TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 151 



Baltic, and the larger to the North Sea ; and as it is asserted that the whales are 

 the cause of their flying south, why do we not see the whale on every coast every 

 year ? Mr. YaiTell, in his valuable work on Fishes (vol. ii. p. 112), truly says, 

 " There can be no doubt that the herring inhabits the deep water all round oiu: 

 coast, and only approaches the shore for the pui-pose of depositing its spawn within 

 the immediate influence of the two principal agents in vivilication — increased tom- 

 peratui-e and oxygen ; and as soon as that essential operation is effected, the shoals 

 that hannt om- coast disappear, but individuals are to be found, and many are 

 caught throughout the year." 



11. Various other fishes have similar habits in spawning. The salmon ascends 

 the rivers from the sea at particular periods for the purpose of spawiiing: for 

 . this fish no distant seas have, however, been assigned. The sprat appears in 

 shoals in various localities of the coasts of the British Islands from November to 

 March.^ The shad or Alosa is found in shoals in some of our rivers from May to 

 July — in the Severn generally in May, and it continues there about two months ; 

 in the MediteiTanean, near Sm}Tua and Rosetta ; and it ascends the NUe as high as 

 Cairo in December and January. The pilchard appears in shoals on the coast of 

 Cornwall from June to the end of the j'ear ; and the timny comes in-shore on the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean in summer. All these fishes appear to have the same 

 habit of gregariously visiting various coasts and rivers at particular seasons for a 

 similar piuijose; but no one woidd on this account pronounce them natives or 

 inhabitants of a distant quarter of the globe. In short, from all the cu'cumstances 

 kuo^vn of the natiu'al history of the herring, in regard to its visits on our own 

 coasts and the coasts of other countries, it is reasonable to conclude that it inhabits 

 the seas in the neighbom-hood of the coasts on which it spawns, and that it 

 arrives at particular seasons near the coasts for the pui-pose of spawning, the shoals 

 leaA-ing the coasts immediately thereafter ; and the early or late, and distant or 

 near approach to the coasts in different years perhaps depends, as before remarked, 

 on the clear and warm or dark and cold weather of the season, as well as upon 

 the depth of water at the feeding- and spawning-gi-oimds. 



On the Crustacea, Echinodermata, ancl Zoophytes ohtained in Deep-sea 

 Dredghig off the Shetland Isles in 1861. By the Rev. Alfred Mekle 

 Norman, M.A. 



This paper was supplementary to that of Mr. Jeffreys, and contained an account 

 of theCruslacea, Echinodermata, and Zoophytes obtained during the same dredging- 

 expedition. Mr. Norman mentioned that about 140 species of Crustacea were met 

 with._ Eighteen of these, \-iz. 7 Podophthalmia and 11 Edriophthahnia, were new 

 to Britain. The Podophthalmia consisted oi Portunus piistulatus (Nomian, n. sp.), 

 distinguished by its pustidar carapace, by the latero-anterior teeth, which in fomi 

 resemble those of lotirjipes, and by having the swimming-blade of the last pan* of 

 feet scidptured with a raised longitudinal and a marginal line; Pugtirus ferriu/ineiis 

 (Noiman, n. sp.) ; Cramjon serratus (Nomian, n. sp.), allied to spinosus, but fur- 

 nished with seven rows of teeth on the carapace, having an acutely pointed simple 

 rostrum (without the lateral denticular processes which are present in spinostis), 

 and a central keel on the fifth segment of the abdomen (instead of diverging lines) ; 

 Sahinesa septetncarinaia (Sabine) ; Hi^Tjiolj/te poluris (Sabine) ; Hippohjte semrifrom 

 (Nomian, n. sp.), nearest akin to the Californian H. affinis (Owen), having the 

 rostrum in the form of a broad flat plate anned with eleven teeth above, four or five 

 of which are on the carapace and four below, three pau-s of spines on the carapace, 

 the first on each side of the base of the rostrum, the second on the anterior margin 

 just below the eye, the third, veiy minute, at the junction of the anterior and lateral 

 margins,^ and three pau-s of spines on the telson ; ' Ctmiomysis alata (Nomian), a new 

 genus of Mysidfe aUied to Noctihca. Ctenomysis has six pau-s of thoracic feet, fur- 

 nished on their inner base with large scales, which serve to protect the external 

 branchife situated beneath them ; the subabdominal legs are bifurcate and multi- 

 articulate ; and the species is easily distinguished by the remarkable fomi of the 

 autennal scales, which are broad and triangular, and instead of being pon-ected, are 

 spreadat right angles to the body. The front margin of the carapace terminates in 

 five spine-like processes, three frontal, and one on each side below the eyes. 



