124 



NATURE 



\D£C. 7, 1876 



an " as, " which was certainly low, but yet perfectly developed, 

 runs over the tundra towards Jewremow Kamen ; neither could 

 we discover any of the rocky islands which surround Dickson's 

 Harbour. In the meantime we continued our course up the 

 river along the bank, and after the lapse of four or five hours we 

 obtained a quite unexpected explanation of the circumstances 

 described. For it appeared that the mouth of Jenissei, which is 

 ten Swedish miles (60') wide, is divided into two by an island 

 about five Swedish miles (30') long, which was thought to have 

 been unknown both to Russian chartographers and to the natives. 

 That it has not been before observed clearly depends on its not 

 being visible from the river bank along which the few boats that 

 have traversed this part of the river are believed to have always 

 kept. The navigable water on both sides is deep and free from 

 shallows. This large new island ought clearly to be advantageous 

 for navigation in those regions, as it will form a welcome protec- 

 tion against north-westerly winds and sea for the vessels that may 

 be in the mouth of the river. I mean to name it Sibiriakofif's 

 Is'an^, after the zealous and generous supporter of all this year's 

 Siberian expeditions. 



Steaming up the river the Ymer reached Mesenkin, which 

 had been appointed the meeting-place with Dr. Theel's party. 

 Here, where the Mesenkin falls into the Jenissei, Dr. Theel 

 expected to obtain some specimens of mammoth skins, which, it 

 was reported, had been washed out of the tundra near this place. 

 Dr. Theel's party, not, however, having arrived at Mesenkin 

 when the Ymer reached it, Nordenskjold himself made an ex- 

 cursion to the locality already spoken of, where the mammoth 

 hide was found. No complete hide was found here, but he suc- 

 ceeded in digging two large and a number of small pieces out of 

 a newly-formed sand-bank at the confluence of the Mesenkin 

 with the Jenissei., The excavations showed that the mammoth 

 remains in question had been newly brought down by the spring 

 floods to the place where they were found from some point 

 situated higher up in the river valley of the Mesenkin, and that 

 the place where the mammoth was originally imbedded in the 

 frozen tundra is to be sought for in this direction. 



On August 17 the Ymer proceeded up the river, but the water 

 became so shallow, and the navigation by a steamer of such 

 draught as the Ymer so dangerous, that Dr. Nordenskjold re- 

 solved to return to Mesenkin. He left his merchandise at Kore- 

 powskoj simovie, near Mesenkin, to be taken away next summer 

 by the river steamer. After landing the goods another vain 

 attempt was made to steam up the river, and the Ymer was again 

 anchored, this time between Orlowskoj and Gostinoj. The fol- 

 lowing days were devoted to excursions which yielded interesting 

 information regarding the geology of the tundra, and a very rich 

 collection of the sub-fossil shells, which are found in the sand of 

 the tundra. 



Ey the word tundra are denoted, as is well known, the plains 

 of immense extent in Russia and Siberia lying between the 

 boundary of the forest region and the Polar Sea. The ground, 

 at least in the northern parts of the Siberian tundra, is continu- 

 ally frozen at no great depth, but during the summer bears a 

 vegetation of low bushes, mosses, and grass, which yields sum- 

 mer pasture to numerous herds of reindeer, partly wild, partly 

 tame, which wander about on them. 



To the eastward of the Jenissei the tundra forms a level or 

 slightly rolling plain, which toward the river has a sloping bank 

 50 to 100 feet hijih. In the interior of the country the plain is 

 not interrupted by any very considerable heights, but on the 

 other hand it is intersected at a number of places by deep river 

 valleys, whose steep sides offer fine sections of the earthy layers. 

