THE LARVAL STAGES 125 



the continental land, noting that ' a general absence of living plant life is to be expected ' and that this 

 in turn 'must greatly limit the possibilities for animal life'. It seems probable, therefore, that the 

 adolescent and adult krill population (p. 394, Fig. 135) known to frequent the lower ice-free lati- 

 tudes of the Pacific sector is carried in the East Wind stream north-westwards diagonally across the 

 mouth of the Ross embayment, by-passing the higher latitudes of the shelf. Although more hydro- 

 logical evidence is needed to substantiate such a movement it is interesting to record that Taljaard 



EAST IBO WEST 



I70" 



c:- ^ 



A 



DEPTH KEY Ni»J A \ 's^ 



SHELF WATER "XT \ ♦ 

 LESS THAN 500M 



SHELF WATER 

 MAINLY 500-750M 



E.SUPERBA 

 O 

 100 



100-1,000 

 1,000-10.000 



Q, 

 2 



< 



O 



Y- - 

 O 



Fig. 13. Distribution of whale food in the Ross Sea area based on the gatherings of our i-m. stramin nets with additional 



data from the 'Discovery' and 'Terra Nova'. 



(1957) States that in the neighbourhood of Marie Byrd Land the East Wind current shows evidence 

 of dividing into two streams, the southern and swifter branch following the edge of the Ross Barrier 

 and Victoria Land coast, the northern branch flowing west-north-west towards Cape Adare and the 

 Balleny Islands where it is joined again by the southern stream. Debenham (1923, end map i) and 

 Hansen (1934, Pis. iv-vii) both show west-north-west diagonal movements across the mouth of the 

 Ross Sea in addition to the current that follows the barrier face. 



Although no adolescent or adult krill have so far been recorded in the purely shelf water of the 

 Ross Sea area, water, that is, unadulterated by any trace of the warm deep layer, a very few early 

 larvae, undoubtedly belonging to this species, have in fact (p. 301, Figs. 70 and 74) been encountered 

 there, six of the ten stations made by 'Discovery II ' in the coldest water of the shelf in January 1936 

 producing an aggregate of four Second Nauplii, five Metanauplii and six First Calyptopes. The 

 occurrence of these larvae, very small though their numbers be, presents an interesting problem in 

 local distributional dynamics, for in view of the absence of a breeding stock it raises the obvious 



