ORUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCKAN. 15 
cence of the sea was also observed in September in latitude 70°. And several patches of red snow 
were seen at Plover Bay and at Herald Island, but whether the tint was owing to the presence of 
some red protophyte or not | am unable to say. 
The meteorological records kept on board the Corwin, being of use in connection with the navi- 
gation of the vessel only, are, therefore, untrustworthy so far as making any deductions from them 
in regard to climatology is concerned. In connection with this subject it may be inferred from the 
absence of glaciers above Bering Straits and the existence of huge ones in the more southern part 
of Alaska, compared with which the great Aletsch glacier of the Alps is a mere pygmy, that the 
amount of precipitation is much less in the higher latitudes of the Pacific Arctic. But the finding 
of terminal and lateral moraines, rock scratches, and other evidences of former glaciation, as well 
as of coal, which geology says is the sun’s rays in potential form, and also the fossil remains of 
the mammoth along with luxuriant tropical or semi-tropical vegetation, would imply the existence 
at a remote period of a different climatological condition, a change in which has been brought 
about, according to the explanation of the meteorologists, in long lapses of time through the change 
in the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit in combination with the precession of the equinoxes and the 
movement of the apsides. Whether a milder climate existed in former days, enabling the mam- 
moth to subsist on vegetable food, as suggested by Professor Owen, or whether the mammoth, in 
his personal locomotions while endeavoring to overcome the influence of climate, was detained in 
his present position by the sudden freezing, it is impossible to say. Sir Charles Lyell seems to 
account satisfactorily not only for the presence of these animals in the northern parts of Siberia 
and America, but for the permanent masses of ice known as mammoth cliffs. His explanation 
is as follows: 
This snow is commonly blown over the edges of steep cliffs, so as to form an inclined talus 
hundreds of feet high; and, when a thaw commences, torrents rush from the land and throw down 
from the top of the cliff alluvial soil and gravel. This new soil soon becomes covered with vegeta- 
tion, and protects the foundation of snow trom the rays of the sun. Water occasionally penetrates 
into the crevices and pores of the snow; but as soon as it freezes it serves the more effecti vely to 
consolidate the mass into compact ice. It may sometimes happen that cattle grazing in a valley 
at the base of such cliffs, on the borders of a river, may be overwhelmed by drift snow, and at 
length inclosed in solid ice, and then transported toward the polar region, Ora herd of mam- 
moths, returning from their summer pastures in the north, may have been surprised, while cross- 
ing a stream, by the sudden congelation of the waters. 
In the course of the summer we fell in with most of the vessels of the whaling fleet, to several of 
which medical services were rendered, the cases being such as are common to seafaring men. The 
most notable ones were of consumption and constitutional syphilis among men who should never 
have been shipped in the first place. There also came under notice a case of polydipsia, in which 
it would have been desirable to try large doses of valerian—a medicine not among the stores— 
consequently the patient was unbenefited by treatment; and there occurred two deaths, one each 
from consumption and ascites. 
One man of the escaped crew of the bark Daniel Webster, which was crushed in the ice, on being 
rescued, after two weeks of exposure, terror, and starvation, was completely insane, but subsequently 
regained his reason. It seems that the act of deserting ship in the Arctic not only taxes all the 
resources of manliness but the situation conduces to bringing about mental derangement. One of 
the oldest and most experienced Arctic whalers tells me that he has seen men from an abandoned 
ship so lose their wits as to ery like children, sit helpless on the ice, and refuse to move until the 
most rigorous measures were taken to force them. Another whaleman told me that some years ago, 
having to retreat from his crushed ship across the ice, two of his crew, becoming raving maniacs, 
finally drowned themselves; and the insane seamen of the Jeannette party is fresh in the minds 
of every one. ‘The rescued crew of the Webster were on the verge of starvation when picked up, 
and among the nine taken on board the Corwin there prevailed for some weeks a peculiar disturbance 
of the digestive organs, characterized by a furred tongue, indigestion, and a sense of heaviness and 
pain in the epigastric region. 
But the demands for medical services were more urgent among the inhabitants of several remote 
places where the Corwin touched, notably at Ounalaska and at Saint Michael’s, the most northern 
station of the Alaska Commercial Company, and one of the few unprovided with a physician. 
