of
the river Lena, and perhaps just on that account, like many other
headlands dangerous to the navigator on the north coast of Russia,
was called _Svjatoinos_ (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 however 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 water 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 _Idothea 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 with 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 was observed. The sky was clear in
the zenith and in the east; in the west, on the other hand, there was a
bluish-grey bank of cloud. The temperature of the water near the surface
varied between +1 deg. and +1.6 deg., that of the air on the vessel between
+1.5 deg. and +1.8 deg.. Although thus both the air and the water had a
temperature somewhat above the freezing-point, ice was seen to form on
the calm, mirror-bright surface of the sea. This ice consisted partly of
needles, partly of a thin sheet. I have previously on several occasions
observed in the Arctic seas a similar phenomenon, that is to say, have
observed the formation of ice when the temperature of the air was above
the freezing-point. On this occasion, when the tem