1^0 REPORT — 1861. 



fathoms) of living Mollusca which usually inhabit the shore or very shallow 

 water, viz. Lamellaria perspicua, Nassa incrassata, and Cyprcea Europcca, 

 all of them being Avidely diffused species, — thus apparently illustrating the 

 view entertained by the late Professor Edward Forbes, that those species 

 which have the widest horizontal range have the greatest vertical depth. 

 Judging, however, from the great depth at which he found the fossil shells 

 of some Mollusca {e.g. Pecten Islandicus and Mya tnmcata \ax. Uddeval- 

 lensis) which inhabit much shallower water in the Arctic zone, the author is 

 disposed to believe that the bed of this part of our Northern Sea has sunk 

 since the so-called " glacial " epoch, and that this circumstance may possibly 

 account for the above-mentioned occurrence of sublittoral species at such 

 depths. 



With respect to the comparative size of those Mollusca which are common 

 to the seas of the North as well as of the South of Europe, the author re- 

 ferred to an observation made by Mr. Salter, in a recent number of the 

 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' that some fossil shells which 

 jNIr. Lamont had brought from Spitzbergen were larger than those of the 

 corresponding species in our own mountain limestone ; and he remarked that 

 the same rule appears to apply also to marine plants, for he never saw such 

 gigantic fronds of the Laminaria saccharina, which fringes all our coast- 

 line, as he did in the voes of North Zetland. 



The author concluded by paying a just tribute of respect to the labours of 

 Professors Sars and Loven, Malm, Morch, Asbjornsen, and other Scandi- 

 navian naturalists, who were investigating the Mollusca of the Northern seas 

 with a zeal and accuracy worthy of our emulation. 



Contrihutions to a Report on the Physical Aspect of the Moon. 

 By J. Phillips, M.A., LL.D.,F.R.S., Professor of Geoloyy, Oxford. 



Professor Phillips noticed the result of his sketches of parts of the surface 

 of the moon, and also described Mi-. Birt's contributions to a report on seleno- 

 graphy, which had been undertaken by direction of the General Committee 

 at Oxford, with the view of discovering the character of the moon's surface 

 as influenced by previous physical events. Professor Phillips's observations 

 related especially to the mountain Gassendi, to which his attention had been 

 directed by the Committee in 1852, but included also drawings of remarkable 

 ' rills,' and other interesting peculiarities, in Aristarchus, Archimedes, and 

 Plato. 



The rills to which Prof. Phillips had given principal attention were — (1) the 

 well-known stag's-horn rill E. of Thebit, which appeared to be what geolo- 

 gists call a ' fault ' or ' slip,' one side elevated above the other, and with some 

 inequality in the dislocation when the shadow is accurately inspected; (2) 

 the long rill on which the small crater called Hyginus is situated ; (3) the 

 group of parallel rills about Campanus and Hippalus. Regarding these it 

 was remarked that the drawing of Miidler, which, like all the work in his 

 great map, was obviously a careful one, differed in one point from that made 

 by Prof. Phillips. This difference may be thus stated. In Miidler's drawing 

 three parallel rills appear in the space between Campanus and Hippalus ; 

 the middle one, shorter than the others, passes between two small hills. 

 Prof. Phillips draws these two hills near to each other, and records no rill, 

 running between them. The rill between these hills and Hippalus appears in 



