Dec. 7, 1876] 



NATURE 



125 



the west coast of Waygats Island a collection many times richer 

 in species than its predecessors. But in any case it v.as impos- 

 sible that the collections which were made during a single summer 

 could be taken as giving so complete an idea of animal life in 

 these regions, as is necessary not only for comparison with the 

 exis'ing fauna of other arctic countries, but also for a complete 

 clearing up of its relation to the fauna in the deposits of the 

 Siberian tundra. It was on this account that I made provision 

 for Dr. Stuxberg accompanying this summer's expedition to 

 Jcnissej, and carrying on the zoological work. His researches 

 were rewarded with great success, as appears from the short 

 sketch annexed, communicated by him : — 



"During the voyages of 1875 ^"^^ '^7^ *° Jenissei and back 

 dredging has been carried on at fifty places in all and at different 

 depths from the beach to a depth of 200 fathoms, and rich and 

 comprehensive animal collections have thus been made. A large 

 proportion of species occur locally, and in quite incredible 

 numbers. Others again are found nearly at every dredging, but 

 in far smaller numbers. The occurrence of the latter is more 

 uniform, consequently distinctive of the territory of the fauna in 

 its entirety. To these belong first of all two species of the genus 

 Idothea {Id. sabinei&ndld. entomon], both well-developed, and it 

 may with reason be said that this genus is characteristic of the Kara 

 Sea ; it is the province of the Idotheae. To the animal forms 

 again which are local in their occurrence belong various species 

 of Mollusca, HydromedusEe, and Bryozoa, but chiefly all the 

 representatives of the Echinodermata are known to exist here. 

 The abundance of these is sometimes quite surprising, and, what 

 is more singular, where a species occurs in any great quantity, it 

 lives nearly alone, and to the exclusion of all others. This, for 

 instance, is the case with species of the genera Cribella, Sti- 

 chaster, Ctenodiscus, &c., which here are found in large and 

 well-developed types. Not seldom the swab brought up at the 

 same time hundreds of the same species. Of the beautiful 

 Crinoid Akcio Eschrichtii there were obtained many choice 

 specimens. 



" But rich as is the Kara Sea in asterids and ophiurids, it is 

 proportionately poor in echini. These have beei sought for 

 evtrywhere without success, except possibly close to the east 

 coast of Novaya Zemlya. This c'rcumstmce is the more extra- 

 ordinary as along the whole of the west coast a species of the 

 family Echinus is one of the animal forms that are most abundant 

 and occur most frequently. 



" In two respects the zoological work of this summer has been 

 exceedingly profitable for our museums. It has in the first place 

 added something new in all the groups to the very rich collec- 

 tions made during last summer ; it has, for instance, increased 

 the collection of Crustacea by '20 per cent, new species, and of 

 echinodermata a large number of types has by oft-repeated 

 swabbing been, obtained in an extraordinary collection of speci- 

 mens. Further, the swab has brought up from the bottom of 

 the Kara Sea two animals specially remarkable and important in 

 a systematic respect The first was brought up by the swab 

 during last year's expedition, not far from the eastern mouth of 

 Matotschkin Scharr. Then it was found in only a few specimens, 

 now we have collected a considerable number. It is a hitherto 

 unknown holothurioid, differing greatly from most others of the 

 same group by its quite complete bilateral symmetry, but from all 

 by its habitus and anatomical structure, and being singular in its 

 kind inasmuch as it combines characters from diverse classes of 

 animals. It has lately been exhaustively described and delineated 

 in detail by its first discoverer. Dr. Theel. The other remarkable 

 animal is one of the greatest rarities within the animal world. It 

 is an Umbellularia ^ of about a foot and a half in length. It 



' Two specimens of the family Umbellularia, the first of which we hive 

 any know ledge, are said tohave been found on the coast of Greenland before 

 the middle of last century. After a description first given by Ellis and 

 Mylius, the animal was registered by Linnaeus in his " Systema Naturje," 

 in tbc year 1758, under the name Isis encrinus. What has become of the 

 original specimen is unknown. The enigmatical animil type, as it appeared 

 from the descriptions, has been the subject of many interpretations, till Dr. 

