420 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[OIIAP. 
mainland side it is bounded bj a rocky headland projecting 
far into the sea, which often formed the turning point in 
attempts to penetrate eastwards from the mouth of the river 
Lena, and perhaps just on that account, like many other head¬ 
lands dangerous to the navigator on the north coast of Russia, 
was called STjatoinos (the holy cape), a name which for the 
oldest Russian Polar Sea navigators appears to have had the 
same signification as ''the cape that can be passed with difficulty.” 
No one how^ever now thinks with any apprehension of the 
two "holy capes,” which in former times limited the voyages of 
the Russians and Fins living on the White Sea to the east and 
west, and this, I am quite convinced, will some time be the case 
with this and all other holy capes in the Siberian Polar Sea. 
The sea water in the sound was much mixed with river w^ater 
and had a comparatively high temperature, even at a depth of 
nine to eleven metres. The animal life at the sea bottom was 
poor in species but rich in individuals, consisting principally of 
Idotliea entomon, of which Dr. Stuxberg counted 800 specimens 
from a single sweep of the dredge. There were obtained at the 
same time, besides a few specimens of Idothea Sabinei, sponges 
and bryozoa in great abundance, and small mussels, Crustacea, 
vermes, &c. Various fishes were also caught, and some small 
algae collected. The trawl-net besides brought up from the 
bottom some fragments of mammoth tusks, and a large number 
of pieces of wood, for the most part sticks or branches, which 
appear to have stood upright in the clay, to judge from the fact 
that one of their ends was often covered wdth living bryozoa. 
These sticks often caused great inconvenience to the dredgers, 
by tearing the net that was being dragged along the bottom. 
On the night preceding the 31st of August, as we steamed 
past Svjatoinos, a peculiar phenomenon Avas observed. The sky 
was clear in the zenith and in the east; in the west, on the other 
hand, there Avas a bluish-grey bank of cloud. The temperature 
of the Avater near the surface varied between -f 1° and +1°‘6, 
