272 



Description of Animal Life in Nova Zembla. By K. E. von 

 Baer.* 



Not only the total want of trees, but also of every kind of shrub that 

 would be large enough to attract the eye without being looked for, 

 gives to the polar landscapes a peculiar and deeply impressive character. 



In the first place all power of measurement is lost to the eye. From 

 the want of the usual objects of known dimensions, trees and buildings, 

 distances appear much less than they are, and for the same reason also 

 the mountains are thought lower. This observation has often been 

 made before and was not unknown to me, yet I found the deception, 

 for which I was prepared, much more complete than I had expected. 

 I knew indeed that on this very account an expedition which King Fre- 

 derick the Second of Denmark fitted out for Greenland failed in its 

 object. 



Mogens Heinson, who at that time was considered an able seaman, 

 commanded the ship : he came within sight of the coast of Greenland, 

 and steered with a favourable wind towards it ; but after sailing 

 several hours in the same direction it appeared to him that he came 

 no nigher to the shore. An apprehension seized him that some hidden 

 force at the bottom of the sea held him fast; he turned the ship 

 about and went back to Denmark, with the account that he had not 

 been able to reach the coast of Greenland, having been enchained by 

 a magnetic rock. With this experience and with the naive declaration 

 of Martens concerning Spitzbergen, " The distances seem quite near, 

 but when they are to be walked over in the country it is quite another 

 matter, and one soon becomes very weary," I was well acquainted, 

 and yet I found the delusion much greater than I could have supposed, 

 and to my eye so perfect that no consideration could rid me of it. 

 I am also convinced that it does not depend upon the want of the 

 accustomed objects alone, but likewise on a peculiar transparency of the 

 air, for it is never so complete on cloudy as on bright days, and not so 

 striking in level as in mountainous regions. In days or hours which are 

 quite clear the air appears to be almost without colour, and as the 

 heights in sight are partly covered with snow, and constituted in part of 

 a dark stone, which appears darker by the contrast, so the small degree 

 of colour which the air may possess cannot be perceived. The moun- 

 tains therefore apparently advance quite near to the eye, and this 

 perhaps in a greater degree to one who has been accustomed to see hills 

 through a different aerial perspective. 



* From the Annals of Nat. Hist. Nov. 1839. Translated from Wiegmann's Archiv, part 2, 1839. 



