Distribution of Saccammina sphserica, etc 7 



repetition of his experiments, than the result of independent and 

 original investigations upon individual lines. It should, however, 

 be noted in this place that in his later (1903) published " Zusani- 

 nienstellung " {11, p. 241) Dr. Rhumbler does not speak with so 

 certain a voice. All he says in this place is : " The independence 

 of the affinities of this genus — Psammosphsera — is doubtful, as the 

 Saccammina, equipped with a symmetrical aperture, passes quickly 

 through a development stage, which agrees in all essentials with 

 the given diagnosis, so that in special cases it can he treated as a 

 youthful stage of Saccammina!' The italics are ours. 



In connexion with the researches of Drs. Rhumbler and Liicke, 

 it appears to us that the first and most striking point — in viftw of 

 the importance of their deductions — is the insufficiency of their 

 material for the purpose of arriving at a final conclusion. Dr. 

 Ehumbler's work appears to have been based entirely upon a 

 single gathering, made at the very limited depth of 40-80 metres 

 in Christiansand Fjord, Norway. Dr. Liicke's material was ob- 

 tained from wider and more varied dredgings, but even so his 

 gatherings represent but a very restricted area, being provided by 

 only eight different dredgings, spread over an area of about 200 X 

 70 miles in the central North Sea, at depths ranging from 100 to 

 400 metres. 



In view of the extreme variability of many arenaceous Fora- 

 minifera under differing conditions of d^pth and sea-bottom, such 

 sweeping conclusions as Dr. Ehumbler's do not appear to us to be 

 justifiable, and we purpose to show the impossibility of supporting 

 or confirming them when the subject is approached from the 

 standpoint afforded by an examination of material gathered from 

 widely separated localities, and under great variations in depth 

 and in the character of the surroundings. The dredgings made by 

 the Fisheries cruiser ' Goldseeker ' in connexion with the Inter- 

 national North Sea Investigations Committee for Scotland, afford 

 just such a series of dredged material as is required for the task, 

 for they have been taken during a period of several years, over an 

 area which extends from the Norwegian Fjords to the Faroe 

 Islands in the north, and southwards as far as the Firth of Forth 

 in the North Sea, and as far as the northern Irish coast on the 

 western side of Scotland. They embrace dredgings made in all 

 depths down to over 1600 metres, and representing all conditions 

 of sea- bottom from terrigenous deposits to Glohigerina ooze. We 

 present in this paper the results obtained from an examination and 

 analysis of about 140 dredgings. The stations at which these 

 were made are plotted upon the chart accompanying this paper, 

 on- which, and in the table annexed hereto, an attempt has been 

 made to indicate the distribution of the two forms, as occumng 

 alone or in combination, with, in the latter case, an indication of 

 the proportions in which they occur, relatively to one another. 



