ZOOLOGY 



MARINE ZOOLOGY 



The investigations of marine zoologists of world-wide reputation 

 have been carried out on the coasts of Northumberland and Durham. 

 Such men were Joshua Alder and Albany Hancock. Contemporary 

 with these, though younger men, were Richard Howse (better known 

 as a geologist), Henry Brady, who studied the Foraminifera, and George 

 Hodge. All these are deceased, the last dying when he was quite 

 young. Others are still living, Canon A. M. Norman, Professor G. S. 

 Brady, and A. Meek, the last having, during the past three years, worked 

 perseveringly at some groups of the Crustacea and at the Fishes. On 

 the labours of all these and their publications, as well as on some hitherto 

 unrecorded observations, the lists here given of the various classes of the 

 marine fauna are based. 



The Durham coast-line is most unfavourable for the life of shore 

 and shallow-water animals, since it is utterly devoid of sheltered bays, 

 and subject to the constant beating of the waves of a sea which is rarely 

 calm. The fauna of the North Sea has a decidedly boreal facies. Large 

 numbers of southern forms which are to be met with at the same 

 latitude on the western side of England being absent, while there is a 

 larger infusion of Scandinavian species. 



The chief shore collecting ground of Alder, of Hancock, and of 

 others has been that situated just north of the mouth of the Tyne 

 (Cullercoats, Whitley, etc.) and separated from the coast of Durham by 

 only a few miles. It is probable therefore that all the species which 

 are known from these localities live also on the Durham coast, but direct 

 evidence of that fact being wanting, they are not here included in its 

 fauna ; and this applies not only to the animals found living between 

 tide-marks, but also to numerous small shells collected from shell-sand, 

 which shell-sand, however, may have been drifted either from the south 

 or from the north. On the other hand, species which have been 

 recorded as obtained from the fishing-boats at Cullercoats are included, 

 as it is quite as probable that they were brought in from the south as 

 from the north of that harbour ; and moreover it may be safely assumed 

 that at a distance from land the same animals, perhaps without exception, 

 would be found for some miles on both sides of the mouth of the 

 Tync. 



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