394 Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys on Dredging among the Hebrides. 
Messrs. Chydenius and Malmgren, made during the expedition, 
and with all the animals discovered in those ereat depths. The 
latter comprised:—Annelida, viz. species of Spiochetopterus and 
Cirratulus ; Crustacea, viz. a Cuma which appeared to be iden- 
tical with C. rubicunda, Lilljeborg, and an Apseudes; Mollusca, 
viz. a Cylichna; Gephyrea, viz. a fragment of Myriotrochus Rinki, 
Steenstrup, and another allied form with large and fewer star- 
wheels, and of smaller wheels of the Myriotrochus-type ; a spe- 
cies of Sipunculus resembling S. margaritaceus, Sars ; and, lastly, 
a sponge, in which were found a Copepod or Ostracod, and a 
fragment of a Cuma resembling C. nasica. In the opinion of 
Lovén these animals indicate, so far as can be judged by so 
small a number, that in the abysses of the glacial seas there lives 
a fauna which does not greatly differ from that which lives on 
the same kind of bottom at much less depths. Proceeding up- 
wards to the surface, from 50 or 60 fathoms the regions or zones 
have a greater variety of animals, even over the same kind of 
bottom. Taking this into consideration, and also recollecting 
that in the Antarctic seas, at measurable depths, there are forms 
of Mollusca and Crustacea which exhibit partly generic, partly 
almost specific identity with northern and hyperborean forms, the 
idea occurs to him that, from 60 or 80 fathoms down to the 
greatest depth known to be inhabited by animals, the bottom is 
everywhere covered with a soft and fine mud or clay, and that 
there exists from pole to pole, in all latitudes, a deep-sea fauna 
of the same general character, many species of which have avery 
wide distribution. He also thinks it probable that in the vici- 
nity of both poles such a uniform fauna approaches the surface ; 
while in tropical seas it occupies the depths of the ocean, the 
coast-line there being represented by vast regions of distinct 
faunas, the circumferences or areas of which are much more li- 
mited. But, in the face of the discovery made by Professor Sars 
that large Brachiopoda, stony corals, and Polyzoa, as well as cer- 
tain Mollusca (e. g. Anomia and Sazicava) which are peculiar to 
a hard or even toa rocky bottom, inhabit a depth of 300 fathoms, 
and seeing that Dr. Wallich found a living Serpula attached to 
a stone at the depth of 682 fathoms, I am not prepared to accept, 
without considerable qualification, Professor Lovén’s notion that 
the sea-bottom from 60 or 80 fathoms downwards is everywhere 
formed of soft material; indeed we need not go far from home 
to seek a refutation of this idea. Captain Beechey’s dredgings 
off the Mull of Galloway, in 145 fathoms (as reported by the 
late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, in the ‘Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History’ for September 1842, p. 21), yielded live speci- 
mens of Chiton fascicularis, C. cinereus, Trochus millegranus, and 
Trophon Barvicensis, all of which are inhabitants of hard or 
