446 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. xr. 



with it when it sank some adhering water from the warm 

 and ahnost fresh surface strata. At the sea-bottom the sand 

 surrounded hy fresh water freezing at 0° C. thus met a stratum 

 of salt water whose temperature was two or three degrees under 

 0°, in consequence of which the grains of sand froze fast to- 

 gether. That it may go on thus we had a direct proof when 

 in spring we sank from the Vega the bodies of animals to be 

 skeletonised by the Crustacea that swarmed at the sea-bottom. 

 If the sack, pierced at several places, in which the skeleton was 

 sunk was first allowed to fill with the slightly salt water from 

 the surface and then sink rapidly to the bottom, it was found to be 

 so filled with ice, when it was taken up a day or two afterwards, 

 that the Crustacea were prevented from getting at the flesh. 

 We had already determined to abandon the convenient cleansing- 

 process, when I succeeded in finding means to avoid the in- 

 convenience ; this was attained by drawing the sack, while 

 some distance under the surface, violently hither and thither 

 so that the surface water carried down with it was got rid of. 

 Frozen clay and ooze do not appear to occur at the bottom of 

 the Polar Sea. Animal life on the frozen sand was rather 

 scanty, but algse were met with there though in limited numbers. 



From the shore a plain commences, which is studded with 

 extensive lagoons and a large number of small lakes. In spring 

 this plain is so water-drenched and so crossed by deep rapid 

 snow-rivulets, that it is difficult, often impossible, to traverse it. 

 Immediately after the disappearance of the snow a large number 

 of birds at all events had settled there. The Lapp sparrow had 

 chosen a tuft projecting from the marshy ground on which to place 

 its beautiful roofed dwelling, the waders in the neighbourhood had 

 laid their eggs in most cases directly on the water-drenched moss 

 without trace of a nest, and on tufts completely surrounded by 

 the spring floods we met with the eggs of the loom, the long- 

 tailed duck, the eider and the goose. Already during our stay, 

 the water ran away so rapidly, that places, which one day wei-e 

 covered with a watery mirror, over which a boat of light draught 

 could be rowed forward, were changed the next day to wet 

 marshy ground, covered with yellow grass-straws from the pre- 

 ceding year. At many places the grassy sward had been torn 

 up by the ice and carried away, leaving openings sharply defined 

 by right lines in the meadows, resembling a newly worked off 

 place in a peat moss. 



In summer there must be found here green meadows covered 

 with pretty tall grass, but at the time of our departure vegetation 

 had not attained any great development, and the flowers that could 

 be discovered were few. I presume however that a beautiful 

 Arctic flower-world grows up here, although, in consequence of 

 the exposure of the coast-country to the north winds, poor in 



