1900] Prince — Dr. Nansen's Scientific Results. 143 



specialised Crustacea. Professor F. M. Balfour says (Comp. 

 Embryol, Vol. I., p. 487) : "The free Copepoda are undoubtedly 

 amongst the lowest forms of those Crustacea which are free or do 

 not lead a parasitic existence. Although some features of their 

 anatomy, such for instance as the frequent absence of a heart, may 

 be put down to retrogressive development, yet from their retention 

 of the median frontal eye, .... their simple biramous swim- 

 ming legs, and other characters, they may claim to be very prim- 

 itive forms, which have diverged to no great extent from the main 

 line ot Crustacean development." 



In a brief notice of the Paddle-nosed Sturgeon in Ontario 

 {Ottawa Naturalist, October, 1899, Vol. xiii) I indicated what 

 meaning the naturalist feels bound to attach to the local oc- 

 currence, in areas remote from one another, of any primitive 

 or generali.eed type of animal. The same deep significance 

 attaches to the Copepods and Amphipods referred to above. 



Of the birds observed during the expedition Dr. Nansen him- 

 self writes conjointly with Dr. CoUett, and the account is full of 

 interest. Between 81 deg. and 83 deg. N. latitude there is an 

 abundance of bird life. Oddly enough, young birds seem to pre- 

 vail in these inhospitable regions. Vast numbers of certain 

 species were noticed including the Little Auk [Mergulus or Alle alle, 

 Linn.) and the Ringed Plover [^gialttis hiaticula, Linn.). 

 Cepphus inandtii, Crymophilus fulicarius, and Pagophila ebuniea, 

 the Ivory Gull, were also obtained, and one specimen of Sabine's 

 Gull [Xema sabinii, Sabine). During the spring of 1894, it was 

 on May 13th, when the "Fram" was moving towards the most 

 northerly point in her drift through the ice, a gull was noticed, 

 apparently Pagophila ebuniea, and others were seen occasionally 

 until Aug. 23rd, but after the lanes between the hummocks and 

 the channels around the ship began to freeze, about the end of 

 August, no more birds were seen for over eight months. Indeed, 

 the first to appear the next year was noticed on May 14th. 

 Readers of " Farthest North" will remember Nansen's references 

 to the beautiful and rare Ross's Gull or the Roseate Gull [Rhodos- 

 tethia rosea, Macgill), and for the first time a fully detailed 

 description of the species is now published with exquisitely tinted 

 illustrative plates. In the waters around Hirtenland, the four 



