. Only now and then could the vessel sail a short distance, and then
was stopped and had to moor again. On September 18 the vessel glided
gently and cautiously between huge blocks of grounded ice like castle
walls and towers of glass. Here patience and great care were necessary,
for the coast was unknown and there was frequently barely a span of
water beneath the keel. The captain stood on the bridge, and wherever
there was a gap between the ice-blocks he made for it. It was only
possible to sail in the daytime, and at night the _Vega_ lay fastened by
her ice anchors. One calm and fine evening some of our seafarers went
ashore and lighted an enormous bonfire of driftwood. Here they sat
talking of the warm countries they would sail past for two months. They
were only a few miles from the easternmost extremity of Asia at Behring
Strait.

The _Vega_ had anchored on the eastern side of Koliuchin Bay. It was
September 28. Newly formed ice had stretched a tough sheet between the
scattered blocks of ground ice, and to the east lay an ice-belt barely
six miles broad. If only a south wind would spring up, the pack would
drift northwards, and the last short bit of the north