444 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. 



has no outlet and appears to freeze completely to the bottom. 

 The mass of water which was found in autumn in the lagoon 

 therefore still lay there as an unmelted layer of ice not yet 

 broken up, which was covered with a stratum of flood water 

 several feet deep, by which the neighbouring grassy plains were 

 inundated. It was in this flood water that the Ashing took place. 

 After our return home the Yinretlen fish was examined by 

 Professor F. A. Smitt in Stockholm, who stated, in an address 

 which he gave on it before the Swedish Academy of Sciences, 

 that it belongs to a new species to which Professor Smitt gave 

 the name Dallia dclicatlssima. A closely allied f:)rm occurs in 

 Alaska, and has been named Dallia pectoralis, Bean. These 

 fishes are besides nearly allied to the dog-fish {Umhra Kramcri, 

 Fitzing), which is found in the Neusidler and Flatten Lakes, and 

 in grottos and other water-filled subterranean cavities in southern 

 Europe. It is remarkable that the European species are con- 

 sidered uneatable, and even resfarded with such loathino- that 



4^y 



J Jfc lTa It » t "^ 



I <)( -HSU 1 ROM IHh ( HI KCH PLNINSLLA 



Dallia delicatisfima, Smitt. 

 Half the natural size. 



the fishermen throw them away as soon as caught because they 

 consider them poisonous, and fear that their other fish would 

 be destroyed by contact with it. They also consider it an 

 affront if one asks tliem for dog-fish.' If we had known 

 this we should not now have been able to certify that Dallia 

 (Iclieatusima, Smitt, truly deserves its name. 



In the beginning of July the grtjund became free of snow, 

 and we could now form an idea of how the region looked m 

 t.ummer in which we had passed the winter. It was not just 

 attractive. Far away in the south the land r()se with terrace- 

 formed escarpments to a hill, called by us Table Mount, which 

 indeed was pretty high, but did not by any steep or bold cliffs 

 yield any contribution to such a picturesque landscajie b<)rder as 

 is seldom wanting on the portions of Spitzbergen, Greenland, and 

 the north part of Novaya Zemh^a which I liave visited ; south 



■* Heckel and Kner, Die Siissiuasserjische Oeaierreklis, p. 295. 



