IX.] BAY AND SEA ICE. 321 



been mucli pressed together, but has not been exposed to any- 

 early summer heat. The wah^us-hunters call it sea ice, wishing, 

 I imagine, to indicate thereby that it is formed in the sea 

 farther up towards the north. That it has drifted down from 

 the north is indeed correct, but that it has been formed far 

 from land over a considerable depth in the open sea is perhaps 

 uncertain, as the ice that is formed there cannot, we think, 

 be very thick. It has rather perhaps drifted down from the 

 neighbourhood of some yet unknown Polar continent. Of 

 this ice are formed most of the ice-fields in the seas east 

 of Greenland, north of Spitzbergen, between Spitzbergen and 

 the north island of Novaya Zemlya, and north of Behring's 

 Straits. In the northern seas it does not melt completely 

 during the summer, and remains of sea ice therefore often 

 enter as component parts into the bay ice formed during the 

 following winter. The latter then becomes rough and uneven, 

 from remnants of old sea ice being frozen into the newly formed 

 ice. Sea ice is often pressed together so as to form great 

 torosses or ice-casts, formed of pieces of ice which at first are 

 angular and piled loose on each other, but gradually become 

 rounded, and freeze together into enormous blocks of ice, which, 

 together with the glacier ice-blocks, form the principal mass 

 of the ground ice found on the coasts of the Polar lands. The 

 water which is obtained by melting sea-ice is not completely 

 free from salt, but the older it is the less salt does it contain. 



East of the Bear Islands heavy sea-ice in pretty compact 

 masses had drifted down towards the coast, but still left an 

 open ice-free channel along the land. Here the higher animal 

 world was exceedingly poor, which, as far as the avi-fauna was 

 concerned, must be in some degree ascribed to the late season 

 of the year. For Wrangel mentions a cliff at the Bear Islands 

 which was covered with numberless birds' nests. He saw 

 besides, on the largest of these islands, traces of the bear, wolf, 

 fox, lemming, and reindeer (Wrangel's Bcise, i. pp. 304 and 

 327). Now the surrounding sea was completely deserted.' No 

 Polar bear saluted us from the ice-floes, no walruses, and only 

 very few seals were visible. During many watches not a single 

 natatory bird was seen. Only the phalarope was still met with 

 in large numbers, even pretty far out at sea. Perhaps it was 

 then mio^ratinoj from the north. The lower animal world was 

 more abundant. From the surface of the sea the drag-net 

 brought up various small surface Crustacea, inconsiderable in 

 themselves, but important as food for larger animals ; and from 

 the sea-bottom were obtained a large number of the same animal 

 forms as from the sound at Svjatoinos, and in addition some 

 beautiful asterids and a multitude of very large beaker sponges. 



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