5o8 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



for instance, easily recognisable owing to its long thick spines, 

 is one of the most characteristic forms of the plateaus and 

 especially of the edges, but hitherto not found within the 

 fjords ; a characteristic brittle-star, Gorgonocephalus lamarcki, 

 is also a plateau form, represented within the fjords by 

 Gorgonocephalus linckii. One species of Echmus {E. acutiis 

 forma norvegiciis) is often found in quantities, and far exceeds 

 the fjord form in size. There are also the following brittle-stars, 

 some of which are found in large quantities : Ophiacantha 

 abyssicola and O. bidentata, Opkiactis abyssicola, all three of 

 which are pure coast forms that do not go far up the fjords,^ 

 Ophiopholis acideata, Ophiura sarsi, Ophioscolex glacialis, and 

 O. purpurea, which are commonly found on the edges and are 

 also fjord forms. During a cruise of the " Michael Sars " in 

 1902, the lines on the Faroe Edge yielded a large number of 

 molluscs {Sipko glaber, or a very similar form), which attached 

 themselves to the bait, but they seem to occur in such abundance 

 only in a few localities. The tubeworm Placostegus tridentatus 

 is frequently found attached to the stones, and a deep- 

 water barnacle (Verruca stromi) also, both of them being 

 characteristic of the rocky bottom in the deep parts of the 

 fjords ; and on the spines of Dorocidaris there is now and then 

 a Scalpelhun. There are large quantities of the little mussel 

 Anomia, which is also commonly found in the fjords. Corals, 

 too, are found locally on the edges just as much as in the fjords, 

 and the species are the same.-' 



The spaces between the stones are filled with sandy mud, 

 so that the forms accustomed to soft bottom may be found 

 there. How many of the characteristic species occur on the 

 edges cannot be stated with certainty, but probably many, if 

 not most, of the forms belonging to the soft bottom of the 

 plateaus inhabit the edges also, though not in such great 

 abundance.^ 



My reason for mentioning the fauna of the plateau-edges 

 separately is, not that the forms constitute a separate faunal 



^ This is true of the Norwegian fjords south of Stat, though these species, like several others, 

 have been found in the Trondhjem fjord. 



'^ The dredge brought up branches of Primnoa, Paragorgia, Paraspongodes, Lophokelia, and 

 Amphihelia ; also Sertularella gayi, Allopora, sponges, masses of Ophiacantha hidentata, 

 Ophiacantha abyssicola, Ophioscolex purpurea, Ophiactis abyssicola, Gorgonocephalus. V)^^-^- 

 sea individuals of jS'it/^/w^/j- £j-,^///£«/?« were found both by Sars and by the "Michael Sars "in 

 1906, though as a rule they differed in shape from those found in the middle of the North Sea. 



^ Of the forms found by G. O. Sars, by the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, and by 

 the "Michael Sars" on the Great Edge and its northerly continuation, as well as by the 

 "Michael Sars" on the Faroe Edge, we may mention Stichopus tremulus, Spatangus raschi, 

 Echinocyamus pusillus, Schizaster fragilis, Astarte sulcata, Porowya granulata, Liiiiopsis utinitta, 

 Onuphis, Nephthys, and other annelids, etc. ; all these forms belong to soft bottom. 



