iQoo] Prince — Dr. Nansen's Scientific Results. 139 



staple food of young fishes in the sea, where they are very wide- 

 spread in the surface waters. In the cold seas of the north the 

 number of species is extraordinary, and they often discolour the 

 sea's surface by reason of their multitude. Dr. Sars tells us that, 

 oddly enough, the largest catches in Polar waters were made not 

 at the surface, but at a depth of 250 or 300 yards (200 to 300 

 metres); indicating that the presence of ice makes the uppermost 

 strata too frigid for even these hardy members of the crab and 

 shrimp class. It is no doubt paradoxical to speak of the 

 open sea in reference to the Polar basin, which, for 

 so large a part of the year, is frozen over to a great thickness; 

 but Dr. Nansen's tow-netting in the long lanes of water, which 

 opened between the long ridges of hummock ice, revealed a rich 

 pelagic life at apparently all seasons. British, German, Norse, 

 and American investigators have found that typical surface animals 

 constantly descend, and many species appear to frequent the basal 

 waters 20 to 50 fathoms deep ; but the mid-water zone of life de- 

 scribed by Dr. Sars, at 200 to 300 metres depth, is a new fact of 

 interest. Naturalists anticipated that there might be a rich fauna 

 on the floor of the Arctic seas. The reverse appears to be the 

 case. Indeed the paucity of animal life there is most striking. 

 As Dr. Nansen held the view that the polar waters were probably 

 shallow, the good ship "Fram" was not well provided with deep- 

 sea gear : but Professor Sars reports that in the deep sea sound- 

 ings which were made every indication appeared of a scanty 

 abyssmal fauna. Only one bottle in Dr. Nansen's extensive col- 

 lection contained true bottom-living animals. The more consider- 

 able depths, 1600 to 1900 fathoms, occurred northward of 79 deg. N. 

 latitude. Near the Siberian coast, and up to 79 deg. N. latitude, 

 the water rarely exceeds 90 fathoms : but a little south of the lat- 

 itude named, the shallows began to disappear, deeper soundings 

 were recorded, and the depth increased with amazing suddenness, 

 thus overthrowing altogether the preconceived conception of a 

 North Polar sea. Indeed the great depth discovered appears to be 

 a continuation of that North Atlantic channel which extends be- 

 tween Spitzbergen and Greenland. One peculiar shrimp-like 

 creature, an Amphipod called Cyclocaris guilelmi, was found cling- 

 ing to the sounding line, when hauled up from depths of iioo to 



