290 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
bius and Heincke; and on the east of Denmark it is 
very rare, though found off Hellebaek (the Sound), and 
the specimens taken are very small.* the largest on re- 
cord was caught in the Great Belt at a depth of 10 
fathoms, and was only 50 mm. long (Winthee and 
Hansen). In Bohuslan it can scarcely be called rare; 
but even there only small specimens are common: 
among all his finds Malm mentions only two large spe- 
cimens, between 72 and 75 mm. long, both from the 
island-belt of Gothenburg. In Norway it is somewhat 
commoner, but more so in the north than in the south, 
according to Collett. In the Orkneys it is common, 
according to Day, who gives statements to a similar 
effect from several places in Scotland, England and Ire- 
land, but also points out the uncertainty whether all 
these statements refer to this species or the preceding 
one. As we have remarked above, the same uncertainty 
rules in Moreau’s statement as to the rare occurrence 
of the species on the north-west coast of France in the 
Channel. That the range of this species extends further 
south than the Baltic, is thus unquestionable; but even 
from the fact that, in the south, it is so often con- 
founded with the preceding species", we surmise that 
there it does not appear in its typical form 6 , or does 
not follow its normal manner of life. It is far more 
typical in the Baltic, though, strangely enough, only 
in the inner parts of this sea, while in the south and 
west of the Baltic and in the east of the Cattegat we 
find a distinct departure from the typical form. Pro- 
fessor S. Loven ascribes this peculiarity to the same 
origin as the occurrence of several other Arctic animals 
in the Baltic (see above, on Cottus quadricornis), and 
thus defends his conception of the history of the Baltic 
at the time when it was a gulf of the Arctic Ocean. 
Cyclogaster liparis must be regarded, in the first place, 
as an Arctic species, for it attains its highest point of 
development in the Arctic Ocean, and is of more com- 
mon occurrence there than in any other part of its 
geographical extension. Since Phipps’ expedition in 
1773 it has been included in the fauna of Spitsbergen. 
The Swedish expeditions to these islands have also dis- 
covered it at most of the spots examined, from high- 
water mark to a depth of from 20 to 25 fathoms, and 
on every variety of bottom. Cyclogaster Fabricii seems 
there to be less common, but all the more so in the 
east of the Arctic Ocean. During the Vega Expedition 
numerous examples of this species, from 90 to 130 
mm. in length, were taken in shallow water (3 — 6 fa- 
thoms deep), off Irkajpij (69° N., 180° E.), and another 
specimen, punctated like a stellatus, at a depth of 35 
fathoms, north-east of Taimyr Peninsula (76° 40' N., 
115° 30' E.). During the Dijmphna Expedition, accord- 
ing to Lutken, about 50 specimens were found at depths 
varying between 46 and 106 fathoms, in Kara Sea. 
Another instance of the occurrence of the species in 
deep water, which probably refers to the common variety, 
is given by Gunther c , namely, the discovery of a spe- 
cimen by the Porcupine expedition at a depth of 180 
fathoms, north of the Shetlands. It may also be met 
with, on the other hand, at the surface. In Varanger 
Fjord, in July, 1879, Professor G. O. Sars is stated 
on Collett’s authority to have found the fry swimming 
about among those small pelagic crustaceans which are 
called by the fishermen Sej-aat (Coalfish-meat), as they 
form part of the food of the Coalfish. The species is 
circumpolar, and is included among the fauna of Green- 
land even by Fabricius. On the west of the Atlantic, 
according to the American writers, it goes as far south 
as Cape Cod. How far south its range extends in the 
Pacific, is a question which cannot be decided until 
the relations between the Atlantic forms and the two 
Californian varieties d have been fixed. 
The habits of the Common Sea-Snail probably cor- 
respond to those of the preceding species. Of the spe- 
“ According to his opinion in 1860 (Vid. Meddel., pp. 160 — 174) and 1865 (ibid. 1865, p. 221), Lutken included this species (Li- 
paris lineatus ) among the fishes of Denmark. But in 1886 ( Dijmplma-Togtet, 1. c.) he regards only the preceding species (Liparis Mon- 
tagui) as really belonging to the Danish fauna, and asserts that Malm’s Lip. stellatus , as proved by the personal statements of the latter, 
belongs to the preceding species. In the fauna of Great Britain Day distinguishes between Lip. vulgaris and Lip. Montagui by the number 
of the fin-rays and the length of the caudal fin, but remarks of both that the dorsal fin is hardly united to the caudal, while it appears 
from his description of the nostrils that he has overlooked the true posterior pair in both cases. 
h Or, more correctly perhaps, that we shall eventually be driven to the conclusion that in the south the two species are indistinguish- 
able, i. e. that Cyclogaster Montagui should be regarded as a variety, essentially southern, of Cyclogaster liparis. 
c Voy. Challenger, Rep., Zool . , Deep- Sea- Fishes, p. 67. 
d According to Steindachner (1. c.) the Californian species Liparis pulchellus and Lip. mucosas established by Ayres, are distinct 
from the two Scandinavian species of Cyclogaster. But the difference between the first two species, in form and colour, is evidently pa- 
rallel to that between Cycl. liparis and Cycl. Montagui, and so similar that it may well excite our suspicions that the species are identical. 