 It is apparent, on a merely cursory examination, that these for 

 the moat part consist of enormous masses of sand and mud 

 washed down by the Siberian rivers. The tundra, however, is 

 by no means a common delta formation. Numerous marine 

 shells imbedded in the sand show that the tundra plain formerly 

 lay under the surface of the sea, and that therefore a consider- 

 able elevation of the land must have taken place during the 

 latest geological period. For all the shells imbedded in the 

 tundra sand belong to existing types, the most of which have 

 been dredged up by us from the bottom of the Kara Sea, and 

 which we a^ain hnd in the post-glacial beds at Uddevalla and 

 Christiana Fjord, and the craj,' formation of England. All this 

 shows that the tundra has been formed under climatic circum- 

 stances very similar to the present, which is further confirmed 

 by the ge gnosdc formation of the beds. It has therefore long 

 been aifficult of explanation by the geologist that just in these 

 sand-beds there are found in great abundance remains of the 

 mammoth, rhinoceros, &c., that is to say, of animal types that 



for the present flourish only in a tropical or sub-tr ipical climate.^ 

 The evident contradiction which is apparent here has indeed ob- 

 tained an explanation through the researches of the Petersburg 

 academicians, Middendorff, Schmidt, and Brandt. But there 

 remains here much to clear up, and collections from these regions 

 have, besides, a peculiar interest, from the remarkable circum- 

 stance that here in the frozen earth of the tundra there are found 

 not only skeletons, but also flesh, hides, hair, and intestines of 

 animal types which died out many hundred thousand years 

 ago. I therefore. Dr. Nordenskjold goes on to say, of course, 

 gladly availed myself of the opportunities which offered them- 

 selves J in making excursions in the neighbourhood of the 

 places where the vessel was anchored. Among the results of 

 our search may be mentioned large pieces of mammoth hide, 

 found along with some few pieces of bone, at the confluence 

 of Mesenkin with the Jenissei ; a skull of the musk ox, re- 

 markable for its size, found together with mammoth bones in 

 another tundra valley south of Orlowskoj ; a very rich collec- 

 tion of sub-fossil shells, found principally between Orlowskoj 

 and Gostinoj. In addition, various interesting observations 

 concerning the geological formation of the tundra, &c., were 

 made. 



During their stay on the Jenissei there was often a dense mist 

 with rain prevailing, but otherwise they were favoured, as a table 

 of observations shows, with warm and summer-like weather. 

 The ground was quite free of snow, and at several places, 

 especially in the tundra valleys, adorned with a variegated carpet 

 of flowers. According to the statement of the inhabitants, how- 

 ever, the former part of the summer in these regions had not 

 been fine, and the preceding winter had been exceedingly severe. 

 The temperature of the water of the river at the surface was 

 almost constantly + 12° to 13° C, and even at a depth of nine 

 fathoms the deep-water thermometer marked + 1 1 "1° C. 



As it had been arranged that Theel's party, which, as our 

 readers know, had come overland, should in no case stay so long 

 on the northern part of the Jenissei as to run the risk of missing 

 the last river steamer to Jenisseisk, which this year was to leave 

 Saostrowskoj about September 7, Nordenskjold resolved to set 

 out on the return journey on September i. This he did, as 

 Theel's party had not turned up. 



The sea, he continues, was at first completely free of ice, and 

 first when we came quite close to the east coast of Novaya 

 Zemlya in 754° N. lat., a very compact belt of worn ice was 

 fallen in with, which stretched along the coast towards Matotsch- 

 kin. The course was now set along the ice towards the south 

 to 74° 40' N. lat., where the edge of the ice took a westerly 

 direction, which allowed us, without the inconvenience of being 

 hindered by ice, to steam right westwards towards Matotschkin. 

 A perceptible swell now gave indication of ice-free water. If 

 the course from Dickson's Harbour had been set close past 

 White Island towards Matotschkin we certainly would not have 

 met with a single ice-floe. Even in the northerly way I chose 

 our advance was scarcely hindered by ice but by a nearly con- 

 stant fog, which compelled us to lie still at night. In this way 

 Dr. Stuxberg, the zoologist of the expedition, obtained a welcome 

 opportunity for dredging and swabbing in the deep channel along 

 the east coast of Novaya Zemlya. 



Of all the expeditions which have gone to Novaya Zemlya and 

 the sea surrounding it, there are only three which, before thd 

 last two Swedish ones, concerned themselves with zoological, 

 botanical, and geological researches and the collections pertaining 

 to them. These are von Baer's expedition in 1837, Heuglin's 

 in 1871, and the Austro- Hungarian in 1872- 74. 



As far as zoology is concerned, von Baer brought home from 

 his journey about seventy species of invertebrate animals, Heuglin 

 increased our knowledge of the number of species within some 

 groups, and the Austro-Hungarian expedition within others. 

 But all those collections were from the south-western, western, 

 and northern coasts of Novaya Zemlya. Of the nature of the 

 animal life in the Kara Sea all actual knowledge was wanting 

 till last summer. There was also a current tradition among 

 zoologists, grounded on the knowledge of the immense mass of 

 fresh water which the Obi and the Jenissei yearly carry down, 

 partly also on something at first loosely uttered in literature, 

 which afterwards took the form of axiomatic certainty, that the 

 Kara Sea is exceedingly poor in animals. 



The Swedish expedition of 1875 has already dissipated these 

 misconceptions, having brought home from Novaya Zemlya and 



' The mammoth, for instance, is lool<ed upon as the progenitor of the 

 now living Indian elephant, but a progen tor considerably larger than his 

 descendant, and provided with an abundant covering oi hair. 



