Notes on Mediterranean Mollusca. 27 
IV.—Notes on the Mollusca procured by the Italian Ex- 
ploration of the Mediterranean in 1881. By J. Gwyn 
JEFFREYS, LL.D., F.R.S. 
HAVING been lately at Florence, Professor Giglioli kindly 
offered me an opportunity of examining the Mollusca which 
were obtained in the Italian Expedition to the Mediterranean 
in 1881; and he requested me to publish a notice of the 
principal results in that department of zoology. His pre- 
liminary Report of the Expedition was published at the close 
of last year in the ‘ Atti del III. Congresso Geografico Inter- 
nazionale,’ and is highly interesting to all naturalists. It 
conclusively showed that the great abysses of the Mediterra- 
nean are not (as the lamented Professor Edward Forbes 
supposed) azoic, but that they abound in life of all kinds. 
This fact has been corroborated by the French exploration in 
the ‘ Travailieur ’ of another part of the Mediterranean, made 
in the same year, an account of which appeared in the ‘ Comptes 
Rendus’ from the pen of Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards. 
Fishes, Mollusca, Crustacea, Annelids, Echinoderms, Zoan- 
tharia, Corals, Foraminifera, and Sponges were amply repre- 
sented in both of those expeditions from depths of from 500 
to nearly 2000 fms. 
Forbes’s dredgings in the Mediterranean did not exceed in 
depth 230 fms.; Admiral Spratt dredged there living Mol- 
lusca in 310 fms.; and in the ‘Porcupine’ expedition of 
1870 productive dredgings were made off the north coast of 
Africa at depths of 1415 and 1456 fms. These were the only 
deep-water researches by dredging in the Mediterranean pre- 
viously to last year. It was therefore clear that the bottom of 
this famous sea or marine lake had never been properly in- 
vestigated for zoological purposes. 
The Italian surveying-ship ‘ Washington,’ under the com- 
mand of Captain Magnaghi, commenced operations on the Ist 
of August, and returned to Genoa on the 6th of September, 
1881. The commander is an experienced hydrographer and 
a thorough man of science. Professor Giglioli, of Florence, 
who is well known as an eminent and accomplished zoologist, 
had the scientific charge of the expedition as naturalist. ‘The 
course of exploration was from Maddalena, round Sardinia to 
Naples, and thence to the western coast of Sicily. There 
were thirty-three stations and thirty-eight dredgings; and 
the depths at which dredgings were made ranged from 60 to 
3630 metres, or from about 324 to 1970 fms. 
As regards the Mollusca, the number of specimens pro- 
