SHORE-COLLECTING. 1 83 



to find plenty of sediments borne from the polar seas : 

 hence the absence of such submarine deposits in these 

 protected harbors, as well as out to sea, so far as we 

 could learn, — which, however, are choked with ice during' 

 June and July, — is a significant fact. When we lay out- 

 side we were never becalmed, or saw the time when we 

 could get a chance to dredge over the vessel's side : 

 and as we have already said, such work can only be 

 thoroughly done by a well-equipped steamer. 



Since leaving the Strait of Belle Isle there has been 

 little chance of collecting the littoral species ; indeed, 

 that broad stretch of shore and flats between high and 

 low water mark, which is so characteristic of the Nova 

 Scotia and New Engla:nd shores, is here well-nigh abol- 

 ished ; the tides rise and fall not much over four, or at 

 the most five or six feet, while the rocks plunge dii^ectly 

 into the sea, and there is only a narrow border of fucus 

 hanging sparsely from the rocks, between tide-marks, 

 with little life, — indeed, the only species I noticed be- 

 ing the common shore-snail, Littorina rudis, and the 

 little amphipod crustacean, Gammarus mutatus. The 

 same poverty of littoral animals obtains on the Green- 

 land shores, and it may be thus readily understood why 

 the starving members of the Greeley party could find 

 nothing to eat along shore but scattered sea-weed and 

 " shrimps," the latter undoubtedly the Gammarus muta- 

 ius, which is common on the shores of the polar seas. 

 The best spots to dredge are the patches of shelly bot- 

 toms situated in eddies at the inner end of a " tickle " 

 leading out frona a deep harbor, where the tides and 

 currents have no power ; for where the dead shells are 

 gathered, the living ones are mixed with them. 



