xperience of ours may appear to contrast strangely with that
of the Vega expedition. Nordenskioeld writes of this sea, comparing it
with the sea to the north and east of Spitzbergen: "Another striking
difference is the scarcity of warm-blooded animals in this region as
yet unvisited by the hunter. We had not seen a single bird in the
whole course of the day, a thing that had never before happened to
me on a summer voyage in the Arctic regions, and we had hardly seen
a seal." The fact that they had not seen a seal is simply enough
explained by the absence of ice. From my impression of it, the region
must, on the contrary, abound in seals. Nordenskioeld himself says that
"numbers of seals, both Phoca barbata and Phoca hispida, were to be
seen" on the ice in Taimur Strait.

So this was all the progress we had made up to the end of August. On
August 18, 1878, Nordenskioeld had passed through this sound, and on
the 19th and 20th passed Cape Chelyuskin, but here was an impenetrable
mass of ice frozen on to the land lying in our way at the end of the
month. The prospect was anything but cheering. Were the many prophets
of evil--there is never any scarcity of them--to prove right even
at this early stage of the undertaking? No! The Taimur Strait must
be attempted, and should this attempt fail another last one should
be made outside all the islands again. Possibly the ice masses out
there might in the meantime have drifted and left an open way. We
could not stop here.

September came in with a still, melancholy snowfall, and this
desolate land, with its low, rounded heights, soon lay under a deep
covering. It did not add to our cheerfulness to see winter thus gently
and noiselessly ushered in after an all too short summer.

On September 2d the boiler was ready at last, was filled with fresh
water from the sea surface, and we prepared to start. While this
preparation was going on Sverdrup and I went ashore to have a look
after reindeer. The snow was lying thick, and if it had not been so
wet we could have used our snow-shoes. As it was, we tramped about in
the heavy slush without them, and without seeing so much as the track
of a beast of any kind. A forlorn land, indeed! Most of the birds of
passage had already taken their way south; we had met small flocks of
them at sea. They were collecting for the great flight to the sunshine,
and we, poor souls, could not help wishing that it were possible to
send news and greeting with