NOEWEGIAN DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION OF 1873, 261 



Directly to the right of the Mayor's Gate, and a few paces up from the 

 harbor, lies an old deserted Russian hut, the point indicated to us by the 

 Hollanders. The roof was partially dilapidated, and here and there the 

 floor was torn up and drenched with snow-water ; but the walls were 

 well timbered and had resisted the destructive influences of the wintry 

 blasts and of the snow tolerably well. The i)lain and simi)le interior 

 arrangement, a couple of bedsteads and a rudely-fashioned table, gave 

 us an insight into the dreary existence which its occupants must have 

 exi)erienced during the long wintry nights, while the storm howled with- 

 out and the snow gathered in towers round about the hut. That time 

 had hung heavily on their hands was also sufiiciently evident from the 

 numerous inscriptions and carvings which covered the walls and bed- 

 steads. With an industry and exactness that partially made up for the 

 lack of artistic talent, we here found carved with a jack-knife ships of 

 all sizes and descriptions, the cordage and yards represented as mi- 

 nutely and accurately as possible. In the rear of the liouse lay parts of 

 the skeleton of a polar bear, which undoubtedly had been altogether 

 too impertinent to escape with his life. The time required to dispose of 

 the mail was occupied by a part of us for the purpose of taking a short 

 stroll into the interior part of the island. Nothing more melancholy 

 and dreary can be imagined. Even Jan Mayen seemed to us a garden 

 in comparison with these barren flats, strewn with nothing but pebbles 

 and gravel. 



After having taken this invigorating exercise on shore, we returned 

 Xg our ship, where we weighed anchor and proceeded westward, in order 

 to determine more accurately the slope toward the great deep outside. 

 At the distance of about forty miles from the island we cast the dredge 

 at a depth of 35 fathoms. The bottom here consisting chiefly of coarse 

 sand, the harvest was comparatively insignificant. On the other hand, 

 the surface of the water was here tilled with pelagic animals ; our sur- 

 face-net especially yielded enormous quantities of peteropods {Limacina 

 arctica), and many of the specimens were of quite unusual size. The 

 surface temj^erature was, as might be expected from the proximity of 

 the ice, very low, and the sea- water was filled with a i)eculiar sea-slime, 

 which on our former expedition had been observed under similar circum- 

 stances. But at a somewhat greater distance from the island a very 

 sudden change took place, the temperature of the water rising at once 

 to from 35.6° to 41° Fahr,, while the color changed from a greenish to 

 a dark-blue hue. It was the warm water of the Atlantic that here met 

 the Polar water, without being able, however, as it seems, ever to get 

 over to the coasts of Beeren Island, where the Polar current seems to 

 be as dominating as at Jan Mayen. At somewhat long intervals the 

 lead was thrown as we progressed outward, showing first 115, then 457, 

 and then 750 fathoms, without the discovery of any abrupt descent any- 

 where. At the last-named station a comi^lete series of observations 

 of the temperature were taken, which showed 32^ Fahr. to be situated 



