
Oct. 5, 1871] 

To Mr. Marshall Hall, F.G.S., &c., who personally super- 
intended the expedition, are due the thanks of the scientific world 
for having so generously devoted his yacht Vorna to the purpose 
of scientific discovery. This gentleman had early in the year 
conceived the project of rendering science that service it is to 
be regretted so few owners of yachts are disposed to contribute ; 
and to him I feel myself under the deepest obligations for 
the opportunities afforded me during this cruise of acquiring 
that practical information so keenly appreciated by every working 
naturalist. Nor must I forget here to associate with his the 
name of Mr. Henry Lee, F.L.S., the worthy president of the 
Croydon Microscopical Society, as one of the chief instigators of 
the scheme, and the person to whom I am especially indebted for 
my introduction to Mr. Marshall Hall, as one likely to make the 
most of the opportunities that would be afforded. 
Having accepted the last-named gentleman’s kind invitation 
to accompany him as naturalist in a small way to the expedition, 
it was decided I should memorialise the Council of the Royal 
Society for a grant to defray the heavier expenses of dredging 
and collecting apparatus. My application was most favourably 
received, thanks to the numerous kind scientific friends who sup- 
ported it, and a sum of 50/, was immediately placed at our 
disposal for the purpose required. My indebtedness to the Royal 
Society for this liberal assistance has already been acknowledged, 
thongh I cannot permit so fit an occasion as the present to pass 
without once more endorsing it. 
By the middle of May everything was prepared, the Trustees 
of the British Museum, on the especial recommendation of 
Professor Owen and Mr. Waterhouse, extending me an extra three 
weeks’ leave of absence. The companionship and services of Mr. 
Edward Fielding were also fortunately secured, whose earlier 
dredging experiences with Mr. M ‘Andrew in the Red Sea seemed 
calculated, as they afterwards proved, to be of the most valuable 
assistance. 
Portugal was decided upon as a locality likely to yield 
us the most satisfactory zoological results, and on the re- 
commendation of Mr. Henry Woodward we resolved first to 
proceed to Vigo Bay, where, in company with his lamented 
brother, Dr. S. P. Woodward, and Mr. M‘Andrew, he had in 
the year 1856 obtained such abundant and valuable material. 
From thence it was proposed we should work our way down to 
Lisbon, our particular ambition being to reach the deep-sea 
fishing ground off Setubal, some twenty miles further south, from 
whence Prof. du Bocage, the talented conservator of the Lisbon 
Museum, had obtained specimens of the “ Glass Rope Sponge” 
(Ayalonema), and numerous other novel treasures. On starting, 
we touched and remained a couple of days at Guernsey, and at 
that spot a few hours spent in shore-collecting rewarded us with 
the earliest substantial fruits of the expedition ; seven more days 
brought us to Vigo, the point which constituted the first basis of 
our practical dredging operations. 
A detailed list of the numerous species collected throughout 
the cruise being in course of preparation for the more technical 
and exhaustive report to be presented to the Royal Society, I 
here propose, commencing at the lowest animal group, to briefly 
enumerate some of the more important forms taken, adding such 
remarks on the characters or connecting circumstances which 
render them more especially deserving of attention. Of all, the 
subkingdom of the Protozoa has perhaps furnished us with the 
most abundant and valuable material, the sponge class in 
particular contributing many novelties. Before leaving British 
waters even, the few hours spent in shore-collecting at 
Guernsey, already alluded to, resulted in the accession of three 
new species of the genera /sodictya and Hymeniacidon, which I 
have placed at the disposal of my kind friend Dr. Bowerbank to 
be described by him in his supplementary volume of the ‘‘ British 
Spongiadz,” now closely approaching completion. The moderate 
depths within the Laminarian and Coralline zones, from the 
shore line down to fifty fathoms, at which we collected and dredged 
in Vigo Bay, and afterwards further south in the neighbourhood 
ef Setubal and the Sado river, proved remarkably productive of 
species belonging to the same group, as also to that of the Calcarea 
or calcareous spiculed sponges including Sycow and Grantia, ke. 
The most interesting of any, however, were the species belong- 
ing to the Hexactinellidze, or hexradiate spiculed sponges, of which 
the beautiful Zuplectella and Hyalonema form familiar examples. 
Nine species belonging to this group were obtained at a depth 
varying from 400 to 800 fathoms off Cape Espichel and Cezimbra, 
including Ayalonema, Dactylocalyx, A phrocallistes Bocagii, Lanu- 
ginella pupa, and four other species new to science, three out of 
which necessarily constitute the types of new genera, the residue 
NATURE 
Our time being limited, the west coast of Spain and ! 



