366 .SUTHERLAND, DAVIs' STRAIT AND BAFFIN'S BAY. 



A bank in latitude 67° and 68° off the coast of West Greenland, 

 well known to the whaling and cod-fishing vessels by the name 

 <' Reefkoll or Riscoll Bank," seems to answer this description.* 

 The depth of water on the highest part of it does not exceed fifteen 

 fathoms. It appears to be composed of angular fragments of rock 

 and other materials brought down by icebergs and coast-ice. This, 

 however, can only be inferred from the sounding line, and from 

 the rough usage to which the lines of the whalers are submitted 

 when they attack and get fast to their prey in its neiglibourhood. 

 Its limits can be defined almost at all times by the clusters and 

 groups of small icebergs that take the ground upon it ; and like 

 other banks of a similar character but less extensive on the same 

 coast, it is exceedingly fertile in shoals of Cod-fish and Halibut 

 which frequent it in the months of May, June, July, and August. 

 These and other fishes, including myriads of Sharks, may pass the 

 whole year upon it ; but this we have not as yet had the means of 

 putting to the test. 



In other parts of Baffin's Bay and Davis' Straits the bottom is 

 composed of fine mud, sand, rounded and angular fragments of 

 rock, shells, and marly deposits resulting from minute subdivision 

 of calcareous, phosphatic, and siliceous animal and vegetable matter 

 all of which have been brought up in the dredge. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of islands composed of crystalline rocks the bottom was 

 often found to be rocky ; but, as might be expected, numerous 

 depressions were filled with sand and shells. From a depth of 

 twenty-five to thirty fathoms at the Hunde Islands,| South-east 

 Bay, lat. 68°, the dredge passed over a loose and softish deposit, 

 and brought up a quantity of dark-coloured rather finely divided 

 matter resembling peat, which appeared to have been the result of 

 the decomposition of Fuci at the bottom. In some cases the roots, 

 being the hardest and most enduring parts, could be detected. 



Organic Remains deposited in the Arctic Seas. — Diatomaceae 

 are exceedingly abundant within the Arctic Circle. Mud from 

 almost every locality has not failed to yield considerable varieties ; 

 but the most productive source is the surface-ice when undergoing 

 decay. It often occurred to me that these microscopic forms may 

 be accumulating in a state of great purity, and to a considerable 

 extent, in some of the highly favourable localities so common in 



* Mr. E. Whymper states — "On the voyage up Davis Strait (in 1867) 

 we were becalmed off Rifkol, a noted landmark, and anchored on some banks 

 in 18 fathoms. These banks have certainly been greatly increased, if not 

 originated, by the deposition of matter from the icebergs of the Jakobshavn 

 ice-stream. At the time we were anchored a large number of small bergs 

 were aground upon them, breaking up and revolving all around. We took 

 the opportunity to put down the dredge ; and although we only worked from 

 the ship's side and consequently over a very limited amount of bottom, we 

 brought up in two or three hauls fragments of granite, gneiss (some with 

 garnets), syenite, quartz, hornblende, greenstone, and mica-slate. The sound- 

 ing-lead showed a fine sand bottom, and the anchor-flukes brought up fetid 

 mud" (Brit. Assoc. Rep. for 1869, p. 2).— Editor. 



t For the Entomostraca, Foraminifera, and Algae of these dredgings, see 

 above, pages 166, 192, dm^ further on. — Editor. 



