MisccUaucous. Sod 



BelemuozijihiHS prorops. — Beak solid, with all traces of tlic original 

 8Ci)aratirin of the constituent hones and the ossified inoscthmoid 

 cartilage obliterated. — I'ruc. Acctd. ^at. >'Sci. I'hilad., May 9. 



Bfphf to some Ohservntions hi/ Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys on the Cruise of 

 ' II. M.S. ' Wilorous' in IMTo. liy U. C. Wallicii, M.D. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlkmen, — It is mentioned amongst the " British Association 

 Notes ■' of the 'Athonieum ' for September KHh that, in a paper read 

 at the fleeting by Mr. (iwyn Jeffreys on the results of the voyage 

 of ll.M.S. ' Valorous' to i)isco in 187'), he described " the occur- 

 rence of large and small stones in his dredgings, and said that tele- 

 graphic cables Iiad usually been constructed too much on the suppo- 

 sition that tlie sea-bottom was always soft ; consequeutly they are 

 very liable to damage when this is not the case." 



During the voyage of II. M.S. 'Bulldog' in 1860 to the Faroe 

 Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador, stones and gravel were 

 repeatedly brought up fi'om very great depths. Moreover a living 

 S<'r2mhi, within its tube, which had evidently but then been broken 

 oft' from its point of attachment to a stone or rock, together with a 

 dead Serpula-sheU still adherent to a granitic stone of considerable 

 size, were obtained, nearly midway between the Faroes and Iceland, 

 under conditions which would seem to indicate the presence of a 

 deep-seated current, or rather drift, of suflBcient power at all events to 

 prevent any material accumulation of muddy deposit in that locality. 



These several facts and their extreme importance in relation to 

 deep-sea telegraphy were on various occasions referred to by me 

 between the years 18<i(» and 1804, namely: — in my 'Notes on the 

 presence of Animal Life at great Depths in the Ocean,' 1 800, pp. 30, 

 31, & 37 ; in my • North-Atlantic Sea-bed,' 1862, pp. 2-7 ct 147 ; 

 in my pajier read before the lloyal Geographical Society in 1803* ; 

 in my " Outline of a Scheme for a systematic Survey of the Sea- 

 bed," laid before the Council of the lloyal Geographical Society in 

 18G3 (of which a reprint appeared in the 'Annals ' for July of the 

 present year, p. 80) ; and lastly, in a paper, " On the North-Atlantic 

 Sea-bed,'' in the ' Quarterly Journal of Science' for January 1804. 



I will confine myself to giving the following extract from the 

 paper last referred to : — 



"There is one point to which I must invite attention, inasmuch 

 as its importance can hardly be overestimated ; and yet, strange to 

 say, it has heretofore been almost entirely overlooked. 



" In some of the deeper soundings both of the North and ^fid- 

 Atlantic routesf, fragments of rock have been brought up. How 

 is the occurrence of these to be accounted for ? and what does it 



• On that occa.sion I exhibited an instrument, which I called a Peh- 

 fneter, designed by mo for tlie puroose of readily detecting the occuiTence 

 of rocky or stony bottom at any dfpth. 



t The occurrence in the Mid-.VlIantic of a few '' small stones " waj« 

 noted in the tabulated lists of soundings taken by Commander Dayman, 

 R.N., in the Atlantic in 18U7.. 



