KONGL. SV. VET. AK.ADEMIENS HANDLINGAE. BAND. 20. N:0 5. 25 



are wanting, because there are here no larger solid objects to afford the algae that foot- 

 hold which they need, at least during some part of their existence, in order to attain 

 their full and normal development. On the contrary, no bottom consisting of gravel 

 shells, larger and smaller stones, and hard rocks, especially if furnished with cavities, 

 a. s. o., wants algse, if the other circumstances are favourable. The rest of the con- 

 ditions being equal, the marine vegetation is more extensive in proportion as the muddy, 

 sandy, or clayey tracts of the bottom are smaller, and it is richer in individuals and 

 more luxuriant when the bottom is coarser and more solid ; it is possible, however, that 

 it may become more diversified, the more the composition of the firmer bottom varies. 

 For it seems, at least in Kattegat, as if certain algae should stick exclusively, or chiefly, to a 

 certain sort of bottom. So called shell)' bottom is especially remarkable for its rich- 

 ness in peculiar species of algae. I must leave it undecided whether the great scarcity, 

 in the Arctic Sea, of several species which are found most often and in the greatest 

 number in shelly localities on the coast of Bohuslan, is occasioned by the absence of 

 such bottom or by other causes. But this is by no means impossible or improbable. 

 The algae of the Arctic Sea make larger claims than others on the firmness of the 

 bottom. They need a surer foot-hold in order to be able, on the generally rather exposed 

 coasts, to withstand the drift-ice together with the waves and the violent currents, without 

 being prematurely torn off and destroyed. Very considerable stretches of the bottom 

 of the Arctic Sea are however of an unfavourable structure. Only on the north coast 

 of Scandinavia and the west coast of Greenland '), where the ground consists of hard 

 azoic rocks, it can be said to be mainly good. Such rocks predominate, indeed, at 

 comparatively large reaches of the north-west and north coast of Spitzbergen, for in- 

 stance in the group of isles about Fairhaven, and the bottom, from that cause, is 

 favourable, but along very great stretches of the coast of Spitzbergen the rocks are 

 schistous and of looser consistency. Loose slates and sandstones going down to the 

 sea, the largest space of the bottom is formed there of clay and sand. This is the 

 case also with those parts of the west coast of Novaya Zemlya and VVaygats which 

 have hitherto been subjected to algological investigations, and probably also on the east 

 coast. A small part of the east coast of Novaya Zemlya has been examined, at Udde- 

 bay. A great part of the east coast northward of this point is occupied by glaciers ^), 

 and the experience from other arctic countries has shown that outside and near gla- 

 ciers the bottom of the sea is of loose consistency. The southern and south-eastern 

 part of the Kara Sea along the peninsula of Yalmal has surely a most unfavourable 

 bottom. NoEDENSKioLD, who landed at one place on the west coast of Yalmal, Lat. 

 N. 72° 18', says: ))No solid rock was to be found here. The ground everywhere con- 

 sisted of sand and sandy clay, in which I was not able to find a single stone of the 

 size of a gun-ball or even of a pea, though I sought for it for several kilometers along 

 the coast-bank. Nor did the dredge ever bring up any bits of rock from the bottom 

 of the sea off the coast» . . . . ^) It proceeds from the journal of dredgings, kept during 



1) Cp. KoRNERUP, Gronl. Medd. 1. p. 226. 



^) See Kjellman, Proven p. 49. ^ 



*) NoRDENSKiOLD, Proven p. 40. 



K. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd 20. N:o 5. 4 



