The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-09
ANIMAL LIFE IN THE ICE WORLD.
A Variety of Creatures Which Live in
the Arctic Regions.
Buffalo Courier.

buildlO courier.
Nothing in Nansen's account of his win
ters in the ice pack north of the Siberian
coast is more interesting than the record
of the animals which live their lives there.
Hundreds of miles from land he found the
polar bear ranging. on the eternally frozen
but constantly moving surface of the ocean,
seeking out the holes in the ice through
which the WalruS came up for air. The
Fran. in all it's course, never ranged be-
yond the northern limits of these two huge
mammals of the arctic-the bear and the
walrus. Only Nansen. In his dash poleward
in the spring of 1895, left animate nature
behind him, and his stay in the "farthest
north was so brief that we cannot be GER
tain that even there, and further north
still, the great white bear does not prowl
and the walrus sport on the coasts of ever
lasting ice. TIL whole story of animal life
in that desolate region, taken from the body
Of the narrative, is most fascinating. Beast
and bird and insect find the means of con-
tented existence ten to twenty degrees be-
yond the most northerly limits of vegeta-
ton.
After rounding Cape Chelynskin, the top
most point OF the old world. in Septem-
Der, 1898, the Fran soon found herself fast
in the pack, and moving slowly in a north
westerly direction. Between the parallels
of 10 and so, far from land, the explorers
saw many walruses, focks Of elder ducks.
little auks. sea gulls, snipe. and other wad-
ing birds. These last came out of the north.
The farther from land the ship drifted. the
more frequently were bear tracks seen.
Crossing the 80th parallel. Nansen wrote:
as one might expect" The sea water was
found to swarm with small crustaceans,
some of them luminous, and "a marine
worm. The snow water melted on the sur
face of the foe was found rich in small
plant organisms, diatoms and algae. Star
fish. seaslugs. and the like were brought
up from the depths of the sea.
After the Arctic night came on, at the end
of October, when the Fran was above the
eightieth parallel, with the mercury far be-
low zero, a white fox was shot on the ice.
and the tracks of many We're seen. 1t
seems, indeed, that the Arctic fox ventures
az for fgaoTa la nd &c thn hnar hr+ 80 il.
such numbers. One was shot about two
hundred miles from land. In late Deem
Der bears were seen and hunted. This ap-
pearance of bears in the Arctic in mid
winter suggests the question whether the
polar bear hibernates like the southern va
rieties of the species. In February, 1895,
$3.50, three hundred miles from land. If the
polar bear hibernates at all it IS for a very
brief period. SchWatka, who has hunted
the animal in various parts of the far north,
believed that ii does not hibernate. The
highest latitude in which the Fram's men
found it was A:10, almost the limits of
mans approach to the pole. Even in these
hig ATTITUDES, and hundreds of miles from
land, the creature will be found with young
cubs. showing that its lens must be made
in ice caves, with snow alone for a bed.
Like the walrus, 1t never, unless made cap
tive, leaves the region OF perpetual ice and
snow. In January. 1894. when the thermom-
eter marked 40 below zero, walruses were
seen bobbing up and down in an open bit
of sea. Such creatures, brought to our
1900
weather Of the temperate zone Amos be-
yond endurance. The farthest point north
at which traces of a mammal were found
was at So north during Nansen's sledge
journey. He came there on the track of a
fox in the snow, quite fresh. the mercury
marking % below zero.
The Arctic knows it's spring coming of
birds as well as our more genial regions.
Early in May-sometimes even in April-the
first arrivals cross the eightieth parallel
mostly ice-mews, kittiwakes, falmars, now
and then a blue gull. herring gull. or a
black guillemot. Once or twice a. skua few
near the ship, and in July, 81 north, a snow
bunting was seen This bird in winter
migrates southwark into our latitude, but
it is believed il never goes out of snow or
endures any weather milder than freezing.
1t is the only song bird heard in those lati-
tudes. The same bird was seen in April
1895, in latitude S4:13 north. SO that 1t must
be one of the earliest of the vernal messen-
gers. carrying it's tidings perhaps to the
very pole. Noae of these feathered inhab-
itants of the far north are nesting birds,
strictly speaking. The fulmaf lays It's eggs
on the ice. and N~ordenksjold relates having
come upon a sitting fulmar whose leg was
frozen In the ice. Guillemots. auks. kitti-
AXE and puflns all lay their eggs on the