96 



NATURE 



[Dec. 2, 1875 



had already obtained a Harpalus, two species Staphylini, 

 a number of Acaridse and PoduridK, a species of dew-worm, * 

 &c., and as at the Proven's anchorage, the vegetation has 

 a stamp deviating very much from the flora of Novaya Zemlya. 

 Large bush plants, even the dwarf birch, were completely 

 absent, and the ground was in no case covered with a true mat 

 of grass. 



" The other place where we landed for a little was Krestows- 

 koje, a now deserted simovie (a place inhabited both summer 

 and winter), which, however, to judge by the number of the 

 houses and the way in which they were fitted up, must once have 

 had its flourishing period. All household articles were removed, 

 and literally there was not to be found an iron nail in the wall ; a 

 proof that the inhabitants had not died out, but migrated. The 

 vegetation in the neighbourhood of the huts was extraordinarily 

 luxuriant, the grass and plants forming a real obstacle in walking, 

 certainly occasioned by the quantity of fertilising animal matter 

 which had been collected here during the time when fishing and 

 hunting were carried on. 



" The surface temperature of the water was, on our arrival at 

 the mouth of the Jenisei + 7*8° C, but sank during the storm 

 of the following days to + I'S* C. At Jewremow Kamenit was 

 -«- 2'5° C, but rose afterwards in the neighbourhood of Kres- 

 towskoje to + II'' C, a temperature which it afterwards retained 

 during the whole of our journey. The water was brown in 

 colour, but was often at the sides coloured by clayey streams. 



" A little south of Jewremow Kamen the eastern side of the 

 Jenisei is occupied by sand-banks twenty to thirty feet high, and 

 sloping steeply towards the river. At the river bank the tundra 

 commences, an endless, inconsiderably undulating plain, full of 

 low marshes and small shallow pools of water, and overgrown 

 with a sparse vegetation, whose flowering time was now almost 

 completely over. Inctead we found at our first night quarters 

 (Cape Schaitanskoj) great quantities of ripe cloud-berries, the 

 taste of which, excellent in itself, was on this occasion heightened 

 by the circumstance that they were for us the first fruit of sum- 

 mer. The red whortleberry (Liftgon) and the cranberry {Odon) 

 were also found here, if in small quantity. Cape Schaitanskoj 

 was the most northerly point on the Jenisei, where we found the 

 dwarf birch ; and the same place, by Dr. Stuxberg's discovery of 

 a species of Fhysa, becomes the most northerly locality for land 

 and fresh-water mollusca, 



*' After having rested at Cape Schaitanskoj we sailed on with 

 a favourable wind to Sopotschnaja Korga, where the hard wind 

 and a shallow lying off it, the extent of which it was impossible 

 to distinguish during the dusk of the evening, compelled us to 

 lie to earlier than we otherwise intended. 



" Sopotschnaja Korga (the toe of the boot) forms a low pro- 

 montory projecting far out into the Jenisei, which, as numerous 

 ruins of houses show, was formerly inhabited, but is now deserted. 



" A great part of the promontory was occupied by heaps of 

 drift-wood, large stems, with branches and roots broken off, 

 thrown up over each other in an endles? chaos, it being possible 

 to go forward between them only with difficulty and care. The 

 trees that lie nearest the water are quite fresh and in good con- 

 dition. Other tree stems lying farther from the bank and cast up 

 there a century or centuries ago, are in all possible intermediate 

 states from fresh to completely decayed wood. Between the 

 stems there frequently occur deep holes filled with black stink 

 ing water. Heaps of drift-wood like those at this place, 

 though perhaps somewhat smaller, are found almost every- 

 where farther down towards the mouth of the river, but 

 higher up there occur only scattered pieces of drift-wood, and at 

 some places these are entirely wanting. The point was, besides, 

 bestrewn with a number of other fresh-water ponds, more or less 

 grown up with water mosses, and full of sticklebacks, Branchio- 

 poda, and other fresh-water Crustacea, and giving the botanist an 

 opporcunity of collecting various grasses and water-plants not 

 found farther north [Carex chondrorhiza, Hippuris vulgaris, 

 Juncus castaneus, &c.) Higher up, on drier places, the ground 

 was sparingly covered with Empeti-um nigrum and Andromeda 

 tetragona, and on the steep slopes with which the ground ter- 

 minates towards the promontory, there is a luxuriant vegetation 

 a couple of feet high, consisting of grass and other plants. The 

 locality was, on the contrary, ^extremely poor, as well in Mam- 

 malia and birds as in insects, and even the holes and paths of the 

 lemming, by which the land on the coast of Novaya Zemlya is 

 crossed in all directions, are found here only in limited number. 



