140 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap, 



bad report and name of ice-liouse. Now we know that it is not 

 so dangerous in this respect as it was formerly believed to be — 

 that the ice of the Kara Sea melts away for the most part, and 

 that during autumn this sea is quite available for navigation. 



In general our knowledge of the Kara Sea some decades 

 back was not only incomplete, but also erroneous. It was be- 

 licvefi that its animal life was exceedingly scanty, and that sdgoi 

 were absolutely wanting ; no soundings had been taken else- 

 where than close to the coast ; and much doubt was thrown, not 

 without reason, on the correctness of the maps. Now all this is 

 changed to a fjreat extent. The coast line, bordering^ on the 

 sea, is settled on the maps ; the ice-conditions, currents and 

 depth of water in different parts of the sea are ascertained, and 

 we know that the old ideas of its poverty in animals and plants 

 are quite erroneous. 



In respect to dej)t]i the Kara Sea is distinguished by a 

 special regularity, and by the absence of sudden changes. 

 Along the east coast of Novaya Zemlya and Vaygats Island 

 there runs a channel, up to 500 metres in depth, filled 

 with cold salt-water, which forms the haunt of a fauna 

 rich not only in individuals, but also in a large number 

 of remarkable and rare types, as Umbellula, Elpidia, Alecto, 

 asterids of many kinds, &c. Towards the east the sea-bottom 

 rises gradually and then forms a plain lying 30 to 90 metres 

 below the surface of the sea, nearly as level as the surface of 

 the superincumbent water. The bottom of the sea in the south 

 and west parts of it consists of clay, in the regions of Beli 

 Ostrov of sand, farther north of gravel. Shells of Crustacea and 

 pebbles are here often surrounded by bog-ore formations, 

 resembling the figures on page 186. These also occur over an 

 extensive area north-east of Port Dickson in such quantity that 

 they might be used for the manufacture of iron, if the region 

 were less inaccessible. 



Even in the shallower parts of the Kara Sea the water at 

 the bottom is nearly as salt as in the Atlantic Ocean, and all 

 the year round cooled to a temperature of — 2° to — 2°-7. The 

 surface-water, on the contrary, is very variable in its composition, 

 sometimes at certain places almost drinkable, and in summer 

 often strongly heated. The remarkable circumstance takes 

 place here that the surface water in consequence of its limited 

 salinity freezes to ice if it be exposed to the temperature which 

 prevails in the salt stratum of water next the bottom, and that 

 it forms a deadly poison for many of the decapoda, worms, 

 mussels, Crustacea and asterids which crawl in myriads among 

 the beds of clay or sand at the bottom. 



At many places the loose nature of the bottom does not 

 permit the existence of any algse, but in the neighbourhood of 



