Bd. V; 6) THE FISHES OF THE SWEDISH SOUTH POLAR EXPEDITION. 5 



The terrestrial conditions of this region do not speak against this. The land is 

 to a great extent all the year covered with ice and snow. From a botanical point 

 of view Mr. C. Skottsberg refers to the Antarctic Zone: ''Graham Land with its 



subdivisions and surrounding groups of islands — — — , and the South 



Shetland islands, the Elephant islands and the South Orkney islands." * The ter- 

 restrial flora of the ground, which is "frozen almost all the year", consists almost 

 exclusively of sparse mosses and lichens, and the sea has no alga; with floating 

 fronds. The organic life as well as the physical conditions prove thus that the true 

 Antarctic region in a biological sense in the parts of the globe visited by this Ex- 

 pedition extends rather far above the Antarctic Polar circle and at least to 6i ° S. lat. 



But on the other hand the inhabitants of Arctic resp. Antarctic life-zones are 

 not entirely confined to the Arctic resp. Antarctic region because no biological 

 limits are sharply drawn. Arctic shore fishes are found far south of the arctic 

 region and the reader will find further below that a number of the fishes regarded 

 by DOLLO (1. c.) as truly antarctic have been found even considerably north of the 

 boundary-line just proposed, although the same is made more northern than the one 

 he has proposed himself. 



The history of the antarctic and subantarctic ichthyology is so extensively 

 and fully treated in the work just published by DoLLO and which has been quoted 

 above so that I can refer to this rather than to repeat what has so recently been 

 laid before the scientific world. 



Before I conclude this introductory chapter and pass over to the treatment of 

 the special subject I wish to express my great gratitude to Mr. G. A. BoULENGER 

 F. R. S. etc. and Professor Dr. AuG. Brauer. The former has kindly compared 

 some Notothcniidœ with specimens in British Museum and the latter, who has made 

 the Myctopliidœ the object of a thorough study, has kindly given me his opinion 

 about some members of this family. 



* C. Skottsberg: On the zonal distribution of South Atlantic and Antarctic Vegetation. The Geo- 

 graphical Tournai. Dec. 1904. 



