LlNirEAN" SOCIETY OF LOXDO^f. 3 1 



perature is the principal influence whicli governs the distribution 

 of the marine fauna. As it has happened with the observations 

 and collections of many other naval men, so with Spratt's 

 lahours in the Mediterranean. No doubt, his hydrngraphical 

 observations have been duly reported in Admiralty Blue-book;?, 

 but as regards the position and details of his deep-sea dredgings, 

 we have information of four only. Nearly equally iucomplete is 

 the information left by Forbes as regards his deep-sea stations. 



Nothing more was done in the Mediterranean until the year 

 1860 *, when a paper appeared by Prof, Milne-Edwards, which 

 at the time created some sensation. In that year which, as 

 you may recollect, found "Wallich on board the 'Bulldog' col- 

 lecting evidence of abyssal life, a telegrapli-cable laid between 

 Cagliari and Bona in Algiers broke after having been in working 

 order for about two years. Long portions of it were brought to 

 the surface for repairs, some from a depth of 1200 or 1500 

 fathoms, and found to be covered with organisms, which were 

 examined by Allman and Milne-Edwards. The former, who saw 

 only a portion of the specimens, distinguished not less than 15 

 species ; whilst Milne-Edwards determined among the specimens 

 still attached to the cable Ostrea cochlear, Pecten opercularis, 

 Pecfen testce, Monodonta Jimhata, Fusus laminosus ; still more 

 numerous were the Corals, among them CaryopTiyllia arcuata, 

 C. elect rica, some Gorgonias, Brt/ozoa, and SerpulcB. The interest 

 in this find was increased when it was shown that a good pro- 

 portion of these animals are found in a fossil state in the Coralline 

 and Eed Crag, and in Pliocene strata of the Mediterranean 

 region. 



However, I have to mention that afterwards serious doubts 

 were thrown on the facts of the case. According to the engineer 

 who was present at the raising of the cable and interviewed 

 by Grwyn Jeffreys, " the cable parted and was taken up in com- 

 paratively shallow water only," and only one or two species, 

 especially the CaryopliyUia, were found adhering to the cable 

 beyond the 1000-fathoms line f- Surely Gwyn Jeffreys would not 

 have published this statement, if he had not himself credited it. 

 But even thus, when shorn of a part of its evidence, the case 

 remained one of — for that time particularly — great significance. 



Only once in my experience it has been my good fortune to 

 receive fragments of broken cable with specimens attached to them. 

 They were part of an old cable raised in the Mona passac^e 

 between Porto Eico and Dominica, from a depth of 811 fathoms 

 and thickly covered with marine growths, shells, corals, and 

 Bryozoa, so much so that even an eel-like fish {Xemichthys 

 infans) found sufiicient holding-ground to be dragged to the 

 surface. This experience showed me the great importance of 

 these cables as means of obtaining deep-sea specimens. Besides, 



» Ann. Sc. Ivat. xv. 1861, p. 149. 

 • t Gwyn Jeffreys, Ann. Mag. Xat. Hist. 1870, vi. p. 457; Thomson, 'Depths 

 f the Sea,' p. 29. 



