THE EUKOPEAN SEAS. 



69 



sea-shrubs live numerous and beautiful species and 

 genera of Nudibranch mollusca and other Gaste- 

 ropoda, the blue-dotted limpet, Patella pellucida, 

 star-fishes, many Actinece and numerous species of 

 Gaprella and Fymphon; and, on their sturdy stems 

 are assembled Ascidians, Alcyonia, Tubulariw, coral- 

 lines and Ophiura?. Sea-urchins, and the larger 

 forms of star-fishes, including Goniaster equestris — 

 so rare to the south of the Boreal province — live 

 on the rocks. Beyond the boundary of this Lami- 

 narian region, multitudes of invertebrata reside. 

 With the details of their distribution on the Norwe- 

 gian coasts we are, however, insufficiently acquaint- 

 ed, but have reason to believe that they do not 

 differ materially from the arrangements presented 

 by the similar animals in the sea around the Zetland 

 Isles, where I have personally investigated them. 



The observations of Professor Loven,* on the Ba- 

 thymetrical distribution of submarine life in the Scan- 

 dinavian sea^, bear out those of Sars, and carry our 

 knowledge of them into the depths. " The littoral 

 and Laminarian zones," he states, " are very well de- 

 fined everywhere, and their characteristic species do 

 not spread very far out of them. The same is the case 

 with the region of frondaceous Algae, which is most 

 developed nearer to the open sea. But it is not so 

 with the regions from fifteen to one hundred fathoms. 

 Here there are at the same time the greatest number 

 of species and the greatest variety of their local 

 * Brit. Assoc. Rep. vol. xiii. 



