A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



Quiller Couch of Penzance, and his staunch disciple and helper William 

 Laughlin the Polperro coastguardsman, together with Mr. C. W. Peach, the 

 indefatigable Dr. Cocks of Falmouth, and Mr. Williams Hockin of Truro, 

 were all of them devoted workers, and they laid a splendid foundation for the 

 study of the marine life of the Cornish seas. Then came that wonderful 

 band of Penzance naturalists, whose studies covered nearly the whole domain 

 of county systematic biology, and whose records in the Transactions of the 

 Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society (new series) and else- 

 where are constantly referred to in almost every natural history article in the 

 present volume. Two at least of these naturalists, namely Mr. Fortescue 

 W. Millett and Mr. George Fox Tregelles, though both departed from the 

 county, are still students of Cornish marine zoology, and from their ripe 

 experience have given great assistance to the writer. 



During the past fifteen years the Marine Biological Association has been 

 engaged inter alia in a systematic and continuous examination of the marine 

 life of the Plymouth district, and the results as summarized in ' The Plymouth 

 Marine Invertebrate Fauna' in vol. vii, part 2 (1904) of their Journal have 

 been laid under extensive tribute for the present article. Between 1890 and 

 1900 Mr. Rupert Vallentin worked assiduously at the plankton and marine 

 fauna generally of the Falmouth district, and is now engaged in making 

 similar investigations at St. Ives. 



Among the naturalists from without who have collected along the 

 Cornish coast are Barlee, Montagu, Forbes, Alder, Jeffreys, Bowerbank, 

 Hincks, Canon Norman, and Macintosh, and Victor Carus at Scilly, so that 

 references to Cornwall occur in nearly every monograph on the marine life of 

 the British Isles. 



In the following annotated list an attempt is made to indicate the distribu- 

 tion of the species in the Cornish seas so far as the available data will permit. 

 Notwithstanding the many observers our knowledge of several of the sections 

 is still in a very fragmentary condition. While the Mollusca and Bryozoa 

 have been widely studied and recorded over a considerable area, the extreme 

 difficulty of identifying the Sponges and Compound Ascidia makes a record of 

 their country distribution impossible, and but for the fortunate circumstance 

 that many of the earlier specimens passed through the hands of Bowerbank 

 and Milne-Edwards respectively, the county lists for these two extensively 

 represented groups would have been meagre in the extreme. Most sections, 

 too, have naturally been much more carefully studied around some centres 

 than others, and certain parts of the coast have received minute attention, 

 while others have been neglected. The Plymouth district, Falmouth Bay, 

 and Mount's Bay have been diligently examined but except on the Mol- 

 lusca at Hayle and Padstow very little work has been done anywhere along the 

 north coast. Polperro, Fowey, and Gorran are classical ground, but in spite 

 of recent work systematic dredging would be certain to prove remunerative 

 all along the whole of that coast. Very little attention has been given to 

 the waters around the Lizard peninsula, and much remains to be done to the 

 west of Penzance. Victor Carus studied the fauna of the Scillonian seas for 

 several months in 1850, and George Henry Lewes published some jottings on 

 his observations there, but except for the Mollusca comparatively little has 

 been done on the marine life since Carus's visit. 



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