been placed there long after the proper burial.

Anxious as I was to send off soon from a telegraph station some
re-assuring lines to the home-land, because I feared that a general
uneasiness had already begun to be felt for the fate of the _Vega_,
I would willingly have remained at this place, so important and
interesting in a scientific point of view, at least for some days,
had not the ice-belts and ice-fields drifting about in the offing
been so considerable that if a wind blowing on land had risen
unexpectedly, they might readily have been dangerous to our vessel,
which even now was anchored in a completely open road, for the
splendid haven situated farther in in St. Lawrence Bay was still
covered with ice, and consequently inaccessible. On the afternoon of
21st July, accordingly, when all were assembled on board pleased and
delighted with the results of the morning visit to land, I ordered
the anchor to be weighed that the _Vega_ might steam across to the
American side of Behring's Straits. As in all the Polar seas of the
northern hemisphere, so also here, the eastern side of the Straits
was ice-bestrewn, the western, on the other hand, clear of ice. The
passage was at all events a rapid one, so that by the afternoon of
the 21st July we were able to anchor in Port Clarence, an excellent
haven south of the westernmost promontory of Asia, Cape Prince of
Wales. _It was the first time the Vega anchored in a proper haven,
since on the 18th August 1878 she left Actinia, Haven on Taimur
Island._ During the intermediate time she had been constantly
anchored or moored in open roads without the least land shelter from
sea, wind, and drift-ice. The vessel was, however, thanks to Captain
Palander's judgment and thoughtfulness, and the ability of the
officers and crew, still not only quite free from damage, but even
as seaworthy as when she left the dock at Karlskrona, and we had
still on board provisions for nearly a year, and about 4,000 cubic
feet of coal.

Towards the sea Port Clarence is protected by a long low sandy reef,
between the north end of which and the land there is a convenient
and deep entrance. There a considerable river falls into the
interior of the harbour, the mouth of which widens to a lake, which
is separated from the outer harbour by a sandy neck of land. This
lake also forms a good and spacious harbour, but its entrance is too
shallow for vessels of any considerable draught. The river itself,
on the