VI 



ill the mode here adopted. By reducing the expenses (if publication as far 

 as possible, and inviting to a general subscription, I supposed indeed that the 

 publication of the work could be carried on l)y one of our publishing firms, 

 without any real pecuniary loss, and by this means I have now the satisfaction 

 of seeing the 1st Volume of my work accomplished. I cannot of course expect 

 to be enabled during the remainder of my life to bring to a conclusion 

 a work of such an extent as that now entered upon, comprising, as it does, 

 tlie whole rich carcinological fauna of Norway, but I venture to hope that 

 my health and working power will at least suffice for accomplishing a part 

 of this formidable work. If the volume now published should succeed in, 

 gaining the interest of Norwegian and foreign zoologists, and tlie anticipation 

 entertained in beginning the work should thus be confirmed, it is my intention 

 immediatel}' to enter upon the ])ublication of the 2nd Volume, treating of the 

 next order, the Isoj^oda. 



As to the Volume now accomplished, it has been wholly devoted to 

 the extensive ordei- of the AnixMpoda. one of the most difficult of the (Crus- 

 tacean grou])s. The chief earlier investigation of the Norwegian Amphipoda 

 is due to the late Dr. Axel Eoeck, who at first published a brief account in 

 Latin, and subsequently began the elaboration of his well-known great work, 

 containing full descriptions of the species, and accompanied by numerous litho- 

 graphic plates. Unfortunately he himself only published a comparatively 

 small part of this work, the remainding, far greater part being published 

 after his lamented death by his brother, Dr. Hakon Boeck, who was not 

 originally a zoologist, but yet endeavoured to arrange the scattered, posthumous 

 manuscript notes and drawings for the completion of the work. Although 

 the great skill, with which this very difficult undertaking was accomplished, 

 deserves the highest admiration, it was of course unavoidable, that several grave 

 errors were incorporated in the work, which otherwise should have been 

 eliminated. As moreover, in order to get room on the plates for the numerous 

 figures, a most regrettable reduction in size of the original drawings was 

 effected, and some of the figures also wrongly numbered, several of the species 

 liad in some cases become almost unrecognizable. For these reasons the 

 work of Boeck, though enriching the fauna with an immense number of new 

 and interesting forms, could not be used without the greatest precaution and 

 critical judgement, and rendered in fact the study of the Norwegian Amphipoda 

 extremely difficult and troublesome. Notwithstanding this, some parts of the 

 Amphipodous fauna were subsequently treated of in detail by Mr. Schneider, 

 and a most valuable account of the arctic species of the famil}- OediceridcP; 

 accompanied by some very good and sufficiently large detail-figures, has been 

 given by that distinguished zoologist. But otherwise the knowledge of the 



