in the extreme North. 89 



three of them, MM. Nordenskiold, Malmgren, and Fries, being 

 already well known by excellent works upon Spitzbergen. 

 The principal object of the expedition was, again, the natural 

 history of Spitzbergen : the travellers would then endeavour 

 to advance towards the pole, but in the autumn, in the hope 

 that that season would be more favourable than the summer 

 for such an enterprise. 



On the 19tli of July the expedition quitted Tromsoe, in the 

 north of Norway. 



The navigators first stopped at Bear Island, which they 

 reached in two days. The island, which is of small extent 

 and still but little known, contains grey mountains of a sombre 

 aspect. In the interior it has the form of a plateau cut up by 

 numerous little lakes and sprinkled over with innumerable 

 fragments of rock. Its vegetation is extremely meagre, for 

 nowhere can the herbage form a turf. And yet this sad and 

 poor islet has had its Robinson Crusoe. A Norwegian named 

 Tobiesen made a hermitage for himself upon it, and lived for 

 a long time in this solitude. Marine animals and, in summer, 

 birds furnished him with his food. The Swedish expedition 

 employed five days in exploring the island in all directions. 

 In certain places an innumerable quantity of birds darkened 

 the air ; and the projecting rocks on the mountains bordering 

 the shore were covered with them to such an extent that they 

 might have been supposed to be enveloped in a mantle of 

 snow. Gulls and other aquatic birds, especially ducks, pre- 

 dominate; in the summer they go northwards in immense 

 troops, breed upon the steep shores of these parts, and then, 

 when the autumn arrives, depart again towards the south. 

 This phenomenon, which constitutes one of the peculiar cha- 

 racters of the polar zone, is everywhere observed. 



This abundance of animal life forms a strange contrast with 

 the poverty of the vegetation. Formerly, no doubt, this was 

 not the case. A very important discovery made in the course 

 of this expedition has given us some information upon this 

 point. It has long been known that carbonaceous deposits 

 exist in Bear Island ; but their geological age was unknown. 

 Now MM. Nordenskiold and Malmgren have found, in the 

 carboniferous beds and the rocks which contain them, nume- 

 rous fossil plants which give us the most precise information 

 upon this point, as will be seen hereafter. They detached 

 from the rocks several hundred specimens of fossil plants, and 

 shipped them on board their vessel with the other natural- 

 history treasures which they had collected. 



The expedition at last set out for the south of Spitzbergen. 

 On their arrival there the travellers proposed to go towards 



