Meetings, 1889. 



107 



most indefatigable and successful searcher among the treasures 

 of the deep around our shores, first exhibited specimens of 

 fish preserved by a new method suggested by Dr. Davidson, of 

 New York, and now used by Mr. Sinel. Mr. Sinel also 

 described a very successful mode of restoring colour to pre- 

 served specimens. Many examples of annelids and sponges 

 were shewn, and the lecturer remarked that of the whole of 

 the British sponges, 75 per cent, are found in the waters 

 around the Channel Islands. In Compound Ascidians, the 

 Channel Islands are richer than any place north of the 

 Mediterranean. After describing briefly but lucidly the life 

 history of the Ship Barnacle, and the Great Edible Crab, 

 Mr. Sinel went on to speak of fish, and in the course of his 

 remarks said: — " That while in the fishes, beyond every other 

 class of vertebrates, we see the operations of the law of 

 natural selection, in either the close mimicry of surroundings 

 or armature (but principally the former) there is one genus, viz., 

 the Labridce ("Wrasses) in which neither "Natural" nor 

 " Sexual " selection seems to have had play ; for instance let 

 us glance at a few of the best known forms of our coasts, 

 taking firstly the * Pleuronedidoe ' (soles, plaice, etc ,) here 

 we have a close mimicry of the bottom on which they live, 

 varying with the different grounds ; so close is this imitation 

 that it requires a sharp eye to detect even their bare outline, — 

 this is well known to those who fish for these by spearing 

 them in shallow waters. Then we have the surface, or mid- 

 depth, swimmers (the mackerel for instance), here we have 

 invariably a dark Hue or green (chiefly sea-green) ground with 

 waved lines, so that a whole shoal is hardly discernible from 

 above amid the ripple of the surface, while to such enemies as 

 are likely to attack them from below, they must present, 

 through their silvery underside, close similarity in hue to the 

 sky. I have consulted divers (in Guernsey) touching this, and 

 they say they are only just visible, the shadow which they cast 

 on the bottom, in sunny weather being the first notice of their 



