16 KJELLMAN, THE ALG 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 Gjesver and Maasé in Finmarken, at the depth of 10—20 fathoms 
on gravelly and stony bottom. At Gjesver it was composed of the following species: Odon- 
thalia dentata, Polysiphonia arctica, Delesseria sinuosa, Rhodophyllis dichotoma, Euthora 
cristata, Ptilota pectinata and Pt. plumosa, Porphyra abyssicola. Most of these were 
common even at Maasé, 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 Kieren, who identifies 
it with ZL. 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 
alge, 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 Rothti, Laininaria solidungula, Spongomorpha arcta, and Chetomorpha mela- 
gonium. It has been found most richly developed on the north and north-west coasts 
of Spitzbergen at Sineerenbay, at Fairhaven, at Treurenberg Bay, and on the west coast 
of Novaya Zemlya in the west mouth of Matotshkin 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 algw 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 
1!) Cp. Kuen, Nordl. Alg. p. 9. 
2) Cp. Ksguiman, Algenv. Murm. Meer. p. 66. 
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