h _finds_ therefore deserve to be noted with
much greater care than, for instance, the occurrence of animal
species in the neighbourhood of places where they have been seen a
thousand times before. During my nine expeditions in the Arctic
regions, where animal life during summer is so exceedingly abundant,
the case just mentioned has been one of the few in which I have
found remains of recent vertebrate animals which could be proved to
have died a natural death. Near hunting-grounds there are to be seen
often enough the remains of reindeer, seals, foxes, or birds that
have died from gunshot wounds, but no self-dead Polar bear, seal,
walrus, white whale, fox, goose, auk, lemming or other vertebrate.
The Polar bear and the reindeer are found there in hundreds, the
seal, walrus, and white whale in thousands, and birds in
millions.[190] These animals must die a "natural" death in untold
numbers. What becomes of their bodies? Of this we have for the
present no idea, and yet we have here a problem of immense
importance for the answering of a large number of questions
concerning the formation of fossiliferous strata. It is strange in
any case that on Spitzbergen it is easier to find vertebrae of a
gigantic lizard of the Trias, than bones of a self-dead seal,
walrus, or bird, and the same also holds good of more southerly
inhabited lands.

On the 13th August we again sailed past a large number of small
rocks or islands. The sea was at first pretty free of ice, but was
afterwards bestrewed with even, thin pieces of drift-ice, which were
not forced up on each other, and thus had not been exposed in winter
to any ice-pressure. This ice did not cause any inconvenience to the
navigation, but at the same time all was wrapt in a very close mist,
which soon compelled us to anchor near the shore in a little bay. I
endeavoured without success to determine the position of the place
by astronomical observations. Along the shore there still remained
nearly everywhere a pretty high snow and ice-foot, which in the fog
presented the appearance of immense glaciers. The land besides was
free of ice. In respect of its geological formation and its animals
and plants it resembled completely the island I have just described.
But the sea-water here was clear and salt, and the dredging
therefore yielded to Dr. Kjellman some large algae, and to Dr.
Stuxberg a large number of marine evertebrates.

When the fog lightened, we immediately steamed on, bu