Dec. 5, 1878] 



NATURE 



10^ 



The soil of the plains is clayey, partly bare, and 

 cracked into more or less regular hexagonal figures, 

 partly covered by a turf of grass, mosses, and lichens 

 resembling that at the last landing-place. The rock here, 

 however, was not granite, but upright unfossiliferous 

 schistose strata rich in crystals of sulphide of iron, and 

 crossed at the extremity of the cape by thick quartz veins. 

 Dr. Kjellman could not find here more than twenty-four 

 species of phanerogamous plants, most of them distin- 

 guished by a disposition to form compact half-globular 

 tufts. The lichen vegetation was also, according to Dr. 

 Almquist, monotonous, though luxuriantly developed. It 

 almost appeared as if the plants of the Chelyuskin 

 peninsula had attempted to wander farther toward the 

 north, but halted when they met the sea, at the very- 

 outermost point. For here were found within a very 

 limited space nearly all the plants, both phanerogams 

 and cryptogams, which the land had to offer, and many 

 of them were sought for in vain farther up on the plains. 



Animal life on land rivalled the higher plant life in 

 poverty. Of birds there were seen only a number of 

 Phalaropus, some species of Tringa, a Colymbiis arcticus, 

 a very numerous flock oiAnser bernida, a few eiders, and 

 the remains of a snowy owl. In the neighbouring sea, 

 which was almost free of ice, were seen a single walrus, 

 two shoals of white whales and some few seals {Phoca 

 Jiispida). It, too, was here evidently very poor in warm- 

 blooded animals. On the other hand the dredge brought 

 up from the sea-bottom various large algae {Laminaria 

 agardhi, '&c.), and a large number of lower animals, 

 among them very large specimens oi Fdoihea entomon, an 

 isopod, which also occurs in the Baltic and the large 

 Swedish lakes, and is looked upon as an evidence that 

 during the ice age they were connected with the Polar 

 Sea. The algae obtained were interesting as affording 

 further proof of the incorrectness of the view which long 

 prevailed, that the Siberian Polar Sea was quite devoid 

 of the higher algae. 



On August 20 the voyage was resumed, the coursa 

 being set east by south, in the hope of falling in with a 

 continuation of the new Siberian Islands. Drift-ice was 

 soon met with, and by the morning of the 23rd it was 

 found impossible to proceed further in tnat direction. An 

 attempt was now made by sailing in a northerly and 

 north-westerly direction to get out of the ice-field, and in 

 about twenty-four hours the Vega was again in open 

 water, and the same day land was sighted. The land 

 was found to be the north-eastern extremity of the eastern 

 Taimyr Peninsula, lying in about 76" 30' N. L., and 

 about 113^ E. of Greenwich. The sea was completely 

 free of ice for a distance of 15' or 16'. Fine mountains 

 2,000 to 3,000 feet high were seen some distance inland. 

 These, like the plains below, were free of snow to their 

 highest summits. Some small glaciers were believed to 

 be seen, but they ended at a height of about 800 to 1,000 

 feet above the sea. 



Animal life now began to be very abundant. Dr. 

 Stuxberg had, while the vessel lay anchored to a floe 

 m the drift-ice-field, brought up from a depth of 35 

 fathoms an unexpected variety of fine marine animal 

 types, among them three specimens of a crinoid sup- 

 ported on a stalk, probably young individuals of Alecio 

 eschrichtii, which also was found in innumerable full- 

 grown specimens, masses of asterids (for instance Solaster 

 fapposus, endeca, furcifer, Pteraster militaris, Astero- 

 phyton euaumis), and of the otherwise exceedingly rare 

 Molpadia borealis, a colossal pycnogonid of 180 milli- 

 metres diameter, Ac. Not less abundant was the lower 

 animal life at a smaller depth though the forms were 

 partly different. The animals occurring here were evi- 

 dently pure Polar Sea types without anv immigration 

 -whatever from southern seas, such as has doubtless taken 

 place m the case of the fauna of Spitzbergen. 



On August 24 land was sighted, which was found to be 



Preobraschenski Island, near the mouth of the river 

 Katanga. From this point to the mouth of the Lena 

 the depth was only from 5 to 8 fathoms. 



To judge from the experience of the voyage there is no 

 more ice on the Siberian coast during the latter part 

 of summer than in the White Sea during midsummer. 

 Besides the ordinary observations of the temperature of 

 the sea-water at the surface in connection with the 

 common meteorological observations made six times in 

 the twenty-four hours, the temperature and salinity of 

 the water at different depths were determined two or 

 three times a day. When the depth amounts to at least 

 30 metres the temperature at the bottom is found to vary 

 between — 10'^ and — 1*4^ C. The specific gravity of 

 the water amounts there to 1*026 — i 027, the salinity 

 being little less than that of the water of the Atlantic 

 Ocean. On the surface the temperature is exceedingly 

 variable : — At Dickson Harbour + 10'^, a little south of 

 Taimyr Sound + 5*4^ among the drift ice off that sound 

 + o'8°, off Taimyr Bay + 3'o'', at Cape Chelyuskin 

 -f-o'i", off Katanga Bay + 4'°^ between Katanga and 

 Lena -f- vz" to + 5■8^ The' specific gravity of the 

 surface-water in a broad channel along the coast never 

 exceeded i'023, in general only amounted to I'oi or 

 under. The latter figure corresponds to a mixture of 

 about one part sea water with two parts river water. 

 This shows indisputably that a warm surface current of 

 little salinity from the mouths of the Obi and the Yenissei 

 runs first along the coast towards the north-east, and 

 then under the influence of the rotation of the earth in an 

 easterly direction. Other similar currents originate from 

 the Katanga, Anabor, Olonek, Lena, Jana, Indigirka, and 

 Kolyma, all which pour their waters, more or less heated 

 during the hot summer of Siberia, into the Polar Sea 

 and render it, during a short period of the year, almost 

 free of ice. 



On the night between August 27 and 28 the Vega 

 parted from the Lena off the mouth of the River Lena. 

 There is scarcely any hope now that the voyage will be 

 completed before next summer. No doubt the Vega has 

 got into a safe winter-harbour, and that during the de- 

 tention of the expedition a rich harvest of scientific 

 rcoults will be gathered. 



THE FORMATION OF MOUNTAINS 



PROF. ALPHONSE FAVRE, of Geneva, has been 

 making an interesting series of experiments to illus- 

 trate the formation of the great inequalities of the earth's 

 surface by means of lateral thrust or crushing. These 

 he describes and illustrates in a recent number of La 

 Nature, to which we are indebted for the illustrations 

 which accompany this article. Prof. Favre refers to the 

 early experiments of Sir James Hall with various kinds 

 of cloth, which he made to assume a variety of shapes 

 by means of weights. He speaks of the various theories 

 of the elevation of mountains, and especially of that of 

 H. B. de Saussure, whose term refotilement seems to 

 have meant much the same as that used by M. Favr^ 

 icrasement lateral. 



The three systems, M. Favre says, which account for 

 the origin of mountains by forces which push the great 

 mineral masses from below upwards, from above down- 

 wards, or laterally, do not differ so much from each other 

 as at first sight appears. Those geologists vtho have 

 admitted the system of elevations as the principal cause 

 of modification of the surface of the globe, would probably 

 enough admit the formation of depressions as a secondary 

 modification ; and so those who hare accounted for these 

 modifications mainly by depression, would probably enough 

 also admit elevation as a secondary factor. . Again, in 

 the system of lateral crushing, there is a general depres- 

 sion of the surface of the earth, since there is a diminu- 



