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CRUSTACEA MALACOSTRACA. 



("Thor"). Norman gives it from the Faeroe Channel: 60° 3' N. L., 5°5i'W. L., 540 fm., temp. -^1-4° 

 It was taken three times by the 2"'^ Amdrup Expedition: several half-digested specimens in the 

 stomach of Proccllaria glacialis from 69° 51' N. L., 11° 18' W. L., thus between Iceland and Jan Mayen; 

 also in the stomach of the same species of bird from 7473° N. L., (f!{ W. L., thus far to the north of 

 Jan Mayen and just as far from East Greenland; and at 74° 12' N. L., 12° W. L. one specimen "in ice 

 hemmed in between ice-blocks". The species was founded on a specimen taken at the surface of the 

 sea at ca. 74° N. L. "in betrachtlicher Entfernung von der Grenze des Packeises"; it has also been 

 taken at 72° 42' N. L. between Greenland and Jan Mayen, 1064 fm., and off Kaiser Franz Joseph 

 Fjord (a little north of 73° N. L.), 133 fm. (Ohlin). 



Distribution. The species was taken by the Norwegian North-Atlantic Expedition at 14 

 station,s, all belonging to the cold area of the Norwegian Sea; the most southerly of these stations 

 was at 63° 5' N. L., the most northerly west of Spitzbergen at 79° 59' N. L., the depths varied from 452 

 to 1861 fm. A specimen was also taken in the stomach of a bottom-fish, Lycodes frigidus Coll., at a 

 station west of Spitzbergen in 1333 fm. depth and another in the stomach of another deep-water fish. 

 Raja hypcrborea Coll. It is noted by Ohlin and Birula from several stations in the same area, at 

 three of these it was taken in the vertical net in depths from o — 2000, o — 2700 and 0—3000 meters. 

 On the east coast of America it has been taken four times between 37° 12' N. L. and 42°48'N. L., 

 depths from 826 to 2949 im. (Smith, M. Rathbun). It is also given from the Bering Sea south of the 

 Pribiloff Islands, 1401 fm., and from a place east of Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, 1569 fm. (M. Rath- 

 bun). According to Faxon and M. Rathbtiu it has been taken three times in the (lulf of California, 

 857, 905 and 1208 fm.; lastly, according to Faxon in the frulf of Panama, 1832 fm., and off Ecuador, 

 1740 fin. 



G. O. Sars 1. c. writes concerning //. glacialis: "According to its whole organisation this form 

 must seemingly be considered to lead a kind of half pelagic life, in other words, I have reason to 

 believe that it is not. . . very much bound to the bottom, but swims free up in the water. Yet the 

 rudimentary condition of the eyes indicate with certaint}' that its habitat is chiefly in the deeper 

 water-layers, which also is fully confirmed by the observations made on our expedition". According 

 to all available information the species must be pelagic and its central region of distribution the cold 

 area of the Norwegian Sea; as it was twice taken in the stomach of bottom fish from great depths 

 it can thus go down to over 1300 fm.; as it was twice taken in the stomach of birds and once on 

 the surface it is obviously sometimes up in the surface-layers between o and 10 fm. But its geographical 

 distribution is so remarkable that I am quite unable to give any reasonable explanation of it. Miss 

 M. Rathbun, who is known often to set up a number of species very near to one another, has informed 

 me that she has seen specimens from Ecuador, Gulf of California, Bering Sea, Ala.ska and Faeroe 

 Channel and considers them all of the same species, so that an error in determination is scarcely probable. 



Remarks. I have endeavoured in vain to find some difference between my large material 

 from the Norwegian Sea and the specimen taken south of Iceland, which might countenance the 

 view that the last-mentioned belonged to another species. — My largest specimen (from "lugolf 

 St. 103) is only 68 mm. long; Sars gives 83 mm. as the greatest length, but perhaps he measured his 

 .specimens from the tip of the antennal .squama instead of from the tip of the rostrum. 



