47 
bottom-fauna per [] unit is to be found in the smaller waters, where the bottom- 
flora occurs at least in the neighbourhood, whilst the bottom of the oceans is as a 
rule to be regarded as waste regions (see J. Hjort and J. Murray, 1910). One 
thing is certain at any rate, the great, rich fisheries are not prosecuted on the 
open oceans, but always in more or less close proximity to the coasts or in the 
smaller waters. 
In the paper mentioned of 1899, lastly, Brandt states in a note, that 
without investigations on the organisms of the coastal regions and their abundance 
we can easily form incorrect conclusions as to the general conditions of production 
in the seas, anid regrets, that a method for the quantitative determination of the 
bottom-fauna is not known. 
The Kiel investigators have thus been quite clear as to the importance of 
both the plankton and the benthos; it is only owing to the lack of suitable methods 
that the study of the latter has been pushed more and more into the background. 
I believe now, that we have found such a method, and I consider it as 
an extension of Hensen's excellent investigations, that quantitative benthos 
investigations can now also be included under the study of the meta- 
bolism of the sea. 
Whilst the tendency hitherto has been too often to concentrate attention 
on the one side of these investigations, the aim now is to determine, what quanti- 
tative role is played in the different regions by both the plankton and 
benthos as food for the animal life, and in the metabolism of the sea. 

VI. New apparatus for the quantitative collection of bottom-animals. 
The ordinary apparatus used by investigators (dredge and the like) can give 
some idea of the relative abundance of the animals on the sea-bottom, and on 
very broad lines an idea can also be gained as to whether one water has a richer 
animal-life than another. In the Summary to the Challenger Expedition (Part 2, 
pp. 1436—37) John Murray in 1895 gave such information on the animal-life in 
the large seas and referred to the relatively greater quantities both of species and 
individuals along the continental slopes. He showed for example, that the terri- 
genous deposits along the latter contain a much richer population than the red 
deep-water clay and the Globigerina ooze. Taken on the whole the sea at less 
depths than 50 fm. is more densely populated than all the deeper parts (p. 1433); 
but he is of the belief, that large quantities of continental detritus are deposited 
especially about the 100 fathom line, and that consequently the richest animallife 
of the oceans is found here on both sides of »the Mudline«. 
If however we wish to have more accurate information regarding the 
amount of animal-life, especially the number of individuals per unit of surface, we 
