394 Mr. Gwyn JeflFreys on Dredging among the Hebrides. 



Messrs. Chydenius and Malmgren, made during the expedition, 

 and with all the animals discovered in those gi'eat depths. The 

 latter comprised: — Annelida, viz. species of Spiochcstopterus and 

 Cirratulus; Crustacea, viz. a Cuma which appeared to be iden- 

 tical with C. rubicunda, Lilljeborg, and an Apseudes; Mollusca, 

 viz. a Cylichna; Gephyrea, viz. a fragment oi Myriotrochus Rinki, 

 Steenstrup, and another allied form with large and fewer star- 

 wheels, and of smaller wheels of the Myriotrochus-ty^e ; a spe- 

 cies of Sipunculus resembling S. margaritaceus, Sars ; and, lastly, 

 a sponge, in which were found a Copepod or Ostracod, and a 

 fragment of a Cuma resembling C. nasica. In the opinion of 

 Loven these animals indicate, so far as can be judged by so 

 small a number, that in the abysses of the glacial seas there lives 

 a fauna which does not greatly differ from that which lives on 

 the same kind of bottom at much less depths. Proceeding up- 

 wards to the surface, from 50 or 60 fathoms the regions or zones 

 have a greater variety of animals, even over the same kind of 

 bottom. Taking this into consideration, and also recollecting 

 that in the Antarctic seas, at measurable depths, there are forms 

 of Mollusca and Crustacea which exhibit partly generic, partly 

 almost specific identity with northern and hyperborean forms, the 

 idea occurs to him that, from 60 or 80 fathoms down to the 

 greatest depth known to be inhabited by animals, the bottom is 

 everywhere covered with a soft and fine mud or clay, and that 

 there exists from pole to pole, in all latitudes, a deep-sea fauna 

 of the same general character, many species of which have a very 

 wide distribution. He also thinks it probable that in the vici- 

 nity of both poles such a uniform fauna approaches the surface ; 

 while in tropical seas it occupies the depths of the ocean, the 

 coast-line there being represented by vast regions of distinct 

 faunas, the circumferences or areas of which are much more li- 

 mited. But, in the face of the discovery made by Professor Sars 

 that large Brachiopoda, stony corals, and Polyzoa, as well as cer- 

 tain Mollusca (e. g. Anemia and Saxica'va) which are peculiar to 

 a hard or even to a rocky bottom, inhabit a depth of 300 fathoms, 

 and seeing that Dr. Wallich found a living Serpula attached to 

 a stone at the depth of 682 fathoms, I am not prepared to accept, 

 without considerable qualification, Professor Loven's notion that 

 the sea-bottom from 60 or 80 fathoms downwards is everywhere 

 formed of soft material ; indeed we need not go far from home 

 to seek a refutation of this idea. Captain Beechey^s dredgings 

 off the Mull of Galloway, in 145 fathoms (as reported by the 

 late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, in the 'Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History^ for September 1842, p. 21), yielded live speci- 

 mens of Chiton fascicularis, C. cinereus, Trochus millegranus, and 

 Trophon Barvicensis, all of which are inhabitants of hard or 



