1898,] PLAITKTOK OP THE FAEEOE CHAMIEI;. 585 



observation of Sars ^ : — " A much smaller form, scarcely exceeding 

 5 mm. in length, but otherwise wholly agreeing with the typical 

 species, I have met with in less depth [than 100 fathoms] and 

 occasionally even near the surface of the sea." Edwards, in the 

 paper already cited, speaks of their being " cast on shore during gales 

 from the North in most enormous and incalculable numbers," and 

 of " a ridge or wall of these animals extending more than a hundred 

 feet in length, and varying from 1 to 2 inches in height and 

 breadth, which had been washed up by the sea." He evidently 

 considered them to live normally out at sea, and to come inshore 

 occasionally " in search of food perhaps." 



There are of course other forms, such as Nyctiphanes norvegica, 

 which are known to inhabit the upper strata when young, and to 

 descend normally to greater dfepths when adult. Other forms again 

 are known to appear in the North Sea only at times when a strong 

 set of southerly current brings down an Arctic or sub-Arctic 

 Fauna ^. 



I have discussed the distribution of this form at some length 

 because it seems to me to illustrate our utter ignorance of the normal 

 habitat and occasional appearance of some " British " species, — 

 conditions which are fundamental factors in the distribution and 

 bionomics of marine organisms, and which can only be elucidated 

 by patient observation and detailed records all round the coast-line. 



Parathemisto ahyssorum may be fairly regarded as a member of the 

 Mesoplankton in the Faeroe Channel : it occurred in seven out of 

 thirteen deep-water hauls ; and in one out of three hauls which began 

 at or over 300 fathoms and finished at the surface ; it occurred in 

 only one out of twenty-five hauls between 100 and fathoms, and 

 then at midnight and very abundantly {15 d). It is also apparently 

 a cold-water form by preference, as it did not occur in either of the 

 deep hauk in the " warm area " (19 a, 480 to 350 fms. ; 19 6, 480 

 to fathoms). 



^ G. O. Sars: Crustacea of Norway, vol. i. p. 11. 



^ C. Chun : Beziehungen zwischen den arktisehen and antarktischen Plankton. 

 Stuttgart, 1897, 8vo. 



CoNTEJfTS {continued). 



June 21, 1898 {continued). 



Fagc- 

 jMr. Boulenger. Notice of a Memoir on the Fishes collected by Mr. J. E. S. Moore in 



Lake Tanganyika 194 



1 . On the Scorpions, Spiders, and Solpugas collected by Mr. C. Steuart Betton. in British 

 East Africa. By E. I. Pocock, of the British Museum of Natural History. (Plates 

 XLl. & XLII.) ■ 497 



.2. On the Fungid Corals collected by the Author in the South Pacific. By J. Stanley 



!■'■ Gardiner, M. A., Gtonville and Oaius College, Cambridge. (Plates XLIII.-XLV.) .... 525 



3. Description d'un Genre nouveau d'Ophidiens, Geatractus. Par Alfred Dug6s, M.D. . . 530 



A. Contributions to our Knowledge of the Plankton of the Faeroe Channel. — No. IV. 

 Report on the Copepoda collected by Dr. G. H. Fowler from H.M.S. 'E^search' in 

 the Faeroe Channel in 1896 and 1897. By Isaac C. Thompson, F.L.S. (With an 

 Appendix by Dr. Fowlee.) 540 



5. Contributions to our Knowledge of the Plankton of the Faeroe Channel. — No. V. Report 

 on a Collection of very young Fishes obtained by Dr. G. H. Fowler in the Faeroe 

 Channel. By Eenest W. L. Holt. (Plates XL VI. & XLVU.) 550 



■fa. Contributions to our Knowledge of the Plankton of the Faeroe Channel. — No. VI. De- 

 scription of a new Mid-water Tow-net. Discussion of the Mid-water Fauna (Meso- 

 plankton). Notes on Bolioliom tritonis and B. nationalis, and on Parathemisto abij-s- 

 sorum. By G. Herbert Fowlek, B. A., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Zoology, University 

 College, London 5fi7 



