G2 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap, xr. 
so that the surface water carried down with it was got rid of. 
Frozen clay and ooze do not appear to occur at the bottom of 
the Polar Sea. Animal life on the frozen sand was rather 
scanty, but algae were met with there though in limited numbers. 
From the shore a plain commences, which is studded with 
extensive lagoons and a large number of small lakes. In spring 
this plain is so water-drenched and so crossed by deep rapid 
snow-rivulets, that it is difficult, often impossible, to traverse it. 
Immediately after the disappearance of the snow a large number 
of birds at all events had settled there. The Lapp sparrow had 
chosen a tuft projecting from the marshy ground on which to place 
its beautiful roofed dwelling, the waders in the neighbourhood had 
laid their eggs in most cases directly on the water-drenched moss 
without trace of a nest, and on tufts completely surrounded by 
the spring floods we met with the eggs of the loom, the long¬ 
tailed duck, the eider and the goose. Already during our stay, 
the water ran away so rapidly, that places, which one day were 
covered with a watery mirror, over which a boat of light draught 
could be rowed forward, were changed the next day to wet 
marshy ground, covered with yellow grass-straws from the pre¬ 
ceding year. At many places the grassy sward had been torn 
up by the ice and carried away, leaving openings sharply defined 
by right lines in the meadows, resembling a newly worked off 
place in a peat moss. 
In summer there must be found here green meadows covered 
with pretty tall gmss, but at the time of our departure vegetation 
had not attained any great development, and the flowers that could 
be discovered were few. I presume however that a beautiful 
Arctic flower-world grows up here, although, in consequence of 
the exposure of the coast-country to the north winds, poor in 
comparison with the vegetation in sheltered valleys in the interior 
of the country. There are found there too pretty high bushes, 
but on the other hand.trees are represented at Pitlekaj only by 
a low species of willow which creeps along the ground. 
