THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 

 No. 21. SEPTEMBER 1879. 



XXI. — Remarks on the Recent Eryontidae. 

 By the Rev. A. M. Norman, M.A. 



I am sorry that Mr. Spence Bate's reply to my inquiries 

 respecting the Crustacea described by him in a paper " On 

 the Willemoesia group of Crustacea," which appeared in the 

 ' Annals ' of December last, has remained so long unnoticed 

 by me. Unfortunately I have been so occupied by duties that 

 I have had no time for writing since the commencement of 

 the year. 



Mr. Spence Bate's paper just referred to was on a subject 

 of the greatest interest. In it were described a number of 

 Crustacea discovered by the l Challenger ' in the abyss of the 

 ocean, extremely closely related to a group of animals which, 

 until recently, were believed to have been extinct for countless 

 ages ; for they had only been met with in old fossiliferous 

 strata. The recent forms which have now been found are so 

 closely the counterparts of their ancient brethren, that they 

 mimic even minute details of sculpture in the several segments 

 of the body. Yet, at the same time, I found conclusions drawn 

 that were totally at variance with those at which I had arrived 

 from the examination of two specimens of these animals which 

 were dredged off the coast of Spain by the ' Porcupine ' expe- 

 dition of 1870. 



Mr. Bate's conclusions were to me startling ; but I did not 

 venture to say that they were wrong, since, with the mass of 



Ann. & Mag, N. Hist. Ser, 5. Vol. iv. 13 



