Polyzoa^ Coelenterata, and Sponges. 443 



been worked out. They were all obtained at one locality, viz. 

 lat. 79° 55' N., long. 51° 0' E., or at about the same latitude as 

 the extreme south of Wilczek Island, and the same longitude 

 as Eira harbour, on the south-west coast of Franz- Joseph 

 Land ; the station appears thus to have been at some distance 

 from land. The depth is not known. Mr. Miers * has 

 already described the Crustacea and Pycnogonida obtained at 

 the same time. 



I had hoped that a study of the above groups of the fauna of 

 this newly-discovered coast might lead to some indication of 

 the connexions which the land bears to the neighbouring arctic 

 lands, Greenland, Spitzbergen, or the land west of Smith's 

 Sound, or to a possible polar sea. 



It is known that a rapid current sets down the straits which 

 divide the tract known as Franz- Joseph Land from that called 

 Wilczek Land, and that, probably in consequence of this, 

 the water here is free from ice at an earlier and a later 

 time in the year than is usual in such latitudes. This current 

 may either be due to the remains of that branch of the Gulf- 

 stream which sweeps up the western shore of Spitzbergen, 

 and which, if this hypothesis is correct, would pass on north- 

 wards past a north-western angle of Franz-Joseph Land to 

 enter the northern end of its great straits ; or it may be due to 

 some polar current derived from an open polar sea. The fact 

 that the current is coexistent with an unusually open condi- 

 tion of water speaks for the theory that it is a warm^ not a 

 cold one, such as a polar current would be, while the relations 

 of the fauna of the coasts which are bathed by this current 

 appear also to point to the conclusion that its communications 

 are with the eastern [i. e. the Spitzbergen and Novaia Zemlia), 

 not the western («'. e. Greenland and Smith's Sound) divisions 

 of the polar area, and in consequence do not support the theory 

 of an open polar sea. To arrive at some idea of the faunistic 

 relations of this coast, a Table has been added below to show 

 the relations of its species to those of the other polar tracts. 

 It is seen at once, even with the small number of species 

 (twenty-two) here cited, how nearly most of the arctic seas are 

 related to each other in regard to these branches of the fauna ; 

 but Smith's Sound, the main western approach to the Pole, 

 appears to diverge from Franz-Joseph Land more widely than 

 any of the other districts (with the exception of Iceland and 

 East Greenland, from which very few species in all are known) , 

 only four species being at present known common to both — a 

 conclusion supporting that which was above favoured, in re- 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. vii. p. 45. 



