114 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



Schar, and uninhabited fox-holes and passages at several 

 places on the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, commonly in the 

 tops of dry sandy knolls. 



The lemming is not found on Spitzbergen, but must at 

 certain seasons occur in incredible numbers on Novaya Zemlya, 

 For at the commencement of summer, when the snow has 

 recently melted away, there are to be seen, everywhere in the 

 level fertile places in the very close grass of the meadows, foot- 

 paths about an inch and a half deep, which have been formed 

 during winter by the trampling of these small animals, under the 

 snow, in the bed of grass or lichens which lies immediately 

 above the frozen ground. They have in this way united with each 

 other the dwellings they had excavated in the ground, and con- 

 structed for themselves convenient ways, well protected against 

 the severe cold of w^inter, to their fodder-places. Thou- 

 sands and thousands of animals must be required in order to 

 carry out this work even over a small area, and wonderfully 

 keen must their sense of locality be, if, as seems probable, they 

 can find their way with certainty in the endless labyrinth they 

 have thus formed. During the .snow-melting season these pass- 

 ages form channels for running off the water, small indeed, but 

 everywhere to be met with, and contributing in a considerable 

 degree to the drying of the ground. The ground besides is at 

 certain places so thickly strewed with lemming dung, that it 

 must have a considerable influence on the condition of the soil. 



In the Arctic regions proper one is not tormented by the 

 mosquito,^ and viewed as a whole the insect fauna of the entire 

 Polar area is exceedingly scanty, although richer than was 

 before supposed. Arachnids, acarids, and podurids occur most 

 plentifully. Dr. Stuxberg having been able during the Yenisej ex- 

 pedition of 1875 to collect a very large number of them, which 

 were worked out after his return — the podurids by Dr. T. 

 TuLLBERG of Upsala, the arachnids by Dr. T. Koch of Niirnberg. 

 These small animals are found in very numerous individual speci- 

 mens, among mouldering vegetable remains, under stones and 

 pieces of wood on the beach, creeping about on grass, straws, &c. 



Of the insects proper there were brought home from Novaya 



^ That is to say, not on Spitzbere^'en and Novaya Zemlya, for it is 

 otherwise on the coast of the mainland. In West Greenland the mosquito 

 as far north as the southern part of Disco Island is still so terrible, especi- 

 ally to the new comer during the first days, that the face of any one who 

 without a veil ventures into marshy ground overgrown with bushes, 

 becomes in a few hours unrecognisable. The eyelids are closed with 

 swelling and changed into water-filled bladders, suppurating tumours are 

 formed in the head under the hair, &c. But when a man has once under- 

 gone this unpleasant and painful inoculation, the body appears, at least 

 for one summer, to be less susceptible to the mosquito-poison. 



