CRUISE OP STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 15 



«ence of tlie sea was also obstuved in September in latitude 70°. And several patches of red snow 

 were seen at Plover Bay and at Uerald Island, but whether the tint was owing to the presenile of 

 some red pr()to])hyte or not 1 am unable to say. 



The meteorological records kejit on boaril the Corwin, beiuK of use in connection with the navi- 

 gation of the vessel only, are, therefore, untrustworthy so far as uiakinsi' any deductions from them 

 in regard to clinuitology is concerned. In connection with this subject it may be inferred from the 

 ab.seuce of glaciers above Bering Straits and the existence of huge ones in the more southern part 

 of Alaska, compared with which the great Aletsch glacier of the Alps is a mere pygmy, that thiv 

 amount of precipitation is much less in the higher latitudes of the Pacific Arctic. But the finding 

 of terminal and lateral nu)raines, rock scratches, and other evid(!nces of former glaciation, as well 

 as of coal, which geology says is the sun's rays in potential form, and also the fossil remains of 

 the mammoth along with luxuriant trojiical or semitroi)ical vegetation, would imjily the existence 

 at a remote period of a ditterent climatological conditi<ni, a change in which has been brought 

 about, according to the explanation of the meteorologists, in long lai>ses of time through the change 

 in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit in combination with the precession of the equinoxes and the 

 movement of the apsides. Whether a milder climate existed in former days, enabling the mam- 

 moth to subsist on vegetable food, as suggested by Professor Owen, or whether the mammoth, in 

 his personal locomotions while endeavoring to overcome the influence of climate, was detained in 

 his present position b\ the sudden freezing, it is impossible to say. Sir Charles Lyell seems to 

 account satisfactorily not oidy for the presence of these animals in the northern parts of Siberia 

 and America, but for the permanent masses of i(^e known as mammoth cliffs. His explanation 

 is as follows: 



This snow is commonly blown over the edges of steep clitts, so as to form an inclined talus 

 hundreds of feet high ; and, when a thaw commences, torrents rush from the laud and throw down 

 from the top of the cliti' alluvial soil and gravel. This new soil soon becomes covered with vegeta- 

 tion, and protects the foundation of snow from the rays of the sun. Water occasionally penetrates 

 iut« the crevices and pores of the snow ; but as soon as it freezes it serves the more effectively to 

 consolidate the mass into compact ice. it may sometimes happen that cattle grazing in a valley 

 at the base of such clitfs, on the borders of a river, may be overwhelmed by drift snow, and at 

 length inclosed in solid ice, and then transported toward the polar region. Or a herd of mam- 

 moths, returning from their summer pastures in the norrli. may iiave been surprised, while cross- 

 ing a stream, by the su<lden congelation of the waters. 



In the course of the summer we fell in with most of the vessels of the whaling fieet, to several of 

 which medical services were rendered, the cases being such as are common to seafaring men. The 

 most notable ones were of consumption and constitutional syphilis among men who should never 

 have been shipped in the first place. Tiiere also came under notice a case of polydipsia, in which 

 it would have been desirable to try large doses of valerian — a medicine not among the stores— 

 consequently the patient was nnbenefited l»y treatment ; ;ind there occurred two deaths, one each 

 from consumption and ascites. 



One man of the escaped crew of the bark Daniel Webster, which was crushed in the ice, on being 

 rescued, aftt-r two weeks of exposure, terror, and starvation, was conqjletely insane, but sul)seqnently 

 regained his reason. It seems thiit the act of deserting ship in the Arctic not only taxes all the 

 resources of manliness but the situation conduces to bringing about mental derangement. One of 

 the oldest and most experieni^ed Arctic whalers tells me that he has seen men from an abandoned 

 shiji so lose their wits as to cry like children, sit helpless on the ice, and refuse ti> move until the 

 most rigorous measures were taken to force them. Another whaleman told im; that some years ago, 

 having to retreat from his crushed shi]) across the ice, two of his crew, becoming raving maniacs, 

 finally drowned them.selv(!S ; and the insane seamen of the Jeannette party is fresh in the minds 

 of every one. The rescued crew of the Webster were on the verge of starvation when picked up, 

 and among the nine taken on board the Corwin there prevailed for sonu' weeks a peculiar distnrbanci- 

 of the digestive organs, characterized by a furred tongue, indigestion, and a sense of heaviness and 

 pain in the epigastric region. 



But the demands for medical services were more urgent aMu>ng the inhabitants of several remote 

 placos where the Corwin touched, notably at Ouualaska and at Saint Michael's, the most northern 

 station of the Alaska Commercial Company, and one of the few unprovided with a physician. 



