Aira cæspitosa L.
Juncus biglumis L.
[190] I can remember only one other instance of finding self-dead vertebrate animals, viz. when in 1873, as has already been stated (p. [110]), I found a large number of dead rotges on the ice at the mouth of Hinloopen Strait.
[191] I use this name because the ash-rain of March 1875 was first observed at Haga palace near Stockholm, and thus at the outer limit of the known area of distribution of the dust. It was first through the request which in consequence of this observation was published in the newspapers, that communications regarding singular observations in other quarters should be sent to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, that it became known that a similar rain had about the same time taken place over a very large part of middle Sweden and Norway. The dust however did not fall evenly, but distributed in spots, and at several different times. The distance from Stockholm of the volcanoes, where the outbreak took place, is nearly 2000 kilometres.
[192] Namely, by showing that the principal material of the plutonic and volcanic rocks is of cosmic origin, and that the phenomena of heat, which occur in these layers, depend on chemical changes to which the cosmic sediment, after being covered by thick terrestrial formations, is subjected.
[193] Dr. Kjellman has given the following list of the flowering plants collected by him in this region:—
Cineraria frigida RICHARDS.
Potentilla emarginata PURSH.
Saxifraga stellaris L. f. comosa.
Saxifraga nivalis L.
Saxifraga cernua L.
Saxifraga rivularis L.
Chrysosplenium alternifolium L.
Cardamine bellidifolia L.
Draba corymbosa R. BR.
Papaver nudicaule L.
Ranunculus pygmæus WG.
Ranunculus hyperboreus ROTTB.
Ranunculus sulphureus SOL.
Stellaria Edwardsii R. BR.
Cerastium alpinum L.
Alsine macrocarpa FENZL.
Salix polaris WG.
Poa arctica R. BR.
Arctophila peudulina (LAEST.) ANDS.
Catabrosa algida (Sol.) FR.
Colpodium latifolium R. BR.
Dupontia Fisheri R. BR.
Pleuropogon Sabini R. BR.
Aira cæspitosa L.
Hierochloa pauciflora R. BR.
Calamagrostis lapponica (WG.) HN.
Alopecurus alpinus SM.
Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH.
Eriophorum Scheuchzeri HOPPE.
Carex aquatilis WG.
Carex rigida GOOD.
Juncus biglumis L.
Luzula hyperborea R. BR.
Luzula arctica BL.
[194] H. Mohn. Die Insel Einsamkeit, &c., with a map (Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1879, p. 57).
[195] This has been doubted by Russian geographers. Von Baer for instance says:—
"Daruber ist gar kein Zweifel, dass dieses Vorgebirge nie umsegelt ist, und dass es auf einem Irrthum beruhte, wenn Laptew auf einer Seefahrt die Bucht, in welche der Taimur sich mündet, erreicht zu haben glaubte. Seine eigenen späteren Fahrten erwiesen diesen Irrthum. Die Vergleichung der Berichte und Verhältnisse lässt mich aber auch glauben, dass selbst zu Lande man das Ende dieses Vorgebirges nie erreicht habe; sondern Tscheljuskin, um dieser, man kann wohl sagen, grässlichen Versuche endlich überhoben zu seyr, sich zu der ungegründeten Behauptung entschloss, er habe das Ende gesehen, und sich überzeugt, Sibirien sei nach Norden überall vom Meere umgränzt," [statement by von Baer in Neueste Nachrichten über die nördlichste Gegend von Siberien; von Baer and von Helmersen, Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Russischen Reiches. IV. St. Petersburg, 1841, p. 275]. In the following page in the same paper von Baer indeed says that he will not lay any special weight on Strahlenberg's statement that Siberia and Novaya Zemlya hang together, but he appears to believe that they are connected by a bridge of perpetual ice.
[196] According to an observation with an artificial horizon on land.