18 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



nophyllia regia. It was in the recesses of a rocky pool barely covered 

 with water ; it could not be extricated it was so imbedded. On the 

 following day I again visited the spot, provided with a heavy hammer 

 and chisel, to force off some of the rock. The tide had fallen to its 

 greatest extent the previous day, and the Balanophyllia was not after 

 within reach. On the closest examination I could neither discover 

 Caryophyllia Smithii nor the little coral. In the month of August last I 

 dredged Caryophyllia Smithii in the living state in fifty-two fathoms. 

 I am, therefore, fully confirmed in the view that it is a deep-water 

 species. In the Natural History Review for April, 1859, Dr. E. Per- 

 ceval Wright expressed surprise that Thompson should have recorded 

 Cyatbina (Caryophyllia) Smithii taken on the Nymph Bank, off "Water- 

 ford. " This," he says, " I regard rather a strange locality, never hav- 

 ing dredged them in deep water, and my own experience and that of 

 Mr. Gosse would go to prove that it occurs at or near low water rock, 

 adhering to the perpendicular sides of rock." At the entrance of Dingle 

 Bay, in upwards of fifty fathoms, this beautiful coral was dredged, and 

 I obtained numerous fragments of the same coral among fine shelly 

 sand in sixty fathoms. I am glad to find its deep-water tendency con- 

 firmed by Mr. Jeffreys, for since the Paper I gave on the 1 5th Novem- 

 ber last, at the Eoyal Dublin Society, in which I alluded to the deep- 

 water soundings where I had obtained Caryophyllia, Mr. Jeffreys, in 

 his report of the deep-sea dredging expedition in H. M. S. Porcupine, 

 given in the Journal of Science, " Nature," of 2nd Debember last, states 

 that he has dredged it in 110 fathoms, about forty miles off Valentia.* 

 Such new facts have been brought to light, and old ideas dispelled, 

 that it is to be hoped that Government may, in the course of this year, 

 again enable, with improved appliances, the same men of science to 

 prosecute further inquiries, for the result of such expeditions must ever 

 be regarded with intense interest. 



As I have chiefly alluded to the Sea-anemones, I may mention, 

 when speaking of Stomphia as a deep-water species, I met another 

 form in the same soundings — viz., among small stones and Nullipara 

 compressa, abundant there, which, when brought up, and placed with 

 other animals in a bucket of water, I could not but observe its remark- 

 able features. It was attached to a flat stone, and had the appearance 

 of a column, partially encased in a lobed tube. It did not long remain" 

 in that state for examination, and it contracted to a most undefined 

 form in spirits. In seeking references that might lead to some approxi- 

 mating characteristic, I found none so nearly similar as the Capnea 

 sanguined, described by the late Professor Edward Forbes, in the ' An- 

 nals of Natural History,' vol. vii., p. 81, captured in August, 1840-r— 



* In the dredging expedition of the "Porcupine," 1869, in the trip to Rockall, 

 magnificent examples of Lophohelia prolifera and Caryophyllia Smithii were obtained 

 at considerable depths. In 458 and 180 fathoms abundance of caryophyllia were 

 brought up. 



