IN the summer of 1911 the Commission for the Direction of Geo- 

 logical and Geographical Exploration in Greenland appointed Dr. V. 

 Nordmann to make a zoological investigation of Northern Strømfjord 

 and Giesecke Lake in West Greenland. 



This investigation is the first of a series of investigations of the 

 animal life of the fjords of Greenland and consequently is of very great 

 interest. That honour is due to Denmark for having made far more 

 extensive investigations in Greenland waters than all the other nations 

 taken together, will be evident from my list (which will shortly be pub- 

 lished as a part of Conspectus Faunæ Groenlandicæ in Meddel, om Grøn- 

 land, vol. 22) of all the habitats, known up to the present, of Greenland 

 Crustacea and Pycnogonida ; but no systematic investigation of the 

 animal life at, as far as possible, all depths within a limited area has been 

 made until now. 



Previous expeditions have usually kept to rather shallow water or 

 confined themselves to making scattered dredgings in deeper water; the 

 Ingolf Expedition during the two summers 1895 — 96 had to investigate 

 as far as possible all Greenland waters, and therefore naturally was not 

 able to devote its attention to a single area. The Tjalfe Expedition of 

 1908 — 09 was confident that it had proved that the fjords of southern 

 Greenland could be divided into two groups, viz. those in which the 

 warm water of the Atlantic Ocean extends right to the head, and those 

 which are cut off from Davis Strait by a ridge at the mouth so that the 

 water of the Atlantic Ocean is kept out and the bottom water becomes 

 arctic; therefore the Commission previously mentioned was of opinion 

 that it was important to have these types of fjords investigated. As an 

 example of the Arctic type Northern Strømfjord near Holstensborg 

 was chosen, as mentioned above, and the result shows that all the 

 Crustacea are true arctic or boreo-arctic species. 



Last summer (1912) the Commission did me the honour of sending 

 me to Greenland to investigate some fjords of the Atlantic type ; as exam- 

 ples of such. Kvanefjord near Frederikshaab and Bredefjord and Skovfjord 

 between Ivigtut and Julianehaab were chosen. Bredefjord, owing to 

 its greater depth (above 900 metres), especially proved to be extremely 

 interesting; an account of the results will probably soon be published. 



