242 
THE YOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
Dr. Almquist in like manner collected very extensive materials 
for investigating the lichen-flora of the region, probably before 
very incompletely known. The harvest of the zoologists, on the 
other hand, was scanty. Notwithstanding the luxuriant vege¬ 
tation land-evertebrates appeared to occur in a much smaller 
number of species than in northern Norway. Of beetles, for 
instance, only from ten to twenty species could be found^ 
mainly Harpalids and Staphylinids, and of land and fresh-water 
mollusca only seven or eight species, besides which nearly all 
occurred very sparingly. Among remarkable fishes may be 
mentioned the same black marsh-fish which we caught at 
Yinretlen. The avi-fauna was scanty for a high northern land, 
and of wild mammalia we saw only musk-rats. Even the 
dredgings in the harbour yielded, on account of the unfavourable 
nature of the bottom, only an inconsiderable number of animals 
and algse. 
On the 26th July, at three o’clock iii the afternoon, we 
weighed anchor and steamed back in splendid weather and 
with for the most part a favourable wind to the shore of the 
•Old World. In order to determine the salinity and temperature 
at different depths, soundings were made and samples of water 
taken every four hours during the passage across the straits. 
Trawling was besides carried on three times in the twenty-four 
hours, commonly with an extraordinarily abundant yield, among 
other things of large shells, as, for instance, the beautiful Fusus 
deformis, Keeve, with its twist to the left, and some large 
species of crabs. One of the latter (Ghionoecetes opilio, Kroyer) 
the dredge sometimes brought up in hundreds. We cooked 
and ate them and found them excellent, though not very rich 
in flesh. The taste was somewhat sooty. 
Lieutenant Bove constructed the diagram reproduced at 
page 244, which is based on the soundings and other obser¬ 
vations made during the passage, from which we see how 
shallow is the sound which in the northernmost part of the 
