Part 10

As Nansen elsewhere remarks, the memoirs of Pompeckj and Nathorst supplement the papers of Koettlitz, Newton and Teall, which appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1897, pp. 477-519, and 1898, pp. 620-651.

Pompeckj describes fully the various fossils, illustrates them with wealth of detail, discusses their stratigraphical relations, and outlines the paleographical history of Franz Josef Land.

Of the twenty-six species collected by Nansen no less than seventeen are new as compared with the Jackson-Harmsworth collection, which contains five species lacking to Nansen. There are representatives of single species only of echinoderms, vermes and gastropods, the scarcity of the last named being generally characteristic of the Jurassic fauna of the arctic regions, whether in Siberia, Greenland, or Arctic America. On the other hand, at Cape Flora the cephalopods and the lamellibranchs predominate very largely. This fact makes most notable the absence of the lamellibranch genus _Aucella_, with all other forms that are especially characteristic of the higher Jura.

The following new species have been determined by Pompeckj: _Pseudomonotis Jacksoni_, an ornamented shell of a remarkably large Aviculid form. _Macrocephalites Koettlitzi_, a shell with a very narrow umbilicus and almost completely encircling whorls. _Cadoceras Nanseni_, an ammonite showing a flat disc-like growth, with moderately thick whorls of which cross-sections are nearly elliptical. Another ammonite may possibly be a variety of _C. Nanseni_, but Pompeckj considers that it is a separate species owing to its wider umbilicus, less pronounced involution and somewhat asymmetrical lobe-line.

Pompeckj’s outline of the paleontographical history of Franz Josef Land is worthy of careful consideration by all interested in this department of science, although many may differ from some of the conclusions reached by him. Commenting on the stratigraphical studies of Prof. E. T. Newton, Pompeckj states that his own investigations compel him to differ materially from the inferences drawn and theories advanced by that scientist.

Pompeckj says: “The occurrence of these three genera of Ammonites proves that the marine fauna of Cape Flora contain representatives of the Callovian. More recent marine horizons have certainly not been formed at Cape Flora, as far as I can judge from the collection of fossils before me.... The Oxfordian and all the more recent Jurassic horizons do not occur as marine deposits at Cape Flora.”

He finds species pertaining to the Lower Bajocian, Lower, Middle and Upper Callovian horizons. It is most interesting to note that only one other part of the arctic regions, Prince Patrick Island, Parry Archipelago, has produced fossils, described by Haughton as Lias, that are certainly older than the Callovian. It is, however, recognized as possible that Lundgreen’s fossils from East Greenland may form another exception.

Pompeckj points out that while the Bajocian fauna of Cape Flora is without analogy in the arctic regions, it nevertheless presents distinct affinities to the Central European Jura, and especially resembles the Russian Callovian.

Moreover, this Jurassic collection from Cape Flora is of special importance in outlining the geographic distribution of that system. Pompeckj adds: “Hence the existence of a Bajocian sea in the north of the Eurasian Jura continent is proved beyond all doubt.... As early as the Bajocian period, there existed a Shetland Straits, which separated the Eurasian continent, existing through the Lias period until the end of the Bathonian, from the nearctic Jura continent.”

The comments relative to the transition of Nova Zembla, Spitzbergen, Franz Josef Land, and possibly Alaska, from land to sea and sea to land, are of marked interest, indicating as they do that large areas of polar regions were exposed in the mesozoic period to repeated and very considerable oscillations of the sea level.

The more interesting of the Jurassic fossils, found at Cape Flora, are shown in the accompanying illustration. _Cadocera Nanseni_ (n. sp.), 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. _Cadoceras_, sp. ex. aff. _Cad. Nanseni_ (n. sp.), 4. _Cadoceras Tchefkini_, d’Orb, 7. _Cadoceras_, sp. indet., 8. _Quenstedoceras vertumnum_, Sintzow, 9. _Cadoceras Frearsi_, d’Orb, 10. _Macrocephalites_, 11. _Macrocephalites Koettlitzi_, n. sp., 12.

