52 SALPID^. 



climates and of the Mediterranean Sea. I found it in great 

 abundance in the harbours of Canna and Campbeltown, rising to 

 the surface in calm weather, and crowding the water, as the Me- 

 dusce often do at the same time of the year. It may be called 

 Saljxi moniliformis, and defined as follows : — 



"S. ovato-lanceolata, ano fusco, absque appendice terminali. 



" I was desirous of observing whether this animal, like many 

 other of the marine worms, emitted light, but had no oi^portunity 

 of ascertaining the fact, as they seemed always to retire to the 

 bottom at sunset, and those which were taken on board died, as I 

 have 'already observed, in a very short time." 



During a voyage round the coast of Scotland, in 1821, 

 Dr. Fleming, who gave a very interesting account of his 

 journey in the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,"''' ob- 

 served Salpa in great numbers on the coast of Caithness. 

 He describes them as occurring abundantly in sj^ring, when 

 they form chains of a foot and more in length. The 

 separated individuals are about an inch in length, and 

 shaped like a cylinder, with a long conical process at 

 each extremity, the anteal one being rather more produced 

 thnn the other. The nucleus is of a dark brownish-orange 

 colour, and, as well as the branchial band, is distinctly 

 seen through the transparent gelatinous body. The Salpee 

 are gregarious, in company with " Biclimena quadrancju- 

 laris''' (Beroe cucumis). They seem, however, to be very 

 capricious in their appearance. During three voyages which 

 we have made in the Scottish seas, although continually and 

 anxiously on the look-out for these creatures, we have never 

 encountered them. Lately they have been met with, but 

 only, occasionally, by Mr. M'AndrcAv ; and Lieutenant 

 Thomas, R.N., has taken them in the Orkneys, and suc- 

 ceeded in preserving them in both their solitary and aggre- 

 gate forms. An examination of sjDecimens, kindly commu- 

 nicated by that active officer and observant naturalist, has 

 enabled us to identify them certainly with the Salpa rmi- 

 cinata, which Sars has found so abundantly, and figured so 

 Mcll, from the coast of Norway. The figures we have given 



