THE ARC1TC OCEAN. 19 



light, flashing in multi-colored rays, or quivering in 

 faint and feathery scintillations a light that takes 

 away the irksomeness of gloom, and makes the long 

 night wondrous. 



The desolate grandeur of the scene is in muny parts 

 increased by the entire absence of animated nature ; in 

 others the dearth of vegetation is compensated by 

 superabundance of animal life. Wrangell tells us that 

 " countless herds of reindeer, elks, black bears, foxes, 

 sables, and gray squirrels, fill the upland forests ; stone 

 foxes and wolves roam over the low grounds. Enor- 

 mous flights of swans, geese, and ducks, arrive in 

 spring, and seek deserts where they may moult and build 

 their nests in safety. Eagles, owls, and gulls, pursue 

 their prey along the sea-coast ; ptarmigan run in troops 

 among the bushes ; little snipes are busy along the 

 brooks and in the morasses ; the social crows seek the 

 neighborhood of men's habitations ; and when the sun 

 shines in spring, one may even sometimes hear the 

 cheerful note of the finch, and in autumn that of the 

 thrush." 



"There is," as observed by Lieutenant-Colonel Sa- 

 bine, "a striking resemblance in the configuration of 

 the northern coasts of the continents of Asia and Amer- 

 ica for several hundred miles on either side of Behring's 

 Strait ; the general direction of the coast is the same in 

 both continents, the latitude is nearly the same, and 

 each has its attendant group of islands to the north : 

 the Asiatic continent, those usually known as the New 

 Siberian Islands ; and the American, those called by 

 Sir Edward Parry the North Georgian Group, and since 

 fitly named, from their discoverer, the Parry Islands. 

 The resemblance includes the islands also, both in gen- 

 eral character and latitude." 



With respect to the Arctic Ocean, a late writer ex 



