we are already in the neighbourhood of
the volcanic hearths of Kamchatka, which for instance is shown by
the hot spring, which Hooper discovered not far from the coast
during a sledge journey towards Behring's Straits. In the middle of
the severe cold of February its waters had a temperature of +69 deg. C.
Hot steam and drifting snow combined had thrown over the
spring a lofty vault of dazzling whiteness formed of masses of snow
converted into ice and covered with ice-crystals. The Chukches
themselves appear to have found the contrast striking between the
hot spring from the interior of the earth and the cold, snow, and
ice on its surface. They offered blue glass beads to the spring, and
showed Hooper, as something remarkable, that it was possible to boil
fish in it, though the mineral water gave the boiled fish a bitter
unpleasant taste.[352]

The interior of Konyam Bay was during our stay there still covered
by an unbroken sheet of ice. This broke up on the afternoon of the
30th July, and had almost, rotten as it was, suddenly brought the
voyage of the _Vega_ to a termination by pressing her ashore.
Fortunately the danger was observed in time. Steam was got up, the
anchor weighed, and the vessel removed to the open part of the
fjord. As on this account several cubic feet of coal had to be used
for getting up steam, as our hitherto abundant stock of coal must
now be saved, and as, in the last place I was still urged forward by
the fear that a too lengthened delay in sending home despatches
might not only cause much anxiety but also lead to a heavy
expenditure of money, I preferred to sail on immediately rather than
to enter a safer harbour in the neighbourhood from which the
scientific work might continue to be prosecuted.

The course was now shaped for the north-west point of St. Lawrence
Island. A little off Senjavin Sound we saw drift-ice for the last
time. On the whole the quantity of ice which drifts down through
Behring's Straits into the Pacific is not very great, and most of
that which is met with in summer on the Asiatic side of the Behring
Sea, is evidently formed in fjords and bays along the coast South of
Behring's Straits accordingly I saw not a single iceberg nor any
large block of glacier-ice, but only even and very rotten fields of
bay-ice.

The _Vega_ was anchored on the 31st July in an open bay on the
north-western side of St. Lawrence Island. This island, called by
the natives Enguae, is the la