2 So QUESTION OF INHABITED POLAR LANDS. 



seem to be improbable that a supposed inhabited 

 continent, better able to support large herds of heavy 

 game, should exist still further to the northward, 

 while Spitzbergen should be itself uninhabited, as it 

 is, except during the summer time, when the sealers 

 and hunters temporarily resort there. 



Nevertheless, on account of the increased length of 

 the period during which the midnight sun continues 

 above the horizon, as the pole is approached, it is not 

 impossible that lands may exist in that direction which 

 might enjoy a richer vegetation than that existing in 

 Spitzbergen, where the soil is all barren rock and 

 gravel ; while at the same time the condition of the ice 

 is sufficient to account for the failure of explorers to 

 discover these territories, should they have any 

 existence. 



It must also be borne in mind that we know little 

 or nothing of the habits of animals inhabiting these 

 far northern regions, or of the means by which they 

 find subsistence. All we know is that such animals 

 do exist. Yet it looks as if there was nothing for 

 them to eat, and as if every living thing overtaken 

 there by the winter must of necessity die of starva- 

 tion. We shall, however, hope to show that this is 

 an entire misapprehension of the facts. 



In Spitzbergen, for instance, multitudes of reindeer 

 undoubtedly exist, of such magnificent proportions that, 

 according to Professor Nordenskiold, who had ample 

 opportunities of observing them, their " forms appeared 

 colossal when contrasted with the tame reindeer the 

 Swedes are accustomed to. " * Yet these splendid animals 



* Arctic Voyages of the Vega, by Professor A. E. Nordenskiold, Trans- 

 lated by Alex. Leslie, 1881, p. 199. 



