D URBAN : ON THE MOLLUSCA OF BARENTS SEA. 89 



Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys has most obligingly examined and deter- 

 mined all the mollusca in the collection for me, and by so doing 

 has rendered the following lists far more valuable than they would 

 have been had they been founded on the determinations of a less 

 experienced conchologist. 



A brief account of the voyage of the 'Willem Barents' may 

 not be out of place by way of introduction to the list of shells 

 collected by Mr, Grant. 



The stout little schooner of 79 tons, named after the famous 

 Dutch Arctic Explorer, was only launched on 6th April, 1878, 

 having been built especially for the purpose for which she was to 

 be employed. She left Amsterdam on the 5th May last, under 

 the command of Lieut. A. de Bruyne, of the Dutch Royal Navj', 

 her officers and crew numbering fourteen persons in all. From 

 the 12th to 18th May the vessel was at Bergen in Norway. 

 From thence the adventurous explorers shaped their course to 

 Jan Mayen Island. A fine view of this volcanic Island was 

 obtained on the 9th June, and an illustration of it, taken from a 

 photograph by Mr. Grant, will be found in the "Illustrated 

 London News" for 26th October, 1878. The explorers were 

 prevented from landing by a violent gale, which drove their little 

 vessel from the anchorage. On the 1 2th June they reached the 

 edge of the West Ice, and running along the line of this, on the 

 19th of the month they were at the North-western end of 

 Spitzbergen. They worked along the Northern shore of the 

 island until stopped by the ice on the 27th in 80° 18' North 

 Latitude. They then retraced their course and proceeded to 

 Amsterdam Island. Here they tarried a few days to set up a 

 memorial, consisting of an engraved stone slab, in the midst of 

 the ancient Dutch Grave Yard. The 4th July found them on the 

 edge of the West Ice again. They next ran to the South-east, 

 and from the 13th to i6th July were off Bear Island, where 

 dredgings were made in 25 fathoms on the Spitzbergen Bank, 



