THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



277 



to the Mediterranean, such as Desmophyllum stel- 

 laria and D.costatum, Cyathina cyatkus, Dendrophyl- 

 lia ramea, Cladocera ccespitosa ; but all these range 

 continuously on either side of the great African 

 continent. From the abundance of these particu- 

 lar forms in the east as compared with the west, 

 we may refer them or consider them as belonging 

 to the Indo-Pacific, rather than to the Lusitanian 

 region ; and, conversely, the shells of the foregoing 

 list, which are given as common to the Red Sea 

 and the Mediterranean, and which are all essentially 

 Atlantic species, may have reached their remote 

 eastern settlements by doubling the Cape. 



The character of a marine province is dependent 

 in all cases on the preponderance of certain pecu- 

 liar forms. Perhaps no two lines can be chosen 

 which, though not far apart, will yet present, even 

 to the casual observer, so great a difference as the 

 shore of the Eastern Mediterranean and that of the 

 upper end of the Red Sea. A small set of dead 

 shells picked up near Suez contains Pleurotoma 

 flavidula, Murex crassispina and anguliferus, Ceri- 

 thium vulgatum, nodulosum, and tuberculatum, Cy- 

 prcea turdus ? Nerita exuvia, Monodonta JEgyptiaca 

 and pagodus, Turbo ch?ysostomus, Trochus macula- 

 tus, Fusus Nicobaricus and distans, Pyrula citrina, 

 Patella laciniosa, Aspergillum vaginiferum, Cytherea 

 pectinata, erycina, and two others, Mactra subpli- 

 cata, Sanguinolaria rugosa, Spondylus costatus, mul- 

 tilamellatus ? Vulsella lingidata, Area fusca, Brug., 



