tance, they resembled
immense glaciers terminating perpendicularly towards the sea. Coming
farther south the clear weather gave us a good view of Vaygats
Island. It appears, when seen from the sea off the west coast,
to form a level grassy plain, but when we approached Yugor Schar,
low ridges were seen to run along the east side of the island, which
are probably the last ramifications of the north spur of Ural, known by
the name of Paj-koi.

When we were off the entrance to Yugor Schar, a steamer was sighted.
After much guessing, the _Fraser_ was recognised. I was at first
very uneasy, and feared that an accident had occurred, as the course
of the vessel was exactly the opposite of that which had been fixed
beforehand, but found, when Captain Nilsson soon after came on
board, that he had only come out to look for us. The _Express_ and
the _Fraser_ had been waiting for us at the appointed rendezvous
since the 20th. They had left Vardoe on the 13th, and during the
passage had met with as little ice as ourselves. The _Vega_ and
_Fraser_ now made for the harbour at Chabarova, where they anchored
on the evening of the 30th July with a depth of fourteen metres and
a clay bottom. The _Lena_ was still wanting. We feared that the
little steamer had had some difficulty in keeping afloat in the sea
which had been encountered on the other side of North Cape.
A breaker had even dashed over the side of the larger _Vega_ and
broken in pieces one of the boxes which were fastened to the deck.
Our fears were unwarranted. The _Lena_ had done honour to her
builders at Motala works, and behaved well in the heavy sea. The
delay had been caused by a compass deviation, which, on account of
the slight horizontal intensity of the magnetism of the earth in
these northern latitudes, was greater than that obtained during the
examination made before the departure of the vessel from Gothenburg.
On the 31st the _Lena_ anchored alongside the other vessels, and
thus the whole of our little Polar Sea squadron was collected at the
appointed rendezvous.

Chabarova is a little village, situated on the mainland, south of
Yugor Schar, west of the mouth of a small river in which at certain
seasons fish are exceedingly abundant. During summer the place is
inhabited by a number of Samoyeds, who pasture their herds of
reindeer on Vaygats Island and the surrounding _tundra_, and by some
Russians and Russianised Fins, who come hither from Pustosersk to
carry on