18 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
annelids, and this produced a strong conviction that the occurrence 
of peroxide of manganese at the bottom of the sea depended in 
some way or other on the organic life existing there. 
After this comparatively little manganese was met with, until, on 
approaching the south coast of Australia, a large haul was obtained 
from a depth of 2600 fathoms in lat. 42° 42' S., long. 134° 10' E. 
and throughout the whole of the Pacific, when the trawl was put 
over in water sufficiently deep and sufficiently far from land, it 
rarely failed to collect abundance of manganese nodules, of all shapes 
and sizes, and surrounding all kinds of nuclei. Concretions also 
were obtained from time to time, recalling those of the North 
Atlantic above referred to. Thus, on the plateau of the Kermadec 
Islands, large lumps of a tufaceous sandstone were brought up, 
which were much perforated by serpular borings, and these were 
lined with peroxide of manganese. At the first station after leaving 
Japan, and on the landward side of the deep gully which runs 
parallel with the islands, a large haul was obtained, chiefly of pumice, 
tuff, and volcanic mud concretions. These were much perforated 
by worms, and the holes were lined with black oxide of manganese. 
One concretion, a portion of which is on the table, was broken 
open in the plane of one of the worm-holes, and the worm was 
found dead in it.* On another portion a dead worm was found 
adhering, and on removing it a black stain was found below it 
consisting of peroxide of manganese. The connection of the 
peroxide of manganese with the life of these animals was very 
marked in this case, and continued to occupy my attention from 
time to time, though without arriving at any satisfactory solution, 
during the cruise. It must not be forgotten that an invariable 
feature of the nodules was that they gave off abundance of alkaline 
and empyreumatic-smelling water on being heated, which served 
further to connect them with the organic world. 
After the return of the “ Challenger ” I did a good deal of 
dredging in the summers of several years (1877-1882) in the seas 
on the west coast of Scotland, and on the 21st September 1878 I 
brought up from the deepest parts of Loch Fyne (104 fathoms) a 
quantity of sandy mud, with large quantities of dead pecten shells, 
and along with tfliem true manganese nodules, with all the outward 
* The body of this worm was tested and found free from manganese. 
