higher than at any other time during the course
of the winter. The ice-rocks, therefore, first floated again far
into the summer of 1879, when their parts that projected above the
water had diminished by melting. Little was wanting besides to make
our winter haven still worse than it was in reality. For the _Vega_
was anchored the first time on the 28th September at some small
ice-blocks which had stranded 200 metres nearer the land, but was
removed the following day from that place, because there were only a
few inches of water under her keel. Had the vessel remained at her
first anchorage, it had gone ill with us. For the newly formed ice,
during the furious autumn storms, especially during the night
between the 14th and 15th December, was pressed over these
ice-blocks. The sheet of ice, about half a metre thick, was thereby
broken up with loud noise into thousands of pieces, which were
thrown up on the underlying ground-ices so as to form an enormous
_toross_, or rampart of loose, angular blocks of ice. A vessel
anchored there would have been buried under pieces of ice, pressed
aground, and crushed very early in the winter.

[Illustration: TOROSS. From the neighbourhood of the _Vega's_ winter
quarters. ]

When the _Vega_ was beset, the sea near the coast, as has been
already stated, was covered with newly formed ice, too thin to carry
a foot passenger, but thick enough to prevent the passage of a boat.
In the offing lay, as far as the eye could see, closely packed
drift-ice, which was bound together so firmly by the newly formed
ice, that it was vain to endeavour to force a passage. Already, by
the 2nd October, it was possible, by observing the necessary
precautions, to walk upon the newly formed ice nearest the vessel,
and on the 3rd October, the Chukches came on board on foot. On the
10th there were still weak places here and there between the vessel
and the land, and a blue sky to the eastward indicated that there
was still open water in that direction. That this "clearing" was at
a considerable distance from the vessel was seen from an excursion
which Dr. Almquist undertook in a north-easterly direction on the
13th October, when, after walking about twenty kilometres over
closely packed drift-ice, he was compelled to turn without having
reached the open water. It was clear that the _Vega_ was surrounded
by a band, at least thirty kilometres broad, of drift-ice fields,
united by newly formed ice, which in the c