301 



most in Franz Joseph-Fjord at the entrance of a small valley 

 north-east of Nordenskiöld-Glacier. The height above the 

 sea level was inconsiderable and not supposed to surpass 10 

 meters. Its occurrence in this place indicates essentially other 

 conditions than the present, as a bivalve of its habits cannot 

 live in a fjord where icebergs are continually formed and are 

 drifting about such as is the case at present». 



I have gone through the material collected by the Danish 

 expeditions, and among this I have found also a species which 

 does not live any longer at the eastern North-Greenland, namely 

 Pecten islandicus ШШ. (see this paper p. 333). It was discovered 

 by N. Hartz under conditions which he describes as follows ^): 

 «On Rolige Bræ near the Kobberpynt (inner Scoresby- Sound) I 

 found ca. 75 feet above the sea level a few hundred yards from the 

 edge of the glacier, clay, gravel and small rolled or rubbled stones 

 (gneiss) in great abundance. Among this material a few rounded 

 and rubbed fragments of Fecten islandicus and Saxicava arctica 

 (det. H. Posselt) occurred. These bivalve fragments originate 

 most likely from deposits higher up along the edge of the 

 glacier and this suggests rather considerable changes in the 

 distribution of the ice». As mentioned before Pecten islandicus 

 is at present wanting in the sea at East-Greenland; this might 

 suggest a deterioration of the climate since the time when it lived 

 in the inner Scoresby-Sound. For Pecten islandicus is hardly 

 a typical high-arctic form. Thus it does not occur in the Arctic- 

 Sea at the north-coast of Siberia, and in the Kara-Sea it no 

 doubt occurs utterly seldom and locally, as among repeated ex- 

 peditions to this sea the «Dijmphna» only has taken one single 

 specimen (the locality has unfortunately not been indicated). 

 It is however an arctic form since it flourishes at Spitzbergen 

 and at the southern West-Greenland. 



This find 0Ï Pecten islandicus ought however for the present 



') Medd. om Grønland, XIX, 1896, p. 175. 



