244 ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



unchanging temperature of below 30°, well below the freezing 

 point of fresh water. At the temperature found here our lakes 

 and ponds would be solid blocks of ice; but salt water freezes 

 at considerably lower temperatures than fresh so that in these 

 frigid depths no ice is formed. On land animal activity almost 

 entirely ceases when the water freezes; in the sea the water is 

 still water and available for use by animals when it is colder 

 than we ever see it. 



Along the western shores of the Okhotsk and Japanese Seas 

 there is a broad band of this very cold water, and here animal 

 life is so exceedingly abundant as to challenge comparison with 

 any other region in the world. It was on September 26th, in 

 igo6, on the coast of Sakhalin that we found the coldest bot- 

 tom, with temperatures ranging from 29.8° to 30.4°. But my 

 most vivid recollections are of our first experience with such 

 conditions. This occurred in the Sea of Japan on July 19th, a 

 warm and sunny day with the air from 80° to 82° and the sur- 

 face water of the sea 76°. The temperature on the sea bottom 

 below was 32.4°, not ciuite ice cold but very near it, cold enough 

 to make it pleasant for the same animals that are found in the 

 coldest places. 



The dredge went down and was hauled up while we, dressed 

 in white, kept so far as possible in the shade. The haul was 

 successful, and a wealth of animal life fell into the sieves when 

 the net was opened. With enthusiasm we commenced sorting 

 the many and varied creatures before us; but our enthusiasm 

 slowly waned as with perspiring bodies and almost frozen 

 hands we more and more carefully picked out the treasures, 

 now a fish, like an animated piece of ice, now a crab or star- 

 fish, or a sea-urchin, or a plant-like creature, or a wretched 

 flabby thing into which our fingers sunk most painfully. And 

 none of these animals had ever in their fives experienced a 

 temperature more than four-tenths of a degree higher than 

 that of the ordinary cake of ice. 



There are various other regions where the sea bottom is just 

 as cold as here or even colder, in the Arctic and Antarctic, and 



