4 " THETIS SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



1892, Staff Commander Fred. Howard, R.N., made four hundred 

 and three soundings off the coast, ranging from 10 to 128 fathoms. 

 Rarely has a trained naturalist been employed, and in the few 

 instances where the services of such has been sought, he has never 

 been consulted as to necessaiy equipment or permitted' any voice 

 in the direction or control of the expedition, but been placed on 

 board to accept matters just as. he may have found them. 



I have below given a rapid sketch of the marine investigations 

 of the Colony, and some idea of the paucity of such operations 

 will be thereby gained. In very few cases has any scientific or 

 other record been kef)t, but such as I have traced, while scanning 

 the literature, is chronicled or the necessary i-eferences supplied. 



Shore collections had been previously made, but one of the 

 earliest investigators to obtain specimens below tide marks was) 

 Samuel Stutchbury, afterwards Government Geologist of New 

 South Wales. He was the first to take alive the intei"esting. 

 mollusc Trigonia, the species previously obtained in Tasmania by 

 Peron and King being known from the shell only. Stutchbury 

 describes* how certain specimens were attached to Trigonia, 

 and, "having seen the living animal," discusses its zoological 

 position. Trigonia was probably first taken here in 1826, for 

 on p. 98 of the work quoted, Stutchbury records having in the 

 year 1286 (sic) searched near the entrance of Port Jackson and 

 discovered, among other forms, the first living Clavagella. 



We have evidence that the first Trigonia was actually dredged, 

 for A. H. Cooke, dealing with the leaping powers of Mollusca, 

 writesf "Miss Saul has informed me that the first living specimen 

 of Trigonia that was ever obtained was lost in a similar way. It 

 was dredged by Mr. Stutchbury in Sydney Harbour and placed 

 on the thwart of a small boat. He had just remarked to a com- 

 panion that it must be a Trigonia, and his companion had laughed 

 at the idea, reminding him that all known Trigonia were fossil, 

 when the shell in question baffled their efi"orts to discover its 

 generic position by suddenly leaping into the sea, and it was three 

 months before Mr. Stutchbury succeeded in obtaining another."' 

 Tliis account is an extension of that appearing in the Bridgewater 

 Treatise. | 



The "Astrolabe," flying the French flag, during her voyage in 

 1826-29 visited New South Wales and made dredgings in Jervis 

 Bay and Port Jackson. Quoy and Gaimard were the naturalists on 

 board, but they did not collect Trigonia in Port Jackson. Every- 

 one who afterwards visited Sydney seems to have ))een determined 



* Stutchbury— Zool. Journ., v., 1830, p. 97. 



t Cooke — Cambridge Natural History, iii., 1895, p. 65. 



+ Bridgewater Treatise, i., 1835, p. 264, pi. v., tig. 5. 



