106 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[May 1, 1895. 



bones of post-tertiary mammals (the mammoth layer), 

 were complete trees of Alnus fruticosa, fifteen feet long, 

 with leaves and cones. It was thus evident that during 

 the mammoth period tree-vegetation reached the seventy- 

 fourth degree of latitude, and that its northern limit was 

 at least three degrees further north than it is now. The 

 importance of this discovery is self-evident. Moreover, 

 at this spot, as well as during further exploration, 

 especially on Kotelnyi Island, the origin of the thick layers 

 of ice which arc seen everywhere under the sweet-water 

 post-tertiary deposits of the New Siberian Islands could 

 finally be settled. It was obvious that this ice did not 

 originate from snow ; for it has everj^where a granular 

 structure, and must thus be considered as originating 

 from the ice-sheet of the glacial period. 



As to the present conditions of climate and animal life, 



together by hard snow during the winter, were now loose 

 and surrounded by water. Notwithstanding these 

 difficulties, the return journey of one hundred and fifty 

 miles was performed without accident, and all the 

 instruments and collections were safely landed on the 

 mainland on June 8th. 



The second part of the journey, over the tumlrns and 

 across the Khara-ulakh range to the Lena, was accomplished 

 on reindeer-back, the expedition dividing into two parties 

 at Aijergaidakh, as Baron Toll wished to revisit the 

 mammoth remains. Now that the snow had gone, it was 

 seen that only parts of an incomplete corpse were buried at 

 this spot, and no further relics could be unearthed. 



The ride on reindeer-back from the Svyatoi Nos to the 

 Lena, a distance of eight hundred miles, proved that the 

 tundras can be crossed at any time of the year if the 



The Expedition in reindeer sledges on the Eiver Anabar, lat. 72^ N. ; larch trees in the background at the forest limit. 



they appeared under quite a different aspect from what 

 they were in 1886. In that year, even on May 13th, the 

 temperature was 6^ Fahr. ; while in 1893 it was raining 

 on May 6th on the Great Lyakhov Island. True, this was 

 the first rain of the season, and it was followed by snow- 

 storms, but it was a forerunner of summer. The first 

 winged guests made their appearance on Kotelnyi Island 

 in the middle of May ; the gulls taking the lead, then 

 the geese, followed by turkans, skuas, and others. The 

 latter found plenty of food in the mice, the only winter 

 inhabitants of the islands. The mice displayed a feverish 

 activity ; some of them migrated from one island to the 

 other, others migrated to the continent, while others, 

 again, came from the continent to the islands. 



On the return journey, frosts became less and less 

 frequent, and the travellers had to drag their sledges 

 themselves, as the ice hummocks, which are all cemented 



traveller rides a good reindeer, which easily crosses the 

 most swampy places, but, in addition, a vyetka — that is, a 

 boat for crossing rivers, made out of a poplar tree, or of 

 three larch planks — is useful. During this journey the two 

 explorers had again an opportunity of making a fuller 

 acquaintance with the peculiarities of the Polar climate. In 

 •July, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in lat. 72°, the 

 temperature was 93° Fahr., and the sky remained quite 

 clear all the time. 



After having crossed the Khara-ulakh range in two 

 separate parties, they met together at Kumakh-sur, where 

 they took a boat and explored the Lena and its delta. 



On August 21th the expedition started westwards in a 

 long caravan of nearly fifty reindeer, in order to explore 

 a region which had not been visited by a European for 

 more than one hundred and fifty years, since the times of 

 Laptefl' and Proncbishchefi". They had only one guide, a 



