aphers, and communications from
him have been previously inserted in geographical journals, it
appears strange that he has now for the first time made public this
important voyage. At all events, Dallmann's statement that the
musk-ox occurs on the coast of the Polar Sea and on Wrangel Land is
erroneous. He has here confused the musk-ox with the reindeer. ]

[Footnote 246: Cf. _Redogoerelse foer den svenska polarexpeditionen ar
1872-73_ (Bihang till Vet Ak. handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 91). ]

[Footnote 247: A more dangerous kind of icing down threatens the
navigator in severe weather not only in the Polar Seas but also in
the Baltic and the North Sea. For it happens at that season that the
sea-water at the surface is over-cooled, that is, cooled below the
freezing-point without being frozen. Every wave which strikes the
vessel is then converted by the concussion into ice-sludge, which
increases and freezes together to hard ice so speedily that all
attempts to remove it from the deck are in vain. In a few hours the
vessel may be changed into an unmanageable floating block of ice
which the sailors, exhausted by hard labour, must in despair abandon
to its fate. Such an icing down, though with a fortunate issue,
befell the steamer _Sofia_ in the month of October off Bear Island,
during the Swedish Polar Expedition of 1868. ]

[Footnote 248: Irkaipij lies in 180 deg. long. from Greenwich. To
bring our day-reckoning into agreement with that of the New World,
we ought thus to have here lessened our date by one day, and have
written the 17th for the 18th September. But as, with the exception
of the short excursion to Port Clarence and St. Edward Island, we
always followed the coasts of the Old World, and during our stay in
the new hemisphere did not visit any place inhabited by Europeans,
we retained during the whole of our voyage our European
day-reckoning unaltered. If we had met with an American whaler, we
would have been before him one day, our 27th September would thus
have corresponded to his 26th. The same would have been the case on
our coming to an American port. ]

CHAPTER X.

Wintering becomes necessary--The position of the _Vega_--
The ice round the vessel--American ship in the neighbourhood
of the _Vega_ when frozen in--The nature of the neighbouring
country--The _Vega_ is prepared for wintering--Provision-depot
and observatories established on land--The winter dress--
Temperature o