ox INVESTIGATIONS IN TflE INDIAN OCEAN. SOt 



Investigations in the Indian Ocean. — Third Report of the Committee, 

 consisting of Sir JoHN Murray {Chairman), Mr. J. Stanley 

 Gardiner {Secretary), Captain E. W. Creak, Professors W. A. 

 Herdman, S. J. HiCKSON, and J. W. Judd, Mr. J. J. Lister, Dr. 

 H. R. Mill, and Dr. D. Sharp, appointed to cari-y on an Expedition 

 to investigate the Indian Ocean between India and South Africa in 

 view of a possible land connection, to examine the deep submerged 

 banhs, the Nazareth and Saya de Malha, and also the distribution 

 of marine animals. 



The Committee have received the following communication from Mr. 

 J. Stanley Gardiner, who has had charge of the work : — 



' I am now (June 29) en route to the Seychelles for the further 

 prosecution of our researches. I expect to be there for twelve weeks, 

 working mainly at the physical conditions of Mahe and Silhouette, two 

 of the larger islands, which were scarcely examined during my last visit. 

 I am accompanied by Mr. Hugh Scott and Mr. J. C. F. Fryer, both 

 young Cambridge zoologists. Mr. Scott will devote himself to the 

 entomology of the Seychelles, probably remaining in the group for at 

 least six months. Mr. Fryer is to proceed to Aldabra, a ring-shaped 

 island of some 45,000 acres, famous for its large land tortoises and 

 peculiar birds, about 700 miles to the south by west of the Seychelles. 

 Here he will remain for at least three months, investigating it in all its 

 aspects, geographical, zoological, and botanical. He will also probably 

 visit other islands under the Colonial Government, returning early in 

 1909. In the Seychelles I am promised the assistance of Mr. H. P. 

 Thomasset, with whom I hope to collaborate in collecting the jungle 

 floras of Silhouette and Mahe. 



* During the present year three parts of volume i., " Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society," of the results of the expedition of 1905 have been 

 published. They contain the following papers : — Description of the 

 Expedition, Parts I. and II. (J. Stanley Gardiner and C. Forster 

 Cooper) ; On an Arboricolous Nemertean from the Seychelles {H. C. 

 Punnett) ; Land and Freshwater Decapoda (L. A. Borradaile) ; Hymeno- 

 ptera (P. Cameron) ; Odonata (F. F. Laidlaw) ; Fourmis des Seychelles, 

 Amirantes, Farquhar et Chagos (Professor A. Forel), Pycnogonida 

 (George H. Carpenter) ; Aves, with some Notes on the Distribution of 

 the Land Birds of the Seychelles (H, Gadow and J. Stanley Gardiner) ; 

 The Lithothamnia (M. Foslie) ; Note sur les Ixodid?e (Professor L. G. 

 Neumann) ; Notes on the Coccidse (E. Ernest Green) ; Stomatopoda from 

 the Western Indian Ocean (L. A. Borradaile) ; and Pisces (C. Tate Regan). 



' Reports have also been read at the Linnean Society on the Reptilia, 

 Amphibia, and Freshwater Fish (G. A.. Boulenger) ; The Antipatharia 

 (C. Forster Cooper) ; The Gammaridea (A. O. Walker) ; Part of the 

 Green Algie (Mr. and Mrs. Gepp) ; The Stylasteridie (Professor S. J. 

 Hickson) ; Some Families of the Choetopoda (C. H. Potts) ; The Marine 

 Nemerteans (R. C. Punnett and C. Forster Cooper) ; and the Madre- 

 poraria Fungida; (J. Stanley Gardiner).' 



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