Skptembek 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



200 



beeu made under the magnifying lens." This being so, it was above 

 all essential that it.< exainiua'tion should be conducted with that skill 

 iind caution which it is plain that Dr. Nathoist has brought to bear 

 upon his task. 



Considering the comlitiou in which the fossils were found it is 

 not surprising that their study has yielded no botanical or geo- 

 logiciU result-s of a startling nature, their diief interest lies in the 

 fact that ■' they give us our lirst insight into the plant world 

 in the regions north of the eightieth degree of latitude during the 

 latter p;u-t of the Jurassic period." The author concludes that 

 these plant-beds most nearly resemble the " previously known 

 Jurassic floras from Siberia and Spitzbergeu," and either belong 

 to the upper part of the Oxfordiun group or represent even later 

 dejiosits. Some doubt exists as to whether the plant beds are in 

 situ or have been intruded into the basalt, on account of which 

 it is impossible to determine with certainty the geological position 

 of the basalt. If Nansen is correct in supposing them to be in 

 situ, i.e., interbedded between the basalts, we must assign the 

 basaltic formation to the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods. 



With regard to the plants themselves, Dr. Nathorst's work may 

 be left to speak for itself. The shortcomings of this account of the 

 fossil flora of the most northerly region of the globe which has 

 been examined by the geologist and pahpobotanist are confined, 

 as far .as we are "able to see, to the unsatisfactoiy nature of the 

 materials it treats of, and for this, neither author nor collector is 

 responsible. We offer our congratulations to collector, editor, 

 and author upon the production of a thoroughly efficient account 

 of a collection representing a most interesting portion of the 

 Jurassic flora.— H. H. W. P. 



" An AccocTiT OF the Birds." By Robert Collett and Fridtjof 

 Xansen. pp. 54, with 2 Plates. The birds observed in the high 

 latitudes traversed by the expedition were, as might be expected, 

 few in number. Altogether 35 species are treated of in this account, 

 which is divided into four sections, the first dealing with the 

 Siberian Coiist in the autumn of 1893, and the second treating of 

 the first summer, being from Dr. Kansen's notes on board the 

 " Fram " ; the third section describes the birds observed during 

 the famous sledge journey, while the fourth section gives the 

 observations made on the " Fram " after Nansen and Johansen 

 had left in March, 1895, until the return of the ship in .August, 

 1896. Although the birds seen were comparatively few the 

 observations are of much in'.erest and value. The bird to which 

 chief interest is attached is Rhodostethia rosea, Ross's wedge- 

 tailed or roseate gull. This beautiful rose-breasted bird is a truly 

 Arctic species, and was first discovered by Sir .James C. Ross in 

 1823, on Melville Peninsula. Since then the bird has seldom been 

 obtained while its eggs are quite unknown. The first Ross's gulls 

 seen by the expedition were eight young birds in August, 1894, 

 when the "Fram" was in about 81 degrees N. lat., and 127 E. 

 long. These birds were all shot, and those preserved are the 

 youngest birds of this species ever brought home. They were 

 just able to fly, and are worthily represented in an excellent 

 coloured plate and photographic reproduction appearing in the 

 Memoir. The species was met with again and in considerable 

 numbers by Nansen and Johansen in July and August, 1895, on 

 the north-east side of Franz Josef Land, where it was obviously 

 breeding — perhaps on Liv island — although the explorers were 

 unable to discover the nesting place, indeed, as we know, they had 

 not much time for bird's nesting. The bird record for farthest 

 north is held by a Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), seen on September 

 14th, 1895, when the " Fram " was in 85 degrees 5 min. N. lat., but 

 had it not been for the fact that Nansen and Johansen made their 

 " rush " for the north too early in the spring for birds to have 

 appeared it is probable that even this record would have been 

 beat«n. No less than ten species were observed in the autumn of 

 1895, while the ship was north of 84 degrees, one of these being 

 a little land bird — the snow bunting. The exact details given in 

 each section regarding dates, localities, and habits of the birds ob- 

 served make the account doubly interesting and valuable. — H. F. W, 



" CRrsTACEA." By Professor (i. O. Sars. pp. 137, with 36 

 Plates. For the last forty years Professor Sars has been publishing, 

 almost annually, some important contribution to our knowledge of 

 Crustacea, and has often issued several such works in a single year. 

 ■Whether his capacity was inherited from his eminent father, 

 Michael Sars, or was the result of early environment, others may 

 decide, but the indisputable fact is that in carcinological literature 

 he became a classic at the outset of his career. To the accuracy 

 of observation and ardour of pursuit with which he began, and 

 which have never fallen off or flagged, he has since added two 

 qualifications, one of which is fitted to endear him to naturalists 

 of our land and the other to naturalists all the world over. After 

 experimenting with Norwegian, Latin, and French, for vehicles of 

 Bcientific exposition, he has finally made himself an accomplished 

 writer of English, as his present and all his recent works bear 



witness. Furthermore, he has mastered a still more cosmopolitan 

 language, by becoming an artist so facile and so faithful, that, 

 even if he described his species in an unknown tongue, their struc- 

 ture would be adequately understood from his skilful and copious 

 drawings. The work before us contains no less tlian thirty-six 

 plates, full of instructive details in regard to Anipliipoda, Cope- 

 poda, and Ostracoda. 



