VARIOUS SPECIES OF MOLLUSKS AND ZOOPHYTES. 519 
The telegraphic communication between the island of Sardinia and 
the coast of Algeria having been interrupted, it became necessary to 
raise the cable, in order to examine the alterations to which this had 
been subjected. In carrying out this operation, the engineers made a 
careful study of the configuration of the sea-floor on which the cable 
rested, and determined with great accuracy, from point to point, the 
various depths at which it lay. In addition to this, and in order to 
obtain a further insight into all the circumstances which might have 
affected this sub-marine conductor, the foreign bodies found attached 
to it in different places were carefully preserved. Thanks to the kind- 
ness of M. Mangon (Professeur a l’école des Ponts et Chaussées), I 
have been enabled to examine several pieces of the cable ; and I have 
thus had it in my power to ascertain some new facts with regard to 
the existence of certain animal species at depths in which it is usually 
considered impossible for animals to live. 
A wide sub-marine valley, at a depth of between 2,000 and 3,000 
metres [roughly, from 6,000 to 10,000 feet], extends from the island 
of Sardinia to the coast of Algiers. Between Bone and Cagliari the 
cable lay in this depression; and it had remained there about two 
years when the engineers commenced their operations upon it. In 
attempting to raise the cable, it broke, and a portion only was re- 
covered. This was brought up from a depth of from 2,000 to 2,800 
metres [=6561°8 to 9186°5 feet], and detached pieces were submitted 
to my examination. Amongst the foreign bodies which adhered to it, 
I found several corals and various mollusks, all living when first with- 
drawn from the water. One of the mollusks was a species of oyster, 
(Ostrea cochlear), a species which occurs abundantly in many parts 
of the Mediterranean, and which is known to be a deep sea form, as it 
is frequently found in the dredges of the coral fishermen, whose opera- 
tions are generally carried on at a depth of 100 or 150 metres [=328 
to 492 feet]. In the case observed, the animal was evidently attached 
to the cable when quite young, since its lower valve, measuring two 
and a half inches across, was completely moulded on the surface of 
the rope, and so curved as to embrace about half the circumference of 
this. To another part of the cable was also attached, though less 
firmly, a small species of Pecten, P. opercularis (var. Andouini), 
common enough in the Mediterranean. I obtained, likewise, another 
species of that genus, P. Teste, an exceedingly rare form. Its valves 
are covered with fine and delicately reticulated strie. M. Filippi 
