2 A. Alcock — Distrihution of Certain Veep Sea Animals. [Jan. 



Babu Amrtalal Vasu, proposed by Pandit Mahendra Nath Vidya- 

 nidhi, seconded by Dr. Amrtalal Sarkar. 



E. B. Havell, Esq., Principal, Calcutta School of Art, proposed by 

 Dr. A. E R. Hoernle, seconded by Dr. A. Alcock. 



The President announced that the Council had elected Mr. G. W. 

 Kiichler as Treasurer of tbe Society in the place of Mr. C. Little, re- 

 signed. 



The President announced that he had received five essays in com- 

 petition for the Elliott Prize for Scientific Researches for the year 



1897. 



Surgeon-Major A. Alcock exhibited some remarkable Deep Sea 

 animals, and made the following remarks on their distribution : — 



The three specimens which I am exhibiting this evening are : — 



(1). A Macrurus fish (Macrurus — Mystaconurus — cavernosus, Goode 

 and Bean) belonging to the same order as the Cod-fishes. 



(2). A blind deep-sea Lobster (Phoberus csecus, A. M. Edw.), and 



(3). A gigantic deep sea Isopod Crustacean (Bathynomus giganteus, 

 A. M. Edw). 



In exhibiting them, what I wish to draw attention to is, not the 

 numerous peculiarities of their structure, but the peculiarity of their 

 Geographical Distribution. 



The fish {Mystaconurus cavernosus) was first discovered by the 

 U. S. Survey Steamer " Albatross " in the Gulf of Mexico at a depth 

 of 227 fathoms. 



The Lobster {Phoherus cdscus) was first discovered by the U. S. 

 Survey Steamer " Blake," off the Antilles at a depth of about 416 fms. 



The Isopod {Bathynomus giganteus) was first discovered by the 

 " Blake " at a depth of about 955 fathoms, also in the Gulf of Mexico. 



Now the point that I think sufficiently remarkable for relation to 

 this meeting is that these three animals (belonging to three different 

 Orders and two different Phyla of the Animal Kingdom) first found in 

 the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, are only elsewhere known to occur in 

 Indian waters. 



It is true that a form very closely related to, and perhaps identi- 

 cal with, Phoherus csecus, was dredged by the " Challenger," at a depth 

 of 800 fathoms, in the enclosed sea south of JN'ew Guinea, but that sea, 

 as well as the Java seas and the Andaman sea, all belong to one and the 

 same zoological region with the seas of India. So that if all three forms, 

 instead of only one of them, were known to exist near New Guinea, the 

 peculiarity of their distribution would hardly be affected. 



