46 PROCEEDINaS OF THE 



its southern half of pure Olohigerina-oozQ. The fauna is rich, 

 and was found to be richest on the slope from the littoral zone 

 into deep water, tha.t is from 150 to about 350 fathoms. 



Mr. Alcock* says that we fiud in the Bay of Bengal already at 

 70 fathoms among all the classes of marine animals numerous 

 characteristic reactions to bathybial conditions, and that, there- 

 fore, the 100-fathoras line appears to be a sufficiently unequivocal 

 limit. Only a part of the collections have been worked out, 

 particularly the Pishes and some groups of Crustaceans and 

 Echinoderms ; and for this we are chiefly indebted to Mr. Alcock 

 and Mr. A. R. S. Anderson. More than 200 species have been 

 added by them to the Indian Fauna ; but what, perhaps, is of 

 equal interest is the evidence that many highly characteristic 

 types which we knew from Madeira and Japan occur also in this 

 intermediate area. 



In the whole expanse of the Indian Ocean north of the 45° of 

 latitude I can point only to one other small spot, on which 

 incidentally the dredge reached 187 fathoms, capturing a few 

 invertebrates ; and this happened during the examination of the 

 Macclesfield Bank, a submerged cornl atoll in the Chinese Sea, by 

 Mr. P. W. Bassett-Smith in H.M.S. ' Penguin,' which under the 

 command of Commander W. U. Moore surveyed the bank in 1892. 



The work done on board the ' Investigator ' was quite secon- 

 dary to the proper duties of the Suiwey ; yet the results were 

 such as to take everyone by surprise, and to make the ' Investi- 

 gator ' known wherever advancement of science is appreciated. 

 I understand that the survey of every part of the seas around 

 British India, which is important for trade, industry, or navi- 

 gation, is completed or nearly so. Would this, then, not be an 

 opportune time to commission this ship for a three or four 

 months' cruise for purely scientific-purposes ? The arrangement 

 of deep-sea work, and even the management of the trawl and 

 other apparatus in deep water, requires intimate acquaintance 

 with almost every branch of oceanography and an amount of 

 special technical skill which is only acquired by practice and 

 experience. It seems a pity that while the experience gained on 

 board the ' Investigator ' is at least partly still available in the 

 service, no further benefit should accrue from it for science. I 

 am not advocating a grand and costly oceanic expedition, but 

 only one for which a fair-weather ship, such as the ' Investi- 

 gator ' is reported to be, is adapted. So far we have a very 

 imperfect zoological knowledge of the depths of the Andaman 

 Sea, which, to judge from the few prodigious hauls of Carpenter 

 and Alcock, must rival Japan and the West Indies in the variety 

 of animal life : we know scarcely anything of the depths east of 

 Ceylon : we know nothing whatever of the sea to the west of the 

 Laccadives or of the north-western parts of the Arabian Sea, 

 although from the few objects which fell into the hands of 

 Dr. Jayakar at Muscat, the abundance of a highly interesting 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1890, Sept., p. 197. 



