SUEFACE-FAUFA OF THE AllCXIC SEAS. 125 



a continuous circle, and were not broken into three groups as in 

 the Sagittts described by Huxley. 



The Peridinea of Melville Bay were of at least three species ; 

 without reference I can identify but one of them, namely Ceratium 

 tripos. The others were comparatively rare ; but this Infusoriau 

 was present in such extraordinary abundance that the cotton filters 

 were generally choked in a few minutes. The most northern spe- 

 cimens were met with at our turning-point in Buchanan Strait. 

 ' The most northern living Eadiolarian was an Acanthometrina 

 captured in Davis Straits ; but empty skeletons of Dictyocha 

 were occasionally caught b}"" the cotton filter in Baffin's Sea ; and 

 Radiolarian fragments were not uncommon in the " floeberg dust " 

 of the far north. A G-regarina, apparently Fyxinia, was found 

 entangled in a mass of awned Diatomacese in Allman Bay, 



In connexion with the absence of surface-life under the ice, I 

 may observe that a Sagitta and two Copepods exposed in a cell 

 under the microscope and allowed to freeze were killed in a few 

 minutes ; death occurred before the more salt parts of the water 

 crystallized. No living animal organism of any kind was found 

 in the polar ice ; but Diatomacese with endochrome still retaining 

 its colour were once or twice met with in the floebergs, and were 

 not uncommon in the large white flocculi set free to sink when the 

 ship " rammed" her way amongst the more southern floes. 



Postscript. April 1878. 

 The specimens of Copepoda referred to have since been named 

 by the Eev. A. M. Norman, and the Discovery-Harbour Medusa 

 has been placed in a new genus by Professor Allman. Por both 

 see Sir G-eorge Nares's Appendix*. 



The polar Fleurohrancliia was a young specimen of P. rhododac- 

 tyla, Agassiz. 



The Nanomia was probably N. cava, A. Agassiz. Identification, 

 however, depends only on the sketch ; for the specimen bottled by 

 Captain Peilden has fallen to pieces. 

 The Appendicularia are : — 

 Oihopleura rtifescens, Pol. 

 Fritillaria fv,rcata, var., Pol. 

 The Melville-Bay Peridinea include : — 



Ceratium tripos, var. y (slender and unserrated), Claparede 

 and Lachmann. 

 * Narratire of a Vojnge to the Polar Sea, 1875-76. 



