"266 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. VI. 
of the existing Fauna and Flora of the British 
Isles,’’ may be said to mark an era in the progress 
of human thought. 
After enumerating various additions to our know- 
ledge of the distribution of marine invertebrata 
within the British area which were still to be de- 
sired, Forbes concludes his report with the following 
sentence: “And lastly, though I fear the consum- 
mation, however devoutly wished for, is not likely 
soon to be effected, a series of dredgings between 
the Zetland and the Feeroe Isles, where the greatest 
depth is under 700 fathoms, would throw more light 
on the natural history of the North Atlantic and 
on marine zoology generally than any investigation 
that has yet been undertaken.” | 
To Forbes’s general report succeeded many reports 
from the different sections into which from year to 
year the committee divided itself. Among these I 
may mention particularly the very excellent work 
done by the Belfast dredging committee, communi- 
cated to several meetings of the Association by the 
late Mr. George C. Hyndman; the reports of the 
Dublin committee by the late Professor Kinahan 
and Professor E. Perceval Wright; the important 
lists of the fauna of the East Coast of England re- 
ported on behalf of the Natural History Society of 
Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
and of the Tyne-side Naturalists’ Field Club, by Mr. 
Henry T. Mennell and Mr. G. 8. Brady; and lastly, 
the invaluable reports on the marine fauna of the 
Hebrides and Shetland, compiled at an extraordinary 
expense of labour, discomfort, and privation—doubt- 
less with an immediate guerdon of infinite enjoyment 
