82 Mr. J. C. Melvill on the 



individual species already noted numbering about 1100, 

 speaking roughly ; and since labels have been carefully kept 

 with each individual, stating the depth, locality, quality of 

 ground, &c. at which found, I believe such a publication 

 would be of much value to all who are interested in geogra- 

 phical distribution. 



So little attention has been hitherto paid — not, indeed, 

 until the last decade of this century — to the productions of 

 the very extensive and prolific area having Busliire for its 

 western and Karachi for its eastern limit, that it is hardly 

 surprising to find what a wealth of hitherto unrevealed forms 

 has been brought to liglit through Mr. Townsend's un- 

 remitting exertions, ably supported as he is by many of those 

 with whom lie is officially connected (e. g. Mr. B. T. Ffinch, 

 C.I.E., Director in Chief of the Telegraph Department, 

 Captain Tindall, of the S.S. ' Patrick Stewart,' and Mr. J. A. 

 0'Maley),even though it has as yet been found impossible to 

 exceed the 100-fathom limit, or, in fact, quite to attain it in 

 dredging, and therefore no specialized abyssal forms have 

 been received which would at all compare, for instance, with 

 the results of tlie cruise of the 'Investigator' in the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



But, notwitlistanding this, the results so far have been 

 more than gratifying. About ten per cent, of the total 

 number catalogued are new to science ; these, with the excep- 

 tion of eight or ten differentiated by Mr. G. B. Sowerby *, 

 have been all described by myself in the two papers already 

 referred to, and the addition of the following twenty-seven 

 will swell the total to more than a hundred new forms. 



"When, in 1893-96, at first in conjunction with Mr. A. 

 Abercrombie, I drew up lists of Bombay marine mollusca, of 

 which no less than fifty-two had to be described, I expressed 

 a strong opinion that tliis fauna was highly specialized and 

 the number of endemic forms unusually great. How within 

 so few years this conviction has become utterly falsified may 

 best be inferred from the fact that of the fifty-two species no 

 less than thirty-one have been found to occur in the Townsend 

 collection f, mostly dredged near Karachi and the coast of 

 Beluchistan, thus tending to prove that while certain forms 

 may be confined to the North Indian Ocean, their range is 

 wide there, and they mostly occur plentifully if locally. 



I would particularly draw attention, among the Pelecypoda 



* Pioc. Mai. Soc. Lend. i. pp. 214 & 278 sgq. 



+ A new figure of one of tnese, Cerithiopsis {Set/a) bandorensis, Melv., 

 being necessary, it is here given (PI. I. fig. 12). 



