A SUBTROPICAL MIOCENE FAUNA IN ARCTIC SIBERIA. 



1!Y 



William Healey Dall, 



Curator of the Department of Molhisks. 

 (With Plate LVt.) 



In the nortlieastern angle of the Okhotsk Sea, between the parallels 

 of 58° and 02° north liititnde and in abont 158° east of Greenwich, 

 lies a large body of water known as the Gnlf of Penjinsk. It extends 

 in a northeast and sonthwest direction for about 300 miles and has a 

 greatest width of some 140 miles. At its head it is divided by a large 

 peninsula into two narrower arms, of which the westernmost is called 

 the Gijiga Bay and the other Penjinsk or Zhinsk Bay.* At the head 

 of the former a small river comes in, some distance up which is the 

 small Kussian trading post of Giifgii, which, to the best of my knowl- 

 edge at present, is the only permanent settlement anywhere about the 

 gulf. 



This arm of the Okhotsk Sea has not been visited, so far as recorded, 

 by any scientific explorer, uidess we except the officers of a small 

 coast-guard steamer maintained bj- the Russian Government in the 

 Okhotsk Sea, and who did some hydrography in this vicinity. ISTo 

 collections from this region are mentioned in any >vork on the natural 

 hhstory of this region which is accessible to me. 



From Russian travelers and the explorers of the Telegrai)h exi)edi- 

 tion of 18()5-'G7, as well as the whaling captains of the North Pacilic 

 fleet, something is known of the characteristics of the gulf. It is ice- 

 bound for more than lialf the year. Lat«' in May simultaneously with 

 the freshets in the rivers falling into the gulf, the ice near its head 

 and along its shores becomes loosened and a certain amount of open 

 water will l)e formed between the main floes of the Okhotsk Sea and 

 the land about the gulf. A large nund)er of whales, su^tposed to be a 

 variety of the true Arctic liowhead or Balivna ini/sticcti(s, were for- 

 merly in the habit of resorting to these sheltered bits of open water 

 where they brought foith their young. This came to the knowledge 

 of the whalers, and about 1849 the whale fishery was established in the 

 Okhotsk Sea and maintained there until the whales became; too scarce 

 to warrant their pursuit. Since the ice prevented the access of the 

 whale ships, they were accustomed to send boat parties through the 



* The noineiH'hitnie in these parts is somewhat unsettled and charts differ, but the 

 uames here used are derived from the Russian Ilydrographic Office chart. 



471 

 [Proceedings National Museutu, Vol. XVI — No. 946.J 



