98 M. Baer on Animal Life in N'ova Zemhla. 



These birds are the best proof that more is to be obtained 

 from the bottom of the sea than from the dry land. In fact, 

 the great mass of animal life is here buried under the surface 

 of the ocean. Small crabs are particularly abundant, and 

 more especially Gammari, which surround a piece of flesh 

 thrown into the water, almost in as great numbers as the 

 gnats which collect about a warm-blooded animal in Lapland. 

 They may be obtained in thousands by means of a sieve. 

 When we threw our lines in Matotschkin-Schar, we were as^ 

 sured by the walrus fishers, who never give themselves this 

 trouble, that our trial would be a vain one, as in the first 

 place there are almost no fish, and in the next place some- 

 times the bait and sometimes the fish are completely con- 

 sumed in a few hours by the KapscJiaki, as these Gammari 

 are termed. We soon found, indeed, that we rarely drew up 

 anything with our lines. 



Although the vegetation is so sparing, yet it supports a 

 multitude of lemmings. Gentle acclivities are frequently 

 buiTowed by them in all directions. But still the number of 

 these creatures is not nearly so great as one would be led to 

 believe by the multitude of excavations ; for most of them are 

 empty, as is easily proved by the use of dogs ; but, neverthe- 

 less, their number is so considerable as to make us ask our- 

 selves how so many lemmings can subsist on so meagre a ve- 

 getation. It is by no means impossible, that the vegetation 

 appears so poor, because the lemmmgs render a large portion 

 of it invisible. Were they to devour the roots, there would 

 soon be but little of the vegetable kingdom remaining in No- 

 va Zembla, and the lemmings would soon become extinct from 

 the absence of nourishment ; but those caught by us could in 

 no way be brought to eat the smallest root. As, in their na- 

 tural state, they only eat flowers and green parts, and as all 

 the plants ai'e perennial, the latter produce new stems in the 

 course of each succeeding year. It seemed still more remark- 

 able to us that, even when in the greatest state of hunger, 

 they would not touch cryptogamic plants. I regretted that 

 the small nmiiber of ferns did not permit me to tiy the expe- 

 riment, if these practical vegetable phytophagists regulate 

 themselves by the presence of the spiral vessels, or by the Lin- 

 naean principles of classification. The lemmings are of two 



