ANIMAL LIFE
Th e fauna of Norway belongs to the so-called Pahearctic Region.
I t is thus similar, in a great measure, to that of the rest of
Northern Europe, and also to the faunas of Central and Western
Europe. Nevertheless, our animal life contains more extremely
arctic elements, remains from the glacial period, when the whole
country was covered with ice, as Greenland is at the present day.
On our mountains, and in the northern districts of the-country,
we find several of the animals that live in the arctic regions, the
reindeer, the. mountain or arctic fox, the ptarmigan, the snow
bunting, various insects, etc.
This arctic character appears perhaps most distinctly in the
animal life that the dredger in our narrow, deep fjords brings to
light. In them live various fish and invertebrates, which we only
find in the arctic regions, or out in the great ocean depths. This
arctic fauna is most marked in the fjords; on the coast, on the
other hand, it is intermixed with more southern forms, animals
which we find on the other shores of the North Sea, on the
shores of the Atlantic, and even in the Mediterranean. The reason
why the fjords have a more arctic animal life than the coast
is that there is a sub-marine wall, or barrier, extending all along
the coast. This barrier, which is partly an enormous moraine,
lies at a depth of from 400 to 600 feet, while the depth of the
fjords may be nearly 4000 feet. The barrier thus shuts off the
fjord depths from the ocean depth without, and its continuation,
the Norwegian channel, round the south coast. These closed
basins have therefore been able to retain species of animals, whose
true home must be sought for in higher latitudes. The animals,
however, do not attain to such a height of development in the
fjords as out in the ocean depths, or in the arctic regions, as the
barrier also prevents change of water, so that the water in the
fjord depths has comparatively less oxygen and more carbonic
acid than the'water out in the open sea. The barrier or «edge»,
as it is called, also possesses great economic significance, for it is
upon it, or along its outer margin, that some of our largest
fisheries are carried on.
A vertical section of one of our fjords would have the form
of a U. In the middle we have an evenly deep part that is
covered with fine, gray loam, in which we find a n im a l life
with comparatively few species, but, on the other hand, so much
the greater number of individual animals. Of the animal forms
characterising this loam may be named the sea-pens, such as the
magnificent, gigantic, orange-coloured Pennaimla ' grandis, Copho-
belemnon stelliferwn, etc, various sponges, worms, sea-slugs, sea-
stars, molluscs and crustaceans, among which is the famous
Svelvik prawn (Pandulus borealis) which receives its name from a
■ little town on the Drammen Fjord, where it is industriously fished
in the winter. Of fish living in the depths may be especially
mentioned various species of skate, (Jhimmra, Lcemargus, Cory,
phcsnoides, Sebastes, etc.
From the middle channel, the bottom rises steeply to the
surface, often somewhat precipitously, to a height of many hundred
feet. A dredger in the Norwegian fjords can, in one draw, near
the shore, get littoral animal forms simultaneously with deep-
water forms that are only to be obtained from the greatest depths
e jords. On these precipitous slopes there is an unusually
abundant animal life. On the lowest platforms we have ¿¿ma
excavata, Phelha abyssicola, the beautiful Echinus elegans, and
various gorgonids (Paragorgia, Paramuricea, Primnoa), and the
nearly-related Alcyonidce, Sarcophyton, Buva, etc. The gorgonids
are also met with higher up. Among their branches live the
many-armed medusa-heads (Gorgoncephalus) and some other brittle-
s ars and star-fish. We find further, peculiar sea-spiders (Nym-
T+°W-nVav10US crustaceans> ascidians, worms, hydroids, sponges, etc. llfiKl 1!t°Wever’ take to° long to describe more minutely the n 1 e ¡S f swarms here. among the gorgonids too are
mnerous fish lying in wait for their prey. On the edge of
marine crags such as these, there is therefore always good