457 
again furnishing data enabling us better to appreciate the 
characters and distinctions of those previously made known to us. 
The form belonging to the same group, and described by my- 
self as Pheronema Grayi, and exhibited at the last meeting of this 
Association, is the most conspicuous among all these on account 
of its size, and I would here add a few more words in reference 
to this particular type. Since last year I have been afforded the 
opportunity of examining and comparing my own with numerous 
specimens of Prof. Wyville Thomson’s /o/tenia Carfenteri taken 
in the North Sea and also in the Atlantic, and from an evolu- 
tionist’s point of view, this examination hasled me to regard my 
specimens as holding rather the rank of a well-marked local 
variety than of a distinct species as I at first premised. A com- 
parison of the specimens, now placed side by side in the British 
Museum collection, will, I think, suffice to prove to all those inte- 
rested in this subject how strongly marked as varieties these two 
forms are. Meanwhile, the generic name of Pheronema adopted 
by myself I still retain, as I consider both Prof. Wyville 
Thomson’s form and my own to be local varieties of another 
species first described by Dr. Leidy of Philadelphia as Pheronema 
anne, and a letter recently received from Dr. Leidy himself more 
fully convinces me of this, though he has not yet bestowed on it 
the minute microscopical investigation of its structure needed 
for the effectual clearing up of this, at present, doubtful point. 
In my description .of other sponges belonging to this same 
Hexactinellate group, read before the Royal Microscopical 
Society, and published in their ‘* Transactions ” for November 
1870, I have, in {creating a new genus and species, Askonema 
setubalense, erroneously associated Prof. Thomson’s name with 
it as having once pronounced the form to be of vegetable and 
not animal organisation. The mistake arose from the miscon- 
ception of a name singularly similar in euphony as pronounced 
to me by Prof. du Bocage, and I here avail myself of the oppor- 
tunity of rendering Prof. Wyville Thomson that ammende honor- 
able feel myself in duty bound to accord to him. 
Passing next to the class of the Foraminifera, our gatherings 
have been remarkably rich both from the coralline and abyssal 
zones, the latter furnishing us with numerous arenaceous types 
(Rhabdomina, &c.), and the former being notably abundant in 
species and varieties of Zagena and Cristellaria. Many of these 
forms are new to science and await description, and I must not 
forget to acknowledge here my indebtedness to Mr. Henry Lee 
for the very great assistance he has rendered me in his skilful 
preparation of the various gatherings of these minute organisms. 
To Mr. Henry Hailes also my best thanks are due for similar 
services. 
The Ccelenterate sub-kingdom has likewise furnished several 
new and rare forms, including among the latter category an 
example of Hyalopathes pyramidalis, M. Edw., one of the 
Antipathiidze now represented for the first time in our national 
collection, if not in this country. In the Alcyonarian group, 
Veritillum cynomorium, first taken sparingly in Vigo Bay, and 
afterwards abundantly in the Laminarian zone near Setubal, 
excited our warmest admiration. 
Nothing can exceed the beauty of the elegant opaline polypes 
of this zoophyte when fully expanded, and clustered like flowers 
on their orange-coloured stalk; a beauty, however, almost 
equalled by night when, on the slightest irritation, the whole 
colony glows from one extremity to the other with undulating 
waves of pale green phosphoric light. A large bucketful of these 
Alcyonaria was experimentally stirred up one dark evening, and 
the brilliant luminosity evolved produced a spectacle too brilliant 
for words to describe. The supporting stem appeared always to 
be the chief seat of these phosphorescent properties, and from 
thence the scintillations travelled onwards to the bodies of the 
polypes themselves. Some of the specimens of this magnificent 
zoophyte measured as much as ten inches from the proximal to the 
distal extremity of the supporting stalk, while the individual 
polypes, when fully exserted, protruded upwards of an inch-and- 
a-half from this inflated stalk, and measured as much as an inch 
in the diameter of their expanded tentacular discs. 
Numerous polyzoa were also dredged up from the various 
depths, many of which remain yet to be identified ; but the allied 
group of the Tunicata has perhaps furnished by far the most in- 
teresting material of the whole molluscoidan sub-kingdom ; sur- 
face-skimmings one morning near the mouth of the Sado river 
having rewarded us with numerous specimens of an Appendicus 
Zaria, which, from notes and sketches made at the time of their 
capture, I have since found to have presented phenomena seem- 
ingly not yet observed by any other naturalist. Hitherto these 
organisms have been presumed to constitutea distinct genus of 
