052 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [cHAr. 



Similar investigations have since been made, among others, 

 by M. TisSANDiER in Paris, and during Naees' English Polar 

 Expedition. 



It may appear to many that it is below the dignity of science 

 to concern one's self with so trifling an affair as the fall of a 

 small quantity of dust. But this is by no means the case. For 

 I estimate the quantity of the dust that was found on the ice 

 north of Spitzbergen at from O'l to 1 milhgram per square 

 metre, and probably the whole fall of dust for the year far 

 exceeded the latter figure. But a milligram on every square 

 metre of the surface of the earth amounts for the whole globe 

 to five hundred million kilograms (say half a million tons) ! 

 Such a mass collected year by year during the geological ages, 

 of a duration probably incomprehensible by us, forms too im- 

 portant a factor to be neglected, when the fundamental facts of 

 the geological history of our planet are enumerated. A con- 

 tinuation of these investigations will perhaps show, that our 

 globe has increased gradually from a small beginning to the 

 dimensions it now possesses ; that a considerable quantity of the 

 constituents of our sedimentary strata, especially of those that 

 have been deposited in the open sea far from land, are of cosmic 

 origin ; and will throw an unexpected light on the origin of the 

 fire-hearths of the volcanoes, and afford a simple explanation of 

 the remarkable resemblance which unmistakably exists between 

 plutonic rocks and meteoric stones.^ 



On the 14th August, when the fog had lightened a little, we 

 got up steam, but were soon compelled to anchor again in a bay 

 running into Taimur Island from the north side of Taimur 

 Sound, which I named Actinia Bay, from the large number of 

 Mctinia Avhicli the dredge brought up there. It is, besides, not 

 the only place in the Kara Sea which might be named from 

 the evertebrate life prevailing there, so unexpectedly abundant. 



Unfavourable weather detained us in Actinia Bay, which 

 is a good and well-protected haven, till the 18th August, 

 during which time excursions were made in various directions, 

 among others farther into Taimur Sound, where a variable 

 strong current was found to prevail. The Sound is too shallow 

 to be passed through by large vessels. The rocks round Taimur 

 Sound consist of gneiss strata, which form low ridges that 

 have been so shattered by the frost that they have beun con- 

 verted into immense lichen- clad stone mounds. Between these 

 stretch extensive valleys and plains, now tree of snow, if we 



^ Namely, by showing that tlie principal material of the plutonic and 

 volcanic rocks is of cosmic origin, and that the phenomena of heat, which 

 occur in these layers, depend on chemical changes to which the cosmic 

 sediment, after being covered by thick terrestrial formations, is subjected. 



