The authors had the opportunity to study the diatoms in a number of samples from 6 cores, consisting of surface sediments from the sea floor of Breid Bay and Brekilen in Antarctica. Nearly all samples, mainly olive-grey silty and fine sandy clay, contained diatoms, although the state of preservation of the valves was often poor. Diatom analysis, according to the qualitative method, yielded altogether 85 species and lower taxa. The flora from the cores consists exclusively of marine diatoms. The flora appeared to be characteristic for the extreme cold sea area near the Antarctic Continent, and it may be concluded that, during the formation of the sediments investigated, the environmental conditions were the same as at present. The sediments belong to the glacial-marine deposits described by Hays (1967). In one of the cores an aberrant clay of reddish colour, practically devoid of diatoms, may be of a different origin.
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