among the Shetland Isles. 305 



10. Species recorded from the Coralline Crag and earlier 

 deposits, and supposed to be extinct, have now been discovered 

 living in the Shetland seas ; e. g. Limopsis aurita^ Pleurotoma 

 carinata^ and Columhella haliceeti. Possibly Trochus amahilis 

 is another case, assuming that it originated from Margarita ? 

 maculata of Searles Wood. 



Professor Dickie has been good enough to report on some 

 Diatoms from the insides of a quantity of Echinus NorvegicuSj 

 which were dredged at a depth of 78 fathoms about forty miles 

 from the east coast of Shetland. He says they are chiefly 

 Navicula didyma^ Coscinodiscus excentricus^ C. minor j Acti- 

 nocyclus undulatus, and Melosira sulcata^ with fewer of M, 

 nummulo'ides and Nitzschia angularisj all marine ; also a few 

 freshwater Cocconema lanceolatum^ Sinciella minuta^ and 

 fragments of a Finnularia, And he adds that long ago he re- 

 corded the occurrence of freshwater kinds of Diatomaceas 

 mixed with marine kinds from the stomachs of Ascidice taken 

 in deep water off Aberdeen. The freshwater Diatoms must 

 evidently have been carried by a stream into the sea, and 

 transported by the tide to the place where they sunk to the 

 bottom, and were swallowed by the indiscriminating Echini 

 and Ascidice. Diatoms inhabit the surface only of the water ; 

 and Glohigerina and other Foraminifera not of a fixed or 

 sessile nature have been observed by Major Owen to float 

 when alive within a few inches from the surface. Dr. Wallich 

 found the microscopic organisms which he called coccospheres 

 " profusely in a living, or perhaps it would be more safe to say 

 a recent, condition in material collected at the surface of the 

 open seas of the tropics." Coccospheres and free Foraminifera 

 cover the bed of the Atlantic at enormous depths. The occur- 

 rence, therefore, of such organisms on the floor of the ocean at 

 great depths does not prove that they ever lived there. I should 

 rather be inclined to believe that they dropped to the bottom of 

 the sea when dead or after having passed through the stomachs 

 of other animals which had fed on them. 



A few small fishes were caught in the dredge at depths of 

 from 90 to 100 fathoms. Dr. Gunther reports that they be- 

 long to the undermentioned species : — Callionymus maculatus 

 (Bonap.), Gohius Jeffrey sii (Gunth.), young, Cyclo;pterus 

 lumpus (L.), young, Lejjadogaster himaculatus (Penn.), and 

 Rhombus Norvegicus^ (Gunth.), young. He remarks that the 

 last-named species is new to the British fauna, having been 

 hitherto known from the coast of Norway only. 



Mr. Nonnan will report on the Crustacea, Echinoderms, 

 and Sponges, Dr. M'Intosh on the Annelids, and Mr. Waller 

 on the Foraminifera. 



