Mr. E. J. Mierson Arctic Crustacea. 53 



dition. The number of species may appear small in compa- 

 rison with the results of the late German expedition to the 

 North Pole, or with those published in the Preliminary " Re- 

 port of the Biological Results of the Cruise of the Valorous :" 

 but in the case of the latter expedition the collections were made 

 on the coast of Western Greenland and in Davis Straits, many 

 degrees to the southward, and under conditions much more 

 favourable to the production of animal life ; and as regards the 

 former, the species actually collected in the Polar Sea were few 

 in number compared with those obtained on the east coast of 

 Greenland. 



In accordance with a suggestion of Captain Feilden, the 

 following account of the collections of Crustacea is confined 

 to the species collected between lat. 78° and 84° N. The few 

 specimens of Crustacea brought home by the Expedition from 

 localities south of 78° N. lat. which were in the collection 

 intrusted to me, can be omitted without in any degree detracting 

 from the chief interest of this report as an account of the fauna 

 of a region hitherto unexplored by the carcinologist. 



The most northerly species collected is Anonyx nugax, one 

 of the commonest and most abundantly distributed of the 

 Arctic Amphipoda, and first made known to science a hundred 

 years ago by Phipps (Voy. toward the North Pole). Of this 

 species a fine adult male example, and several smaller ones, 

 were collected by Captain Markham and Lieut. Parr, at 83° 

 19' N. lat., in May 1876, at a depth of 72 fathoms (bottom 

 mud, containing Foraminifera). The next most northerly 

 species, a large specimen of the well-known Hippolyte acideata^ 

 was found on the shore of Dumb-bell Harbour, Grinnell Land, 

 in lat. 82° 30' N. 



The following are the principal stations at which Crustacea 

 were collected by the naturalists of the ' Alert ' and ' Dis- 

 covery' : — 



Floeberg Beach, the winter quarters of H.M.S. ' Alert,' 

 from September 1875 to July 1876, in 82° 27' N. lat. Cap- 

 tain Feilden states that the only means of obtaining Crus- 

 tacea at this point was by letting down baited nets through 

 the firehole, and in July through cracks made in the floe. 



Discovery Bay, Avinter quarters of the ' Discovery,' in 81° 

 44' N. lat. The Crustacea collected at this locality were 

 obtained by dredging at a depth of 5^ to 25 fathoms, in Au- ■ 

 gust 1875-76. (The bottom rocky.) 



Cape Eraser, Grinnell Land, in 79° 44' N. lat. Crustacea 

 were collected at a depth of 20 fathoms, in August 1876. 

 (Bottom stony.) 



Dobbin Bay, Grinnell Land, in 79° 40' N. lat. The Cms- 



