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logged and ready to sink. The contents of some of our trawls 
would certainly have puzzled a palaeontologist; between the 
deep-water forms of Crustacea, annelids, fishes, echinoderms, 
sponges, etc., and the mango and orange leaves mingled with 
branches of bamboo, nutmegs, land shells, both animal and 
vegetable forms being in such profusion, he would have found 
it difficult to decide whether he had to deal with a marine or 
a land fauna. Such a haul from some fossil deposit would 
naturally be explained as representing a shallow estuary sur- 
rounded by forests, and yet the depth might have been 1,500 
fathoms. This large amount of vegetable matter, thus carried 
out to sea, seems to have a material effect in increasing, in 
certain localities, the number of marine forms. 
The collections made have all arrived in Cambridge, and will 
be sent for determination, as fast as practicable, to the natural- 
ists who have undertaken the reports on the different groups of 
last year’s collections. As their preliminary reports are well 
under way, I need only allude here in general to some of the 
most interesting types. Among the Foraminifera are a number 
of the arenaceous types noticed by Mr. Brady, in the collections 
of the Challenger and Porcupine; among the Sponges, a 
species allied to Phoronema, a small Hyalonema, tufts of large, 
siliceous spicules (Hyalonema proper), covered at one end with 
Zoanthus, very similar to the common Japanese type ; fine 
series of Dactyl ocalyx, showing the mode of growth from a 
simple globular form ; and a gigantic Euplectella. The collec- 
tion of Starfishes was quite small, and contained nothing worthy 
of special notice. The collection of Holothurians contained, 
in addition to the deep-sea forms mentioned in my former letters, 
a larger number of species than last year, genera allied to 
Molpadia, Caudina, Echinocucumis, and the like. 
Among the Echini, with the exception of the Pourtalesia 
group, all the types collected by the Challenger are well repre- 
sented, with a few Spatangoids hitherto unknown. The number 
of Echinothuriae was quite large. Of the Pourtalesia group but 
few specimens in good condition were obtained, though the 
trawl brought up numerous fragments of several of the genera 
(if I am not mistaken) collected by the Challenger in deep 
waters in the Southern Ocean. The small number of Clype- 
astroids collected, even when approaching the South American 
shore, at the 100-fathom line, near Trinidad, where they are so 
common, shows pretty conclusively that the group, with the 
exception of Echinocyamus, is an eminently littoral one. A 
large collection of Comatulae was made, and a number of speci- 
mens of Phizocrinus were obtained, but only a few were in 
perfect condition. Of Holopus only a part of a specimen was 
found. It was collected off Montserrat, and escaped my atten- 
