50 REPORT — 1844. 



of femur, fourteen inches. The author ohserves, that tlie only published species ex- 

 hibiting the above relative proportions of head and neck, is the Plesionaurus macroce- 

 phalus of Conybeare, to which he supposes the present fossil must be referred. To 

 agree however fully with the characters assigned to this species by Prof Owen, the 

 respective lengths of the femur and humerus should have been twelve and fourteen 

 inches. He also finds the tail more depressed than it appears to have been in the 

 celebrated specimen of P. macrocephalus belonging to the Earl of Enniskillen. The 

 author in conclusion, regretted not having had time to make a more rigid examination 

 of the Kettleness fossil, and stated his intention to publish a detailed account on some 

 future occasion. 



On the Discovery, by Mr. Searles Wood, of an Alligator in the Freshwater 

 Cliff at Hordioell, associated with extinct Mammalia. Communicated by 

 Mr. Charlesworth. 



A considerable portion of the skeleton of an alligator, to which Mr. Wood gives the 

 specific name Hantoniensis, was discovered by this gentleman at Hordwell, in the 

 summer of 1843. He found at the same time the teeth and jaws of a Pachyderma- 

 tous Mammal, closely related to Hyracotherium, but not larger than a Hedgehog. 

 Regarding these remains as indicating a new genus, Mr. Wood proposes the name 

 Microchccnis, with the specific term erinaceus. Associated with the above fossils 

 there were also discovered some portions of the jaws of a very small insectivorous ani- 

 mal, and two very remarkable teeth, referred by Mr. Charlesworth to an extinct genus 

 of Seals. 



Remains of various other extinct vertebrata were discovered on this occasion by 

 Mr. Wood at Hordwell, including Palceotherium (teeth and bones), Lepidosteus (scales, 

 jaws and vertebrae), the bone of a bird, with vertebrae referable probably to Ophi- 

 dians and small Saurians, and incisor teeth of Rodents. 



Mr. Charlesworth suggested the generic name Spalacodon for a small insectivorous 

 animal, indicated by a portion of a jaw which Mr. Flower of Croydon obtained from 

 Hordwell, and entrusted to Mr. Charlesworth for publication with Mr. Wood's fossils. 



On the Bathymetrical Distribution of Submarine Life on the Northern Shores 

 of Scandinavia. By Professor Loven of Stockholm, Communicated by 

 Mr. MuRCHisoN, P.R.Geoffr.S. 



By an examination of the sea-bottoms along the coasts of Norwaj', the author had 

 arrived at the same conclusions as those established by Professor Forbes from researches 

 in the iEgean Sea. After remarking on this, he says, " As to the regions, the littoral 

 and laminarian are very well defined everywhere, and their characteristic species do 

 not spread very far out of them. The same is the case with the region of florideous 

 Algae, which is most developed nearer to the open sea. But it is not so with the regions 

 from fifteen to one hundred fathoms. Here there is at the same time thegreatest num- 

 ber of species and the greatest variety of their local assemblages; and it appears to me 

 that their distribution is regulated, not only by depths, currents, &c., but by the nature 

 of the bottom itself, the mixture of clay, mud, pebbles, &c. Thus, for instance, the 

 same species of Amphidesma, Nucula, Natica, Eulima, Dentalium, &'c., which are cha- 

 racteristic of a certain muddj' ground at fifteen to twenty fathoms, are found together 

 at eighty to one hundred fathoms. Hence it appears, that tlie species in this region 

 have generally a wider vertical range than the littoral, laminarian, and perhaps as 

 great as the deep-sea coral. The last-named region is with us characterized, in the 

 south by Ocullna ramea and Terebratula, and in the north by Astrophyton, Cidaris, 

 Spatangus pwpureus of an immense size, all living, besides Gorgoniae and the gigantic 

 Alcyonium arboreum, which continues as far down as any fisherman's line can be sunk. 

 As to the point where animal life ceases, it must be somewhere, but with us it is un- 

 known. As the vegetation ceases at a line far above the deepest regions of animal life, 

 of course the zoophagous mojlusca are altogether predominant in these parts, while the 

 phytophagous are more peculiar to the upper regions. The observation of Professor 

 E. Forbes, that British species are found in the Mediterranean, but only at greater 

 depths, corresponds exactly with what lias occurred to me. In Bogoslaa (between 



