P)G'2 Prof. J. A. Thomson and Mr. G. Crane on 



lie gives a rate of a mile in about 8 days, presumably on a 

 horizontal surface, while Ancylus Jiuviatilis, he tells us, has 

 been recorled to travel at the rate of a mile in 2 years and 

 10 months. It seems doubtful whether any of our marine 

 GastrojDods will be found to excel Ancylus in the deliberate- 

 ness of its movements, while it is not improbable that EoUs 

 drummondi, on the level, might be found to rival the speed of 

 the Limaces, since the observations recorded in these notes 

 show that the Nudibranch can climb at the rate of a mile in 

 about 9 days 18 hours. To compare the small things of the 

 organic world with the great things of the inorganic, the 

 quickest travel rate of E. drummondi is some 260 times as 

 great as the summer motion of the central and most rapidly 

 moving portion of that famous ice-stream, the Mer de Glace. 



XLVII. — Ahyonarians from the Gulf of Catch. By Prof. J. 

 Arthur Thomson and Mr. George Crane, B.Sc, 

 University of Aberdeen. (Preliminary Note.) 



In the course of an investigation of the shallow-water fauna 

 of part of the Gulf of Cutch, Mr. James Hornell made a 

 small collection of Alcyonarians which presents some features 

 of interest. The precise district was the coast of Okhamandal, 

 which forms the N.W. extremity of theKattiawar Peninsula, 

 and ]^Ir. Hornell has called our attention to the fact that 

 specimens of Dendronejyhthya (better known as Spongodes), 

 of Lophogorgia, &c. could be collected at low tide. 



The collection includes eight species, one of which — Astro- 

 muricea stellifera — is new. There is also a new variety of a 

 remarkable species of Echinomuricea previously found in the 

 Indian Ocean. 



The position of the various species may be indicated as 

 follows : — 



Order ALCYONACEA. 



Family Axcyonid^ .... (1) Sclerophytum polydactylum (Ehren- 



berg). 



Family Nbphthyidje . . (2) Dendronephthya {Spongodes) dendro- 



jjhyta (Wright and ."Studer). 

 (3) Dendronephthya {Spongodes) l/revi- 

 ntma (Burckhardt). 



