Dec. 29, 1881] 
“They had probably perished from the same cause, which 
often kills fish in the river Ob in so great numbers that 
the water is infected, namely, from a large shoal of fish 
having been inclosed by ice in a small hole, where the 
water, when its surface has frozen, could no longer by 
absorption from the air replace the oxygen consumed, and 
where the fish have thus been literally drowned. I men- 
tion this inconsiderable fizd of some self-dead fish, because 
self-dead vertebrate animals, even fish, are found exceed- 
ingly seldom. Such ids therefore deserve to be noted 
with much greater care than, for instance, the occurrence 
of animal species in the neighbourhood of places where 
they have been seen a thousand times before. During 
my nine expeditions in the Arctic regions, where animal 
life during summer is so exceedingly abundant, the case 
just mentioned has been one of the few in which I have 
found remains of recent vertebrate animals which could 
be proved to have died a natural death. Near hunting- 
grounds there are to be seen often enough the remains of 
reindeer, seals, foxes, or birds that have died from gun- 
shot wounds, but no self-dead Polar bear, seal, walrus, 
white whale, fox, goose, auk, lemming or other vertebrate. 
The Polar bear and the reindeer are found there in 
hundreds, the seal, walrus, and white whale in thousands, 
and birds in millions. These animals must die a “natural” 
death in untold numbers. What becomes of their bodies? 
Of this we have for the present no idea, and yet we have 
here a problem of immense importance for the answering 
of a large number of questions concerning the formation 
of fossiliferous strata. It is strange in any case that on 
. Spitzbergen it is easier to find vertebre of a gigantic 
lizard of the Trias, than bones of a self-dead seal, walrus, 
or bird, and the same also holds good of more southerly 
inhabited lands.” 
Another problem of great importance is suggested by the 
finding of some yellow specks on the snow of the Taimur 
coast, which turned out to be carbonate of lime of an un- 
usual form of crystallisation, and which the Baron believes 
were probably of interplanetary origin. He gives a brief 
sketch of his previous observations in the high north on 
this subject, referring also to what has-been done by M. 
Tissandier, and during the last English polar expedition, 
and to the special suitability of the uninhabited Arctic 
regions for the collection of what is believed to be cosmic 
dust. It is certainly a subject which deserves the atten- 
tion of future expeditions, and especially of the polar 
observing stations which are in a fair way of being 
established. 
“Tt may appear to many that it is below the dignity of 
science to concern one’s self with so trifling an affair as 
the fall of a small quantity of dust. But this is by no 
means the case. For | estimate the quantity of the dust 
that was found on the ice north of Spitzbergen at from 
o'r to 1 milligram per square metre, and probably the 
whole fall of dust for the year far exceeded the latter 
figure. But a milligram on every square metre of the 
surface of the earth amounts for the whole globe to five 
hundred million kilograms (say half a million tons) ! 
Such a mass collected year by year during the geological 
ages, of a duration probably incomprehensible by us, 
forms too important a factor to be neglected, when the 
fundamental facts of the geological history of our planet 
are enumerated. A continuation of these investigations 
will perhaps show, that our globe has increased gradually 
from a small beginning to the dimensions it now pos- 
sesses; that a considerable quantity of the constituents 
of our sedimentary strata, especially of those that have 
been deposited in the open sea far from land, are of 
cosmic origin ; and will throw an unexpected light on the 
origin of the fire-hearths of the voleanoes, and afford a 
simple explanation of the remarkable resemblance which 
* T can remember only one other instance of finding self-dead vertebrate 
animals, viz: when in 1873, as has already been stated (p. r10), I found a 
arge number of dead rotges on the ice at the mouth of Hinloopen Strait. 
NATURE 
201 
unmistakably exists between plutonic rocks and meteoric 
stones.” 1 
After leaving Cape Chelyuskin, the Vega sailed for a 
considerable distance over ,what, in existing maps, is set 
down as land ; and although there was necessarily little 
time for accurate surveying, still it will be found that the 
expedition has done much to render accurate the geo- 
graphy of the north coast of Asia. After sailing down the 
east side of the Taimur Peninsula, close by the land, the 
vessel was directed almost straight eastwards towards the 
most southerly of the New Siberian Islands, still keeping 
as near the coast of the mainland as practicable. Off the 
delta of the Lena, which within the last week has come so 
prominently before us in connection with the Jeannette 
expedition, the Vega parted with the Zea, which entered 
the river, to establish regular traffic by steamer. It 
was only after leaving Cape Chelyuskin that ice in any 
quantity was met with so as to hamper the progress of the 
vessels, and Baron Nordenskjéld states that had the coast- 
water been better known so that he could have kept closer 
to land, the latter part of the voyage would have been as 
free from obstruction as the former. 
Here follows an interesting chapter on the commercial 
navigation of the great Siberian rivers, and on the 
geography and economical condition of Siberia. It con- 
tains indeed a summary of all that is known to science of 
the immense country, with much that is the result of 
Baron Nordenskjéld’s own research or observations, and 
with speculations on geology that are not likely to be let 
pass unchallenged. The Zeva had some difficulty in 
navigating the delta of the river, for the old maps of 140 
years ago were useless, the changes at the mouth of the 
river in that time has been so great. The Baron draws 
an interesting parallel between Siberia and America north 
of the 4oth parallel. 
He then gives a sketch of his own journey up the 
Yennissi in 1875, in connection with which we give a 
view on that river (Fig. 7). 
‘© As is the case with all the other Siberian rivers 
running from south to north,’ the western strand of the 
Yenisej, wherever it is formed of loose, earthy layers, is 
also quite low and often marshy, while on the other hand 
the eastern strand consists of a steep bank, ten or twenty 
metres high, which north of the limit of trees is dis- 
tributed in a very remarkable way into pyramidal pointed 
mounds. Numerous shells of crustacea found here, be- 
longing to species which still live in the Polar Sea, show 
that at least the upper earthy layer of the ¢wudra was 
deposited in a sea resembling that which now washes the 
north coast of Siberia. 
“The ¢undra itself is in summer completely free of 
snow, but at a limited depth from the surface the ground 
is continually frozen. At some places the earthy strata 
alternate with strata of pure, clear ice. It is in these 
frozen strata that complete carcases of elephants and 
rhinoceroses have been found, which have been protected 
from putrefaction for hundreds of thousands of years. 
Such jfizds, however, are uncommon, but on the other 
hand single bones from this primeval animal world occur 
in rich abundance, and along with them masses of old 
drift-wood, originating from the Mammoth period, known 
by the Russian natives of Siberia under the distinctive 
name of ‘Noah’s wood.’ Besides there are to be seen in 
the most recent layer of the Yenesej ¢wsdra, considerably 
north of the present limit of actual trees, large tree-stems 
with their roots fast in the soil, which show that the limit 
of trees in the Yenesej region, even during our geological 
period, went further north than now, perhaps as far as, 
in consequence of favourable local circumstances, it now 
goes on the Lena. 
‘¢ On the slopes of the steep ¢#dra bank and in several 
i Namely, by showing that the principal material of the plutonic and 
volcanic rocks is of cosmic origin, and that the phenomena of heat, which 
occur in these layers, depend on chemical changes to which the cosmic 
sediment, after being covered by thick terrestrial formations, is subjected. 
