i 7 8 



NA TURE 



[June 2i, 1883 



world as soon as they reached Europe ; or his paper on 

 the possibility of navigation in the Siberian Arctic Sea ; 

 or, again, his paper on auroras (recently summarised in 

 the pages of Nature). The well-known "Reports" 

 appear as they were written on board the Vega, but with 

 a map "of the northern coast of the old continent, from 

 Norway to Bering Strait," and with several maps of 

 separate islands and bays. The other papers are quite 

 new, and we find in this volume a medical report, by E. 

 Almquist, on the health of the crew ; a paper by A. Lind- 

 hagen, on the determinations of latitudes and longitudes, 

 which will put an end to the discussions as to the accu- 

 racy of the changes made in the map of the northern 

 coast of Siberia by the astronomers of the Vegaj a paper 

 by H. H. Hildebrandson (in French), on the meteorologi- 

 cal work of the expedition, being a comparison of the 

 climate of Pitlekaj (the Vega's wintering station) with 

 the climate of other Arctic stations ; several papers on 

 the Chukches ; an elaborate paper by A. Stuxberg, on the 

 invertebrate fauna of the Siberian Arctic Sea ; and a 

 series of papers by F. R. Kjellman, A. N. Lundstrom, and 

 E. Almquist, on the vegetation of the region visited. 



It is known that the expedition of the Vega was — as is, 

 however, always the case with so experienced a traveller 

 as NordenskjSld, and as it was with Parry— one of the 

 most successful Arctic expeditions with regard to the 

 health of the crew. No death was to be regretted, and 

 all the thirty men of the crew reached Naples in the best 

 condition. It is true that at Pitlekai the sun did not dis- 

 appear for months under the horizon, and that the crew 

 were not worn out by long sledge journeys. But still the 

 climatic conditions were not at all favourable, on account 

 of the variability of the weather and strong winds which 

 blew with a twenty miles' speed even during frosts — 30 

 strong. The precautions taken for maintaining a tempera- 

 ture as equal as possible in the cabins and for elimi- 

 nating moisture, as well as for much exercise in the fresh 

 air and the maintenance of cheerfulness among the crew, 

 are not to be underrated. A daily distribution of lime- 

 juice and of jam surely had also their importance as pre- 

 servatives against scurvy, and this the more as the crew 

 of the Vega had no oppoitunities of having supplies of 

 fresh meat during the winter. The daily baking of fresh 

 bread was a very good innovation ; as to the preserved 

 meat, the crew very soon had enough of it, and even salted 

 meat was preferred to corned beef; only the finer and 

 more expensive preserved soups and steaks were appre- 

 ciated throughout the cruise. 



The Chukches were of course the subject of anthropo- 

 logical and ethnographical studies, as far as possible. 

 Mr. Nordquist publishes a most valuable Chukch dic- 

 tionary, and Mr. Almquist communicates interesting ob- 

 servations on colour-blindness among the Chukches, two 

 hundred men and a hundred women having been sub- 

 mitted to experiments in accordance with Prof. Holm- 

 gren's hints as to this kind of research with people whose 

 language is unknown (" Umfargblindheten," &c, Upsala, 

 ■877)- The supposition of Helmholtz and Young as to 

 the blindness of the lower races with regard to violet rays 

 has not been confirmed as far as the Chukches are con- 

 cerned ; they certainly distinguish it, but they merely call it 

 red. The same is true with regard to pale green and 

 bright blue ; they confound both, but the organs for green 

 are not missing with them. Like other lower races, they 

 use much red colour for their skins, yellow being com- 

 paratively rarely used for ornaments. It results also from 

 M. Kjellman's paper on the culinary plants of the 

 Chukches, that, contrary to Wrangel's assertion, they do 

 not despise vegetable food. Their provisions of plants 

 for the winter are as large as their provisions of meat and 

 fat. This feature so much distinguishes them from all 

 other inhabitants of the Arctic regions that one is inclined 

 to admit that the time is not far removed from that when 

 they cultivated some better situated plots of soil on the 



coast of the Arctic Ocean, or were compelled to leave lower 

 latitudes which had a happier climate than that of the north- 

 eastern extremity of Siberia. Their provisions in vegetables 

 area very strange mixture of various plants, among which 

 the following are the most common : — Cineraria palustris, 

 L., Petasites frigida, Fr., Pedicularis sudetica and P. 

