Animals available as Food in the Arctic Regions, 303 



Spitzbergen, NW. extremity . 

 Nova Zembla, Karische Pforte 

 Ditto, Seichte Bay .... 

 Ditto, Matothkin Shar . . . 

 Spitzbergen, Hecla Cove . 

 Kovennoy Eilipovskoy 



Ust Yansk 



Nishne Kolymsk .... 



(latitude 80 00) 



. . 36-0 



( " 70 37) 



. 36-3 



( " 74 00) 



, . 37-7 



( M 73 00) 



. 40-0 



( « 79 55) . 



. 40-2 



( « 71 05) 



. 48-8 



( " 70 58) 



. 58-6 



( < { 68 32) . 



. 61-0 



In this region the influence of the temperature is still more 

 striking, as it has been shewn that north-eastern Siberia, 

 comprising the warmest stations in the foregoing list, ex- 

 hibits not only the greatest amount of animal life in northern 

 Siberia, but throughout the whole of the Arctic regions, al- 

 though in winter it is the coldest on the face of the globe. 

 It will be seen, by comparing the two tables of the July 

 temperature, that Winter Island is the coldest of all stations ; 

 and this is likewise the case with the mean of the three sum- 

 mer months. This place is consequently the pole of cold of 

 the northern hemisphere during the summer ; and Mr Ber- 

 thold Seemann, the naturalist of H.M.S. Herald, informs me 

 that it it is likewise the phytological North Pole, namely, 

 that point which possesses the smallest number of genera 

 and species of plants, and whence the number increases in 

 every direction. While thus in Winter Island the most 

 scanty vegetation is found, in north-eastern Siberia, in a cor- 

 responding latitude, noble forests are known to thrive in 

 considerable extent. It is curious to remember that already 

 that distinguished navigator Frobisher, nearly three hundred 

 years ago, in describing the country round the Strait named 

 after him, says that under a latitude of 62° it was colder 

 there than in Wardohuus in Europe, in latitude 70J°, the 

 former being comprised in the district I have shewn to be 

 the coldest in summer in the Arctic regions, as far as our 

 present knowledge extends. It is much to be regretted that 

 the efforts of the numerous Arctic expeditions in this cen- 

 tury — in the hope to effect the so-called " North-western" 

 passage — should have been almost exclusively directed and 

 accumulated upon that region, — the most desolate, and, per- 



