328 



NA TURE 



[August 2, 1900 



specimens of Adeona were captured. This curious Bryozoarian, 

 of leaf-like shape and attached to a segmented stem, has some- 

 times been considered as one of the Isidince. 



Of the curious solitary Alcyonarians, the Haimeidte, which up 

 to now are known as small specimens from the Red Sea and 

 from Algiers, a species of a very considerable size has been met 

 with. Amphianthus, an absolutely flat Aclinian, was found on 

 the shell of a Dentalium, and amongst the numerous Echino- 

 derm-finds material abounds to definitely settle the question 

 about the regeneration and the so-called comet forms of Linckia. 

 It could be demonstrated that the regeneration takes place, with- 

 out any part of the disc being preserved, from a bare arm-frag- 

 ment. On these Linckias the parasitical molluscs, Thyca and 

 Stylifer, were often present. Various Solenogastres were 

 captured, and many interesting Cephalopods. The fish collec- 

 tion is also very considerable, and a great many deep-sea forms 

 are among them, of which a specimen of Ruvettus attains to a 

 size of several feet. 



The most beautifully transparent larval Mursenas were at the 

 other end of the scale, and were also exhibited at the meeting. 

 Both they and other pelagic organisms. Medusae, Heteropods, 

 &c., were most successfully preserved in formalin. On the 

 whole the preservation of all the specimens, for which the most 

 various methods were employed, is first-rate ; and Mr. 

 Nierstrasz, to whose supervision this had been more especially 

 entrusted, received due recognition of his merits on this head. 

 Some hundred bottles of plankton have yet to be sorted and 

 worked out. Dr. Versluys communicated to the meeting the 

 results of investigations into the amount of oxygen contained in 

 the sea- water at difterent points which he had made during the 

 cruise, and Prof. Weber called attention to certain hydro- 

 graphical results of primary importance obtained by the 

 expedition. 



The gist of these is that the communication between the deep 

 water of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and that of the Archi- 

 pelagan basins is very diff"erent from what it was expected to be. 

 The different straits between the lesser Sunda Islands, Bali to 

 Flores, are none of them deep enough to allow of any horizontal 

 passage of the deeper and colder strata (where the temperature 

 is 0-9° C.) into the Banda basin and its continuations between 

 Flores and Timor and between Flores and Celebes. These un- 

 doubtedly receive their cold bottom-water from the Pacific 

 Ocean by way of the deep communications indicated on the map 

 to the north of Buru (the so-called Ceram sea), which opens out 

 into the Pacific by a narrow passage (the so-called Moluccan 

 passage). In the deep spurs, to which the name of Bali and 

 Flores sea may be given, the expedition could actually demon- 

 strate the existence of a bottom-current which flows westward 

 and which brings the cold water from the Banda sea into these 

 recesses where the supply from the Indian Ocean through the 

 numerous straits is only superficial and restricted to surface- 

 water of a temperature of more than 12° C. The cold bottom- 

 current of 3° C. just alluded to, which slowly flows westward 

 out of the Banda sea, even rises up along the sloping coasts of 

 the Kangeang-Paternoster-Postillon islands (not indicated on 

 the map) situated north of this deep sea spur, as could be demon- 

 strated both by serial temperatures and even by the net, which, 

 as mentioned above, brought up deep-sea forms from compara- 

 tively shallow water, just because of this bottom current, which, 

 being hemmed in, flows towards the surface. 



The temperature of 3° C. referred to above is the uniform 

 minimum temperature for the whole of the Banda basin below 

 the depth of 1600 m., and the theoretical conclusion that no 

 deeper communications than this exist with either of the Oceans 

 was practically verified, and also (as indicated above) that the 

 cold water of the greater depths comes from the Pacific and not 

 from the Indian Ocean. 



