290 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



Bius and Heincke; and on the east of Denmark it is 

 very rare, though found off Hellebii^k (the Sound), and 

 the specimens taken are very small; the largest on re- 

 cord was caught in the Great Belt at a depth of 10 

 fathoms, and was only 50 mm. long (Winthek and 

 Hansen). In Bohusliin it can scarcely be called rare; 

 but e\en there only small specimens arc common: 

 among all his finds Malm mentions only two large spe- 

 cimens, between 72 and 75 mm. long, both from the 

 island-belt of Gothenburg. In Norway it is somewliat 

 commoner, but more so in the north than in the south, 

 according to Collett. In the Orkneys it is common, 

 according to Day, who gives statements to a similar 

 effect from sevei-al places in Scotland, England and Ire- 

 land, but also points out the uncertainty whether all 

 these statements refer to this species or the preceding 

 one. As we have remarked above, the same uncertainty 

 rules in Moreau's statement as to the rare occurrence 

 of the species on the north-west coast of France in the 

 Channel. That the range of this species extends further 

 south tlian the Baltic, is thus unquestionable: but even 

 from the fact that, in the south, it is so often con- 

 founded witli the preceding species", we surmise that 

 there it does not appear in its typical form'', or does 

 not follow its normal manner of life. It is far more 

 typical in the Baltic, though, strangely enough, only 

 in the inner parts of this sea, while in the south and 

 west of the Baltic and in the east of the Cattegat ^ve 

 find a distinct departure from the typical form. Pro- 

 fessor S. Loven ascribes this peculiarity to the same 

 origin as the occurrence of several other Arctic animals 

 in the Baltic (see above, on ('off us qnadricomis), and 

 thus defends his conception of the history of the Baltic 

 at the time when it ^vas a, gulf of the Arctic Ocean. 

 Cijclogaster Uparis must be regarded, in the first place, 

 as an Arctic species, for it attains its highest point of 

 development in the Arctic Ocean, and is of more com- 



mon occurrence there than in any other part of its 

 geographical extension. Since Phipps' expedition in 

 1773 it has been included in the fauna of Spitzbergen. 

 The Swedish expeditions to these islands have also dis- 

 covered it at most of the spots examined, from high- 

 water mark to a depth of from 20 to 25 fathoms, and 

 on every variet}- of bottom. (Ji/elogaster FdhricU seems 

 there to be less common, but all the more so in the 

 east of the Arctic Ocean. During the Vega Expedition 

 numerous examples of this species, from 90 to 130 

 mm. in length, were taken in shallow water (3 — 6 fa- 

 thoms deep), off Irkajpij (69° N., 180° E.), and another 

 specimen, punctated like a steUafus, at a depth of 35 

 fathoms, north-east of Taimyr Peninsula (76° 40' N., 

 115° 30' E.). During the Dijmphna Expedition, accord- 

 ing to LiJTKEN, a1)0ut 50 specimens were found at depths 

 varying between 46 and 106 fathoms, in Kara Sea. 

 Another instance of the occurrence of the species in 

 deep water, -which probablj' refers to the common variety, 

 is given bv Gunther'', namely, the discovery of a spe- 

 cimen by the Porcupine expedition at a depth of 180 

 fathoms, north of the Shetlands. It may also be met 

 with, on the other hand, at the surface. In Varanger 

 Fjord, in July, 1879, Professor G. 0. Saks is stated 

 on Collett's authority to have found the frv swiramins; 

 about among those small pelagic crustaceans which are 

 called bv the fishermen Sej-aat (Coalfish-meat), as they 

 form part of the food of the Coalfisli. The species is 

 circumpolar, and is included among the fauna of Green- 

 land even b}' Fabricius. On the west of the Atlantic, 

 according to the American writers, it goes as far south 

 as Cape Cod. How far south its range extends in the 

 Pacific, is a question which cannot be decided until 

 the relations between the Atlantic forms and the two 

 Californian varieties'' have been fixed. 



The habits of the Common Sea-Snail probabl}- cor- 

 respond to tliose of the preceding species. Of the spe- 



" According to liis opinion in 18tJ0 (Vid. MeddcL, pp. 10',' — 174) and 18G5 (ibid. 1865, p. 221), Lutken included this species {Li- 

 })ar)S Uneatiis) among the fishes of Denmark. But in 1886 {Dijmphna-7\(jtet, 1. c.) he regards onl^y tlie preceding speiiies (Liparts Mon- 

 tafjui) as really belonging to the Danish fauna., and asserts tliat Malm's Lip. stetlaiiis, as proved by the personal statements of the latter, 

 belongs to the preceding species. In the fauna of Great Britain D.\Y distinguishes between Lip. viilffaris and Lip. Moiitaijui by the number 

 of the lin-rays and the length of the caudal fin, but remarks of both that the dorsal fin is hardly united to the caudal, while it appears 

 from his description of the nostrils that he has overlooked the true posterior pair in botli cases. 



'' Or, more correctly perhaps, that we shall eventually be driven to the conclusion that in the south the two sjiecies are indistinguish- 

 able, i. e. that Cyclogasler Montagui sliould be regarded as a variety, essentially southern, of Ci/cloijaster lipari,i. 



' Vol/, (jlialletijer, Hep.., Zool., Deep- A'ea- Fishes, p. 07. 



'' According to Steindaciiner (1. c.) the Californian species Lipari.'i pulclietliis and Lip. iiiiicosiis eslablished by Aykes, are distinct 

 from the two Scandinavian species of (Jyclogaater. But the ditfereiice between tlie first two species, in form and colour, is evidently pa- 

 rallel to that between Cijcl. lipiiris and ('yfl. Montagui, and so similar (hat it may well excite our suspicions that the species are identical. 



