Swedish North-Polar Expedition. 235 
loopen Strait, having first on that spot collected, from under 
snow of a foot deep, an additional number of mountain-lime- 
stone petrifactions. On the 12th of September we again 
anchored at our coal depdt on Amsterdam Island, and there 
met our second coal-ship, by which some of the members of the 
expedition (Fries, Holmgren, Malmgren, Nauckhoff, and Smitt) 
returned to Norway, carrying with them the valuable collections 
of objects of natural history which the expedition had up to 
that time succeeded in acquiring. These collections have now 
safely arrived’ in Stockholm, and will, after having been duly 
studied, be divided between the National Museum in that city, 
bers of the expedition, who, besides, had with them a taxider- 
mist, Messrs. Malmgren and Smitt had also at their disposal 
a boat manned with four men for dredging every day, holidays 
excepted, when the ship lay still. They were thus enabled not 
Only to make a searching examination of the Arctic marine 
fauna, which, in individual copiousness at least, is comparable 
with that of many more southern countries, but also to pay 
due attention to the terrestrial fauna of the locality, more 
especially the entomological branch, which is poor both with 
respect to individuals and species, and accordingly presented 
especial difficulties to its investigator, Mr. Holmgren. 
dredgings also yielded rich contributions to the ocean’s alga- 
ora. Every opportunity that offered itself for land-excursions 
was used by the two botanists of the expedition, both for in- 
vestigating the flora and for forming a collection of specimens 
or normal herbaria of Spitzbergen’s phanerogamia, mosses, 
lichens, and alew. 
n the 16th of September we took leave of our homeward- 
bound companions, and immediately proceeded northward. 
Our intention was to touch at the Seven Isles, but these were 
The ee 
a 
