The White North Author:Mary Douglas Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. HALT ! HAVING successfully rounded Cape Chelyuskin, Nordenskiold wished to take the shortest possible course to the New Siberian Islands. Whethe... more »r between these two points there was or was not open sea was a moot point, and it was with the view of settling the question that Nordenskiold desired to steer due east. For a couple of days the two vessels pursued their course through the ice, but they soon found that the pack was too much for them, and further, the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see far ahead, so as to discover the extent of the ice-fields. To go on under such circumstances seemed sheer foolhardiness, and after once or twice waiting for the weather to clear, the explorers gave up their original project, and turned their course southward, in the hope of reaching open water near the mainland. The ice now began to give a good deal of trouble, and, as the Vega, did not possess particularly strong engines, she was less able than could have been wished to force her way through the pack. Good seamanshipand careful navigation, however, more than atoned for the deficiency of steam power, and in the course of a day or two the ships freed themselves from the pack, and sailed along the coast in full view of a mountain range which lay at some distance inland. The water was now quite clear of ice, and, much to the excitement of would-be hunters, a number of walrus appeared in sight. But there was no time to go in pursuit, and the same evening the Vega reached Preobraschenie Island, where she anchored for a few hours to allow Nordenskiold and his companions to land and inspect the local productions—animal, vegetable, and mineral. It had originally been Nordenskiold's intention that the Lena should accompany the Vega as far as the Lena River, but after...« less