366 BULLETIN OF THE 



by their accumulation. Large fragments of this rock were brought 

 up by the dredge; so that its structure and characteristic remains 

 of animals could be studied at leisure. I do not know that there 

 is on record in the annals of our science a more direct illustration 

 of the manner in which mountain masses of calcareous deposits have 

 been accumulated on the bottom of the ocean. The animals inhabiting 

 this plateau are innumerable, and as varied as those found along the 

 shores most fertile in animal productions. A great variety of corals oc- 

 cur there, all of small size, and, strange to say, belonging to genera never 

 known before from our sea-shores. Their aggregate affinity is indeed 

 not with the living corals, but rather with the types of the tertiary and 

 cretaceous periods. Echinoderms are equally numerous ; they are also 

 small as compared to those found nearer shore, and likewise recall, by 

 their zoological affinities, the types characteristic of the cretaceous 

 period. Salenoid and Discoidea-like forms, never known among living 

 Echinoderms before, have been discovered on this plateau. Among 

 mollusks I may mention one species, — the Valuta Junonia, hitherto 

 considered the rarest shell from the southern coasts of the United States, 

 and known only from a very few worn specimens. Of that species, which 

 is particularly interesting on account of its close affinity with Valuta 

 Lamberti of the Crag, and with Valuta mutdbilis of the Miocene beds 

 of Virginia and Maryland, quite a number of living specimens, young and 

 old, have been brought up by the dredge. Two species of Brachiopods, 

 — Terehratula cubensis Pourt. and Waldheimia floridana Pourt. — are 

 extremely common, and contribute greatly to give this fauna an antique 

 character. Most of the other mollusks have not yet been identified. 

 Worms and Crustacea abound also, and a few fishes unknown to me 

 have also been obtained. All these are still undetermined. 



The extraordinary richness, profusion, and variety of animal life dis- 

 played upon this table-land amazed me, not only on account of the pecu- 

 liarity of the types, but from the vast number of individuals found to- 

 gether. The dredge coming up from such a depth, laden and crowded 

 with all sorts of living creatures, as if it had been dragged in shoaler 

 waters, was indeed a rare and startling sight for a naturalist. Such a re- 

 sult is the more unexpected, on account of the current impression, fostered 

 by Edward Forbes's and Captain RlcAndrew's extensive, dredging oper- 

 ations in the vEgean Sea, that as we descend below the surface of the 

 ocean animal life gradually and steadily diminishes, till in deep waters 



