Our botanists thus made on land a not inconsiderable collection, considering the northerly position of the region. On the other hand no large algae were met with in the sea, nor was it to be expected that there would, for the samples of water taken up with Ekman's instrument showed that the salinity at the bottom was as slight as at the surface, viz. only 0.3 per cent. The temperature of the water was also 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 One and two-thirds of natural size. B. Diastylis Rathkei KR Magnified three times. ]