74 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



ence attached to timber. He was not aware that any similar remains had 

 been noticed, but thought records of such things might be of importance 

 in helping to clear up some of the difficulties at present confusing the 

 history of the growth of bogs. 



Dr. Kinahan noticed a new species of Crangon, which he had 

 lately discovered on the Dublin coast, and which he proposed to 

 call C. Allmanni. The species is allied to Crangon vulgaris, the most 

 prominent distinction being that the superior surface of the terminal seg- 

 ments of the abdomen in C. Allmanni are sulcated. Pull details would 

 be laid before the Society at the March meeting. 



Dr. Charles Farran read a paper 



ON AKERA BULLATA. 



It is more than probable that the question will be asked by some 

 of the members of this Society, why I should occupy its time in bringing 

 forward for discussion a mollusc so well known and so widely diffused 

 as Altera lullata. In answer to this question I reply, that I hold it to 

 be one of the pleasing duties imposed on each member to contribute his 

 mite of information to the fund now accumulating in the Transactions 

 of the Society, and which must ere long lead to a more accurate, if not 

 perfect, knowledge of the natural history of our own country. It is by 

 bringing forward a number of facts, and digesting and arranging them, 

 alone, we can hope to solve the anomalies which perplex the student in 

 his pursuit of this delightful science. 



My last visit to Birterbie Bay has enabled me to bring before the 

 Society, in the case of Akera lullata, a most extraordinary aberration 

 from its normal condition, accompanied by a solution, which I trust 

 will prove satisfactory, of the cause which produced it. At the December 

 monthly meeting I had the honour of reading a paper, in which I de- 

 tailed the discovery of the locality of the marbled swimming crab, Por- 

 tunus marmoreus. I mentioned that the state of the weather was most 

 unpropitious, although it was July. In fact, after making two or three 

 hauls of the dredge, in which I captured that beautiful crustacean, we 

 were compelled to leave that spot and seek for shelter in Birterbie Bay, 

 and, carried on the top of a mountain wave, we ran down the bay until 

 we opened on Roundstone, and, altering our course, we got under shelter 

 of the highland of Innisnee, an island which, as I formerly explained 

 to the Society, divides Roundstone Bay from Birterbie Bay. Having 

 proceeded a considerable distance up this creek, we found water as still 

 as a mill-pond although a storm was raging above us, and as our speed 

 was slackened, I thought I might as well try the dredge, and accordingly 

 threw it overboard, and had it under weigh for two or three hundred 

 yards, when we found ourselves fixed between two ledges of rock, and 

 imbedded in a sludge of mud and decayed or decomposed Nullipore. 



Having ascertained that no damage was done to the vessel, my first 

 care was to have the dredge brought on board, and my surprise was 

 great when fifteen egg-like substances, and fully as large, rolled on 



