“It happened once during foggy weather on the ice at Wahlenberg Bay that the bear that was expected and had been clearly seen by all of us, instead of approaching with his usual supple zigzag movements, and with his ordinary attempts to nose himself to a sure insight into the fitness of the foreigners for food, just as the marksman took aim, spread out gigantic wings and flew away in the form of a small ivory gull. Another time during the same sledge journey we heard from the tent in which we rested the cook, who was employed outside, cry out, ‘A bear! a great bear! No! a reindeer, a very little reindeer!’ The same instant a well-directed shot was fired, and the bear-reindeer was found to be a very small fox, which thus paid with its life for the honour of having for some moments played the part of a big animal. From these accounts it may be seen how difficult navigation among drift-ice must be in unknown waters.” It had been understood that the _Lena_ would accompany the _Vega_ as far as one of the mouth-arms of the Lena River. But on the night of the 27th of August, while off Tumat Islands, all conditions being favourable, the ships parted company, after Captain Johannesen had received orders, passports and letters for home. “As a parting salute to our trusty little attendant during our voyage round the north point of Asia some rockets were fired, on which we steamed or sailed on, each to his destination.” Following an easterly course, through shallow open water the _Vega_ all but made the Northeast Passage in one season. Toward the end of September, however, she was frozen in off the shore of a low plain or tundra in 67° 71´ N., and 173° 20´ W., near the settlements of the Chuckches, numbering about three hundred souls. The open water which to a late date in the season had favoured the progress of the expedition, was accounted for by the volumes of warm water discharged into the Polar Sea during the summer by the great Siberian river systems. During the voyage, valuable natural history collections were made, and the sea bottom was found to abound in animal and vegetable life.