ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



XIV. — Description of Animal Life in Nova Zembla. By 



K. E. von Baer.* 



Not only the total want of trees, but also of every kind of 

 shrub that would be large enough to attract the eye without 

 being looked for, gives to the polar landscapes a peculiar and 

 deeply impressive character. 



In the first place all power of measurement is lost to the 

 eye. From the want of the usual objects of known dimen- 

 sions, trees and buildings, distances appear much less than 

 they are, and for the same reason also the mountains are 

 thought lower. This observation has often been made before 

 and was not unknown to me, yet I found the deception, for 

 which I was prepared, much more complete than I had ex- 

 pected. I knew indeed that on this very account an expedi- 

 tion which King Frederick the Second of Denmark fitted out 

 for Greenland failed in its object. 



Mogens Heinson, who at that time was considered an able 

 seaman, commanded the ship : he came within sight of the 

 coast of Greenland, and steered with a favourable wind to- 

 wards it ; but after sailing several hours in the same direction 

 it appeared to him that he came no nigher to the shore. An 

 apprehension seized him that some hidden force at the bottom 

 of the sea held him fast ; he turned the ship about and went 

 back to Denmark, with the account that he had not been able 

 to reach the coast of Greenland, having been enchained by a 

 magnetic rock. With this experience and with the naive de- 

 claration of Martens concerning Spitzbergen, u The distances 

 seem quite near, but when they are to be walked over in 

 the country it is quite another matter, and one soon becomes 

 very weary," I was well acquainted, and yet I found the de- 

 lusion much greater than I could have supposed, and to my 



* Translated from Wiegmann's Archiv, part 2. 1839. 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 4. No. 23. Nov. 1839. m 