 lanata, Willd., Rlwdiola rosea, L., Claytonia acutifolia, 

 Willd., Halianthus pep/aides, Fr., Polygonum poly- 

 morphum, L., and Salix boganidensis, Trautvetter. 



The most important papers in this volume are those 

 devoted to the vegetation of the region visited, that is, to 

 the lichens and mosses of the coast, to the algae of the 

 Siberian Sea, and to the phanerogamic flora of Novaya 

 Zemlya, of the coast region, and of the Asiatic coast of 

 Bering Strait. The lichens are comparatively rare on 

 the coast ; whole stretches are quite devoid of them, and 

 the lichen flora is altogether poor as to the number of 

 species. The Calicieae are represented by but three species, 

 and the whole group of the Sclerolichens only by five or 

 six species, none of them being spread over the whole of 

 the coast. The Stictaceae are represented by a couple of 

 species of Nephroma ; the Pannariaceas by five to six 

 species ; Pyrenopsis has but one species which is widely 

 spread, but not . ery common. The character of the 

 flora is nearly the same on the whole of the coast, 

 but towards the south, where the country becomes in- 

 habited, the flora undergoes a notable change. The 

 Phanerogams become also comparatively rich towards 

 the east, in the land of the Chukches, where the grasses 

 appear in the shape of whole sods, without a mixture 

 of moss. The Algae are few in the Siberian Sea, the 

 whole number of observed species being but twelve, 

 that is, only one-half of the number of species that are 

 known on the Murman coast and in the Sea of Spilz- 

 bergen. The characteristic feature of all Arctic Algae 

 being their large size, the Siberian Algae seem to be an 

 exception to this rule. The largest of them was a 

 Laminaria Aghardii, 210 centimetres long and 37 cm. 

 wide. 



The papers by MM. Kjellman and Lundstrom on 

 the Phanerogams of the explored region will be read 

 with great interest both by the botanist and the geo- 

 grapher. They are not bare enumerations of plants, 

 but elaborate sketches of botanical geography taking 

 into account former botanical work in neighbouring 

 tracts, and describing the flora in its dependence upon 

 local conditions of climate and soil. The coast-flora 

 of Northern Siberia is altogether poor, as it numbers but 

 150 species of Phanerogams ; this number slightly in- 

 creases, however, towards the east, where it reaches 221, 

 as well as towards the west, 1S5 species being known 

 from Novaya Zemlya. The Obi — at least as far as the 

 coast region proper is concerned — is not a separation-line 

 between the Arctic European and the Arctic Asiatic 

 floras, as was expected by Hooker. Only the Salix 

 rolundifolia and Wahlbergella ajjinis do not appear to 

 the east of the great West Siberian river. Of the 150 

 species noticed, only one-third are Monocotyledons. This 

 proportion increases, however, at certain places, and 

 there are monocot>ledonous species extending over large 

 areas. However poor as to the number of species, the 

 Siberian coast-flora still affords a variety of forms, as it 

 has representatives of 33 different families and 93 different 

 genera. The families which are the most represented in 

 the coast-flora are those of Graminese and Cruciferae, 

 which number respectively 23 and 20 species. They are 

 followed by those of the Composite, Saxifragaceae, 

 Ranunculaceae, Cyperaceae, and Caryophyllaceae (15 to 

 11 species). The family of Saxifragaceae is that which 

 maintains the greatest number of species towards the 

 north, eight species out of fourteen having been found 

 even at Cape Chelyuskin ; the Caryophyllaceae nearly 

 keep pace with the former ; whilst the family which 

 spreads least towards the north is that of Compositae 



