1885.] J.Wood-Mason — Two species of Nephropsis, 71 



fathoms, and off False Point in 202 fathoms, and from these moderate 

 depths interesting collections of objects, consisting chiefly of Fishes 

 and Crustaceans, were brought up in the trawl. These collections were 

 made over to me in March last by Dr. Giles, the Naturalist to the Survey, 

 for determination and description. They include several characteristic 

 genera of deep sea animals, e. g., Macrurus, amongst Fishes, and Ne- 

 jphropsis, Rhacocaris, Oroplwrhynchus, Munidopsis, etc., amongst Crus- 

 taceans, and several novelties, notably three remarkable fishes belong- 

 ing to the Eels. Later in the season, after the vessel had been refitted 

 at Calcutta, " the Swatch of no ground " was explored, and, from depths 

 ranging from 285 to 409 fathoms, most interesting collections of animals 

 were brought up consisting of similar types of Fishes and Crustaceans, 

 with the addition of a few MoUusks, amongst which may be mentioned 

 a very large Nucula marked with close-set V-shaped ridges as in the 

 Japanese Nucula mirahilis, and more novelties. The physical characters 

 of the sea-bed, which is described by Dr. Giles as a green ooze with dead 

 pteropod shells abundantly disseminated through it, the temperature of 

 the water at the greatest depth reached by the dredge, which is stated 

 to have been 47° Fahr., and the occurrence of a characteristic deep sea 

 fauna, in the depths of the Swatch prove that this depression of the sea- 

 bed, which is chiefly remarkable on account of its close proximity to the 

 shoals at the mouths of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, is, as was long ago 

 suggested by Sir Charles Lyell, a part of the original basin of the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



I exhibit specimens of the NepTiropsis obtained at the three stations 

 above-mentioned ; from Station No. 1, Lat. 20° 17' 30" IST., Long. 88* 50' E., 

 off False Point, a large series of both sexes was obtained in 202 fathoms 

 with a bottom temp, of 52° F. ; from Station ISTo. 2 in Lat. 19° 35 N., Long. 

 92° 24' E., off Kyouk Phyoo, on the opposite side of the Bay, a single one 

 was fished up from 272 fathoms with a bottom temperature of 50° Fahr. ; 

 and from Station No. 3, in the Swatch, in Lat. 20° 49' N., Long. 89° ^ E., 

 one male from 409 fathoms with a, temperature of 47° Fahr. 



All the specimens from Stations 1 and 2 are of the same species ; 

 they differ in colour (which is old ivory-white with orange red mark- 

 ings), in the consistence of the integument of the branchiostegal por- 

 tions of the carapace in the female (which are soft and papery), 

 in the form and proportions of the rostrum (which is shorter and 

 lanceolate at the extremity), and in other respects from the one 

 obtained at Station No. 3, which is without doubt the male of the 

 species {N. Stewarti) dredged by me at about the same depth in the 

 Andaman Sea in 1872, agreeing therewith in the firmly chitinized 

 integument of the carapace in both sexes, in the form of the cervical 