* Its occurrence is remarkable on this account, that the ground here, with 

 the exception of an inconsiderable stratum which thaws in summer, is con - 

 stantly frozen all the year round. 



"We sailed on until we finally succeeded in finding a 

 convenient landing-place in the neighbourhood of a little river, 

 Mesenkin, which there falls into the Jenisei on its ri^ht bank. " 

 Here they obtained a Cossack, Feodor, a? guide. Wh;le waiting 

 for the guide, tlie party employed themselves " in examining the 

 natural history of the locality, in miking solar observations to 

 determine the position of the place, &c. It appeared by these 

 that our resting-place was situated only about four Swedish (over 

 twenty-four English) miles south of our former landing-place. 

 Mesenkin's low river valley is, however, much better protected 

 from the winds of the polar sea thin the low promontory at 

 Sopotschnaja, and the influence of this was plainly recognisable 

 by its much richer vegetation. 



" What first meets the eye on landing is a thicket of daik 

 green bushes about four feet high, which are found to consist of 

 alder [Alnns Jriicticosa). Between the alder-bushes, and pro- 

 tected by them, our botanist found a number of well-grown 

 plants — Sanguisorba, Galium, 'Delphinium, Iledysarum, Vera- 

 trum, &c. The Salix bushes were also higher here than at former 

 places, the mat of grass more abundant, and the slopes of the 

 sandhills in the interior of the country were adorned with a 

 number of new types — Alyssum, Dianthus, Oxytropis, Saxifraga, 

 Thymus, &c. 



"As has been mentioned in a former letter, we found at the 

 part of Jalmal visited by us neither small stones nor sub-fossil 

 shells in the fine sand. East of the mouth of the Jenisei the 

 sand is coarser, and contains both sub-fossil shells and large and 

 small stones. The sub-fossil shells, according to information 

 given to me at Dudinka, occur in some places in so large masses 

 that they form true shell banks. At the places visited by us the 

 shells were found not in proper layers, but only scattered through 

 the sand. Immediately at the first glance it appeared that the 

 shells collected by us here belonged in preponderating number 

 to species with which we had become acquainted in the living 

 state during our dredging in the seas of Kara and Obi-Jenisei. 



" A sample of the stones which occur in the sandy strata of tlie 

 tundra was always found at the river bank where we lay, when 

 the lighter particles of sand were washed away, and many im- 

 portant contributions towards a knowledge of the way in which 

 the tundra is formed, and of the nature of the rocks which 

 afforded material for the masses of smd here collected together, 

 were to be obtained. No erratic blocks comparable in size to 

 the erratic blocks in our country occur here, a circumstance which 

 I regard as a proof that the sandy strata of the tundra, at least 

 in these regions, are not of glacial origin. I ought, however, to 

 remark that on a small stone here and there there could be 

 observed striae and scratches completely resembling those found 

 on moraine blocks. But in such cases these, scratches have 

 clearly been formed either by the sliding of the earthy stratum or 

 by the action of the river ice. 



"In the northern part of the tundra I could never discover 

 among the stones washed out from the sand any blocks of granite 

 or gneiss, but they consisted for the most part of different kinds 

 of basalt with numerous cavities containing lime and zeolites. 

 Besides there occurred, especially at Cape Schaitanskoj, in not 

 inconsiderable number, blocks of marl and sandstone, containing 

 fossils partly of marine origin, partly containing rolled tree 

 stems, more or less carbonised or petrified. Pieces of brown 

 and pit coal were also found here in not inconsiderable number. 



" On Aug. 26, early in the morning, Our guide joined us, ac- 

 companied by five other Russians settled in that region. . . . 

 After having talked for some time with ourj friendly guests, 

 who were exceedingly interested in our expedition, we continued 

 our journey, during which we had splendid calm weather, to Cape 

 Gostinoi, where we took our midday rest. 



' ' After resting a little at midday at this place, we sailed on, and 

 came after various wanderings in dusk and mist during the night 

 before Aug. 27, to land at a low promontory, at the mouth of 

 the river Jakowiewa. 



" Our next resting-place was a specially attractive fishing 

 station at a small sound between the Briochowski Islands, the 

 most northerly of the labyrinth of islands which occupy the 

 channel of the Jenisei between 69^° and 703^°. 



" On Aug. 28 we rowed on between a number of islands covered 

 with a luxuriant vegetation, and commonly terminating towards 

 the river with a steep slope, down which large masses of peat 

 tumbled here and there. At such places we could see that the 

 island originally consisted of a sand-bank cast up by the river, 

 which in the length of time was covered first with masses of 

 drift-wood, and afterwards with a luxurious vegetation which 

 gradually gave origin to a thick stratum of peat, of which the 