The collections of fossil plants, made by Nansen in Franz Josef Land through the courtesy of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, are of scientific value as indicating the fossil Jurassic flora of Franz Josef Land as compared with that of Spitzbergen. These collections fill in a not inconsiderable gap in the Arctic regions, and Nathorst’s investigations serve to confirm the opinions and statements made by Professor Heer, whose five volumes of Flora Fossilis Arctica constitute a monumental work. As is well known, research has established the fact that at one time Spitzbergen was covered with a luxuriant miocene vegetation--cypresses, birches, sequoiæ, oaks and planes. It moreover appears that this growth was coincident with the period when Spitzbergen, Greenland, Franz Josef Land and Nova Zembla experienced a continental climate.

As fossil collections accumulate, one appreciates more and more the masterly manner in which Heer summed up the results of polar exploration as regards Arctic vegetable paleontology. He was the first to present to the world a clear idea of the vegetation of the Cretaceous land, scarcely known to science until elucidated by him. It developed that in Heer’s time, among the fossil plants found in Spitzbergen alone were 7 ginkos, 8 pines, a short bamboo, 7 poplars, 3 maples and a fossil strawberry.

Dr. Nansen was fortunate in securing the co-operation of Prof. A. G. Nathorst in the examination of the fossil plants collected in Franz Josef Land, as he has devoted much time to the flora, present and past, of various portions of the Arctic regions, especially Spitzbergen and King Charles Land. Nathorst had the advantage of the notes of Newton, J. H. Steele and R. Curtis on the fossils of Franz Josef Land, published in the Quarterly Journal of Geological Science, London, vols. 53-54, 1897-1898.

Most unfortunately, the fossils were very fragmentary, the leaves in themselves small and often indistinguishable in color from the rock, so that their examination was made almost entirely under the magnifying lens. While the organic substance of the plants was sometimes still to be seen in a soft, brownish variety of rock, yet the harder yellowish varieties offered only impressions, or cavities, their organic substance having entirely disappeared. In cross fractures there were sometimes cavities which were complete transverse sections of coniferous leaves.

There were twenty-nine species, of which the entire number are coniferous except one fungus, one fern, two palms and one uncertain.

Nathorst says: “The plant-bearing strata of Franz Josef Land, which are yet known to us, all belong, with the exception of those from Cook’s Rock and Cape Stephen, the age of which is still uncertain, to the upper Jurassic, or the transition beds to the cretaceous, while as yet no tertiary strata have been discovered.”

In geological age, while the Franz Josef flora resembles most the previously known Jurassic floras of Siberia and Spitzbergen, yet Nathorst considers the geological age different, and naturally places it between the two, it being evidently younger than that of Siberia.

It is interesting to note that Doctor Koettlitz found in an isolated basalt nunatak (rock or hill protruding from a glacier) fossil plants similar to those found by himself and Nansen on the north side of Cape Flora. These nunatak plants, which Koettlitz believed to be _in situ_, are identified by Nathorst as Upper Jurassic, and came from an elevation variously estimated as from six hundred to seven hundred and fifty feet above the sea.

Nansen agrees with Koettlitz in believing that tree-trunks found by them, charred into charcoal or partly silicified, chiefly belonged to conifers growing on the soil over which basalt flows were discharged during the Upper Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous age, and that they have been charred by a flowing mass of lava that overwhelmed them.

These fossil plants tell the story of tremendous physical changes which have produced very important modifications in climatic conditions in the Arctic regions. The changes in the types of vegetable life are apparently as extensive in high as in low latitudes. The lower cretaceous flora is almost tropical, as is shown by the predominating forms of this vegetation. Carboniferous formations obtain extensively in the Arctic regions, as they occur in the Parry Archipelago, Spitzbergen and in Siberia. During the carboniferous age there was a great extent of land near the North Pole closely resembling that of the temperate latitude of the same period, as is shown by the small number of fossil plants that are peculiar to the Arctic regions. In the tertiary period miocene flora flourished in Spitzbergen, where even the lime, the juniper and poplars have been found near latitude 79 N. Then also throve sequoias, which closely resemble trees growing in the southern part of the United States. The miocene flora gives evidence of a very great contrast between the climatic conditions at that epoch between Europe and the Arctic regions.

