ANNIYEESAET ADDRESS OP THE PEESIDENX. 



Iv 



Mr. Jeffreys informs me that, in addition to the above, there are 

 many other species in the same category, though they have not 

 yet been specially recorded. According to him, the total number 

 of species which were, until lately, considered extinct, but which 

 he has now ascertained to be living, is at least thirty. 



In the Mediterranean, there is at present Httle to record. 15 

 species were dredged from a depth of 8490 feet. They consisted 

 of:— 



Northern species 5 



Lusitanian 9 



Oceanic 1 



Fossil in Italy . 9 



Fossil in the Crag 4 



New species 2 



Some new species of much interest were discovered in less depths (of 

 from 100 to 1000 feet) in and at the entrance of the Mediterranean. 

 Amongst these there were 31 northern species, also 12 species 

 before known only as fossil in Italy, and 3 species common to our 

 Crag. 



Thus, so far from showing any relationship to the Cretaceous fauna, 

 the deep Atlantic moUusca have their nearest allies in Pliocene 

 (and possibly Upper Miocene) forms of Italy and in those of the 

 Crag-beds of this country. Mr. Jeffreys's anticipations, made in 

 1862 *, that " it is highly probable that all the mollusca which 

 lived during the periods represented by the newer strata still sur- 

 vive in some part or other of those vast tracts of sea-bed which lie 

 between the North Pole and the Pillars of Hercules," and that the 

 deeper recesses of the ocean would be found inhabited, receive 

 therefore great confirmation, though it yet remains to be seen to 

 what extent they may be fully realized. Almost all the species yet 

 found at these great depths are, hke so many of our Coralline-crag 

 species, very small. 



Prof. Duncan has described f 12 species of corals dredged from 

 depths of from 2000 to 4200 feet ; and he informs me that he has 

 under description many otherg, some of which were obtained from 

 a depth of 6570 feet. Owing to the great range in depth and 

 temperature of the Atlantic sea-bed, the variation in form of some 

 of the corals has been so excessive that Prof. Duncan has absorbed 

 9 old species in the 12 now established. The range and distribution 

 of these species thus obtained in the first and second expeditions is 

 very remarkable. 



* ' British Conchology,' Jeffreys, vol. i. p. xci. 

 t Proc. Eoy. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 289. 



