NO. 14-] HANS KI^R. THALAMOPHORA. 61 



Josephs land to the Antarctic Ocean. The Thalamophora from the shallow 

 water along the Siberian coast are pure arctic and are only mixed with a 

 few boreal forms. 



In the brown clay from 3850 metres one fragment of a Radiolaria was seen 

 and in the grey clay from the surface of the ice and from a depth of 39 

 metres at the Siberian coast, some Diatoms (Coscinodiscus sp.). In the 

 mud from the ice were also found some badly preserved and indeterminable 

 vegetable substances, probably grains or fragments of moss. Prof. Wille and 

 cand. Holmboe have assisted me with the examination of the vegetable 

 fragments and Diatoms, for which ready assistance I would here express 

 my thanks. 



Empty shells of shallow-water molluscs were found scattered over the 

 deep parts of the Arctic Ocean by the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition 

 1876—1878. 



Dr. A. S. Jensen has attempted to explain this phenomenon as connected 

 with a subsidence of the sea-bottom 1 . The remains of shallow-water animals 

 found there, would thus be fossil remains. 



Friele and Grieg on the other hand think, that the shell-fragments must 

 have been carried out into deep water by the ice 2 . 



Certainly it would be interesting, in order to obtain a satisfactory 

 explanation of the phenomenon, to examine the distribution of Thalamophora 

 in the nothern oceans. 



Rhabdammina abyssorum is very common in the Arctic Ocean between 

 Norway, Spitsbergen and Novaja Zemlja, and also in many of the Norwegian 

 Fjords of depths of 100—600 metres (in the Sogne Fjord to 1200 metres). 

 Only in the eastern portions of the Bilocidina mud were some few fragments 

 found to a depth of 2000 metres. 



On the other hand Rhabdammina abyssorum does not exist in shallaw- 

 water, but the occurrence of the species as sub-fossil in some parts of our 

 Fjords especially the Kristiania Fjord 3 proves its comparatively great age. 



Operculina ammonoides is very common along the coast of Norway to 

 Vadso, and is never found at greater depths than 624 metres, except in one 



1 Om levninger af grundtvandsdyr .... Vidensk. Meddel., 1900, p. 229. 



5 The Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition 1876-1878, vol. XXVIII, p. VIII. 



3 H. KiJEn, Synopsis Norw. Mar. Thai. p. 55. 



