208 Mr. H. J. Carter on Deep-sea 



Thus, in the present instance, I shall have recourse to 

 Johnston's Halichondria incrustans, whose description, inclu- 

 ding Col. Montagu's observations (Johnst. Brit. Sponges, 1842, 

 p. 122, pi. xi. fig. 3, and pi. xii. fig. 3), leaves no doubt in my 

 mind that the species grows plentifully about this place (Bud- 

 leigh-Salterton, Devon) j while Johnston's figures of If. in- 

 crustans and H. saburata, together with his specimens now 

 in the Johnstonian Collection of the British Museum, have 

 led me, as well as Dr. Bowerbank (B. S. vol. ii. p. 248) to 

 the conclusion that they all represent one and the same sponge, 

 viz. Halichondria incrustans. 



The reason that I have not yet published descriptions of 

 more of the sponges that were dredged up on board H.M.S. 



I Porcupine,' which were handed over to me for this purpose, 

 is that the system under which I have arranged the collection 

 of sponges in the British Museum is not yet sufficiently ma- 

 tured for publication ; and until I have this for reference, there 

 is no other arrangement of the sponges that appears to me to 

 offer any thing so practicable. " Why then," it may be asked, 



II do you still publish descriptions of these specimens?" My 

 reply is, that " the examination and arrangement of the collec- 

 tion of sponges in the British Museum has already taken up so 

 much time that it seems to me better that I should at once do 

 a little more to the deep-sea ones, and thus partly anticipate 

 my arrangement, than leave them all for description until this 

 is completed." 



Returning, then, to Halichondria incrustans,\i will be remem- 

 bered by those acquainted with the elements of this sponge 

 that one of the minute or " flesh-spicules " is an anchorate, 

 somewhat like that illustrated in my last communication to the 

 ' Annals ' (vol. xiv. p. 105, pi. x. fig. 12) ; and before proceed- 

 ing to the description and illustration of the deep-sea sponges, 

 it is desirable that I should notice this spicule in detail in H. 

 mcrustans, which, perhaps, affords the best typical form of it 

 that can be obtained for this purpose, at the same time that the 

 sponge producing it is common on our shores. 



The term " anchorate," first used by Dr. Bowerbank (Haken, 

 Schmidt), answers very well generically; but as one end of 

 this spicule is occasionally much more developed than the 

 other, Dr. Bowerbank has found it necessary to add the specific 

 terms " equianchorate " and " inequianchorate," which, respec- 

 tively, are equally appropriate. 



It is the " equianchorate " form, as it exists in Halichondria 

 incrustans, that, being the most typical of the two, I am now 

 about to describe in detail, in order that the same kind of flesh- 

 spicule, which will hereafter be found to be so extraordinarily 



