40 



ARCTIC PROVINCE. 



upper layer of the water being thronged with young 

 cod, the middle depths abounding with sei, whilst 

 on the floor of the sea, studded with sea-urchins 

 and star-fish, and but rarely with shell-fish, huge 

 plaice and halibuts might be seen gliding or lurk- 

 ing. The sei fishing is indeed a chief branch of 

 Finmark trade. The capelan is stated by Nilson to 

 visit the shores of Nordland and Finmark in spring, 

 for the purpose of depositing its eggs. 



Crustacea seem to be more abundant at Spitz- 

 bergen, and more than half-a-dozen kinds are men- 

 tioned by Phipps and Scoresby, which number, 

 when we bear in mind the proportion of species 

 scarcely taken note of to those that attract atten- 

 tion, must indicate a very considerable list, and of 

 late years, not a few remarkable new forms have 

 been described from this quarter. Ten kinds of 

 mollusca are enumerated. Of these, two are bivalves 

 {Mya truncata and Hiatella rugosa), both of com- 

 mon forms, and ranging in abundance to the 

 British seas ; three gasteropodous univalves (a 

 Chiton, a Buccinum, and a Margarita) ; two ptero- 

 pods ; one cuttlefish, taken abundantly from the 

 stomach of narwhals, and apparently constituting 

 their favourite food ; and three Ascidians (enume- 

 rated as Ascidia gelatinosa and rustica, and Synoicum 

 turgens) ; the circumstance of these last curious but 

 unattractive animals receiving attention, shows how 

 zealously our voyagers laboured. In an excursion 

 on shore Mr. Scoresby appears to have searched for 



