250 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [cuap. 



of lime, for the crystals were rlioraboliedral and did not show 

 the cleavage of calcite. Nor can there be a question of 

 its being arragonite, because this mineral might indeed fall 

 asunder "of itself," but in that case the newly-formed powder 

 ought to be crystalline. Have the crystals originally been a 

 new hydrated carbonate of lime, formed by crystallising out 

 of the sea-water in intense cold, and then losing its water 

 at a temperature of 10° or 20° above the freezing-point ? In 

 such a case they ought not to have been found on the surflice of 

 the S710W, but lower down on the surflice of the ice. Or have 

 they fallen down from the inter-planetary spaces to the surface 

 of the earth, and before crumbling down have had a composition 

 differing from terrestrial substances in the same way as various 

 chemical compounds found in recent times in meteoric stones ? 

 The occurrence of the crystals in the uppermost layer of snow 

 and their falling asunder in the air, tell in favour of this view. 

 Unfortunately there is now no possibility of settling these 

 questions, but at all events this discovery is a further incitement 

 to those who travel in the High North to collect with extreme 

 care, from snow-fields lying far from the ordinary routes of com- 

 munication, all foreign substances, though apparently of trifling 

 importance. 



As this question can be answered with the greatest ease and 

 certainty by investigations in the Polar regions, I shall here, for 

 the guidance of future travellers, enumerate some discoveries 

 of a like nature which have been made by me, or at ray instance. 



1. In the beginning of December, 1871, there happened at 

 Stockholm an exceedingly heavy fall of snow, perhaps the 

 heaviest which has taken place in the memory of man. Several 

 persons perished in the snow in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of Stockholm. During the last days of the snowfall I had 

 about a cubic metre of snow collected and melted in a vessel. 

 It left a residue of black powder, which contained grains of 

 metallic iron that were attracted by the magnet. 



2. In the middle of March, 1872, a similar investigation was 

 made by my brother, Karl Noedenskiold, in a remote forest 

 settlement, Evois, in Finland. Here, too, was obtained, on 

 the melting of the snow, a small residuum, consisting of a 

 black powder containing metallic iron. 



3. On the 8th August and 2nd September of the same year, 

 I examined, north of Spitzbergen, in 80° N.L., and 13° to 15° 

 E.L., the layer of snow that there covered the ice. The nature 

 of this layer is shown by the accompanying woodcut, in which 

 1, is new-fallen snow ; 2, a layer of hardened old snow, eight 

 mm. in thickness ; 3, a layer of snow conglomerated to a 

 crystalline granular mass ; and 4, common granular hardened 

 snow. Layer 3 was full of small black grains, among which 



