GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The following table has been prepared in order to 

 show the known geographical and bathymetrical dis- 

 tribution of the British Sponges. "With very few 

 exceptions, the localities inserted in the columns are 

 such only as have been recorded in the ' Monogi^aph 

 of the British Spongiadse.' The columns " Abyssal " 

 and " 100 — 500 fathoms " have been partially filled in 

 fi"om Mr. Carter's Report of the Sponges dredged in 

 the " Porcupine " Expeditions of 1869 and 1870 (' Ann. 

 Nat. Hist./ ser. 4, vol. xviii, 1876). The table makes it 

 clear that the Sponge Fauna of many parts of our seas 

 remains almost wholly unexplored ; and it is hoped 

 that the very deficiency exhibited here will have a 

 tendency among many other causes to induce our 

 younger and rising naturalists to take up the great 

 field of research which here lies open to them. Speak- 

 ing from a very extended knowledge of the zoology of 

 our coasts, I unhesitatingly state that no other class 

 of animals offers to the student so rich a field for 

 exploration, or one in which he is likely to meet with 

 so many hitherto unknown species. 



A. M. N. 



