34 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Doctor Carte observed, that Doctor Farran's specimens of Pectunculi were the 

 finest that had been obtained in the British Isles. He brought the beautiful work of 

 Forbes and Hanley " On British Mollusca," to show the great superiority of size and 

 beauty of marking of the specimens obtained by Doctor Farran. Doctor Carte 

 remarked, that the interior of the valves of the foreign specimens exhibited very 

 rich colouring, and he would like to know whether any of Doctor Farran's spe- 

 cimens presented similar characters. 



Doctor Farran said he would examine his collection, and notice the subject at the 

 next meeting. 



The Chairman observed upon the correctness of Doctor Farran's remarks as to 

 the accumulation of the dead valves of the Pectunculi, which he attributed to the 

 set of the currents from the grounds where the molluscs were abundant in the living 

 state. On the south coast of England he had found the dead valves in quantities in 

 Whitsund Bay, but the living animals were rare. In shoal water the shell appeared 

 to be more covered with the villous coat ; in deep water the shell was more free from 

 it, and the markings were more vivid. Off Plymouth Sound the true habitat of the 

 animal was, he considered, in sixteen fathoms. Strong currents set in among the 

 shoals and formed a kind of delta, where quantities of the dead shells accumulated. 



Mr. Andrews said, that being aware of the great interest that the display of such 

 an unrivalled series of fine specimens of Pectunculus glycymeris would create, and 

 the importance of the discovery on the west coast of the living animals in such pro- 

 fusion as recorded by Doctor Farran this evening, he had been led to offer a few re- 

 marks from his own notes of the south-west coast of Ireland. He fully concurred in the 

 statement made by Dr. Farran, as to the value of the admirable report drawn up by 

 the late William Thompson, Esq. valuable for the scrupulous attention to details, 

 and omission of all questionable or doubtful records of localities ; hence, to the period 

 of its publication, being a standard reference of the known distribution of the Inverte- 

 brata of Ireland. This report, however, can only be considered as a general review ; 

 for few at the time had obtained any very extensive local information of the zoology 

 of the country, especially with reference to the west and south-west coasts, and this 

 may account why Pectunculus glycymeris and Bulla hydatis, also recently recorded 

 by Dr. Farran, should have escaped being marked in Mr. Thompson's report as 

 western species. These molluscs, which Dr. Farran has established to occur in 

 such abundance on our west coast, with Venerupis irus and Kellia suborbicularis, 

 have most extensive distribution, being found on the shores of Spain and Portugal, 

 and off the Canary Islands and Madeira. Robert M'Andrew, Esq., a most prac- 

 tical and scientific investigator of the distribution of marine mollusca, obtained Pec- 

 tunculus glycymeris abundantly off the Canary Islands, in fifty fathoms, sandy sound- 

 ings. Now that such investigations are assuming a philosophical aspect, local Faunas 

 must become of great importance, as embracing a more perfect survey of distribution 

 of animal life, interesting to zoology and to physical geography. Hitherto our in- 

 vestigations of the marine zoology of the western and southern coasts have been 

 limited, especially in deep water, where the different soundings afford endless forms 

 of animal organization ; forms, he might say, innumerable in beauty, and in vividness 

 of colouring, and many of them of the most delicate structure inhabiting the 

 greatest depths of the ocean where animal life can exist. Before bringing to their 

 notice one of these beautiful, yet fragile, animals, which he obtained in deep 

 soundings off the coast of Kerry, and considered new to the fauna of the country. 

 He would make some remarks on the soundings of the south-west coast. Along that 

 coast, and off the entrances of the Shannon, Dingle, and Kenmare bays, the 

 soundings run gradually out from forty to one hundred fathoms ; and where, as also 

 inside, around, and off the Blaskets and the Skellig Islands, the soundings vary, 

 with bottoms of fine sand, sand and mud, shelly and pebbly, coarse-gravelly, and 

 rocky and corally grounds, and these characterize the different feeding grounds of the 

 cod, ling, haddock, turbot, and sole, as well as many of the more common kinds of 

 our edible fish. Where the fish most frequent to seek the food suitable to their 

 habits, there the marine animals most abound ; and it is on the feeding grounds of 

 the ling, the cod, and the haddock, that many of our more rare Pelagian mollusca 

 and Crustacea are met. 



I have observed that the paucity of our information is attributable, on the 



