[67] When Spitzbergen was first mapped, a great number of places were named after reindeer, which shows that the reindeer was found there in large numbers, and now just at these places it is completely absent. On the other hand, the Dutch and English explorers during the sixteenth century saw no reindeer on Novaya Zemlya. During the Swedish expedition of 1875 no reindeer were seen on the west coast of this island south of Karmakul Bay, while a number were shot at Besimannaja Bay and Matotschkin Schar. When some of the companions of the well-known walrus-hunting captain, Sievert Tobiesen, were compelled in 1872-73 to winter at North Goose Cape, they shot during winter and spring only eleven reindeer. Some Russians, who by an accident were obliged to pass six years in succession somewhere on the coast of Stans Foreland (Maloy Broun), and who, during this long time, were dependent for their food on what they could procure by hunting without the use of fire-arms (they had when they landed powder and ball for only twelve shots), when the three survivors were found and taken home in 1749, had killed two hundred and fifty reindeer (P.L. le Roy, Relation des Aventures arrivées à quatre matelots Russes jettés par une tempête près de l'Isle deserte d'Ost-Spitzbergen, sur laquelle ils ont passé six ans et trois mois, 1766).
[68] During the wintering of 1869-70 on East Greenland, Dr. Punsch once saw a female bear with quite small young (Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt, Leipzig, 1873-74. Vol. II p. 157).
[69] W. Scoresby's des Jüngern, Tagebuch einer Reise auf dem Wallfischfang. Aus dem engl. üebers. Hamburg, 1825, p. 127.
[70] Die zweite deutsche Nordpolarfahrt, Vol. I. p. 465.
[71] Grönlands historiske Mindesmärker. Kjöbenhavn, 1838, III. p. 384.
[72] Ramusio, Part II., Venice, 1583, p. 60.
[73] Ol. Magnus. Rome edition, 1555, p. 621.
[74] It is stated that wolves also occur on Novaya Zemlya as far up as to Matotschkin Sound. They are exceedingly common on the north coasts of Asia and Eastern Europe.
[75] That is to say, not on Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, for it is otherwise on the coast of the mainland. In West Greenland the mosquito as far north as the southern part of Disco Island is still so terrible, especially to the new comer during the first days, that the face of any one who without a veil ventures into marshy ground overgrown with bushes, becomes in a few hours unrecognisable. The eyelids are closed with swelling and changed into water-filled bladders, suppurating tumours are formed in the head under the hair, &c. But when a man has once undergone this unpleasant and painful inoculation, the body appears, at least for one summer, to be less susceptible to the mosquito-poison.
[76] As the only Chrysomela, which von Baer found at Matotschkin Schar, played so great a rôle in Arctic-zoological literature, I shall here enumerate the species of coleoptera, now known—after Professor Mäklim's determination of the collections which we brought home with us—to exist on Novaya Zemlya. These are:—Feronia borealis Ménétr., F. gelida Mäkl., Amara alpina Fabr., Agabus subquadratus Motsch., Homalota sibirica Mäkl., Homalium angustatum Mäkl., Cylletron (?) hyperboreum Mäkl., Chrysomela septentrionalis (?) Ménétr., Prasocuris hannoverana Fabr., v. degenerata. From Vaygats Island we brought home seven species more, which were not found on Novaya Zemlya. The insects occur partly under stones, especially at places where lemming dung is abundant, or in tracts where birds'-nests are numerous, partly in warm days on willow-bushes.