274 K. E. von Baer's Description of 



funeral service, that man becomes a prey to worms, is not true with 

 respect to the extreme north, and whoever dreads this lot, has only to 

 be buried in Nova Zembla or Spitzbergen, where even the universal 

 decomposing forces of nature will act upon him but very slowly.* 



The abundance or scarcity of insects is, next to the vegetable king- 

 dom, the surest measure for the climate of a country. Both need 

 for their subsistence a certain quantity and a certain duration of 

 warmth. This never fails in the torrid zone, but as we approach the 

 north it does so in an increasing degree. Insects are however less 

 easily transplanted than plants. That we know of no true insects from 

 Spitzbergen may well be ascribed to this cause. M. Lehmann neverthe- 

 less observed ten species in Nova Zembla, and of these, seven which 

 are not parasitic. Fabricius described many more species from Green- 

 land, and amongst these even several butterflies, and Scorseby has 

 added to them some few new species from East Greenland. But 

 West Greenland, which in common life has been considered as the type 

 of all northernmost countries, from its having already been known for 

 a longer time through the Moravian missionaries, must, especially in 

 its southern districts, be a more highly favoured country, for it has 

 (even if we pay no attention to the old fabulous accounts) at the 

 present time, under 61° N. latitude, birch trees from 12 to 18 feet high, 

 and of the thickness of a man's thigh, and among these mountain ash. 

 (Egede, Account of the Greenland Mission, p. 78.) Egede, found the 

 corn, which he had sown as an experiment under the 64° of latitude, 

 not only in ear but already with small grains on the 13th of September 

 (Ibid, p. 106 and 112). Things therefore wear a very different appearance 

 from those in Nova Zembla, and the meteorological observations show 

 sufficiently that it is much warmer there. But even regions which 

 enjoy a much lower mean yearly temperature than Nova Zembla are 

 much richer in animal life, if the summer do but develope more heat. 

 To select a less known example, I will refer to Nyshne-Kolymsk, with a 

 mean temperature of 10° C. According to Wrangell's observations the 

 boundary of the lofty woods is not far off, and perhaps they would 

 extend to this place were it not for the nearness of the coast, for at 

 Nyshne-Kolymsk there are stunted Siberian cedars and bushes in plenty. 

 During the short summer there the gnats are an intolerable plague. 



The coast of Nova Zembla is rendered far more lively than the 

 interior of the country by the sea-birds which make their nests there. 

 Their number and variety is indeed not so great as upon the 

 Norwegian coast or some isles and cliffs of Iceland, but even here 



* At some depth the bodies remain frozen, but even above the earth they decay remarkably 

 slowlv. 



