LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. XUl 



Members of the Council present," substitute " and countersigned 

 by one of tbe Secretaries." 



W. Carrutbers, Esq., F.E.S., moved, and H. Gr. Seeley, Esq., 

 E.L.S., seconded, '' that the proposed alterations in the Bye-laws 

 &c. be put to the Meeting seriatim;" but the President declined 

 to put the motion to the Meeting. 



After some further discussion the ballot was taken, when the 

 numbers appeared — for the proposed alterations 41, against 21 ; 

 and it having been further ascertained that there were not more 

 than 66 Fellows present at the time, the President declared the 

 proposed alterations adopted by the Society. 



The following papers were then read, viz. : — 



1. *' On some Species of Japanese Marine Shells and Pishes 

 which inhabit also the North Atlantic." By J. &wyn Jeffreys, 

 Esq., P.E.S. 



The mollusca noticed by the author were procured by Captain 

 St. John in H.M.S. ' Sylvia,' during the years 1871 and 1872, on 

 the coasts of North Japan. His dredgings varied between 3 and 

 100 fathoms. After passing in review the works of naturalists 

 who had described the marine shells of Japan, and especially the 

 ' Mollusca Japonica ' by Dr. Lischke, with reference to those 

 species which are common to Japan and Europe, Mr. Jeffreys 

 proposed to record from Captain St. John's dredgings thirty-nine 

 species, and to give the range of depth for such of them as he had 

 obtained in the ' Porcupine ' expeditions of 1869 and 1870. He 

 then offered an explanation of the occurrence of the same species 

 in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by suggesting that it was 

 probably owing to involuntary transport by tides and currents, 

 and not to voluntary migration. Very little is known about the 

 direction and force of deep-sea currents ; but high northern 

 species might be transported on the one side to Japan and on the 

 other to Europe by a bifurcation of the great Arctic current, 

 which has been traced as far south as the Straits of Gibraltar in 

 the course of the ' Porcupine ' expeditions. The entry of 

 northern species into the Mediterranean may be accounted for 

 by the former existence of a wide channel or, rather, an open sea 

 between the lower part of the Bay of Biscay and the Grulf of 



