THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



129 



The Mediterranean Sea, viewed physically, is a 

 vast lateral extension of the Atlantic, and its fanna 

 is a full development of the most typical portion 

 of the Lusitanian zone or province of that great 

 ocean. In connection with its dependencies, termi- 

 nating in the brackish waters of the sea of Azof, 

 it repeats, and on a vast scale, all the phenomena 

 which have already been noticed touching the re- 

 lation of the Baltic Sea to the Celtic zone. We 

 should hardly have ventured, even now, to speak 

 thus confidently of the relations of the Mediter- 

 ranean fauna, but for the recent researches of our 

 own countryman, Mr. Mac Andrew, whose dredgings 

 from the Bay of Biscay to the Canaries, together 

 with the reliance which may be placed on the de- 

 termination of the numerous Testacea he met with, 

 render his labours a most timely aid in such an 

 inquiry as the present. 



In most striking contrast to that scanty guidance 

 which is offered by the indigenous naturalists of 

 Spain and Portugal for the Lusitanian border of the 

 Atlantic, is the host of able investigators by whom 

 we are met so soon as we enter the narrow straits, 

 and have passed within the great Mediterranean 

 basin. Michaud, Bisso, and more recently Jeffreys, 

 conduct us along the shores of Languedoc, Provence, 

 and Nice ; Olivi along those of the Adriatic. The 

 littoral of Greece has been described by Deshayes 

 and his brother naturalists, and the examination of 

 the iEgean, from its shores to its greatest depths, 



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