LnrtfEAIT SOCIETT OF LONDON. 21 



partly from lesser depths by the use of the dredge*. The deepest 

 part explored, was beyond the 81st parallel, which is the highest 

 latitude from which specimens of the bathybial fauna have ever 

 been obtaiuedt. 



Much more complete is the information which we possess of 

 the work and results of the North Atlantic expedition fitted out 

 by the Norwegian Grovernment. The men who initiated and 

 accompanied this expedition, Prof. Mohn and Prof. Gr. O. Sars, 

 wisely selected as their field of investigation the sea north of 

 British activity, viz. the ocean lying between Norway, the 

 Faroes, Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen — a large basin in 

 Avhich the warm water from the South meets the cold indraught 

 from the North. The expedition, which was fitted out on the 

 scale of the ' Porcupine,' extended over three years (1876-78), 

 working for 2| months each year during the summer, and 

 returning to port for the long northern winter. Every branch 

 of oceanography, every factor influencing the development and 

 distribution of life, and last, but not least, the collection of forms 

 of animal and vegetable life, received equally careful attention, 

 as is testified by the six magnificent volumes containing the 

 results, which have appeared up to the present. Of the 375 

 hydrographical stations, at 82 special apparatus for the collection 

 of zoological material was used ; the three northernmost having 

 been on or near to the 80^ of latitude, the 39th meridian marking 

 the limit of their operations eastwards. 



Baron von Nordenskjold continued his explorations by means 

 of the dredge ia 1875, in conjunction with Dr. Theel, in the 

 sloop ' Proeven,' in 1870 in the steamer ' Tmer,' and in 1878 in 

 the ' Vega.' But nearly the whole of the operations were within 

 the littoral zone of Asia ; and only in eight dredgings a depth of 

 100 to 150 fathoms was reached, and this was in the Kara Sea J. 

 The Danish Arctic Expedition in the steamer ' Dj^mphna ' 

 (1882-83) explored this shallow bay of the Arctic Ocean still 

 more thoroughly ; they used the trawl, reaching 100 fathoms 

 or beyond, on five occasions nearly in the same positions in which 

 Nordenskjold had dredged, and making many additions to the 

 Arctic fauna which had escaj)ed the apparatus of their pre- 

 decessors. 



The Easteen Noeth Atlantic. 



In this area I include the whole of the eastern half of the 

 North Atlantic south of the Arctic area, including the deep sea 

 surrounding Scandinavia, southwards to the Tropic of Cancer ; 

 but it will be convenient to arrange our review of the work done 

 in this area under several sections. 



* Malmgren, Ofvers. Finsk. Vet. Soc. Forhandl. 1869, xii. p. 7. 



t See Appendix. 



I Eepoit of the U.S. Fish. Commiss. for 1886, p. 988. 



