ich however bound together the
fields of drift-ice collected off the coast so firmly that a vessel,
even with the help of steam, could with difficulty force her way
through.

When on the following day, the 28th September, we had sailed past
the headland which bounds Kolyutschin Bay on the east, the channel
next the coast, clear of drift-ice, but covered with newly formed
ice, became suddenly shallow. The depth was too small for the
_Vega_, for which we had now to seek a course among the blocks of
ground-ice and fields of drift-ice in the offing. The night's frost
had bound these so firmly together that the attempt failed. We were
thus compelled to lie-to at a ground-ice so much the more certain of
getting off with the first shift of the wind, and of being able to
traverse the few miles that separated us from the open water at
Behring's Straits, as whalers on several occasions had not left this
region until the middle of October.

As American whalers had during the last decades extended their
whale-fishing to the North Behring Sea, I applied before my
departure from home both directly and through the Foreign Office to
several American scientific men and authorities with a request for
information as to the state of the ice in that sea. In all quarters
my request was received with special good-will and best wishes for
the projected journey. I thus obtained both a large quantity of
printed matter otherwise difficult of access, and maps of the sea
between North America and North Asia, and oral and written
communications from several persons: among whom may be mentioned the
distinguished naturalist, Prof. W.H. DALL of Washington, who lived
for a long time in the Territory of Alaska and the north part of the
Pacific; Admiral JOHN RODGERS, who was commander of the American
man-of-war, _Vincennes_, when cruising north of Behring's Straits in
1855; and WASHBURN MAYNOD, lieutenant in the American Navy. I had
besides obtained important information from the German sea-captain
E. DALLMANN, who for several years commanded a vessel in these
waters for coast traffic with the natives. Space does not permit me
to insert all these writings here. But to show that there were good
grounds for not considering the season of navigation in the sea
between Kolyutschin Bay and Behring's Straits closed at the end of
September, I shall make some extracts from a letter sent to me,
through the American Consul-General in Stockholm, N.A. ELVING, from