400 Prof. Mantosh on the 



LIX. — On Contrasts in the Marine Fauna of Great Britain, 

 By Prof. M'Intosh, M.D., LL.U., F'R.S., &c.* 



I HAVE drawn together some of the impressions made by an 

 examination of the littoral fauna, and that within a few miles 

 of the shore, at the four points of the compass in the British 

 area, leaving out, however, on the present occasion all refer- 

 ence to Ireland. Thus, for the north Shetland, for the south 

 the Channel Islands, for the east St. Andrews, and for the 

 west the Outer Hebrides have been selected. As, however, a 

 long stretch of English coast on both sides would have been left 

 out, it has been thought desirable to supplement these in certain 

 cases by similar investigations at Scarborough, the Tees, the 

 Humber, and the Orwell on the east, and at Southport and 

 the Isle of Man on the west ; whilst on the south the Isle of 

 Wight and Plymouth give some useful data. 



The whole British marine area is included in the Celtic 

 province of Edward Forbes, the Shetland Islands alone in 

 the north having an admixture of boreal forms, while the 

 Channel Islands present an admixture of southern types, or, 

 as Forbes called them, Lusitanian forms. I may explain in 

 passing that this accomplished naturalist grouped the seas of 

 Western Europe into live provinces, viz. the Arctic, Boreal, 

 Celtic, Lusitanian, and Mediterranean, each of tliese being 

 one of his centres of creation, for he believed that nowhere 

 do we find a province repeated — "that is to say, in none except 

 one centre of creation do we find the same assemblage of 

 typical species, or, in other words, no species has been called 

 forth originally in more areas than one." The vast advances 

 which have been made in marine exploration, however, since 

 the publication of his ' Natural History of the European 

 Seas' (1859) have levelled some of his barriers and have 

 shown how wide the distribution of many species is. Yet 

 even in so limited an area as that of the seas of Britain we 

 shall find certain interesting facts underlying the generaliza- 

 tions of Forbes. 



In the brief compass of a more or less simple introductory 

 lecture it is, of course, impossible to give a detailed or com- 

 plete view of the four points selected. It becomes necessary, 

 therefore, to choose only the most salient features for review 

 and discussiun, a preference, moreover, being given for those 

 which in one way or other bear on problems of general 

 interest. 



* The Introductory Lecture to the Class of Natural History, University 

 of St. Andrews, 9th October, 1896. 



