THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



41 



mollusca, but was unsuccessful and found none. 

 As he notices, however, the presence of Fucus vesi- 

 culosus, Laminaria saccharina, Alaria esculenta and 

 other large sea- weeds of the Laminarian zone, I do 

 not doubt that a minute search, rightly directed, 

 would bring to light some of the species of Rissoa 

 and Lacuna wliich inhabit those plants on the 

 coasts of Greenland. Of late years the Trophon 

 scalariforme, an elegant kind of whelk, found abun- 

 dantly fossil in our British drift, and common 

 on the coasts of Labrador, has been taken in the 

 Spitzbergen seas, but does not range as far south 

 as Norway on this side of the Atlantic. 



Small as they are, two little pteropods {Limacina 

 arctica and Clio borealis) are among the most im- 

 portant inhabitants of these seas, since they consti- 

 tute no inconsiderable part of the food of the whale. 

 Like other members of their family they are swim- 

 mers, active and graceful in their motions, moving 

 through the water by means of their wing-like 

 muscular fins, and seeming, as has often been re- 

 marked, the butterflies of the sea. The Limacina 

 is covered with a spiral shell of extreme tenuity, and 

 elegant curvature ; the Clio has no such appendage. 

 Mr. Scoresby remarks of the former, that it is found 

 in immense quantities near the coast of Spitzbergen, 

 but does not occur out of sight of land ; and of the 

 latter, .that though met with in vast numbers in 

 some situations near that island, it is not distributed 

 generally throughout the Arctic seas. 