The cretaceous flora throws important light on the changes of climate in the Arctic regions, and, as has been pointed out, the tropical forms predominate in the vegetation of the Lower Cretaceous flora. Heer’s prediction that the plants found on the west coast of Spitzbergen would also be found on the East Greenland coast has been fully verified. Miocene plants have been found from Spitzbergen westward through Iceland and Greenland to Banks Land and in the Parry Archipelago, and it is interesting to note that more than one fourth of the Arctic plants are common to the miocene of Europe; in Greenland and on McKenzie the percentage is nearly one half.

In all probability, the paper which is of the highest popular interest is the account of the birds by Robert Collet and Dr. Nansen. The full notes regarding Arctic birds testify fully to the fact that the observers had in view the principal points of ornithological importance. These comprise not only a mere record of the presence or absence of certain species, but also additional observations regarding them in their Arctic habitat.

Certainly the reproach can not be brought against the expedition of the _Fram_, which has obtained in the case of many Arctic expeditions, that it has added nothing to ornithological Arctic data.

The account of the birds, prepared by Mr. Robert Collet, has been compiled from the various journals of the expeditionary force, supplemented by verbal comments of Nansen. The memoir contains such specific data as enable students to determine not only the general character of the avifauna as one moves northward in the Siberian ocean, but also the arrival and departure of the migrants and the presence of stragglers. Among the birds of special interest which were observed are the gray plover, the gray phalarope, the sabine gull and the cuneate or Ross’s gull.

One of the greatest authorities on Arctic birds, Prof. Alfred Newton, of the University of Cambridge, has well said that in consideration of the avifauna of any country its peculiarities can be determined only by dismissing accidental stragglers from the discussion. In elucidating the great question of geographical distribution, one must confine himself to either the birds that breed therein, or to those species which regularly frequent it for a considerable portion of the year.

Considering the enormous area covered by the _Fram_ expedition and its great diversity of physical conditions of sea and land, it was impossible to treat under a single heading the birds observed.

Mr. Collet has, therefore, been wise in dividing his notes into four sections, covering the Asiatic coast, the Siberian ocean, the sledge journey to Franz Josef Land, and the Arctic Ocean to the north of Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen. But for this division, confusion would have resulted from combining birds of regions so widely extended in longitude and latitude.

The notes show conclusively what might have been anticipated, that the avifauna of the Siberian Sea, and especially that portion of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen, is strictly limited.

Including the species observed during the entire voyage, there are only thirty-three recorded. Only twenty-one species pertain to the Arctic Ocean, whether as regular migrants or stragglers, after excluding the twelve species which were observed near the Asiatic coast. The presence on the shores of the Siberian Sea of some of these twelve, however, is of ornithological interest. There may be specially mentioned the gray goose (_Anser segetum_), long-tailed duck (_Harelda glacialis_), silver gull (_Larus argentatus_), snowy owl (_Nyctea scandiaca_), gray plover (_Squatarola helvetica_) and the red-necked phalarope (_Phalaropus hyperboreous_).

Confining ourselves to birds observed to the north of 81° 30, attention is called to the abundant avifauna of the western as compared with the eastern hemisphere. In Kennedy Channel, Grinnell Land, there have been recorded no less than thirty-two species against twenty-one noted by the _Fram_ in this voyage, including those seen in Franz Josef Land. This is not surprising, however, when it is considered that the drift of the _Fram_ was across a deep ocean of large extent, which is covered perpetually by an unbroken ice-pack, unrelieved by any view of land until the north coast of Spitzbergen was seen.

Omitting the birds observed in Franz Josef Land, the paucity of species frequenting the great western Arctic Ocean is even more apparent. The striking dissimilarity of the four regions traversed by the _Fram_ is plainly evident from the bird-life recorded. While there were observed nine species in the Siberian Sea, fifteen in the Franz Josef Archipelago, eighteen in the Arctic Ocean and twenty-three on the Asiatic coast, yet only five were common to all four regions, viz.: the dovekie, the glaucous gull, the ivory gull, the kittiwake and the snow-bird.

