VON BUCH ON BEAR ISLAND. 53 



guished, flourishing more luxuriantly than even on the Kongsoar in 

 East Finmark, then the deep blue Cardamine bellidifolia, Saxifraga 

 cernua at least ten mehes high, and abundance of Polygonum vivipa- 

 rum with white ears. Altogether the island produced twenty-eight 

 distinct species of Phanerogamous and twenty-three of Cryptogamous 

 plants. 



M. Keilhau adds to these some other information regarding the 

 temperature and the meteorological phsenomena of Bear Island during 

 winter, which he obtained from some seamen in Hammerfest who 

 had passed the winter of 1823 and 1824 upon it. The notices are 

 important, for the knowledge of the circulation of the atmosphere in 

 the northern half of the earth, and form a striking contrast to the 

 picture of whiter at the mouth of the Kolyma, which is presented to 

 us by Admiral Wrangel in his valuable ' Travels in Siberia,' a region 

 which yet is far from being so far north as Bear Island. Southerly 

 and westerly vdnds in November brought rain indeed, but no snow. 

 East winds, on the other hand, in the beginning of December, and a 

 snow-storm from the north-west, covered tlie coast with ice. The 

 wind changed again towards the end of the month, and with a south 

 wind rain even fell during the Christmas days. Walruses were 

 caught at all times, by the light of the moon and the aurora borealis ; 

 and during Christmas week seventy were killed in one day. In 

 January a great quantity of snow fell, which the violent wdnd again 

 carried away ; cold weather only occurred in February, and even then 

 not so intense as to prevent them working in the open air. 



From the 1 8th February they again saw the sun, and with it the 

 Stormy Petrel, Procellaria glacialis and Laryx hyperhoreus. In 

 March the cold increased exceedingly, especially vdth north-east 

 vdnds, just as happens on all the eastern shores of the Atlantic as far 

 down as Spain, where, in the beginning or middle of March, a con- 

 siderable retrogression of the rising temperature is perceived during 

 north-east winds ; the Eider duck also again appeared. April was 

 the coldest month, but only accidentally, and not in regular course. 

 In May strong west winds broke up the ice on the sea ; the earth 

 thawed, and by the end of the month they could collect the Coch- 

 learia in great abundance. The north-east winds in June and July 

 anew enclosed the island with ice from the polar regions, so that the 

 end of July first admitted of a free navigation. Other vsdnters have 

 been more severe, yet never so much so as to confine people to the 

 house or prevent labour in the open air. The island thus still enjoys 

 the beneficial warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, and in this re- 

 spect is very difl'erent from the neighbouring ice-bound Spitzbergen. 



M. Keilhau has added to the collection in Christiana a sketch of 

 Bear Island, and a section, on which is distinctly marked the various 

 points where the different specimens were collected. These observa- 

 tions prove the remarkable and important fact that the coal strata of 

 this island belong to the lower formation, — to that which is covered by 

 the greater part of the Productus or carboniferous limestone, and 

 which has been so thoroughly made known to us by the researches 

 of MM. Murchison, Helmersen and Keyserling in Russia. In reality 



