684 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



wbicli from a totally different foramiuifer is called '■^ Glohige^^ina.''' The 

 biloculiua clay contains a great deal more lime than the globigeriua 

 clay of the Atlantic. When acids are mixed with it, gas develops very 

 freely, and when pressed and dried, it soons turns into a very hard and 

 compact limestone. We see here a complete lime or chalk formation 

 during its period of growth, and its fauna also shows distinct traces of 

 its ancient origin and its near relation to the remnants of organisms 

 preserved in the fossil-bearing layer from the end of the Secondary 

 Period. 



We must here mention a beautiful stone lily [Crinoid) which meas- 

 ures a span in length, and is probably quite new, of which many live 

 specimens were obtained, and which shows an unmistakable similarity 

 to some of the oldest fossil forms of this group of animals, which is 

 now almost extinct; also a very peculiar and interesting animal of the 

 holothurian kind, enormous chalk-sponges, large numbers of a new and 

 very peculiar pycnogonide, and a remarkable blood-red crustacean with 

 integuments as thin as paper {Bymenscaris), besides several other new 

 crustaceans. The mollusk which is most frequent in these parts is 

 the Siplionodentalium vitreum, M. Sars, so characteristic of the older 

 glacial clay, which on our coasts is only found alive in the northern- 

 most part of Finmarken. Although the fauna of this great deep is of 

 special interest from a zoological and geological point of view, it is on 

 the whole rather monotonous. But where the bottom begins to rise 

 toward the banks, a great difference may be noticed. At a depth of 

 400 to 900 fathoms, but still within the cold area, we find an exceedingly 

 rich and varied animal life. Contrary to what might be expected from 

 the low temperature i^revailiug here, we find, in comparison with our 

 coast- fauna, no deterioration of animal life, but a remarkably luxuriant 

 fauna showing itself in the numerous and varying animal forms, and in 

 the comparatively colossal size which some of them reach, one of the 

 polyps {JJmhellularia) taken here measuring fully four yards in length. 



From the specimens taken by tiie dredge, the trawl-net, and the swab, 

 an approximate idea may be formed of the peculiar character of the bot- 

 tom in these I'larts ; forests of peculiar tree-like sponges {CladorMza) 

 cover large portions of the bottom. Between their branches are seen 

 magnificent medusa-heads [Euryali) and gaudy-colored animals of the 

 Aniedon kind, also different crustaceans ; amongst the rest the fantasti- 

 cally shaped Arcturus Ba^ini, well known in the Polar Sea, and lazy 

 pycnogonids, some of them of enormous size (measuring a span between 

 the points of the feet), crawl about between the branches sucking their 

 organic juices with their enormous beaks; also a large number of fine 

 plant-like animals (polyzoans and hydroids) which live among the dead 

 trunks and branches which have been deprived of their organic bark- 

 substance. On the open plains among these swamp-forests, beautiful pur- 

 ple-colored sea-stars (Astroiihyton) and long-armed snake-stars [Ophiiira) 

 may be seen, as well as numberless Annelides of different kinds ; crusta- 



