AND THE REINDEER IN. MIDDLE EUROPE. 349 



ization in a glacial sea, maintained them at that distant time in one which 

 washed the southern coasts of Norway. A further note-worthy fact results from 

 these researches of M. Sars. There exists on the northern and western coasts 

 of Norway a beautiful coral, which forms large rose-colored branches, and which 

 is only found in the rocky chasms of the ocean, at the immense deptli of 900 

 to 1,000 feet. C. Vog-t collected some pieces of this coral {Lophelia prolifcra) 

 during an excursion to the Pippertind glacier, where the poor Laplanders of tho 

 coast, in fishing for cod, had probably brought it up from the sea with their 

 angles. 



This coral likewise occurs in the older shell-strata, but only in those beds Avhich 

 lie almost immediately on the beach of the sea, or under its level at a depth of 

 from 60 to 90 feet. In these old submarine banks of shells the stems of the 

 coral are still adherent to the rocks, but they are all dead, since the depth of 

 water requisite for their life is wanting. These facts admit of an easy explana- 

 tion. At the time when these zoophytes lived, the sea stood some 600 feet higher 

 than at present, and, of com'se, there was the depth of water required for their 

 existence. 



Above these older strata^ with their testacea of the high north, lie now the 

 more recent shell-strata which ascend to a level of some 300 feet, and corre- 

 spond with the period of the retreat of the glacial ocean. Here the remains of 

 the same shell-fish occur, which live at present on the south coast of Norway, 

 though isolated species are also present, derived from the arctic faima. The 

 arctic species had in general withdrawn towards the north as soon as the retreat 

 of the sea commenced, Avhile the temperature of the subsiding waters became 

 like that which now prevails along the coasts of Norway. 



All these results are further confirmed by discoveries recently made in the 

 depths of the great Swedish lakes, the Wettersee and the Wencrsee, and which 

 have been described by Loven from his own observation. In efiect, there have 

 been here captured specimens of Crustacea, several species of which, though very 

 different from those now living in the sea, are clearly related to marine forms; 

 among these a species. Mists rclicfa, (Geisselkrebs,) whose congeners live alto- 

 gether in the ocean, and those resembling this new variety only in the most 

 northern latitudes. Another, of the species Gammarns loricatus, which is, 

 thus far, foimd only in the Arctic ocean, in Baffin's bay, Greenland, and Spitz- 

 bergenj the Idoihca entomon, (Schlachtwurm,) which only occurs in the Arctic 

 and the Baltic; and still another, a small Pontoporcia affinis, which is still found 

 in the Baltic, but whose related species only occur in the Greenland seas. These 

 singular discoveries show clearly that the Wenersee and Wettersee, the former 

 of which has an elevation of 300 feet above the present plane of the Baltic, 

 Avere formerly in communication with the general ocean. At that time, therefore, 

 these lakes were deep fiords, colonized b}^ a marhie fauna which altogether 

 resembled that of the polar ocean, and the period of communication undoubtedly 

 corresponded with the higher advance of the glacial seas as indicated in Nor- 

 way and Sweden. Tlie sea subsided or the land was upheaved ; the inlets 

 were more and more detaqhed, and finally altogether separated from the sea, 

 and have since slowly and gradually been filled with fresh water ; this change 

 having been effected apparently as well by sources in the bed of the lake as by the 

 few tributarjr streamlets. Now, few marine animals endure the sudden transition 

 to brackish water, and fewer still, when the change is very gradual, allow them- 

 selves to be borne over into it. The colony of the sea gradually died out, 

 leaving in the depths onl}' a few Crustacea, which, as has been seen, correspond 

 in part to the species of the Baltic sea, and in part to those of the Arctic ocean. 



But there are other not less interesting conclusions to be drawn from these 

 few species existing in tho lakes of the interior, as well as from most of tho 

 species of fish now living in the Baltic. In general there can be recognized a 

 close relationship with polar and arctic forms, even when the species are not the 



