iio 



peesident's addkess. 



no more sea" should ever arrive. Passing from such grand cos- 

 mical topics to some of the not less interesting but minor results 

 of the expedition, we find that dredgings between Cape Palmas 

 towards the Brazilian coast prove that the inhabitants of the 

 deep water care little for geographical boundaries. Finding a 

 similar suitable temperature, at the equator or the poles, they 

 spread themselves about the whole bottom of the sea ; the species 

 found here in the tropics being much the same as these found off 

 the European coasts and elsewhere. Near the surface the case 

 is altered. As the temperature varies so the fauna changes. 



A very remarkable discovery has been made of a deep water 

 cold current, only half a degree above the freezing point of fresh 

 water, running to the northward, along the Brazilian coast. Thus 

 the water of the North Atlantic is fed from the Antartic Sea. 

 During the voyage of the " Challenger," between the continents 

 of Africa and America, from the ooze or mud of the sea bottom 

 were brought up by the dredge miniature creatures exactly simi- 

 lar to organisms found in the secondary strata. If this be so, 

 the fact seems to call for the attention of the believers in the 

 Development Theory. Assuming the Law of Evolution to be a 

 law of nature, we see here another law restraining development 

 under circumstances apparently not unfavourable, and acting 

 through an inconceivably long period, during which any amount 

 of specific change might, according to theory, have been looked 

 for. As a pendant to this it may be mentioned that blind Crustacea 

 seem to belong to the western world. These dwelling on this 

 side appear to require all the eyes they can obtain, for, says the 

 gentleman who reports the scientific proceedings of the ship, we 

 have now found a shrimp having four eyes ; probably its original 

 eyes could not see round the corners of its body, so an additional 

 pair have been developed, and, curiously enough, on the knee 

 joints of its front legs, the sight from which can converge across 

 its tail, and so insure its never being caught napping on any 

 occasion. 



The question of hybridity in plants has lately attracted a great 

 deal of attention, though less in this country than on the Conti- 

 nent. The idea that the slight differences observed in the plants 



