[259] That mercury solidifies in cold was discovered by some academicians in St. Petersburg on the 25th December, 1759, and caused at the time a great sensation, because by this discovery various erroneous ideas were rooted out which the chemists had inherited from the alchemists, and which were based on the supposed property of mercury of being at the same time a metal and a fluid.
[260] During the market the Russian priest endeavours to make proselytes, he succeeds, too, by distributing tobacco to induce one or two to subject themselves to the ceremony of baptism. No true conversion, however, can scarcely come in question on account of the difference of language. As an example of how this goes on, the following story of Wrangel's may be quoted. At the market a young Chukch had been prevailed upon, by a gift of some pounds of tobacco, to allow himself to be baptised. The ceremony began in presence of a number of spectators. The new convert stood quiet and pretty decent in his place till he should step down into the baptismal font, a large wooden tub filled with ice-cold water. In this, according to the baptismal ritual, he ought to dip three times. But to this he would consent on no condition. He shook his head constantly, and brought forward a large number of reasons against it, which none understood. After long exhortations by the interpreter, in which promises of tobacco probably again played the principal part, he finally gave way and sprang courageously down into the ice-cold water, but immediately jumped up again trembling with cold; crying, "My tobacco! my tobacco!" All attempts to induce him to renew the bath were fruitless, the ceremony was incomplete, and the Chukch only half baptised.
[261] In Lapland, too, the melting of the snow in spring is brought about in no inconsiderable degree by similar causes, i.e. by dry warm winds which come from the fells. On this point the governor of Norbotten län, H. A. Widmark, has sent me the following interesting letter — "However warm easterly and southerly winds may be in the parts of Swedish Lapland lying next the Joleen mountains, they are not able in any noteworthy degree to melt the masses of snow which fall in those regions during the winter months. On the other hand there comes every year, if we may rely on the statements of the Lapps, in the end of April or beginning of May, from the west (i.e. from the fells), a wind so strong and at the same time so warm, that in quite a short time—six to ten hours—it breaks up the snow-masses, makes them shrink together, forces the mountain sides from their snow covering, and changes the snow which lies on the ice of the great fell lakes to water. I have myself been out on the fells making measurements on two occasions when this wind came. On one occasion I was on the Great Lule water in the neighbourhood of the so-called Great Lake Fall. The night had been cold but the day became warm. Up to 1 o'clock P.M. it was calm, but immediately after the warm westerly wind began to blow, and by 6 o'clock P.M. all the snow on the ice was changed to water, in which we went wading to the knees. The Lapps in general await these warm westerly winds before they go to the fells in spring. Until these winds begin there is no pasture there for their reindeer herds."
[262] I do not include La Recherché's wintering in 1838-39 at Bosekop, in the northernmost part of Norway, as it took place in a region which is all the year round inhabited by hundreds of Europeans. During this expedition very splendid auroras were seen, and the studies of them by LOITIN, BRAVAIS, LILLIEHÖÖK, and SILJESTRÖM, are among the most important contributions to a knowledge of the aurora we possess, while we have to thank the draughtsmen of the expedition for exceedingly faithful and masterly representations of the phenomenon.
[263] The common eider (S. mollissima, L.) is absent here, or at least exceedingly rare.
[264] During the expedition of 1861, when we were shut up by ice in Treurenberg Bay on Spitzbergen (79° 57' N. L.) the first flower (Saxifraga oppositifolia, L.), was pulled on the 22nd June. After the wintering in 1872-73, Palander and I during our journey round North-east Land, saw the first flower on the same species of saxifrage as early as the 15th June, in the bottom of Wahlenberg Bay (79° 46' N. L.)
[265] For the sake of completeness, I shall here also enumerate the plants which Dr. Kjellman found at Pitlekaj. Those marked with an * either themselves occur in Scandinavia or are represented by nearly allied forms
Leucanthemum arcticum (L.) DC.
Artemisia arctica LESS.
* ,, vulgaris L. f. Tilesii LEDEB.
Cineraria frigida RICHARDS.
* ,, palustris L. f. congesta HOOK.
* Antennaria alpina (L.) R. BR. f. Friesiana TRAUTV.
