254 _ Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys on Dredging © 
in all, fifty-four. They comprised some rarities, viz. Terebratula 
cranium, Limopsis aurita, Azinus Croulinensis, Trochus amabilis, 
Buccinopsis Dalei, and Cylichna alba. The shells were of the 
usual colour; indeed this was brighter and darker in living 
specimens of Venus ovata and Eulima bilineata than in average 
examples of the same species taken in a few fathoms. The 
notion that colour is absent or fainter in shells from deep water 
seems to be quite unfounded. 
4. Geological Relations.—Fossil shells (being relics of the 
glacial epoch) occurred in 170 fathoms and higher up to 80 fa- 
thoms. They were chiefly Pecten Islandicus, Tellina calcaria, 
Mya truncata, var. Uddevallensis, Saxicava rugosa, var. Uddeval- 
lensis, Milleria costulata, and Trochus cinereus. All these spe- 
cies and varieties inhabit high northern latitudes, and none of 
them have been discovered living in our seas. No such fossils 
were detected on any part of the western coast of Shetland. 
5. Extraneous incidents—In the dredged stuff taken from 
a depth of about 85 fathoms, on a soft sandy bottom, twenty- 
five miles N.N.W. of Unst, I found the canine tooth of an 
animal of the weasel tribe ; and Mr. Waller found the shoulder- 
blade of a much smaller quadruped. These occurred within a 
comparatively small space, although not together, and they 
were unaccompanied by any other land organisms. The socket 
of the tooth and the bone were corroded. It is possible that 
the tooth was that of a tame ferret, which was accidentally killed 
in 1862 and thrown into the sea at Balta, at a distance of about 
thirty-five miles from the place where the tooth was dredged. 
The tide sets with great rapidity in that direction; and when 
the carcase became distended by the gases evolved during putre- 
faction, it must have floated for some time. The bone is sup- 
posed by Mr. Boyd Dawkins to be that ofa bat ;- this may have 
been eaten by a snowy owl, and disgorged or voided on its way 
back to the Faroe Isles or Iceland. I mention this curious cir- 
cumstance to show that the bones of quadrupeds as well as of 
man may be preserved for a long time in “the slimy bottom of 
the deep,”’ without being disturbed by the naturalist. When we 
consider the vast extent of the sea-bed, and the very trifling and 
unfrequent operations of the dredge (the one being measured 
by square nautical degrees, and the other by square yards), we 
ought not to be surprised that the remains of drowned mariners 
(at least their teeth) are not thus brought to light. Clarence’s 
dream (the creation of a sublime poet) is never likely to be 
verified by modern research. 
I have had much pleasure in presenting a collection of the 
rarer shells to our national Museum. 
