709 



observations are relatively few; but according to ni}' observations 

 in Vestnianhavn, Klaksvig, and Trangisvaagfjord, Pelvetia is found 

 a little below as well as a lillle above the highest water- mark, 

 and the Enteromorpha-nssoc'iai'ion, growing above that and indeed 

 preferring places where fresh water oozes from the rocks, is met 

 with far above the highest water-mark. 



I therefore fully agree with Rosenvinge in thinking that the 

 upper limit of the littoral region should be stated at the level where 

 the algal vegetation begins^; but when Rosenvinge declares this 

 limit to be identical witli neaj^-tide mark at high water in Greenland, 

 it is evident from what has already been said, that this greatly dif- 

 fers from tlie observations made on the Faeroes, at any rate on 

 their exposed coasts. 



On account of the very luxuriant algal vegetation wdiich ex- 

 tends, as before mentioned, far beyond the liighest w^ater-mark, it 

 might perliaps be justifiable to introduce a special supralittoral 

 region, as Lorenz has done (I.e. p. 193) and Warming suggested; 

 (compare Simmons, 66, p. 173). I shall briefly state the reasons why 

 I do not side w^ith this view. 



I take for granted that the highest water-mark is the lowest 

 limit of such a region; but on investigating an exposed rocky coast, 

 the algal vegetation wall be found to offer not the slightest traces 

 whatever of any limit. The specifically littoral region, which might 

 thus be stated to be below the highest water-mark, merges imper- 

 ceptibly into that of the algal vegetation above it; a line drawn 

 at the highest water-mark on the rocks would certainly cut through 

 several formations, causing the same formation to belong to both 

 regions. As to the littoral and the sublittoral regions circumstances 

 are quite different, the limit being often for miles sharp and distinct, 

 though irregularities may indeed occur in the algal vegetation. 

 Moreover, the more or less exposed situation of the coast might 

 cause the same formation to belong, now to the supralittoral, now 

 to the littoral region. It therefore seems most natural to me to 

 say, that the littoral region includes also the algal vegetation 

 growing beyond the highest water-mark, just as in what follows I 

 say that the sublittoral includes the elittoral region, no dividing line 

 being found between them. 



As to the determination of the lowest limit of the littoral region, 



^ »at den ovre Gr?ense for denne Region bor siettes der, hvor Algevegetationen 

 begynder«. 



