IV. 



The Swedish Marine Zoolodcal Station. 



o 



A MISTY day last summer found me steaming up the west coast of 

 •^ Sweden to the little village of Fiskebackskil, on a wild-goose-chase 

 after some friends who had left before I arrived. Landed here, in a 

 place without an inn, and without another steamer to take me away 

 that day, I cast about for somewhere to spend the night. Then on 

 the other side of a little bay I saw some white buildings and a vane- 

 capped tower which they told me belonged to the zoological station of 

 Kristineberg. Relymg on the freemasonry of science, I at once 

 sought the good ofifices of the director, Professor Hjalmar Theel. Nor 

 was I disappointed. Fortunate circumstances rendered it possible for 

 me to find a bed there for a couple of nights, and to make the acquaint- 

 ance of the laboratories and those working therein. The somewhat 

 remote position of this station and the rule that forbids other than 

 Swedes to work there, render it less known to Englishmen than its 

 scientific importance demands ; and it occurred to me that a short 

 account thereof might interest the readers of Natural Science. It so 

 happened that Professor Theel had just brought out a little 48-page 

 pamphlet " Om Sveriges Zoologiska Hafsstation Kristineberg " 

 (Stockholm : Norstedt & Soner), with a map and four plates ; and 

 with his kind permission the present article draws largely on both his 

 text and his illustrations.' For his hospitaUty and his help he has 

 my warmest thanks. 



The island of Skafto, on which Kristineberg is, lies on the south 

 side of the Gullmar-fjord, near its mouth, and is about half-way 

 between Gothenburg and Uddevalla, with which places the neighbouring 

 village of Fiskebackskil is in daily communication by steamer. This 

 situation offers many advantages : the fjord cuts deep into the land, 

 and has a varying bottom of clay, gravel, rock, Zostera, algae, shells, 

 and mud ; immeJiately outside Kristineberg it reaches a depth of 

 thirty fathoms, and six miles further up a little over eighty fathoms. 

 A number of rocky islands shelter the mouth of the fjord against the 

 sea (Fig. i). Animal and vegetable life is richly represented and pro- 

 vides a boundless field for research. Hence Kristineberg early was a 



1 This pamphlet also contains a list of the marine biological stations of the world 

 and a bibliography. 



