4 



W. LlLLJEBORG, 



ding" (Scymnus borealis (Scoresby) Nilsson, on the banks by Beeren Is- 

 land. The discovery of so highly developed an animal common to both the 

 Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, was something so uncommon that it caused 

 us to doubt the acuracy of Milne Edwards' statement as regards the lo- 

 cality, Cape Horn, and to suspect that the specimen described by that 

 author might perhaps have been obtained in the French Scientific Expedition 

 to Spitzbergen, under P. Gaimard 1838 — 1840. In order fully to ascer- 

 tain this we have in a letter to Prof. H. Milne Edwards communicated the 

 fact that the Lysianassa magellanica has been found in the neighbourhood 

 of Spitzbergen, and we appended a drawing of the same to compare with 

 the specimen in the Paris Museum, and asked whether the alleged locality, 

 Cape Horn, were perfectly reliable. Mr. Milne Edwards replied through his 

 Son Mr. Alphonse Milne Edwards that our drawing was on comparison 

 found to correspond exactly with the specimen referred to, ("ce me parait 

 etre bien la meme espece et je n'ai pu y trouver aucune difference appre- 

 ciable") moreover that it was certainly true, that that specimen had been 

 brought by d'Orbigny from the Strait of Magellan, and is entered in his spe- 

 cial catalogue of his natural-historical collections from that region. 



This animal is then widely distributed both in the Arctic and Ant- 

 arctic Oceans, and as it has only been met with in the stomachs of fishes 

 it seems probable that it is only to be found at a considerable depth. Its 

 tolerably large size and rapid motion render it difficult to catch with the 

 so-called dredge ("bottenskrapa" Swed.), and it has not, as we have been 

 kindly informed by Professor S. Loven, been met with in the Swedish 

 scientific expeditions to Spitzbergen. 



Its being found in both the Polar seas, and not in the intermediate 

 waters, — which however is not a unique phoenomenon — is without doubt 

 a matter of deep scientific interest. It shows either that the same species 

 may have several centres of origination and geographical distribution, or 

 else that there have been periods in the devolopcment of the earth, when 

 certain species of animals & vegetables were, in consequence of uniform 

 temperature and similar climatical relations, spread over the whole earth, 

 which, on a subsequent variation of these circumstances, have retired to 

 tracts and regions where the original and to them appropriate climate & 

 temperature continued to prevail. It is thus that the appearance of the La- 

 gopus alpina Nilsson on the fells of Lappland, on the Alps & on the Py- 

 renees, but not in the interjacent lowlands has been explained. There has 



