580 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[chap. XIV. 



at San Francisco offered to " sporting gentlemen " at Behring's 

 Straits (Eskimo ?) their stock of excellent hunting shot. 



As the west coast of Europe is washed by the Gulf Stream, 

 there also runs along the Pacific coast of America a warm 

 current, which gives the land a much milder climate than that 

 which jirevails on the neighbouring Asiatic side, where, as on 

 the east coast of Greenland, there runs a cold northerly current. 

 The limit of trees therefore in north-western America goes 

 a good way north of Behring's Straits, while on the Chukch 

 Peninsula wood appears to be wholly wanting. Even at Port 

 (Clarence the coast is devoid of trees, but some kilometres 

 into the country alder bushes two feet high are met with, and 

 behind the coast hills actual forests probably occur. Vegetation 



ANIMAL FIGLRK FROM AN TSKIMO GRAVE. 



a. From above, h. from the side. 

 (One-third of the natural size.) 



is besides already luxuriant at the coast, and far away here, on 

 the coast of the New World, many species are to be found 

 nearly allied to Scandinavian plants, among them the Linncea. 

 Dr. Kjellman therefore reaped here a rich botanical harvest, 

 valuable for the purpose of comparison with the flora of the 

 neighbouring portion of Asia and other High Arctic regions. 

 Dr. Almquist in like manner collected very extensive materials 

 for investigating the lichen-flora of the region, probably before 

 very incompletely known. The harvest of the zoologists, on the 

 other hand, was scanty. Notwithstanding the luxuriant vege- 

 tation land-evertebrates appeared to occur in a much smaller 

 number of species than in northern Norway. Of beetles, for 

 instance, only from ten to twenty species could be found, 