The pelagic Copepoda obtained greatly preponderate in numbers 

 over the other grou]is, and for this an e.xplaiialion is given in the 

 introduction. In preparing the "Fram" for its projected ex- 

 pedition, the assumption of geographers had been accepteil " that 

 the Polar basin, north of Siberia and Franz Josef Land, could only 

 be quite a shallow sea, with depths .scarcely exceeding some hundred 

 fathoms," and the zoological eciuipment was arranged accordingly. 

 I!ut then a wonder came to light. Knornious depths were met 

 with. No rope has been provided for dredging or trawling lu 

 such abysses. Even for sounding a makeshift line hail to he con 

 structed out of the wire ropes of the vessel. For a water bottle 

 or an ordinary lead this long <lrawn thread of steel sufficed, but 

 not for hauling a dredge. This was disappointing, because, not 

 only were the su]ierficial strata of the almost ice covered sea abound- 

 ing in life at all times of the year, and to the highest latitudes 

 reached, but the greater depths excited tantalizing expeclations, 

 for " in many cases the tow-net was lowered to depths exceeding 

 200 or 300 metres, and, as a rule, the draught was considerably 

 richer in such instances than when it was working in smaller 

 depths. " 



The sounding-line, however, produced at least one inteiesting 

 faunistic result, in which we find aristocratic names niixeil up with 

 singular coincidences and remarkable facts of distribution. First it 

 should be mentioned that the " Challenger" brought home a single 

 specimen of a new amphipod, about halt'an-inch long, from a depth 

 of 420 fathoms, in the Pacific, off Tahiti. This was described undi r 

 the name of Cyelocaris tahitensis, and it is a rallicr peculiji 

 member of the family Lysianassidte. To obtain a second specimen 

 of this unique rarity one can imagine a rich enthusiast giviii}; 

 instructions for a search in the southern ocean. That has not 

 yet occurred, but something less to be expected has come to pass. 

 Dredging off the Lofoten Islands in 1898, at a depth of 1095 

 metres, the Prince of Monaco obtaineil among other valuable 

 captures six specimens of a Lysianassid which M. Chevreux has 

 named Cyelocaris Guilelini. The generic name was necessary from 

 the fact that the species stood in the closest possible relationship 

 to the type from Tahiti. The specific name was given by special 

 request of the Prince in compliment to the Emperor of tiermany, 

 who was on board the " Princesse Alice " when the dredge con- 

 taining the new species was hauled in. But Prince and Emperor 

 were not the first to obtain this bright red polar form. Already 

 in 1894, at about the 80th degree of north latitude, it had been 

 taken by the Norwegian Expedition, and Sars in discussing it says, 

 " I had intended to dedicate it to our celebrated explorer. Professor 

 Nansen." But neither was Nansen the first to secure it, for Canon 

 Norman has just published, under the name Cyelocaris faroensis. 

 a species which cannot, I think, be distinguished from that which 

 has an Imperial namesake, and Norman's description and figures 

 are based on "two specimens taken by Sir .John Murray in the 

 • Triton ' expedition of 1882, Stat. 8, Faroe ( :iiannel, lat. 

 60 degrees 18' N., long. 60 degrees 15' W., in 640 fathoms, tem- 

 perature 30 degrees Fahr." The name given by Chevreux has 

 priority, since his specimens, though the latest found, were the 

 earliest described. Of those taken by the "Fram," the first were 

 found clinging to the sounding line, but others were subsequently 

 taken in the tow-net, and one at least was so obtained at a station 

 " north of the 85th degree of latitude," therefore more than a 

 hundred degrees of latitude distant from its twin species oil' Tahiti, 

 to which all three authois notice its resemblance. 



Apparently for Amphipoda the record of "farthest north" is at 

 present held by Amphithopsis glacialis, Hansen, wliidi, along witli 

 half a score of species of Copepoda, is reported as having beeu 

 taken at "85 degrees 13' N. lat., 79 degrees E. long." 



Among the interesting new Copepoda which Sars here describes 

 there is one which he names Hemicalanus spinifrons, giving a cogent 

 reason for cancelling the generic name but leaving it uncancelled. 

 He is more concerned with a point of more importance. No one 

 of the eleven species hitherto included in the genus has ever 

 been found north of the Mediterranean, so that it seemed to be 

 quite southern in distribution. " It was therefore," Sars observes, 

 " not a little surprising to find a specimen undoubtedly belonging 

 to this genus in a sample taken from about the centre of the Polar 

 basin traversed by the 'Fram.'" This ami various other facts 

 relating to the range of species and genera will no doubt attract 

 the keen attention of naturalists, and these fruits of Arctic research 

 will greatly strengthen their hojws of a rich harvest from Antarctic 

 exploration. 



