578 Dr. R. von Willemoes-Suhm on Observations 



interesting as young stages of deep-sea animals do not often occur, owing 

 to their small size, by which they escape through the net or are hopelessly 

 lost in the mud. 



"We got once a Lupea and a Geearcinus on the coast of Brazil from a 

 depth of 350 fathoms ; but- these can scarcely be considered deep-sea 

 animals. It is, however, remarkable to find that Geearcinus, & genus 

 which lives in holes on shore, should ever go for breeding-purposes to 

 such a considerable depth as that, unless we here have a species before 

 us which has taken to sea-life — a return to old habits which is neither 

 known among the Telphusidae nor the Gecarcinidae, but which, of course, 

 is not altogether out of question. 



Naturalists who have dredged much in shallow water are accustomed 

 to consider Nymphon as a form which lives above the bottom, climbing 

 up into the Fucus and never burrowing into the mud like Pycnogonum, 

 also to find the latter in greater depths than the former ; at least these 

 were my experiences on the northern coast. But in the deep sea just 

 the reverse is the case ; Pyenogonum is either very rare or altogether 

 wanting there, while Nymphon and the allied genera Zetes &c. are pretty 

 common, and evidently walking gravely with their long legs over the 

 muddy bottom. In the Atlantic we got Nymphon from 1250 and Zetes 

 from 350 and 1075 fathoms, none of them being particularly remarkable, 

 either for size or any thing else. Some of the females had the well- 

 known larval forms, which by Claparede and others have been sufficiently 

 described. 



Brachiopoda were on the whole scarce. "We had once a very large 

 Waldhemia with exceedingly small animal, which was got on our way 

 from Gibraltar to Madeira from 390 fathoms, and several times some 

 small Brachiopoda from 850 to 1000 fathoms, the genus of which was 

 not determined. 



Also Ascidians were by no means common. Though the true genus 

 Ascidia (transparent Tunicata without a stalk, taken in the wider sense) 

 does occur in great depths, I do not remember its having been found in 

 the Atlantic, where only a very fine species of Boltenia was found near 

 the coast of North America in 1700 fathoms. 



The Lamellibranchiata and Gastropoda have been duly collected and 

 preserved ; but I am not able to say much about them. " Fine shells " 

 there are scarcely any ; if they come up at all, they are small and of 

 ordinary appearance like Area, Necera, Pleuronectia, Trochus, Fusus, &c. 

 Dentalium, about the most interesting of all of them, goes to great depths, 

 and was, either alive or dead, nearly always found when great quantities 

 of mud were brought up by the dredge. 



Of Cephalopoda I find only tmFledone on my list, which, coming from 

 350 fathoms, belongs, however, to the shore-fauna of Brazil. All the 

 other species of the Atlantic belong to its transparent surface-forms ; and 

 I am not quite sure whether CirroteutJiis is not the only Cephalopod 



