10 KJELLMAN, THE ALG^ OF THE ARCTIC SEA. 



Zemlya and Waygats I have mentioned that the greatest part of the litoral bottom- 

 zone here is destitute of any vegetation and that the litoral vegetation occurring here 

 and there is extremely poor in individuals and consists exclusively of small algae. Eleven 

 species have been found here as litoral: Hhodochorton Rothii, Fucus evanescens, Phlceo- 

 spora pumiia, Pylaiella litoralis, Chcatophora maritima, EnUromorpha compressa and E. minima 

 f. glncialis, Rhizodonium riparium and Eh. pachydervium, Urospora penicilliformis, Calothrix 

 scopulorum. The most common of these were Rhodochorton Rothii, Pylaiella litoralis 

 Enteromorpha compressa and Rhizoclonium riparium. Fucus evanescens is more rare, 

 Phleeospora pumiia, Urospora penicilliformis, Chcetophora maritima and Calothrix scopu- 

 lorum are found only in two places, Enteromorpha minima f. glacialis and Rhizoclonium 

 pachydermum each in one place. Here, as on the coasts of Spitsbergen, the litoral algsB 

 are small. The particular specimens of Chcetophora maritima can hardly be distinguished 

 with the naked eye. Calothrix scopulorum and Urospora penicilliformis cover the stones 

 between tide-marks with a thin coating. Rhodochorton Rothii and Rhizoclonium riparium 

 are matted together to the thickness of some mm., even Rhodochorton intermedium, 

 Phleeospora pumiia, Enteromorpha compressa and the litoral form of Pylaiella litoralis are 

 small in size, being only some mm. high, and the forms of Fucus evanescens, as gene- 

 rally found within the litoral zone, seldom grow more than about 6 cm. in height '). 

 In the Kara Sea traces of a litoral vegetation have been detected only in two places, 

 namely at Kjellman's Islands, where, as mentioned above, there were found small tufts 

 of Urospora penicilliformis on the rocks at the shore, and in Actinia Bay, where the 

 litoral bottom-zone was clothed in several places, although sparely, with stunted Entero- 

 morpha compressa. No litoral algae are known from the Siberian and the American Seas. 



The main mass of the vegetation in the Arctic Sea may be said to be diffused 

 over the sublitoral zone. But this general statement has a somewhat different signi- 

 fication Avith regard to different parts of the Arctic Sea. The sublitoral zone certainly 

 possesses everywhere the most vigorous and dense vegetation and that which is most 

 rich in individuals, but with regard to the number of species the sublitoral vegetation 

 in the Norwegian Polar Sea is poorer, in the other parts of the Arctic Sea, on the 

 contrary, richer than that of any other bottom-zone. 



With the methods hitherto invented for the exploration of the marine vegetation, 

 insurmountable difficulties are opposed to our gaining any sure knowledge of the nature 

 of the vegetation in the elitoral zone. Those few specimens of algae which have some- 

 times been brought up by the dredges from a greater depth than 40 fathoms only 

 suffice to prove, according to my experience, that larger algae really occur on this part 

 of the bottom. But they afford no information about the number of individuals and 

 the general character of the vegetation. It seems to me to result from the investigations 

 carried on in the Arctic Sea, that by far the greatest part of the elitoral zone is destitute of 

 algas, and that the vegetation found here and there is poor in species as well as individuals. 



I do not know of any species that has been found with certainty in the elitoral 

 bottom-zone of the Norwegian Polar Sea. On the coast of Spitzbergen I have found 



') Cp. Kjellman, Algenveg. Murm. Meer. pp. 58 — 69. 



