426 Mr. A. Alcock on undescrihed Shore-Finhf'S 



namely, one from Ceylon, two from the Andaman side, and 

 eleven (including one common to two conventional localities) 

 from the east coast of India. 



A short sketch of some of the more obvious physical and 

 faunistic features of the ' Investigator's ' trawling-stations may 

 first be given. 



i. The South-east Coast of Ceylon is rocky and reefy, and 

 on the occasions in this and previous years on which the 

 * Investigator ' has used the trawl here the bottom has been 

 found to consist of coarse sand and broken shells and a shingle 

 of irregular fragments of coral, with worn and eroded surfaces 

 more or less incrusted with Foraminifera, Sponges, Hydrozoa, 

 Bryozoa, &c. These in their turn shelter, among other things, 

 crowds of small Crustaceans — Leucosiiie crabs being predo- 

 minant — which, in their colour, in their form and sculpture, 

 and in their curious cataleptiforni attitudes, furnish mo?t 

 wonderful examples of ]n-otective resemblance to their animate 

 and inanimate surroundings. The ground-fishes taken here 

 too [Rhomhoidichthys polylepis^ Rh. angustifrons, Rh. azureus, 

 Samaris crtstatus)^ in the complicated and undescribable 

 mottling and variegation of their upper surfaces, show most 

 remarkable harmonies with their environment. 



ii. The Andaman Chain. — Oft' the rocks and reefs we again 

 meet with a clean bottom of incrusted rock and coral shingle, 

 with a profusion of Hydrozoa, Polyzoa, Comatulids, &c., 

 harbouring small Crustaceans. But the ground is too rough 

 for the use of the trawl ; and the tangles, which alone are 

 available, have not brought up many fishes. 



iii. The OuJf of Martahan. — Here the bottom is formed of 

 the copious silt of the Irrawadi, Sittang, and iSalween liivers, 

 and the marine fauna has the well-known facies of all Indian 

 deltas. 



iv. 2 he Ganjam Coast. — The 120 miles of this part of the 

 east coast of the peninsula, along which the systematic trawling 

 of the 'Investigator' was carried on during the season, are 

 characterized by low-lying sand-dunes, broken by the nume- 

 rous creeks and swamps into which the small river-channels 

 from the Eastern Gh^ts open. The sea is shallow (the 100- 

 fathom line being from 18 to 23 miles distant from shore), and 

 the bottom consists of mud or of fine sand, though occasionally 

 a rocky patch with a profuse Coilenterate fauna is met with. 

 Setting aside the last, where the details of the fauna strongly 

 recall those of the south-east coast of Ceylon, one is able to 

 distinguish three well-marked bathymetric ranges of life 

 along this coast. 



a. Within the limits of the first, which extends from the 



