simple fishing implements
ready. But both they and we were disappointed in our expectation.
The _Vega's_ ice-fetters remained undisturbed, and the blue border
at the horizon grew less and again disappeared. This caused so great
a want of food, and above all of train oil, among the natives, that
all the inhabitants of Pitlekaj, the village nearest to us, were
compelled to remove to the eastward, notwithstanding that in order
to mitigate the scarcity a considerable quantity of food was served
out daily at the vessel.

It appeals, however, as if an actual experience from the preceding
year had been the ground of the Chukches' weather prediction. For on
the 6th February a south-east wind began to blow, and the severe
cold at once ceased. The temperature rose for a few hours to and
even above the freezing-point. A water-sky was again formed along
the horizon of the ice from north-east to north, and from the
heights at the coast there was seen an extensive opening in the
ice-fields, which a little east of Irgunnuk nearly reached the
shore. Some kilometres farther east even the shore itself was free
of ice, and from the hills our sailors thought they saw a heavy sea
in the blue water border which bounded the circle of vision. If this
was not an illusion, caused by the unequal heating and oscillatory
motion of the lower stratum of the atmosphere, the open water may
have been of great extent. Perhaps the statement of the natives was
correct, that it extended as far as Behring's Straits. But we could
not now place complete reliance on their statements, since we had
rewarded with extra treating some predictions, relating to ice and
weather, that were favourable to us. Even between the vessel's
anchorage and the land various cracks had been formed, through which
the sea water had forced its way under the snow, and in which some
of us got cold feet or leg baths during our walks to and from the
land.

[Illustration: THE ENCAMPMENT PITLEKAJ ABANDONED BY ITS INHABITANTS
ON THE 18TH FEBRUARY, 1879. (After a drawing by O. Nordquist.) ]

The Chukches at Irgunnuk were now successful in killing a Polar bear
and seventy seals, of which some were ostentatiously set up in rows,
along with frozen slices of blubber, along the outer walls of the
tents, and others were laid down in the blubber cellars, which were
soon filled to overflowing. At Yinretlen, the encampment nearer us,
the hunters on the other hand had obtained only eight seals.
Gl