osition of this important place. In consequence of a continuous
fog, however, I had as little opportunity of doing so on this
occasion as during the voyage of 1875, which serves to show of what
sort the weather is during summer at the place where the warm water
of the Yenisej is poured into the Arctic Ocean. It was thus not
until the morning of the 10th August that the _Vega_ and the _Lena_
weighed anchor in order to continue their voyage. The course was
shaped for the most westerly of the islands, which old maps place
off the estuary-bay of the Pjaesina, and name Kammenni Ostrova (Stone
Islands), a name which seems to indicate that in their natural state
they correspond to the rocky islands about Port Dickson. The sky was
hid by mist, the temperature of the air rose to +10.4 deg. C.;
that of the water was at first +10 deg., afterwards +8 deg.; its
salinity at the surface of the sea was inconsiderable. No ice was
seen during the course of the day. Favoured by a fresh breeze from
the south-east, the _Vega_ could thus begin her voyage with all sail
set. Small rocky islands, which are not to be found on the chart,
soon reminded us of the untrustworthiness of the maps. This,
together with the prevailing fog, compelled Captain Palander to sail
forward with great caution, keeping a good outlook and sounding
constantly. Warm weather and an open sea were also favourable for
the next day's voyage. But the fog now became so dense, that the
_Vega_ had to lie-to in the morning at one of the many small islands
which we still met with on our way.

Dr. Kjellman, Dr. Almquist, Lieutenant Nordquist, and I, landed
here. The bare and utterly desolate island consisted of a low gneiss
rock, rising here and there into cliffs, which were shattered by the
frost and rather richly clothed with lichens. On the more low-lying
places the rock was covered with a layer of gravel, which, through
drying and consequent contraction, had burst into six-sided figures,
mostly from 0.3 to 0.5 metre in diameter. The interior of the
figures was completely bare of vegetation, only in the cracks there
was to be seen an exceedingly scanty growth of stunted mosses,
lichens, and flowering plants. Of the last-named group there were
found fifteen species,[189] which could with success, or more
correctly without succumbing, survive the struggle for existence on
the little poor archipelago, protected by no mountain heights, from
the storms of the Polar Sea; but of the