96 M. Baer on Animal Life in Nova Zembla. 



to be assured of the existence of some symptoms of life in na- 

 ture. But the most striking proof of the scarcity of the in- 

 sect tribe, is afforded by the fact, that the carcass of a wah-us, 

 which had lain fourteen days on the coast, was found by us 

 to be just as devoid of insect larv* as the bones of animals 

 killed on previous years, although portions of dried flesh were 

 not wanting. Hence, in the extreme north, the common form 

 of speech employed in our funeral sermons, that man becomes 

 a prey to the worms, is not correct ; and, whoever would wish 

 to escape this fate, has only to be buried in Nova Zembla or 

 Spitzbergen, where also the universal decomposing power of 

 nature will act on him only with extreme slowness.* 



The abvmdance or scarcity of insects is, after that of the ve- 

 getable kingdom, the best test of the climate of a district. 

 Both require for their existence a certain quantity and a cer- 

 tain duration of heat. These conditions are never awanting 

 in the torrid zone, but exist in a smaller *degi'ee as we ap- 

 proach the north ; though it must be remarked, that insects 

 are less easily transplanted than plants. This cause accounts 

 for the total absence of true insects in Spitzbergen. Lehmann 

 has noticed ten species in Nova Zembla, and of these, seven 

 wliich are not parasitic. Fabricius described a much larger 

 number from Greenland, and, among others, even several 

 butterflies ; and Scoresby has added several new species from 

 East Greenland. But West Gre^and, which is generally 

 taken as the type of all the northei'n regions, because it has 

 been rendered for a long time universally known by means of 

 the Moravian missionaries, must, especially in the southern 

 portion, be a far more favoured land, for it has — (not to refer 

 to old fabulous accounts), — at the present day, in latitude 61° 

 N., birches of twelve or eighteen feet in height, and as thick 

 as a man's leg, with intermixed mountain-ashes. — ( Egede, 

 Nachricht von der Gronldndischen Mission, p. T%.) Egede 

 found that corn, which he had sown as an experiment in 64° N. 

 latitude, was on the 13th September not only in ear, but also pro- 

 vided with small grains (pp. 106 and 112). Hence it is evident 



* At a certain depth, bodies remain in a frozen condition, but even above 

 the earth they ai-e preserved for a remarkable lengtli of time 