The Siberian Sea presented a most limited avifauna, as in addition to the five common species, there were recorded in the first summer in the ice only the little auk, the fulmar, the roseate gull and a small skua. The entire absence of land or shore birds that frequent Arctic islands, omitting a single straggling snow-bird, indicates clearly that the Siberian Sea extends far northward unbroken by any land area.

The eighteen species of birds that were found in the Arctic Ocean, far to the north, naturally demand special comment. The six following species are doubtless stragglers: the ringed plover (_Aegialitis hiaticula_), 82° 59′ N., the most northerly shore-bird of Spitzbergen, Nordenskiold having observed it on Seven islands, 80° 45′ N.; the eider duck (_Somateria mollissima_), 82° 55′ N., near Spitzbergen; the arctic tern (_Sterna macrura_), 84° 32′ N.; the puffin (_Fratercula arctica glacialis_), 83° 11′ N., near Spitzbergen; the black-backed gull (_Larus marinus_), 84° 35′ N. 75° E., and the Sabine gull (_Xema Sabini_), 83° N., near Spitzbergen.

Of other species, the roseate gull (_Rhodostethia rosea_), 84° 41′ N., disappeared as the _Fram_ drifted west from the longitude of Franz Josef Land, to be replaced as Spitzbergen was neared by a wader (_Crymophilus fulicarius_), 83° 01′ N.; forked-tailed skuas (_Stercorarius pomatorhinus_), 82° 57′ N., and Bruennich’s guillemot (_Uria lomvia_), 83° 11′ N. The glaucous gull (_Larus glaucus_), 84° 48′ N., and long-tailed skua (_Stercorarius longicaudus_), 84° 47′ N., although seen both summers, were quite infrequent. These data indicate absence of land at any near distance to the north, and disclose the interesting fact that only the six following species, including the snow-bird who is more probably a straggler, can be classed as regular summer migrants to the vast ice-fields which cover the Arctic Ocean to the north of Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land.

The little auk (_Alle alle_), 84° 48′ N., was visible almost daily near the 83d parallel in great numbers during the summer season, wherever there were numerous water channels near the _Fram_. Of 40 birds killed at one time, only ten were females.

The dovekie (_Cepphus mandti_), 84° 32′ N., with the little auk, was the most numerous of all birds in very high latitudes, and nearly 150 were shot for the table. Out of 40 specimens only 14 were males. The dovekie came early, May 13, 1896.

The ivory gull (_Pagophila eburnea_) is also present the entire summer. It was the first visitor in 1895, when on May 14 it was seen in 84° 38′ N., and what is of special interest, was flying from the north-northeast.

The snow bunting (_Plectrophenax nivalis_), although a land-bird, was seen both summers at somewhat infrequent intervals, as far as 84° 45′ N. They fed on refuse near the ships, but were also seen near water-holes, and appeared to be feeding on crustaceans. Two of three specimens were males. The first specimen in 1895 visited the _Fram_ on May 22 in 84° 40′ N., and then flew towards the north. In 1896 it appeared on April 25, the first bird of the year, in 84° 17′ N.

The kittiwake (_Rissa tridactyla_) was much less numerous than the ivory gull. It was seen in 82° 54′ N. They fed, as a rule, on crustaceans, although in one bird were found parts of a _Gadus saida_ about 70 mm. in length. A _Gadus_ about 120 mm. in length was observed on July 16, 1895, in 84° 42′ N., the most northerly point at which any fish has been found.

The fulmar (_Fulmarus glacialis_) came early in 1895, on May 13, and in 1896 on May 22. This bold, voracious bird fed on crustaceans usually, and owing to its villainous smell was utilized principally as food for dogs. The last bird of 1895, a fulmar, was seen on September 14, when the _Fram_ was in 85° 05′ N., 79° E. This is the most northern latitude in which any bird has ever been observed.

The fulmars and ivory gulls were very bold and noisy, the latter being specially objectionable. Ivory gulls were seen at the winter hut in Franz Josef Land until October, when all water had long been frozen over, and appeared again as early as March 12, 1896.

