THE USSURI-LITTOEAL TRACT. 73 



situation in the temperate zone, between 44^ and 62" north latitude, it possesses the t^-pe of a 

 polar sea like Hudson's Bay. The greatest depth of the Sea of Okhotsk in its centre is apparently 

 not more than 1,400 to 1,500 feet. While towards the end of the summer in July and August 

 the temperature of the water upon the surface of the sea rises to 7" and even 10", that at 

 a depth of over 100 feet is below 0" C, and deeper thanTOOfeet it is— 1"5". Low^er than 1 ,350 

 feet, the water being salter, the temperature again rises, reaching 2'4'' and remains so to the 

 bottom of the sea. But however this may be, the Sea of Okhotsk has all the appearance of 

 what might be called a «tundra» sea, from the valleys of the northern shore of which are 

 carried to the south the so-called «scum» or ice masses floating almost the whole summer on 

 the Sea of Okhotsk. In summer the floating ice collects especially in the southern part of the 

 sea, off the coast to the east of Sakhalin and around the Shantar islands and even in the 

 Amour frith. In Udsk Bay the ice clears out only in July, in Tugursk Bay it holds till Au- 

 gust. The marine currents of the Okhotsk sea on its eastern Kamchatka shore flow apparently 

 on the whole in a northerly direction, and from its north-eastern Ghizhiginsk and Peuzhinsk 

 extremities swerve to the west, and afterwards following the change of direction of the coast- 

 line turn to the south, passing by the eastern shore of Sakhalin. These cuiTcnts it is that 

 fill the whole south-western part of the sea in summer with floating ice, in some places form- 

 ing an obstacle to ships entering it from the Pacific Ocean. 



Both the subaqueous flora and the invertebrate fauna of the Okhotsk Sea are extremely 

 rich in comparison with not only those of the Northern Ocean coast, but even with those 

 of Behring Sea. As many as 53 species of seeweeds (algae) have been found in this sea. 

 The algae here, moreover, bear a much greater resemblance to the flora of the Artie Ocean 

 than to that of the Pacific. The majority of the seaweeds of the European Arctic Ocean are 

 also to be found in the Sea of Okhotsk, while the flora of this sea presents very few species 

 common to the Pacific, possessing however not a few peculiar species. The Sea of Okhotsk is 

 extraordinarily rich in mollusks. As many as 70 species of shellfish have been found there, 

 of which 31 species belong to the general polar or circumpolar forms, 15 to the polar forms 

 of Behring Sea, 14 to the Pacific fauna, also met with upon the Aniericau coasts, and finally 

 10, peculiar to the Sea of Okhotsk itself. Twenty-one species of crustaceans have been found, 

 5 of these circumpolar, 5 Pacific, and 11 peculiar to Okhotsk. There, is scant information on 

 the fish of the Sea of Okhotsk, but the pisciae wealthof this sea is very considerable. In partic- 

 ular the «keta» (salmo lagocephalus) and «malma» (salma callaris) are met here in count- 

 less shoals. It is a natural consequence of the wealth of the marine flora and fauna of the 

 Sea of Okhotsk and of its polar character, that this sea has ever been the chosen hunting 

 ground of large marine mammals, swimming hither from the Arctic Ocean. Among these must 

 be counted not only several species of seal (phoca barbata, groenlandica, leouina, nautica, numu- 

 laria and ochotensis), dolphins (phocaena orca, delphinapteros leucas); but three species of whale 

 of which only one has been identified with certainty (balaenoptera longimana). The whal- 

 ing industry began to be developed here in the forties of the present century, and since 

 1847 the American whalers have not given these creatures one single year's rest, and have 

 carried away, according to the testimony of the American ship owners, in the 14 years between 

 1847 and 18G1, blubber and whulr bone lo ilu' amuuul of 130,000,000 dollars, employing 



