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On Becent Researches into the Natural History of the British 

 Seas. By Professor Edward Forbes. Communicated 

 by the Author.* 



The Natural History of the British Seas has for a long 

 time been a favourite subject of investigation. Within the 

 last fifteen years, however, fresh inquiries have been set on 

 foot, and the details of their zoology and botany worked out 

 to an extent beyond that to which the examination of any 

 other marine province has been carried. Numerous and 

 beautifully illustrated monographs, treating of their fishes, 

 cetacea, portions of the articulata, the mollusca, radiata, 

 zoophytes, sponges, and algae, have been published, either at 

 private cost or by patriotic publishers, or by the Ray Society, 

 such as the scientific literature of no other country can show. 

 As these have all been the results of fresh and original re- 

 search, they present a mass of valuable data sufiicient to form 

 a secure basis for important generalizations. 



From these materials, and from the results of the inquiries 

 into the distribution of creatures in the depths of our seas, 

 conducted by a committee of the British Association, a clear 

 notion may be formed of the elements of which our submarine 

 population is composed. Extensive Tables exhibiting the 

 sublittoral distribution of marine invertebrata, from the South 

 of England along the Western coasts of Great Britain to 

 Zetland, mainly constructed from the joint observations of 

 Professor E. Forbes and Mr MacAndrew, are now preparing 

 for publication as a first part of a general report from the 

 committee referred to. The data embodied in these tables 

 are the produce of researches conducted during the last 

 eleven years, and registered systematically at the time of 

 observation. 



British Marine animals and plants are distributed in depth 

 (or bathymetrically) in a series of zones or regions which 

 belt our shores from high water mark down to the greatest 

 depths explored. The uppermost of these is the tract be- 

 tween tidemarks ; this is the LiTTORAL Zone. Whatever 



* The above is an abstract of a lecture lately delirered in the Royal Institu* 

 tion of London. 



