298 Mr. J. Grwyn Jeffreys on Dredging 



This genus has many characters in common Avith the genus 

 Batrachoseps ; but it differs in the tail (which is twice as long 

 as the body and head) being cylindrical and of the same dia- 

 meter and subannulated appearance as the body and head, 

 giving the whole animal the appearance of a Ccecilia or worm. 



OpMohatracJius vermicularis. 



Black. Length of the body and head 2J inches, of the tail 

 4J inches. 



Hob, Costa Eica (Osbert Salvin, Esq.). B.M. 



XXXVII. — Last Report on Dredging among the Shetland Isles. 

 By J. GwYN Jeffreys, F.E.S.* 



This was my seventh expedition to the northern extremity of 

 our seas, and occupied the whole of the summer. It was not so 

 successful as those in some previous years, owing to the stormy 

 state of the weather. While my friends in England, Wales, 

 Ireland, and Scotland were enjoying calm sunshine, our 

 climate was exactly the reverse ; and the persevering course 

 of the wind (from north-west to south-west) prevented our 

 doing much at sea. The North Sea is notoriously subject to 

 broken weather, this being the point where the warm air in- 

 duced by the Gulf Stream and westerly winds meets the cold 

 air brought down by the arctic current. The fauna of the 

 Shetland waters, however, is by no means exhausted. Every 

 expedition has produced novelties, not only in the Mollusca, 

 but in all other departments of marine zoology. 



On the present occasion I obtained, at a depth of 120 

 fathoms, a living specimen and a larger dead one of a fine 

 species of Pleurotoma^ P. carinata of Bivona. It was origi- 

 nally described as a Calabrian fossil ; and Searles Wood records 

 a single specimen having been found in the Coralline and 

 another in the Bed Crag. Professor Sars and Mr. M^ Andrew 

 dredged a few specimens off the coasts of Norway ; and the 

 former gave some interesting particulars of the animal, which 

 I have been able to confirm by my own observation. Although 

 allied to P. nivalis^ and found in the same locality, it has dis- 

 tinct eyes placed on rather prominent stalks or ommatophores, 

 whereas P. nivalis has no eyes nor any trace of eye-stalks. 

 On this account Sars proposed the generic name Typhloman- 

 gelia for the latter species ; but it must be borne in mind that 

 Eulima stenostoma is also eyeless, and yet is closely related to 



* Communicated by the Author, having been read at the Noi*wich 

 Meeting of the British Association, August 20, 1868. 



