110 president's addbes?. 



CcELENTEEATA. — Hydrozoa are represented by a giant form, 

 Monocaulus, wMch lives on the Red Clay in the Pacific, and has 

 a stem more than six feet high, and a polyp, which is some six- 

 teen inches across the crown of its expanded tentacles. On a 

 small piece of shell dredged by the ' Valorous^ in 1,785 fathoms 

 I observed some chitinons tubes, which appeared to belong to a 

 species of Stephanoscyphus, and similar tubes were found in the 

 ' Challenger \ attached to ear-bones of whales, and concretions of 

 iron and manganese from the Eed Clay of the Pacific. Simple 

 Corals and Sea Anemones descend to all depths, but branched 

 Corals do not seem to occur below 1,000 fathoms. 



PoEiEEEA. — Sponges, more especially the Hexactinellidse, Lith- 

 istidfe, and Geodiadse are extremely abundant in 500-1,000 

 fathoms, and are found in the greatest depths, but the forms 

 from 1,000-3,000 fathoms have not yet been determined. 



FoEAMiisriFEEA are found everywhere, but in the greatest depths 

 arenaceous forms bear a much larger percentage to calcareous 

 species than is the case nearer shore. 



A few half-filled dredges of mud are all that have yet been 

 procured to introduce us to the fauna which lives throughout vast 

 unknown regions, which occupy many millions of square miles, 

 underlying strata of water two to five miles and more in depth. 

 It will probably be left to our children's children to solve some 

 of the thousand problems now opening out before us. Meanwhile 

 investigation must patiently go on, and our knowledge of this 

 new world must be slowly built up step by step. Gradually is 

 the Dredge making its power more felt ; day by day is it taking 

 a more prominent position among instruments of philosophical 

 research. If that excellent naturalist and amusing wag, Edward 

 Forbes, were among us now, he would doubtless give us another 

 version of the following "Dredging Song," which he sung at a 

 ''Red Lion Dinner" of the British Association a generation as'o. 



