214 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



There reached us early in the year another important report,^ by 

 onr zealous foreign member, Dr. W. H. Dall, upon the MoUusca 

 collected in deep water near the Hawaiian Islands, durinpj the cruise 

 of the "Albatross" in 1891. A conspicuous feature is the working 

 out of the anatomy of a new species of Spergo {8. gliincUnifonnis) and 

 of the author's genus Euciroa, concerning the structure of the gills 

 and discussion of the affinities of which we await with much curiosity 

 the comments of our Belgian contemporary Paul Pelseueer. 



Our Vice-President, Mr. Edgar Smith, has given us an admirable 

 report^ on some new deep-sea Mollusca from the "Investigator" 

 collection ; and our respected foreign member. Dr. H. Simroth, has 

 contributed a report upon the Acephala of the German Plankton 

 Expedition, noteworthy for the description of a new and minute 

 pelagic genus (Plimkioini/a), and full of subsidiary matter of the 

 greatest service to the student, but, alas ! marred by a regrettable 

 feature, to which I shall return. 



From the pen of Dr. Rudolf Sturany there has come a monograph 

 on the Mollusca dredged by the Austrian Deep-sea Expedition by 

 the " Pola," during the years 1890-4, in which, on comparison of 

 the Tertiary fossils of Sicily and Italy, the well-founded conclusions 

 of Eischer and others as to the uniformity of the molluscan fauna of 

 the deeper waters of the Mediterranean, and that the deep-sea fauna 

 of the Mediterranean would appear to have had a Northern Atlantic 

 origin, are confirmed. 



At the Liverpool meeting of the British Association, the Committee 

 for the study of the Marine Zoology, Botany, and Geology of the Irish 

 Sea, of which I have the honour of being a member, presented its final 

 report. I much fear my own part has been that of feeding the 

 fishes and other sea-monsters rather than of assisting to work them 

 out ; but our friend Professor W. A. Herdman, and his well-organized 

 band of Liverpoolians, have given us an exhaustive list of captures, 

 Avhich include numerous novelties. The controversy at Ipswich con- 

 cerning tliat portion of the work which deals with the " zone of deep 

 mud," is fresh in the minds of some of us. A special feature of the 

 undertaking was the careful localization and study of the bottom 

 deposits ; and in the hands of Mr. Clement Ileid, of the Geological 

 Survey, results of the greatest interest to the student of molluscan 

 chorology appear likely to accrue. 



The Antipodes have this year been the centre of exceptional 

 attention by explorers. The party headed by Professor W. J. Sollas 

 sent out in H.M.S. " Penguin," under the joint auspices of the Royal 

 Society and British Association, to investigate the structure of a coral 

 reef by boring and sounding, were baffled in their main object, but we 

 hope not beaten. Rich collections have, however, been made ; and 

 since Mr. Hedley, of the Sydney Museum, accompanied the expe- 

 dition as 'Naturalist,' Malacologists would seem assured of a good 



1 W. H. Dall, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. xvii, p. 675. 



2 E. Smith, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. VI, vol. xviii, p. 367. 



