KONGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND. 20. N:0 5. 25 
are wanting, because there are here no larger solid objects to afford the algew 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. 0., wants alow, 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 algw should stick exclusively, or chiefly, to a 
certain sort of bottom. So called shelly bottom is especially remarkable for its rich- 
ness in peculiar species of alge. 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 Bohuslain, is occasioned by the absence of 
such bottom or by other causes. But this is by no means impossible or improbable. 
The alge 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 Waygats 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. NorpenskiéLtp, 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. Kornerur, Grénl. Medd. 1. p. 226. 
2) See Kye.uman, Proven p. 49. 
3) NorpeNnskIOLp. Proven p. 40, 
K. Vet. Akad. Handl. Bd 20. Niro 5. 
