NOTES. 455 



so much energy and talent at Naples by Dohrn ; for it is only in such 

 institutions — which supply, as it seems to me, a real want— that it can 

 be possible to carry on a series of observations through successive years, 

 which is indispensable for clearing up biological questions. Mean- 

 while let us be thankful that we have that of Dohrn, and a few others 

 recently established, here in Europe. I cannot omit to record my 

 satisfaction that Dohrn has decided henceforth to publish a special 

 journal of his own Transactions, for I am convinced that the Institute 

 itself, as well as zoologists at a distance, who desire information about 

 it, will find it advantageous. The complaint that it constitutes a new 

 scientific journal seems to me ill founded, for such an objection is never 

 raised against a new book, and the work begun and continued in such 

 an institute appears to me to constitute a whole, quite as coherent as 

 the different chapters of a book, or indeed of many monographs, and 

 often of much greater value. 



CHAPTER VIIT. 



Note 10S,2Jage 259. According to Wiechmann the rocks of the Kokeal 

 formation contained the following fossils : — 



Tridaona, Strombus, Mactra, Cyprina, Madrepora, Serpula, Lucina, 

 Tellina, Venus, Spondylus, Fistulana, Balanus. 



He regards the eruptive rocks as of tertiary or post-tertiary date. 



Note 107, page 275. It would be highly advantageous now to criticise 

 the Theory of Subsidence not merely in its application to a particular 

 instance, as I have done, but in its universal bearings, so as to come to 

 some conclusion as to whether my theory of" currents, sit tenia verba, 

 deserves, or does not deserve, general preference. This, however, is not 

 the place for such a discussion. I will only observe that I believe that, 

 in fact, my theory presents fewer difficulties than the Theory of Subsi- 

 dence, and may therefore be regarded as more in accordance with 

 nature. On the other hand, I readily concede that sometimes — as, for 

 instance, in the Andaman Islands — an atoll may be formed during a 

 period of subsidence, and yet it may not be exclusively the result of the 

 subsidence. Still, under the assumption that absolutely no influence of 

 the nature above indicated could have formed atolls among the Anda- 

 mans, this could only have been possible if the subsidence had through- 

 out been slower than the growth of the coral. This appears to be 

 sometimes the case ; for the Andamaus are said to be sinking at the 

 rate of a foot in a century, while Le Conte gives the maximum growth 



