26 KJELLMAN, THE ALG^ OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



the Vega voyage and published by Stdxberg, that in the eastern part of the Kara Sea 

 and in the Siberian Sea the very greatest part of the bottom is formed of sand and clay ^). 

 Only at some few places of the region west of Taimyr Island, at Irkaypi and at the 

 mouth of Kolyutshin Bay, the bottom was favourable, at another, viz. Actinia Bay, it 

 was found to be tolerably good. In the American Arctic Sea, at least in that part of 

 it where the Archipelago is situated, the bottom probably resembles most nearly that 

 on the coasts of Spitzbergen. Primitive rock is to be found there, but of compara- 

 tively little extent. The ground consists chiefly of schistous rocks, lime- and sand- 

 stone, belonging to the silurian and coal formations ^). 



I hold the disadvantageous structure of the bottom to be an essential cause 

 why so large stretches of the Arctic Sea possess no algae, why the eastern Kara Sea 

 and the Siberian sea are furnished with such plants only within so inconsiderable areas, 

 and why the Flora of the greater part of the Arctic Sea is in general so limited in 

 number of individuals. 



Salinity of the sea. Another circumstance that contributes certainly to the 

 extraordinary scarcity of alga3 in the eastern part of the Kara Sea and the greater part 

 of the Siberian Sea, is the slight salinity of the water, caused by the great quantity 

 of fresh water brought down by the large Siberian rivers and carried along the coast 

 in an easterly direction. W'ith regard to the hydrographical conditions of these seas, 

 I take the liberty to quote the statements of NordenskiOld, who has particularly studied 

 this subject. About the sea between the mouth of the Yenissei and the New Siberian 

 Islands, he says : »If the depth reaches at least 30 metres, the temperature at the bottom 

 varies between — 1° and 1°,4 C. The specific gravity of the water amounts to from 

 l,oi'6 to 1,0L'7, corresponding to a salinity little less than that of the Atlantic. At the 

 surface the temperature was exceedingly variable. Thus for instance it was + 10° at 

 Dickson Harbour, + 5°,'. a little south of Taimyr Straits, + 0°,8 amongst the drift-ice 

 immediately off this strait, + 3° off Taimyr Bay, + 0°,i at Cape Chelyuskin, + 4° off 

 Chatanga Bay, + 1°,2 to 5°,8 between the Chatanga and the Lena. The specific gravity 

 of the surface water in a broad channel along this part of the coast never exceeded 

 1,023, most often it only amounted to l,oi or less. The latter figure corresponds to a mix- 

 ture of about one part of sea water with two parts of river water. These figures show 

 incontestably that a warm and only slightly salt surface current runs from the mouths 

 of the Obi and the Yenissei along the coast in a north-easterly direction, and after- 

 wards, under the influence of the earth's rotation, in a more easterly course. Other 

 similar currents proceed from the Chatanga, Anabar, Olenek, Lena, Jana, Indigirka and 

 Kolyma.» ') About the sea east of the New-Siberian Isles he says: "Eastward from 

 this point the sea was ice-free nearest the coast. The water was slightly salt and 



its temperature rose to + 4° C In one respect, there exists a great difference in 



the nature of the sea off the Siberian coast west and east of Cape Baranow. On the 

 western side a number of large rivers, the Ob, Yenissei, Piasina, Taimyr, Chatanga 



&<*) 



') Stuxberg, Vega-Exp. 1. p. 684—687. Cp. p. 690. 



^) Haughton, Fox-Exp. App. 4. 



') NoRDENSKioLD, Vega-Exp. 1. p. 23. 



