INTRODUCTION. 
Fish remains from the Trias of Spitzbergen were described for the first time in 
1873 by Hulke among the material collected by A. E. Nordenskiold during the expeditions 
of 1864 and 1868. 
In 1896 a few Triassic fish remains and a Labyrinthodont skull (Aphaneramma rostratum 
A. S. Woodward) were found by Gregory and Garwood (Woodward 1912, p. 292) in the 
Sassen Valley, and in 1898 fragments of fishes were discovered by Nathorst in the 
Trias at Bell Sound (Bohm 1912, p. 12). 
In 1908 Wiman found a horizon which, owing to the common occurrence of fishes, 
has been called by him the fish horizon (Wiman 1910, p. 126; 1914b, p. i) 1 ) and from 
this horizon a collection was brought to Upsala both that year and the following- one, 
when a small expedition was sent out by Wiman under the leadership of Bertil Hogbom 
(Wiman 1910, p. 124). As this expedition was mainly devoted to the collecting of Saurians 
the fish material collected was, however, rather limited. The fish material both of 1896 
and of the Swedish expeditions in 1908 and 1909 was described by Woodward in a 
paper published in 1912. 
During the summers of 1910 and 1911 too B. Hogbom had the opportunity to make 
collections of Triassic vertebrates, though his time was mostly occupied by practical 
work in the coal fields. From the summer of 1910 there are in addition a few fish 
remains from the Trias, discovered by Dr. J. Oppenheimer and Professor Dr. W. Salomon 
during the excursions of the XI th Geological Congress (cf. Stolley vigi 1, p. 115). 
The material on which this monograph has been based was, however, mainly 
brought together by the small expeditions, which on the initiative of Professor Wiman 
were sent out from Upsala in the summers of 1912, igi 3 , 1915, 1916 and 1917 (Wiman 
1914b, pp. 1— 3 ; 1916b, pp. 209—210; 1917, p. 229; Stensio 1918a, pp. 65 — 66^. Further¬ 
more a smaller collection was made in 1918, and finally in 1820 a few specimens were 
purchased. 
In 1917 Hoel and Rovig discovered a bone-bed with Triassic fish remains at the 
north-east corner of Horn Sound; the material from this locality was kindly sent over 
to me for investigation by Professor Kiaer in Kristiania (Stensio, 1918 b, p. 75). 
For the acquisition of the material not only of fishes but also of Labyrinthodonts 
Saurians and plants from the Triassic deposits in Spitzbergen we are in the first place 
indebted to Professor C. Wiman at Upsala. He is not only the initiator of all the ex¬ 
peditions that have started from Upsala from the year 1909, but he has to a very great 
extent made these expeditions possible by his personal experience and by procuring 
x ) This horizon in fact coincides, as later investigations show, with the Posidonomya horizon. 
