16 KJELLMAN, THE ALGiE OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



In the deepest part of the sublitoral zone, near its lowest margin, I have found, 

 on the arctic coast of Norway, a vegetation which I think may be regarded as a rem- 

 nant from that period when the sea was filled with ice even on the coast of Norway. 

 It is composed almost exclusively of species that are widely distributed within the 

 present Arctic Sea proper, having probably their centre of development in the high 

 North. I shall speak more fully of this subject below. I have observed this vegetation 

 in several places at Gjesvair and MaasO in Finmarken, at the depth of 10 — 20 fathoms 

 on gravelly and stony bottom. At Gjesvfer it was composed of the following species: Odon- 

 tlialia dentata, Polysiphonia arctica, Delesseria sinuosa, Rhodophyllis dichotoma, Euthora 

 cristata, Ptilota pectinata and Pt. plumosa, Porphyra ahyssicola. Most of these were 

 common even at Maaso, but they were joined here by a very large-sized, broad-leaved 

 Laminaria, strongly resembling L. Agardhii common in the Greenland Sea and the 

 Murman Sea. The same plant has been found at Nordlanden by Kleen, who identifies 

 it with L. Agardhii and says that it grows in very deep water. This circumstance, 

 combined with the description made by this algologist of the deep-water vegetation in 

 the southern part of the Norwegian Polar Sea, leads me to suppose that the above- 

 mentioned kind of vegetation, which I should prefer to name the arctic formation of 

 algce, occurs even here, though somewhat altered in composition ^). 



Another kind of vegetation, that appears to stand rather independent and to form 

 a well defined whole, is that formation, found at several places in the Arctic Sea, which 

 I have called the formation of Lithoderma ^) after its preponderant species. It grows 

 on gravelly and stony bottom in 5 — 15 fathoms water. Lithoderma fatiscens clothes every 

 stone with a thin crust. Other characteristic species are Phyllophora interrupta, Rho- 

 dochorton Rothii, Laminaria solidungula, Spongomorpha arcta, and Choetomorpha mela- 

 gonium. It has been found most richly developed on the north and north-west coasts 

 of Spitzbergen at Smeerenbay, at Fairhaven, at Treurenberg Bay, and on the west coast 

 of Novaya Zemlya in the west mouth of iMatotshkin Shar. At all these places the 

 arctic Laminaria solidungula formed its chief ornament. Traces of the same formation 

 were also observed, during the voyage of the Vega, in the eastern part of the Kara 

 Sea, Lat. N. 76° 8' Long. E. 90° 25'. The depth here was 15 fathoms. The bottom 

 consisted of larger and smaller stones, covered with Lithoderma and some few crusts 

 of Lithothamnion foecundum. Phyllophora interrupta occurred poor and scarce. 



Possibly there is, besides, to be found in the Arctic Sea some or other particular 

 kind of vegetation that would deserve to be mentioned. This seems to be indicated 

 by the large masses of algse belonging to one or some few species, that have been 

 found to cover considerable reaches of the sublitoral zone. These have assuredly not 

 grown originally in the places where they were discovered, but have been brought there 

 from other localities. It is possible that they occur attached in great quantities some- 

 where or other; but nothing is known for certain on this point. They have always 

 been found hitherto growing scattered and in little number in the same neighbour- 

 hood. Special attention ought to be called to Phyllophora interrupta, that is commonly 



') Cp. Kleen, Nordl. Alg. p. 9. 



^) Cp. Kjellman, Algenv. Murrn. Meer. p. 66. 



