WRIGHT—ON TUBIPORA MUSICA. a | 
Mr. J. Guewnow was duly elected an Associate Member. 
It was resolved that the night of meeting be for the future the first 
Wednesday in the month. 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1869. 
JoHN Barker, M. D., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Tre Minutes of the former Meeting were read and approved of. 
Professor E. Percrvatr Wrieut, M. D., read the following 
Paper :— 
On tHe Anima oF Tusipora musica, Linn. Pl. XI. 
Here and there, all along many of the fine sandy bays of Mahé and 
Praslin, will be found, cast up by the tide, masses of various sizes of 
the bright-red skeleton of the well-known Organ-pipe Coral; and in 
some places the finely broken-up fragments are so mixed up with the 
sand as to impart to it a slight red colour. Finding the skeletons so 
common, I expected with a little search to discover the living coral 
in situ, and with this object in view I searched many a mile of coral 
reef, but without success. Hearing from some of the fishermen that, 
on a bank famous for such fine fish as Mesoprion erythrinus, Gerres 
argyreus, &c., quantities of red coral were often brought up on their 
hooks, I proceeded to the spot, and found large quantities of the 
skeletons of Tubspora musica, but no trace of the polyps. In October 
of 1867 I was residing on the eastern side of Praslin; and taking ad- 
vantage of the “‘grandes marées”’ of that month, I investigated very 
closely the extensive coral reefs on the western side of the beautiful 
little island called Curieuse. My plan was to commence work about 
two hours before low water. Sending a small pirogue to row beside 
the outer edge of the reef, which here encircles the land, I used to 
walk along this edge, attended by Edouard, the black captain of my 
black crew. His duty was to carry glass jars, into which to put my 
captures, and to help me in my encounters with eels and cuttlefish ; 
while by the aid of the pirogue I could cross over the deep gullies 
which very frequently occurred in the coral reef, without the necessity 
of having to go to the shore so as to get round them. I need scarcely 
say that even when wading to my waist in the tepid waters, and half 
a mile from the shore, I could see, when the sea was tranquil, the sur- 
face of the reef as distinctly as if 1t were only covered by an inch or 
two of water. I had walked over this and other coral reefs so very 
often, that I had not on this occasion much hope of discovering any- 
thing new. The surface on which I walked was a perfect carpet of a 
pretty bluish-green Xenia, interspersed here and there with patches of 
a bright scarlet and of a green alga. Sometimes, when a small heap 
of dead coral was met with and turned over, a large cuttlefish would 
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