branched in Gyninacanihus venlralis, a fine dark-brown fish with banded fins, spotted white in 

 the males. The four-spined sculpin Cottus quadricornis has four projections of a spongy appear- 

 ance on its head. Its greyish-green back is rather dull, but the belly of the males gleams bright 

 red. Other species of sculpins, instead of having a naked skin like those just mentioned, are 

 encased in an armour made of strong jointed plates and the body is polygonal in cross section. 

 With their numerous small barbels they recall Japanese Samurais' war-masks. 



These armoured sculpins are the bullheads (Agonus calaphradus, A. decagonus) that are 

 also quite common in the North Sea. And with them may often be found a small cyclopterid 

 about 3 to 4 inches in length, ( Eumicrotremus spinosnsj attached to a stone. Five irregular 

 rows of spiny plates run down each side of its greyish body. 



Slowly circling among these animal communities are eel-like fishes slithering agilely over 

 the mud. Their grey or chamois-coloured bodies are edged with long, transparent fins and 

 two long filaments set on the throat represent the pelvic fins. The head may bear small feathery 

 tufts. These are lumpenid fishes ( Lumpenus ) , which are related to the gunnels (butter-fishes) 

 of our coasts. Other bluish or greenish fishes with a single fin encircling the body are also to 

 be found wriggling over these coastal sea-bottoms; such being the lycodids or eel-pouts. Those 

 species living in the shallower reaches of the arctic seas are markedly stenothermal in habit. 

 To keep in waters with a low temperature (about QoC.), they descend into the abyssal zone in 

 temperate and tropical regions, to reappear at higher levels in the south. Close by the lumpenids 

 and eel-pouts also live the wolf-fishes ( Anarrhichas lupus). 



Not far above the bottom, circle arctic cod-fishes, called " ogac ", " saida " and " navaga " 

 by the Eskimos and the Lapps. These fishes never reach any great size. Swimming close by 

 may be another gatlid, the torsk ( Brosmius brosme) with a very long, single, dorsal fin — a fin 

 which in other cod-like fishes is divided into two or three parts. The skull of the torsk is very 

 fragile and if a wave hurls it against the rocks it remains for several hours in a stupefied, half- 

 dazed condition. 



Right round the Arctic Ocean, living on muddy grounds, is a flat-fish called the spiny 

 turbot (Pldlichlhys slellatus) with spiny plates instead of scales. Its eyes are generally on the 

 left side of the head and the colour of this small pleuronectid, (which grows to a length of about 

 8 to 12 inches), is brown with white bands. In the arctic seas also lives the giant of the family, 

 the halibut (Ilippoglossits liipporilusnus), which may reach a length of 10 feet and a weight 

 of more than GOO pounds. The right side, bearing the eyes, is dark, being brownish or greenish 

 in colour. 



The halibut spends but part of its life on the bottom. .Vt certam times, especially at 

 night, it rears up to give swift chase to fishes and crabs. The shells of molluscs are crushed and 

 even guillemots that have dived to within striking distance are swallowed. It lives at very 

 low temperatures, from U" to -1" C. 



At spawning times the halibut goes down In the edge of the continental shelf. The large 

 clear eggs, with a diameier of rather more I ban 1 inch, are quite numerous, for the big females 

 bear more than 2 million. .\t first placed on either side of the head, one of the eyes (the left) 

 moves across when the larva measures about I i inches. Growth is slow, the length being 

 about 3 inches after 1 year, 18 inches after 5 years and 5 J feet towards 20 years. 



By marking experiments, the Norwegian scientists, particularly Finn Devoid, have shown 

 that these fishes can migrate over great distances. A halibut marked at Spitzbergen was 

 recaptured after 240 days near Bergen, having covered a straight line distance of more than 

 1,200 miles and more than 1,600 miles if it followed the edge of the continental shelf. Halibut 

 are fished around the island of Kadiak olT the Canadian coast, where the main landing port is 

 Prince Rupert, and on the Newfoundland Banks. The young fish move into the North Sea 

 and the British take toll of these innnalure fishes. Halibut-liver oil is one of the richest in 

 vitamins. The flesh is excellent and can equal that of the turbot. 



For about sixty years there has been a marked change in the climatic and oceanographic 

 conditions of the polar seas, following a general warming up of the Arctic. This phenomenon 

 stems from a cosmic cycle. Every 1,800 years or so there is a minor glacial phase, but sufficient 

 to block up the entire north. The last occurred from 1210 to 1890, during which the polar 



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