32 



KJELLMAN, THE ALGM OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



destroying the vegetation that has begun to spring up. This may happen in spring 

 at those parts of the coasts of the Arctic Sea, for instance the west coast of Spitz- 

 bergen, where the winter ice breaks up early, and again in autumn, before new ice has 

 been formed along the shore, and even in the middle of winter, if the masses of ice draw 

 off suddenly from the shores, as happens probably not unfrequently from time to time. 

 The account of the Swedish wintering expedition at Spitzbergen 1872 — 73 shows the 

 sea at the north coast of Spitzbergen to have been open even to the shore several 

 times in the course of the winter ^). During our wintering in the Vega, there were 

 formed once or twice wide openings in the sea, which may possibly have reached to 

 the shore in the neighbourhood of our wintering station. It appeared from the state- 

 ments of the natives living there, that the sea opens now and then in winter, though it 

 freezes soon again. It may be objected that, the sea being open at the coast, the tem- 

 perature of the air cannot be so low as to be injurious to algsB. This may be true, 

 indeed, in general, but it is to be remarked that there occur nowhere else so sudden 

 and strong variations of temperature as in the arctic regions. Amongst many instances 

 of this I select one from the voyage of the Vega. In February 1879 the temperature 

 of the air at noon on the 6:th was — 40°,4 C, at the same hour two days later + 0°,i, 

 on the 12:th — 2°,o, but on the 13:th — 24°,9 and on the 15:th — 29°,o C. At Mus- 

 selbay the sea once in the winter froze at a temperature of the air of — 27°,6 ^), to 

 which low degree it had descended in the course of a few hours. It need not be sup- 

 posed that a low temperature must continue long, in order to be hurtful. Just as one 

 night of sharp frost suffices to damage the land-vegetation, the extreme degrees of 

 temperature in the arctic regions may act destructively, if their action lasts during one 

 or two tidal periods. 



The temperature of the air at different parts of the coasts of the Arctic Sea is set forth 

 in the following table. From this, several conclusions may be drawn with regard to the 

 biological conditions of the algae of the Arctic Sea, which I shall bring forward below. 



Table ^) showing the average temperature of the air in different parts of the Polar region. 



January 



February .. 



March 



April 



May 



June , 



July 



August 



September.. 

 Oktober .... 

 November.. 

 December .. 



*) See NoKDENSKioLD, Spetsb.-Exp. p. 55 — 58. 



^) NoRDENSKioLD, 1. c. p. 68 and Wijkander, Obs. ra6t6or. p. 20 — 21. 

 ') Cp. HiLDEBRANDSsoN, Obs. M6t6or. p. 578 — 579 and Koldewey, Zweite 



3 



deutsche Polarf. p. 536. 



