Geographical Notes
1880; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 21; Issue: 540 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1038/021427a0
ISSN1476-4687
Tópico(s)Polar Research and Ecology
ResumoPROF. NORDENSKJÖLD in a short paper to the Paris Academy of Sciences, gives a list of the collections obtained during his recent expedition, which are to be arranged and described on his return to Stockholm. There are numerous observations on climate, magnetism, auroræ, hydrography, geology, fauna, flora, ethnography, &c. Among the collections is a very rich collection of invertebrates taken during the numerous dredgings of Dr. Stuxberg in the Glacial Ocean; to judge from these dredgings, the fauna richest in individuals, at the depth of 30 to 100 metres, is not to be found in the tropics, but only in the Glacial Ocean and Behring Strait; yet here the temperature at bottom is always 1° to 2° C. below zero. Collections of phanerogams, lichens, and algæ were made by Dr. Kjellman and Dr. Almquist; masses of bones of sub-fossil whales of the Chukchi peninsula and of Rhytina stelleri of Behring Island; a very fine collection of tertiary fossil plants from Nagasaki and Labuan; this collection is expected to afford information on the former equatorial climate and on the ancient centres of dispersion of the present floras. Cut stones, utensils, arms, dresses, &c., of Chukchis and Eskimo; the latter at present use both weapons of stone and the Remington rifle. This collection contains among other things drawings, engravings, and sculptures in ivory, which have much resemblance to the palæolithic designs of France. Lastly, there is a collection of 1,040 works in 5,000 or 6,000 volumes of Japanese books and MSS., printed or written before the opening of the country to Europeans. The Vega left Naples for Lisbon and Portsmouth on Sunday.
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