M. Baer on Animal Life in Nova Zevtbla. 97 



that the region thus described by Egede is very different from 

 Nova Zembla, and observations made on the weather prove 

 beyond a doubt that there is a much greater degree of warmth. 

 It is however, also to be noticed, that some regions which 

 have a much lower mean temperature than Nova Zembla, are 

 much more prolific of life, if there only happen to be more 

 heat in summer. In order to select an example which is less 

 known, I would adduce Nyshne-Kolymsk which has a mean 

 temperature of — 10^ C. (= + l^° Fahr.). According to Wran- 

 gell's observations, the boundary of tall trees is not far distant, 

 and would perhaps reach this place were it not for the proxi- 

 mity of the coast, for at Nyshne-Kolymsk there is abundance 

 of stunted Siberian cedars and of shrubs. There the gnats are 

 an unendurable torment during the short summer. 



The coast of Nova Zembla is much more animated than the 

 interior, owing to the number of sea birds which there build 

 their nests. Their number and variety are certainly not so 

 great as on the Norwegian coasts or on some islands and cliffs 

 of Iceland, but still the sea-shore is thickly peopled by them in 

 some places, on approaching which the traveller is received 

 with a loud noise. The Foolish Guillemot (Uria Troile) 

 especially, whose abundance equals that of all the other birds 

 taken together, lives in colonies of this description. This 

 bird is to be seen in crowded groups, and in densely packed 

 rows ranged one above another, Avhich are placed on hardly 

 perceptible projections of the perpendicular rocky walls ; they 

 turn their fronts towards the approaching stranger, and the 

 dark precipice seems spotted with their white bellies. The 

 Russians term such brooding places bazaars. Thus has this 

 Persian word been transplanted by the Russian walrus-fishers 

 to rocks of the Frozen Ocean, and in the absence of human 

 l)eings applied to the feathered race. The great grey gidl 

 (Larus glaucus), named by the Dutch fishers, either from 

 respect or want of it, the Burgomaster, builds its nest on the 

 .summits of isolated rocks, and allows no other bird to approach 

 it. It seems to regard itself as the lord of this creation, for 

 it has confidence enough, in the presence of a whole party of 

 the fishers, to carry off fish that have been thrown by them on 

 the sea-shore. 



VOL. xxvnr. no, lv. — ^jAXi'Aav 1840. g 