 J. Lindahl, during the Swedish expedition to Greenland in 1871, succeeded 

 in dredging up two specimens of it in Baffin's Bay, and accurately described 

 its interior structure in the yrd^wrt^r^/cKi of the Academy of Sciences. In- 

 dividuals of the tame genus have since been found, first by the English 

 ClialUn^er Expedition in 1873, between Portugal and Madeira, by the same 

 expedition between Prince Edward's Island and Kerguelen's Land, and 

 possibly at other placfs in the Antarctic Ocean ; a'terwards by the Austro- 

 Hungarian expedition in 1873, between Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef 

 Land (the specimen w.-is lost when the Tegetthoff was abandoned) ; again 

 during the pre^ent summer by the Norwegian Atlantic^ expedition off the 

 west coast of Norway, and finally by us iu the Kara Sea. It is thus au 

 animal type which is widely distributed, but of extremely rare occurrence. 



was found in 150 fathoms south of Cape MiddendorfT, and north 

 of the 75th degree of N. lat. 



" From the collections made during the Swedish expeditions 

 it appears that the Kara Sea, far from being so poor as has been 

 supposed, is, on the contrary, distinguished by an animal life 

 rich both in individuals and in types when compared with that 

 which Spitzbergen, Greenland, Iceland, and the Arctic regions 

 of North America have to show. It appears, also, that a nearly 

 uniform marine fauna is found around the pole along the whole 

 coast of Siberia and the polar archipelago of North America. 

 The immense mass of fresh-water which the great rivers of 

 Siberia carry down, does not in any degree determine the com- 

 position of the animal life on th2 bottom of its Arctic Ocean. 



" Before the various groups have been worked out by special- 

 ists it is difficult to state for certain the number of the lower 

 animal types of the Kara Sea, but it may be put approximately at 

 nearly 500 species, a considerable number, indeed, for a sea that 

 previously was believed to be as poor in species as the Baltic. 

 Such, with the addition of about a hundred species of insects 

 from Novaya Zemlya, whence previouslyonly seven were known, 

 and an extended knowledge of the vertebrate world, is the main 

 zoological result of the researches of the last two Swedish expe- 

 ditions in these regions." 



The Yfner made a safe return voyage through Matotschkin 

 Scharr, and on September 18 anchored at Hammerfest. Dr. 

 Nordenskjold concludes : — 



" My stay at Hammerfest and Tromso I turned to account in 

 collecting information from the numerous walrus- hunters there 

 about the state of the ice in the Arctic regions, and especially 

 in the Kara Sea. I have succeeded in this way in bringing 

 together very abundant materials for a solution, founded on 

 actual observations, of the problem in navigation which lies 

 before us here, and I shall, by and by, make a full statement of 

 the conclusions at which I have thus arrived. Here I will only 

 say that it is my conviction, which is also shared by the walrus - 

 hunters whom I have consulted, that a regular sea-communi- 

 cation between Siberia and Northern Europe during a short sea- 

 f on of the year ought not to be attended with greater risks and 

 dangers than seamen encounter on many other waters now yearly 

 visited by thousands of vessels." 



OUR ASTRONO MICAL COLUMN 



Telescopic Meteors. — In his " Histoire de I' Astronomic 

 pour I'Annee VIII.," Lalande, referring to Schroter's observa- 

 tions, states, " il a vu plusieurs fois dans son telescope des petttes 

 etoiles qui filent comme un petit trait de lumiere tres-faible, qui 

 dure 2 ou 3^," and by way of explanation goes on to say that 

 this proves the extension of hydrogen and oxygen many leagues 

 in the depth of the atmosphere ; meteors or globes of fire which 

 excite astonishment when they are a distance of some hundied 

 toises, become shooting stars when they are distant a league, and 

 telescopic stars at three or four leagues, an opinion hardly favoured 

 by later research. 



When occupied in comet-sweeping, or general observation in a 

 darkand pretty large field, it has very often occurred to the writer 

 to meet with objects of the class mentioned by Lalande. A 

 striking instance was afforded one very fine April morning about 

 twenty-seven years since (the exact date, though upon record is 

 not at hand at this moment), when a number of telescopic 

 meteors as bright as stars of the eleventh magnitude passed 

 slowly through the field at intervals of a minute or more, the 

 instrument during the time of observation being directed to dif- 

 ferent parts of the constellation Sagittarius and lower region of 

 Ophiuchus ; the coiurse of these meteors was nearly uniform. 

 Their motion was generally so slow that when caught they could 

 be followed to extinction on moving the instrument. On other 

 occasions he had noticed similar slow-moving meteors, though 

 in less number, and hence was under the i(npression that there 

 was nothing unusual in the occurrence. But in the summer of 

 1850, happening to mention the observations of frequent faint 

 slow-moving telescopic meteors to Sir John Herschel, that 

 cuinent observer, notwithstanding his long experience in both 