The first roseate gulls were young birds observed August 3, 1894, in 81° 05′ N., 120° E., about 500 kilometres from the nearest land. A long and interesting description is given of these gulls in various stages. One of the beautiful plates, which is imperfectly reproduced, shows the plumage of a very young gull about a month old. Their food consists exclusively of small fish and crustaceans, of the latter the _Hymenodora glacialis_ predominating. Large numbers of these beautiful gulls were seen in 1895 to the northeast of Franz Josef Land, which points to their breeding in that locality. One was seen by Nansen on July 11, 1895, in 82° 08′ N., flying from the northeast.

The very full memoir on _Crustacea_ is by Dr. G. O. Sars, well known as one of the editorial committee of the scientific work of the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition. As the greater number of marine vertebrate animals collected by the Norwegian North Polar Expedition belong to the _Crustacea_, this memoir covers the greater part of the marine collection.

The _Copepoda_ are predominant, especially those belonging to the _Calanoid_ group, having been taken at nearly every haul along the whole route of the _Fram_. The zoölogical equipment of the _Fram_ was based unfortunately on the supposition that the Siberian basin was shallow, so that the enormous oceanic depths which were found were only inadequately explored by an extemporized sounding apparatus.

While the results of the dredging operations indicate that there was very little animal life at the bottom of the ocean, on the other hand, it appears that the entire surface of the sea, which consisted usually of small temporary openings in the ice-pack, was covered with abundant life throughout the entire year even to the most northern latitudes.

Including surface and deep-sea specimens, there were taken on October 12, 1895, no less than eleven species in latitude 85° 13′ N., longitude 79° E. On June 28, 1895, in 84° 32′ N., 76° E., there were taken from the surface by tow net in a large water-channel fourteen species. This indicates abundant marine life in the sea immediately near the North Pole.

The pelagic animals, therefore, were not found at the sea surface alone, but were also drawn from considerable depths. Many specimens were obtained from strata at least 250 metres below the surface, and in a number of instances from depths ranging between 500 and 1,000 metres. It is to be added that the imperfect development of the visual organs of the peculiar amphipod, _Cyclocaris Guilelmi_, Chevreux, points to abyssal habits, as similar conditions do in the cases of other pelagic animals.

In general pelagic fauna in the Polar Sea resembles that of the northern Atlantic basin, the greater number of species being common to both. While several heretofore unknown forms collected by this expedition may be peculiar to the polar basin, yet it is not improbable that these forms also occur in the North Atlantic. This appears probable, since the western part of the _Fram’s_ route lies on the border of the two basins, where the fauna does not differ essentially from that in the eastern part.

While the pelagic fauna of the Polar Sea, even in the lowest depths, resembles that of the Atlantic basin, the great salinity of its water clearly indicates that it comes from the North Atlantic, and it is therefore more than probable that the migration of pelagic animals to the North Polar Sea is also from the west.

Indeed, Doctor Sars is of the opinion that the greater part of the pelagic life of the north-polar basin comes by the underlying easterly current from the North Atlantic. On the other hand, it is evident that the westerly-flowing surface current of the Siberian Sea is of vital importance as a means of supplying nourishment to the marine animals of the western Arctic Ocean. This food supply, microscopic algæ chiefly _Diatomeae_, while very abundant on the surface of the Siberian Sea, diminishes gradually towards the west. “Indeed,” says Sars, “without such a constant conveyance of nourishing matter, there could be no such rich animal life in the Polar Sea.”

A very remarkable fact was the presence of certain pelagic _Copepoda_, which hitherto had only been observed in southern waters, and a _Calanoid_ of the genus _Hemicalanus_ Claus, previously known only from the Mediterranean and tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Two species of the genus _Oncoea_, which accord perfectly with species in the Bay of Naples, were found in great abundance north of the New Siberian Islands. Another copepod, of the genus _Lubbockia_ Claus, heretofore only known in the Mediterranean and tropical oceans, was found in the same locality, with which was a small perfectly hyaline copepod of the very remarkable genus _Mormonilla_, of which heretofore only two species have been recorded, both in the tropical Pacific and south of the equator.