e we lay till the morning of the 10th. The beach, was
formed of a sandbank,[235] which immediately above high-water mark
was covered with a close grassy turf, a proof that the climate here,
notwithstanding the neighbourhood of the pole of cold, is much more
favourable to the development of vegetation than even the most
favoured parts of the west coast of Spitzbergen. Farther inland was
seen a very high, but snow-free, range of hills, and far beyond them
some high snow-covered mountain summits. No glaciers were found
here, though I consider it probable that small ones may be found in
the valleys between the high fells in the interior. Nor were any
erratic blocks found either in the interior of the coast country or
along the strand bank. Thus it is probable that no such ice-covered
land as Greenland for the present bounds the Siberian Polar Sea
towards the north. At two places at the level of the sea in the
neighbourhood of our anchorage the solid rock was bare. There it
formed perpendicular shore cliffs, nine to twelve metres high,
consisting of magnesian slate, limestone more or less mixed with
quartz, and silicious slate. The strata were nearly perpendicular,
ran from north to south, and did not contain any fossils. From a
geological point of view therefore these rocks were of little
interest. But they were abundantly covered with lichens, and yielded
to Dr. Almquist important contributions to a knowledge of the
previously quite unknown lichen flora of this region.

The harvest of the higher land plants on the other hand was, in
consequence of the far advanced season of the year, inconsiderable,
if also of great scientific interest, as coming from a region never
before visited by any botanist. In the sea Dr. Kjellman dredged
without success for algae. Of the higher animals we saw only a
walrus and some few seals, but no land mammalia. Lemmings must
however occasionally occur in incredible numbers, to judge by the
holes and passages, excavated by these animals, by which the ground
is crossed in all directions. Of birds the phalarope was still the
most common species, especially at sea, where in flocks of six or
seven it swam incessantly backwards and forwards between the pieces
of ice.

[Illustration: SECTION OF A CHURCH GRAVE.[236]
(After a drawing by A. Stuxberg.)
_a._ Layer of burned bones, much weathered.
_b._ Layer of turf and twigs.
_c._ Stones. ]

No tents were met with in the neighbourhood of the vesse