NATURE 
758) 
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1882 
THE CHALLENGER REPORTS 
eports on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. 
“ Challenger” during the years 1873-1876, under the 
Command of Capt. Sir George Nares, R.N., F.R.S., 
and Capt. F. T. Thomson, R.N. Prepared under the 
Superintendence of Sir C. Wyville Thomson, F.R.S., 
and John Murray. Zoology—Vols. II., III., and IV. 
(Published by Order of Her Majesty’s Government, 
1881-1882.) 
Sag our last notice of these Reports, three more 
volumes of the zoological series have made their 
appearance. In vol. ii. published in 1881, and prepared 
under the superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville 
Thomson, the first Report is by Prof. Moseley: On 
Certain Hydroid, Alcyonarian and Madreporian Corals 
procured during the Voyage. The great interest and im- 
portance of Mr. Moseley’s investigations into the struc- 
ture of the Hydrocoralline, and on the Helioporide and 
their allies, justified a previous publication, chiefly in the 
Philosophical Transactions, of the chief results of the 
author’s work. The third part, describing the Deep Sea 
Madreporaria appears now for the first time. It ought 
to be noted that the memoirs forming the first two parts 
have been recast, and contain both additions and altera- 
tions. Mr. Moseley’s history of (/zl/efora nodosa will be 
acknowledged by all capable of judging, as a most solid 
contribution to our knowledge of the Hydrocoralline. So 
long ago as 1859, Agassiz announced that the structure of 
the polyps of Millepora showed that they belonged not 
to the corals, but to the Hydroids; but although this 
view was confirmed by others, especially by Pourtales, 
who once got an imperfect view of the expanded dactylo- 
zooids, still it remained for Prof. Moseley to settle this 
question of affinity beyond a doubt, which he has done 
by his painstaking dissections. He acknowledges his 
indebtedness to his colleague, Mr. Murray, who saw the 
zooids of Millepora nodosa in a living and expanded 
state upon the reefs of Tahiti. This species forms tuber- 
cular and irregular masses, often encrusting and over- 
growing the dead fronds of Lophoseris cactus, which is a 
principal component of the Tahitian reefs. While fresh, 
the growing tips of the lobes have a bright gamboge yellow 
colour, fading off into a yellowish brown; the expanded 
zooids have the appearance of a close-set pearly white 
down upon the surface of the mass. Sometimes the 
encrusting film is very thin. When, as at Bermuda, JZ. 
alcicornis is found attached to glass bottles thrown into 
the harbour, this film will not be more than from }th 
to 3th of a millimetre in thickness, and no doubt, 
now that attention is called to such specimens, they will 
be studied with the object of telling us more of the life 
history of these forms. 
The Stylasteride, now definitely determined to be 
Hydroids, as was first strongly suggested by G. O. 
Sars, are described in great detail, and this portion of the 
report is accompanied by many splendid plates, and a 
list of all the species of Stylasteridz at present known is 
given. Mosely places the group as a separate family, 
along side of the Milleporidz, in the sub-order Hydro- 
corallinz. 
VOL, XXVII.—No. 682 
The second part of the report is on Helioporidz and 
their allies, in which He/iopora coerulea is described 
from living specimens, and a detailed account of its 
structure and mode of growth is given. We have also an 
extremely valuable description of a species of Sarco- 
phyton, almost certainly S. Zobatum, from the Admiralty 
Islands, and the conclusion now so well known is come 
to that Heliopora is without doubt an Alcyonarian. 
The third part comes as a quite fresh work, for the 
preliminary catalogue of the deep-sea Madrepores, was 
necessarily most imperfect. But here we have extended 
descriptions of the entire series of species dredged during 
the voyage, with sixteen plates and also numerous wood- 
cuts intercalated throughout the text. No less than 
thirty-three species are described for the first time. 
These deep-sea Madrepores would appear to be very 
widely distributed, some, as for example, Bathyactis 
symmetrica, having a world-wide range. At present the 
only genera which seem restricted in range are Stephano- 
phyltia and Sphenotrochus, which have as yet only been 
obtained from the seas of the Malay Archipelago, and in 
comparatively shallower water, and the genus Leptopenus, 
which has been dredged throughout all the great oceans, but 
only south of the equator. The wide range of the species 
in depth has now become a well-known fact, though none 
the less interesting for that, the world distributed species 
above-mentioned ranging in depth from 70 to 2900 
fathoms. The occurrence of the genera as fossils in 
Secondary and Tertiary deposits is also not without 
interest, but the deep-sea forms are not to be regarded as 
of greater geological antiquity than those found in shallow 
water. 
The report on the birds collected during the voyage is 
by Dr. P. L. Sclater. The collection embraced about 900 
specimens in skins, besides which there was a consider- 
able series of sea-birds in salt and spirits, and a collection 
of eggs. The collection was formed under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. John Murray, who placed at Dr. Sclater’s 
disposal his ornithological note-book, which contained 
the history of every individual specimen. It will be re- 
membered that the main object of the expedition was the 
exploration of the depths of the ocean, and that the col- 
lecting of land birds formed no part of the original plan, 
so that the comparative smallness of the collection is not 
surprising. The author of the report expresses his in- 
debtedness to his friends, the late Marquis of Tweeddale, 
Dr. Otto Finsch, Prof. Salvadori, Mr. Howard Saunders, 
Mr. W. A. Forbes, and Mr. Osbert Salvin, for the 
assistance they gave him in preparing this report, which 
is accompanied by thirty coloured plates. Many of the 
notes appended to the description of the penguins are 
taken from Mr. Moseley’s published accounts of the 
voyage, and are doubtless already well known to our 
readers. 
Vol. iii., published towards the close of 1881, opens with 
a most elaborated and magnificently illustrated report by 
Prof. Alexander Agassiz, on the Echinoidea. The im- 
portance of this report has already been called attention 
to ina special notice (vide NATURE, vol. xxv. p. 41). 
The second and concluding report in the volume is on 
the Pycnogonida, by Dr. P. P.C. Hoeck. The collection 
of these forms was very rich in species. Of the 120 
specimens dredged during the voyage, there were no less 
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