The Banda Sea, se7isu strictiori, was further found to be 

 different from what was hitherto held. On charts, mention is 

 made of a depth of 7000 metres (4000 fathoms) in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Banda. This depth has been demonstrated by the 

 Siboga to be due to some error, the depth being nowhere below 

 55CK) metres, and the basin itself being most unexpectedly inter- 

 sected by two shallow ridges, clearly visible on the map, the 

 more westward of which has been named the Siboga Ridge. 

 Geological speculations concerning this part of the earth's crust 

 will undoubtedly be influenced by these results. 



For the distribution of deep-sea animals, the difference of a 

 couple of degrees between the bottom-water of these basins 

 and that of the oceans will certainly not have much importance; 



NO. 1605. VOL. 62] 



and even the ridges will in the long run prevent only very 

 few deep-sea animals from penetrating into the basins in the 

 course of generations, when the difference of pressure can be 

 slowly neutralised. At all. events, the catches did not justify 

 expectations that these enclosed deep basins might harbour a 

 deep-sea fauna which, by its isolation from the ocean, had 

 developed into peculiar local deep-sea faunas particular to those 

 basins. 



The hydrographical work of the expedition has thus been of 

 very considerable importance, and will soon be also noticeable 

 in improved navigating charts for the regions explored. Even 

 geographical corrections of considerable amount are amongst 

 the results of the cruise. The south coast of the large island 

 of Timor (of which the eastern half is a Portuguese, the western 

 a Dutch possession) will have to undergo a radical alteration, 

 as indicated on the accompanying sketch (Fig. 2). Thus the 

 Siboga expedition has not inconsiderably reduced the colonial 

 surface area of Portugal, having anchored in spots which, accord- 

 ing to the present maps, lie far inland. 



The expedition can thus be complimented on having achieved 

 a most successful piece of work, and it is undoubtedly in the 

 first place due to the undaunted energy of the leader. Prof. 

 Weber, and to the exemplary skill of the officer in command of 

 the vessel, Comm. Tydeman, who for many years has already 

 been one of the leading hydrographers in the Archipelago, The 

 liberality of the Naval Department, and its active co-operation 

 in all that pertained to the expedition, have been especially 

 noticeable. 



The results, both hydrographical, botanical, zoological and 

 geological, will, as soon as possible, be worked out by different 



Fig. 2.— The coast-line of Timor. The outside southern coast-line fs 

 as indicated upon current maps ; the inner line shows the true 

 coast-line as determined by the Siboga. 



specialists, and be brought together in a series of well-illustrated 

 quarto volumes, the number of which is roughly estimated at 

 about fifteen. Several specialists, both Dutch and foreign, have 

 already promised to co-operate, and what with Alcock's researches 

 in the Bay of Bengal, the Valdivias exploration of the Indian 

 Ocean, the Australian investigations of the Barrier Reef and the 

 Torres Straits, the Belgian Antarctic expedition, and Agassiz's 

 dredging expeditions in the Pacific, we can safely say that, by 

 the time this publication will have appeared, we will have ob- 

 tained a very thorough knowledge of an important portion of 

 the abyssal regions, towards the exploration of which the 

 Lightning, Porcupine and Challenger have set the example, and 

 the Blake, Albatross, Travailleur, Talisman, Gazelle, Vettor 

 Pisani, Willem Barents, Hirondelle and Princes se Alice have 

 so considerably contributed from other parts of the globe. 



A. A. W. H, 



EXPERIMENTATION ON EMOTION. 

 (~\F points where physiology and psychology touch, the place 

 ^-^ of one lies at the phenomenon "emotion." Built upon 

 sense-feeling much as cognition is built upon sense-perception, 

 emotion may be regarded almost as a.*' feeling" — a "feeling " 

 excited, not by a simple unelaborated sensation, but by a 

 group or train of ideas. To such compound ideas it holds 

 relation much as does "feeling" to certain species of simple 

 sense-perceptions. It has a special physiological interest in that 

 certain visceral reactions are peculiarly concomitant with it. 

 Heart, blood-vessels, respiratory muscles and secretory glands 



