30() REMARKS AND oriNIONS. 



few observations on tlie Fauna of these seas and 

 coasts. 



The large mammalia have gone over from the 

 American continent to Oonemak. TJiere we find 

 the rein-deer, a wolf, and a bear, which appears to 

 be the European brown bear. The black bear 

 ( Ursus America?ius, gala genisqi/e Jerrugmeis)^ the 

 valuable skin of which is sought for furs, is first 

 met, together with the brown bear, on the remote 

 north-west coast. There is, besides, at Oona- 

 lashka, the black fox, and several small GUres, 

 among which the Mus oeconomus is distinguished, 

 which stores under the snow, for winter stock, the 

 roots of the Polygonum viviparum, of the Surana, 

 (Silium Ka7nfschaticicm,) and other plants. The 

 other mammalia belong to the Fauna of the sea. 



As, on the one hand, in proportion as you go 

 further in the land towards the north, the woods 

 become less lofty, the vegetation gradually de- 

 creases, animals become scarcer, and, lastly, (as at 

 Nova Zembla,) the rein-deer and the GUres vanish 

 with the last plants, and only birds of prey prowl 

 about the icy streams for their food ; so, on the 

 other hand, the sea becomes more and more 

 peopled. The Algce, gigantic species of Tang^ form 

 inundated woods round the rocky coasts, such as 

 are not met with in the torrid zone.* But the 



* The sea Tang, which serves the Manilla galleons as a 

 mark of the vicinity of land on the coast of California, might, 



17 



