The Alcvonaria of East-Greenland. 



499 



'ГМ 



Closer examination, however, revealed to me no essential differences 

 from the latter which might not be explained by the youthful age 

 of the specimen; and in fact comparison with a complete, young, 

 specimen of about the same size of V. affinis in the Bergen Museum, 

 preserved among a lot of larger and large ones taken by G. O. 

 Sars at Vadsø, has removed my last doubts as to the correctness 

 of referring the East-Greenland specimen to the same species. 



In clearing this specimen 

 with glycerine — otherwise leav- 

 ing it intact as the only docu- 

 ment of the occurrence of the 

 species at Greenland — I have 

 been able to state the presence, 

 in the inner soft parts of the 

 stalk, of minute spicules like 

 those of other species of Virgu- 

 laria; and in examining the ex- 

 tremity of the stalk of a spec- 

 imen from Varangerfjord, pre- 

 served in our Museum (the type 

 specimen of Kölliker's V. Steen- 

 strupii), I found the same mi- 

 nute calcareous bodies. Thus 

 the question, left open by Kü- 

 kenthal and Broch as to the 

 presence or absence of these 

 spicules, now is settled. 



The occurrence of this spec- 

 ies at Eastern Greenland is a 

 fact of some interest. Hitherto 

 it has only been found at dif- 

 ferent places in the Varanger- 

 fjord, especially at Vadsø, in 

 depths of 60 — 100 fathoms. Grieg, however, adds (1. c. p. 11) that 

 it has been found besides in the Trondhjemsfjord and in the Ber- 

 gensfjord, a specimen from the latter locality being preserved in the 

 Museum at Stockholm; and G.'s statements are repeated by Küken- 

 thal and Broch (1. с. p. 337). But later Broch (Alcyon. Trond- 

 hjemsfj. Ill, Penn. K. N. Vid. S. Skr. 1912, No. 10 [1913], p. 25) 

 declares that the occurrence in the Trondhjemsfjord has not been 

 proved, and that this species therefore, for the present, has to be 

 withdrawn from the fauna of that fjord. The specimen said to 

 be from Bergensfjord has kindly been lent to me for inspection by 



F^g. 2. Part of rhachis of the same speci- 

 men (between the two markings in Fig. 1); 

 dorsal, lateral and ventral aspect. X ca. 7. 



