he sea-bottom the sand surrounded
by _fresh_ water freezing at 0 deg. C thus met a stratum of _salt_
water whose temperature was two or three degrees under 0 deg., in
consequence of which the grains of sand froze fast together. That it
may go on thus we had a direct proof when in spring we sank from the
_Vega_ the bodies of animals to be skeletonised by the crustacea
that swarmed at the sea-bottom. If the sack, pierced at several
places, in which the skeleton was sunk was first allowed to fill
with the slightly salt water from the surface and then sink rapidly
to the bottom, it was found to be so filled with ice, when it was
taken up a day or two afterwards, that the crustacea were prevented
from getting at the flesh. We had already determined to abandon the
convenient cleansing process, when I succeeded in finding means to
avoid the inconvenience, this was attained by drawing the sack,
while some distance under the surface, violently hither and thither
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 preceding 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