tastefully
ornamented with flags. A large number of small wax-lights, which we
had brought with us for the special purpose, were fixed in the
Christmas tree, together with about two hundred Christmas boxes
purchased or presented to us before our departure. At six o'clock in
the afternoon all the officers and crew assembled in the
'tweendecks, and the drawing of lots began, now and then interrupted
by a thundering polka round the peculiar Christmas tree. At supper
neither Christmas ale nor ham was wanting. And later in the evening
there made their appearance in the 'tweendecks five punchbowls,
which were emptied with songs and toasts for King and Fatherland,
for the objects of the Expedition, for its officers and men, for the
families at home, for relatives and friends, and finally for those
who decked and arranged the Christmas tree, who were the sailors C.
Lundgren and O. Hansson, and the firemen O. Ingelsson and C.
Carlstroem.

The other festivals were also celebrated in the best way, and at
midnight before New Year's Day the new year was shot in with sharp
explosive-shell firing from the rifled cannon of the _Vega_, and a
number of rockets thrown up from the deck.

[Footnote 249: Equal to 6.64 English miles. ]

[Footnote 250: When it had become evident that we could make no
further advance before next year, Lieut Brusewitz occasionally
measured the thickness of the newly formed ice, with the following
results:--

THICKNESS OF THE ICE.
1 December, 56 centimetres. 1 May. 154 centimetres
1 January, 92 ,, 15 ,, 162 ,,
1 February, 108 ,, 1 June, 154 ,,
15 ,, 120 ,, 15 ,, 151 ,,
1 March, 123 ,, 1 July, 104 ,,
1 April, 128 ,, 15 67 ,, (full of holes).
15 ,, 139 ,, 18 ,, The ice broke up. ]

[Footnote 251: Low brush is probably to be met with in the interior
of the Chukch peninsula at places which are protected from the cold
north winds. ]

[Footnote 252: According to H. Wild's newly-published large work,
"_Die Temperatur Verhaeltnisse des Russischen Reiches_, 2e Halfte,
St. Petersburg, 1881," the Old World's cold-pole lies in the
neighbourhood of the town Werchojansk (67 deg. 34' N.L. 133 deg.
51' E.L. from Greenwich). The mean temperature of the different
months and of the whole year is given in the note at page 411. If
the data on which these figures rest ar