* Petasites frigida.
* Saussurea alpina (L.) DC. f. angustifolia (DC.)
* Taraxacum officinale WEB.
Valeriana capitata PALL.
Gentiana glauca PALL.
Pedicularis sudetica WILLD.
,, Langsdorffii FISCH.
,, lanata WILLD. f. leiantha TRAUTV.
,, capitata ADAMS.
* Polemonium coeruleum L.
* Diapensia lapponica L.
* Armeria sibirica TURCZ.
Primula nivalis PALL. f. pygmæa LEDEB.
,, borealis DUBY.
* Loiseleuria procumbens (L.) DESV.
* Ledum palustre L. f. decumbens AIT.
* Vaccinium vitis idæa L.
* Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) SPRENG.
* Cassiope tetragona (L.) DON.
Hedysarum obscurum L.
Oxytropis nigrescens (PALL.) FISCH. f. pygmæa CHAM.
,, species?
* Rubus Chamæmorus L.
* Comarum palustre L.
Potentilla fragiformis L. f. parviflora TRAUTV. f. villosa (PALL.)
* Sibbaldia procumbens L.
* Dryas octopetala L.
Spiræa betulæfolia PALL. f. typica MAXIM.
* Hippuris vulgaris L.
* Saxifraga stellaris L f. comosa POIR.
,, punctata L.
* ,, cernua L.
* ,, rivularis L.
* Rhodiola rosea L.
* Empetrum nigrum L.
* Cardamine bellidifolia L.
Cochlearia fenestrata R. BR. f. typica MALMGR. f. prostrata MALMGR.
Ranunculus Pallasii SEHLECHT.
* ,, nivalis L.
* ,, pygmæus WG.
* ,, hyperboreus ROTTB.
* Aconitum Napellus L. f. delphinifolia REICHENB.
Claytonia acutifolia WILLD.
* Wahlbergella apetala (L.) FR.
* Stellaria longipes GOLDIE. f. humilis FENZL.
* ,, humifusa ROTTB.
Cerastium maximum L.
* ,, alpinum L. f. hirsuta KOCH.
Alsine artica (STEV.) FENZL.
* Sagina nivalis (LINDBL.) FR.
* Polygonum Bistorta L.
* ,, viviparum L.
* polymorphum L. f. frigida CHAM.
Rumex arcticus TRAUTV.
* Oxyria digyna (L.) HILL.
Salix boganidensis TRAUTV. f. latifolia.
*
Salix Camissonis ANDERS.
,, arctica PALL.
,, euneata TURCZ.
* ,, reticulata L.
,, species?
Betula glandulosa MICHX. f. rotundifolia REGEL.
Elymus mollis TRIN.
* Festuca rubra L. f. arenaria OSB.
* Poa flexuosa WG.
Arctophila effusa J. LGE.
Glyceria vilfoidea (ANDS.) TH. FR.
,, vaginata J. LGE. f. contracta J. LGE.
* Catabrosa algida (SOL.) FR.
* Colpodium latifolium R. BR.
Dupontia Fischeri R. BR.
* Trisetum subspicatum (L.) P.B.
* Aira cæspitosa L. f. borealis TRAUTV.
Alopecurus alpinus SM.
* Hierochloa alpina (LILJEBL.) ROEM. and SCH.
* Carex rariflora (WG.) SM.
* ,, aqvatilis f. epijegos LAEST.
* ,, glareosa WG.
* ,, lagopina WG.
* Eriophorum angustifolium ROTH.
* ,, vaginatum L.
* ,, russeolum FR.
* Luzula parviflora (EHRH.) DESV.
* ,, Wahlenbergii RUPR.
* ,, arcuata (WG.) SW. f. confusa LINDEB.
* Juncus biglumis L.
Lloydia serotina (L.) REICHENB.
[266] Redogörelse för den svenska polarexpeditionen år 1872-73. Bihang till Vet.-Akad. Handl. Bd. 2, No. 18, p. 52.
[267] Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires. Paris, 1854. Pp. 177 and 223.
[268] Heckel and Kner, Die Süsswasserfische Oesterreichs, p. 295.