194 REPORT—1850. 
marine fauna in the world has been investigated with anything like the care 
devoted to that of the British seas. 
Nevertheless much remains to be done. ΑἹ] parts of the British and Irish 
shores haye been more or less explored, but not all in an equally systematic 
manner. On the eastern coasts, the registration of the depths of marine 
animals has been carefully attended to by Mr, Alder, Lieut. Thomas, R.N., 
Mr. Albany Hancock, Mr. Howse, and Mr. King; whilst Dr. Johnston, Sir 
John Dalyell, Dr. Fleming, Mr. Bean, Mr. Embleton, Professors Goodsir and 
Macgillivray, the late lamented Dr. J. Reid, and many other able observers, 
have devoted themselves to the examination of the marine invertebrata, 
From the north-eastern coast of Scotland, many valuable dredging papers 
have been filled up by Mr: MacAndrew, and a considerable accumulation of 
valuable data for tabulating the depths of the Testacea in the southern part 
of the German ocean, were accumulated by the late Capt. Owen Stanley, R.N., 
and are in possession of the reporter. Around the shores of Ireland, a valu- 
able mass of data has been collected by Mr, W. Thompson of Belfast, Dr. 
Robert Ball, Mr. Patterson, Professors Harvey, Allman, and McCoy, Mr. 
Hyndman, Dr. Farran, Mr. Humphreys, and Mr. Warren, all Irish natural- 
ists, and added to by Mr. Barlee, Mr. Jeffreys, Mr. Hassell, Mr. MacAndrew, 
and myself. Both from the eastern coasts of Britain, and the whole range 
of the Irish coast, more well-filled tabulated forms are still wanting; conse- 
quently I have thought it advisable in the first instance to report on the re- 
sults of dredging on the western, southern and northern shores of Great 
Britain, from which data have been collected very fully and systematically, 
and more than 140 forms of “ Dredging papers” fully filled up. With one 
exception (by Mr. Hyndman), these have been recorded on the spot at the 
time of the operation, by Mr. MacAndrew and myself, jointly or separately. 
Numerous isolated records of depths of particular species within this area 
are embodied in the following tables from the observations of Mr. Jeffreys, 
Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, Mr. Barlee, Mr. Alder, Mr. Hanley, Mr, Clark of 
Bath, and Captain Otter, R.N.; and for the Orkney Isles, a most valuable 
record of depths has been drawn up by Lieut. Thomas, R.N., during his 
survey of those islands. The obligations of science to the officers engaged 
in the Hydrographical Survey of the British seas cannot be too strongly ex- 
pressed. 
In order to reduce the contents of these papers, and to embody the isolated 
observations in a useful form, I have tabulated the data in two series of 
tables. One includes all the depths at which the species of testaceous Mollusca 
and Radiata were taken during these operations, the species themselves being 
ranged in systematic order. The nature of the ground upon which they were 
found is in every registered case recorded, and also whether the individuals 
were taken alive or dead. 
In a second series of tables, all the fully-registered dredging forms are 
tabulated and analysed, with a record of the year of observation, the 
distance from shore, the depth, the nature of the sea-bed, the number of 
species of Univalve testacea taken alive and dead, the same of Bivalve testa- 
cea, and the number of Echinodermata, a statement of the species taken 
most abundantly, of the rare forms found, and of any peculiarities in the 
assemblage of creatures observed in the particular locality. 
ception of the first, have been published since the Meeting of the British Association at 
Birmingham in 1839, and much of their most valuable materials have been collected in con- 
sequence of the researches set on foot at that meeting. 
