fishing to be had. On the oceanward slope of the above-named
«edge», there is a similar, but still more abundant animal life.
Here too is the haunt of millions of cod, from the time that the
year-and-a-half-old fry set out to sea, to the time when they return
again, fullgrown, to the coast to spawn.
In spite of its abundance, there is something uniform in the
animal life in such suddenly deep places. Where it is more flatly
shallow, or rather where the steep parts áre replaced by plateaus
covered with sand and shingle, we find not only the above-named
animals, but a great number of others, sea-urchins, star-fishes, brittle-
stars, crinoids, molluscs., worms, ascidians, etc. The fish that specially
characterise the sandy bottom are flat-fish, flounders. A bottom
consisting of loam mixed with fine sand and fragments of
shell is also called a halibut bottom.
At the top we have the littoral zone. I t may also be called
the algse zone, for it is the algae, and especially the laminarise,
that give to it its peculiar stamp. Any one desirous of studying
it must go out to the coast, to the sea, for there it::, attains its
highest degree of development. I t is in this region that we find
the greatest number of southern European animal forms. On the
sea-weeds are numerous Nudibranehiata, such as Doris, Eolis,
Dmdronotus, also various Echinodermata, such as Asterias, Porania,
Solaster, Ophiocoma, several species, of ascidians, and both
simple and compound hydroids etc. Among the stones, or in the
cracks in the rocks, lobsters are hiding, the Norwegian lobster
(Nephrops) and various kinds of crabs, etc. On the sand we meet
with My a, Peetm and several other bivalves, and on the rocks
Patella, Bucemum, Mytilus, Balanus,' Mcyoni/wm,. etc. This region
is also inhabited by numerous kinds-of fish, and is the haunt of
the small fry of most of our food-fish. In more land-locked waters,
creeks of brackish water in southern and western Norway, lives the
oyster, which in former times had a much wider distribution than
in our day. Some of these creeks, in which the temperature, on
account of peculiar physical conditions, sometimes rises to 70° or
80° Eahr., .are first-rate breeding places for this mollusc.
Of land and fresh-water molluscs, 121 species are known in
Norway, most of which also occur in the rest of Northern Europe.
On account of the mild maritime climate, they are found farther
north in Norway than in the adjoining countries: The northern
limit of Limax maxim/us, for instance, in Norway, is 66° 49',
while in Sweden and Finland, it is not found farther north than
62° 6'. Most of the molluscs are found in the south, and especially
round the Kristiania Ejord, which presents most favourable conditions
for them. In the north, the number of species is limited
to 52. In certain rivers where the pearl-mussel (Margaritana)
occurs in large numbers, it is fished to some extent. I t is moreover
the only one of our land and frpsh-water molluscs that has any
economic importance. '
Insects are the group of land Invertebrata that has had the
greatest number of students, and it is therefore the best known.
We can mark out three regions for them, first, an ' arctic, region
in the north of Norway and on the high mountains, secondly, an
eastern region in the fertile east-country districts, and lastly we have
the coast region. The second of these is the richest in species, and
agrees best with European 'insect-life in general, and may therefore
be called the. continental region. Like the coast flora, the coast
fauna presents numerous similarities to the English. This division
is of course not sharply. defined. On the coast we meet with
several arctic insects, whose true home in southern Norway is the
high mountains. The fauna at the head of the west-country fjords
often has a purely east-country character.
It is quite natural that a country like Norway, with its long
COast-line, should have a large fish fauna. I t is also richer in
species than most of the other northern lands, more than 200
species being found in this country. Among the arctic contributions
to our fish fauna may be named Sebastes marinus, Anarrb/v-
ehas minor, Molva birkelange, Maerurus Fabrieii, Mallotus villosus,
which comes in the spring in huge shoals to the coasts of Einmark
to spawn. The shoals are followed by cod, coal-fish, ling, whales
and birds ; the pouring-in of the fish .gives opportunity for much
fishing (the «capelan-fishing»). The Greenland shark, which is fished
for the sake of its liver, both out in the- open sea and in the
fjords, is also an arctic fish. Still, more numerous are those fishes
that belong to the Northern European, or the general European
fauna. Most of the food-fishes belong to these groups B- cod,
haddock, coal-fish, pollack, torsk, most of the flat fish, herring,
sprat, bergylt, mackerel, etc. One of the most remarkable fishes
is ere the bas king shark, the largest fish known, sometimes attain-
mg a ^ejl8'th of more than 40 feet. In former times, on our
wes and north coasts, it was fished for regularly. . Of, South