12 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



Dr. Alcock srives expression to the opinion that these seas were 

 formerly part of a great inland ocean, '' of which the present 

 Mediterranean is the shrunken remains. Peninsular India and 

 Ceylon then formed a great island-continent, connected by a 

 chain of large islands — of some of which the Maldives and Chagos 

 and Seychelles are the tombstones — with Madagascar and South 

 Africa, and separated from the present heart of Asia by a deep 

 channel — a channel perhaps traversed, much as now the West 

 Indies traverse the Caribbean, by a series of islands, which may 

 have been lowly precursors of the Himalayas ; for these gigantic 

 mountains are of quite recent origin." 



The distribution of certain deep-sea fishes and other animals 

 can (so far as our present knowledge of the abyssal regions of the 

 ocean extends) only be rendered intelligible by some such inference 

 as that just quoted. A fish belonging to the family of the Weevers 

 or Trachinidse was first discovered in Japanese waters and named 

 Bemhi'ops caudimacula by Professor Steindachner of Vienna in 

 1877. Three years later it was again discovered in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and several years afterwards it was found by the " Investi- 

 gator" to belong also to the fauna of the 100-fathom line in the 

 Bay of Bengal, having been trawled in 128 fathoms off the Coro- 

 mandel Coast.* 



From a depth exceeding 700 fathoms near the Laccadives a 

 gigantic Crustacean named Bathynomus giganteus, belonging to 

 the same order (Isopoda) as the common wood-louse, was brought 

 to the surface by the " Investigator." It was first obtained about 

 twenty years ago at a depth of 955 fathoms in the Gulf of Mexico 

 to the north-east of Yucatan, and was described by the late Pro- 

 fessor A. Milne-Edwards of Paris. A specimen of this wonderful 

 abyssal Isopod, measuring 12 inches in length and 4 inches across, 

 has been more recently dredged off the north-east coast of Ceylon 

 in 594 fathoms.f 



Many other examples of similar distribution of marine animals 

 which live and feed on the sea-bottom are known. Of these, one 

 of the most notable instances is afforded by the so-called King 

 Crabs of the genus TJmiihis, which are found living in shallow 

 water at certain localities on the Japanese, Moluccan, Malaccan, 

 and Indian coasts, and also off the east coast of New England and 

 in the West Indies. 



The genus Linmhis, of which a number of fossil species dating 

 back to the Carboniferous and Jurassic formations have been 



* Alcock, op. cit., p. 120. 



t Alcock, op. cit., pp. 127 and 271. It is a matter for regret that the Colombo 

 Museum does not profit by these new discoveries. 



