ZOOLOGY. 277 



Dr. Sachs, who was sent to Venezuela by the Berlin Acad- 

 emy of Science, for the purpose of studying the electric eel 

 in its native haunts, has returned, after an absence of ten 

 months, with a rich store of valuable observations. 



Professor E. D. Cope has lately visited the Nickajack Cave, 

 near Chattanooga. The cave is as large as the Mammoth or 

 Wyandotte Cave, and is traversed by a large stream. He 

 found an abundance of a blind craw-fish and several small 

 Crustacea, some of them allied to Ccecidotcea. He also pro- 

 cured the myriopod Spirostreplion cavernarum, a spider with 

 eyes, and a Kaphidophora, etc. 



The reports upon the biological results of the Valorous 

 expedition by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys and Dr. Carpenter, as well 

 as the Rev. A. M. Norman and others, are contained in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. The Valorous 

 w T as a store-ship sent out with the recent British polar expe- 

 dition, and on her return from Disco Island dredged and 

 sounded with most interesting results. Living Globigerina 

 were captured on the outward voyage, and "countless num- 

 bers of a microscopic mite, which swarmed everywhere, and 

 appeared to be busily engaged in eating the outer layer of 

 the sea-weed, as well as the spawn" of a mollusk and the 

 animal of a polyzoon. Some remarkable brachiopods, a new 

 genus of sea-urchins, new shells and worms, several of which 

 are fossil in Sicily, occurred at depths between one thousand 

 and two thousand fathoms. Thirty -three species of shells 

 were added to the list of Greenland shells, while the lists of 

 Crustacea, Tunieata, Polyzoa, Radiata, etc., were greatly in- 

 creased, as this is the first time that dredging has been car- 

 ried on at such depths off the coast of Greenland. Mr. Jef- 

 freys suggests that the marine fauna of Greenland is rather 

 European than American ; while Mr. Norman, on the other 

 hand, believes that the fauna of Davis's Strait is American 

 rather than European. It seems to us that the reporters 

 overlook the fact that the polar deep-sea life is neither ex- 

 clusively American nor European, but circumpolar, with 

 features of subordinate importance" characterizing each side 

 of the Atlantic. The map showing the ocean bottom of the 

 North Atlantic is of much interest in connection with recent 

 speculations as to the former existence of a Tertiary polar 

 continent connecting Europe and Greenland with America. 



