254 Mr. J. Gwyn Jeflfreys on Dredging 



in all, fifty-four. They comprised some rarities, viz. Terehratula 

 cranium, Limopsis aurita, Axinus Croulinensis, Trochus amabilis, 

 Buccinopsis Dalei, and Cylichna alba. The shells were of the 

 usual colour; indeed this was brighter and darker in living 

 specimens of Venus ovata and Eulima bilineata than in average 

 examples of the same species taken in a few fathoms. The 

 notion that colour is absent or fainter in shells from deep water 

 seems to be quite unfounded. 



4. Geological Relations. — Fossil shells (being relics of the 

 glacial epoch) occurred in 170 fathoms and higher up to 80 fa- 

 thoms. They were chiefly Pecten Islandicus, Tellina calcaria, 

 Mija truncata, var, Uddevallensis, Saxicava rugosa, var. Uddeval- 

 lensis, Molleria costulata, and Trochus cinereus. All these spe- 

 cies and varieties inhabit high northern latitudes, and none of 

 them have been discovered living in our seas. No such fossils 

 were detected on any part of the western coast of Shetland. 



5. Extraneous incidents. — In the dredged stuff taken from 

 a depth of about 85 fathoms, on a soft sandy bottom, twenty- 

 five miles N.N.W. of Unst, I found the canine tooth of an 

 animal of the weasel tribe ; and Mr. Waller found the shoulder- 

 blade of a much smaller quadruped. These occurred within a 

 comparatively small space, although not together, and they 

 were unaccompanied by any other land organisms. The socket 

 of the tooth and the bone were corroded. It is possible that 

 the tooth was that of a tame ferret, which was accidentally killed 

 in 1862 and thrown into the sea at Balta, at a distance of about 

 thirty-five miles from the place where the tooth was dredged. 

 The tide sets with great rapidity in that direction ; and when 

 the carcase became distended by the gases evolved during putre- 

 faction, it must have floated for some time. The bone is sup- 

 posed by Mr. Boyd Dawkins to be that of a bat; this may have 

 been eaten by a snowy owl, and disgorged or voided on its way 

 back to the Faroe Isles or Iceland. I mention this curious cir- 

 cumstance to show that the bones of quadrupeds as well as of 

 man may be preserved for a long time in " the slimy bottom of 

 the deep," without being disturbed by the naturalist. When we 

 consider the vast extent of the sea-bed, and the very trifling and 

 unfrequent operations of the dredge (the one being measured 

 by square nautical degrees, and the other by square yards), we 

 ought not to be surprised that the remains of drowned mariners 

 (at least their teeth) are not thus brought to light. Clarence^s 

 dream (the creation of a sublime poet) is never likely to be 

 verified by modern research. 



I have had much pleasure in presenting a collection of the 

 rarer shells to our national Museum. 



