at the time of our visit about the same at the bottom as at
the surface, viz. +9 deg. to +10 deg.. In spring, when the snow
melts, the water here is probably quite fresh, in winter again cold,
and as salt as at the bottom of the Kara Sea. Under so variable
hydrographical conditions we might have expected an exceedingly
scanty marine fauna, but this was by no means the case. For the
dredgings in the harbour gave Dr. Stuxberg a not inconsiderable
yield, consisting of the same types as those which are found in the
salt water at the bottom of the Kara Sea. This circumstance appears
to show that certain evertebrate types can endure a much greater
variation in the temperature and salinity of the water than the
algae, and that there is a number of species which, though as a rule
they live in the strongly cooled layer of salt water at the bottom
of the Kara Sea, can bear without injury a considerable diminution
in the salinity of the water and an increase of temperature of about
12 deg..

For the science of our time, which so often places the origin
of a northern form in the south, and _vice versa_, as the foundation
of very wide theoretical conclusions, a knowledge of the types
which can live by turns in nearly fresh water of a temperature
of +10 deg., and in water cooled to -2.7 deg. and of nearly the same
salinity as that of the Mediterranean, must have a certain
interest. The most remarkable were, according to Dr. Stuxberg,
the following: a species of Mysis, _Diastylis Rathkei_ KR.,
_Idothea entomon_ LIN., _Idothea Sabinei_ KR., two species of
Lysianassida, _Pontoporeia setosa_ STBRG., _Halimedon brevicalcar_
GOES, an Annelid, a Molgula, _Yoldia intermedia_ M. SARS,
_Yoldia_ (?) _arctica_ GRAY, and a Solecurtus.

Driftwood in the form both of small branches and pieces of roots,
and of whole trees with adhering portions of branches and roots,
occurs in such quantities at the bottom of two well-protected coves
at Port Dickson, that the seafarer may without difficulty provide
himself with the necessary stock of fuel. The great mass of the
driftwood which the river bears along, however, does not remain on
its own banks, but floats out to sea to drift about with the marine
currents until the wood has absorbed so much water that it sinks, or
until it is thrown up on the shores of Novaya Zemlya, the north
coast of Asia, Spitzbergen or perhaps Greenland.

[Illustration: EVERTIBRATIS FROM PORT DICKSON.
A. Yoldia arctica GRAY O