94 



now, or they must have been transported to this place by 

 ice or by some other means of transport. The first supposi- 

 tion is, as has been shown above not so very improbable for 

 there is sufficient reason to suppose that the bottom of the 

 sea was situated formerly at a considerably higher level than 

 now. We have only here the difficulty which also seems to 

 exist with regard to the mollusca in deeper water, that it is 

 not probable that they should have been able to avoid having 

 been covered over by later deposits during the long period 

 which must have elapsed since the sinking began. As, however, 

 В ay M has observed shells on the ice in these very parts, we 

 may suppose that the bivalves found in the samples were con- 

 veyed thither in this manner. 



A small number of spines of echini have been found in 

 a single sample (No. 13), and are of no special interest. 



The foraminifera have the greatest distribution of all 

 the organisms, although they are not found in great numbers 

 in any of the samples. The most common ones are : 



a. The sand-tube foraminifera have been found in eight 

 different samples (No. 1, 7, 18, 27, 30, 35, 43 and 45) distrib- 

 uted over the whole territory; in each sample only one or two 

 specimens are found. 



b. The rotaliform foraminifera have been found in four 

 samples; in two of these (No. 23 and 30) occur only 1 — 2 

 specimens which are therefore of no great interest; in No. 40 

 more have been found, and in 33 they even amount to 1 1 per Ct. 

 of the ingredients between 0*5 and \^^. Both these samples 

 were obtained much nearer the coast than most of the others, 

 and only a single other sample (No. 41) was obtained as far in. 

 This proves that these foraminifera must be deposited in spe- 

 cially largo numbers near land, seeing that we have every 



') Medd. (»ni Gionl. XIX. 189ß. p. 179. 



