362 
POPULAll SCIENCE REVIEW. 
species of Gorgonia and Antipathes (especially Eiisea), showed 
a bright bluish phosphorescence when coming up in the trawl. 
One Ophiuran also, like one of the Mediterranean species men- 
tioned by Panceri, was exceedingly phosphorescent, emitting 
along the whole length of its arms at the joints a brilliant 
bluish-green light. 
One of the most interesting results reached by this year’s 
cruise is the light thrown upon the former extension of the 
South American continent, by the soundings taken while dredg- 
ing, and those subsequently made in the passages between the 
islands by Commander Bartlett. These, together with the 
soundings already known, enable us to trace the outline of the 
old continent with tolerable accuracy, and thus obtain some 
intelligible, and at the same time trustworthy, explanation of 
the peculiar geographical distribution of the fauna and flora of 
the West India Islands. As is well known, Cuba, the Bahamas, 
Hayti, and Porto Eico, instead of showing, as we might 
naturally assume from their present proximity to Florida, a 
decided affinity in their fauna and flora with those of the Southern 
United States, show, on the contrary, unmistakable association 
with those of Mexico, Plonduras, and Central America ; the 
Caribbean Islands show in part the same relationship, though 
the affinity to the Venezuelan and Brazilian fauna and flora is 
much more marked. 
In attempting to reconstruct, from the soundings, the state 
of things existing in a former period, we are at once struck by 
the fact that the Virgin Islands are the outcropping of an ex- 
tensive bank. The greatest depth between these islands is less 
than forty fathoms, this same depth being found on the bank to the 
east of Porto Eico, the 100-fathom line forming in fact the outline 
of a large island, which would include the whole of the Virgin 
Islands, the whole of Porto Eico, and extend some way into the 
Mona Passage. The 100-fathom line similarly forms a large pla- 
teau, uniting Anguilla, St. Martin, and St. Bartholomew. It also 
unites Barbuda and Antigua, forms the Saba Bank, unites St. 
Eustatius, St. Christopher, Nevis, and Eedonda. It forms an 
elongated plateau, extending from Bequia to the south-west of 
Grenada, and runs more or less parallel to the South American 
coast from the Margarita Islands, leaving a comparatively nar- 
row channel between it and the 100-fathom line south of Gre- 
nada, so as to enclose Trinidad and Tobago within its limits, 
and runs off to the south-east in a direction also about parallel 
to the shore-line. At the western end of the Caribbean Sea 
the 100-fathom line forms a gigantic bank off the Mosquito 
coast, extending over one-third the distance from the mainland 
to the island of Jamaica. The Eosalind and Pedro Banks, 
formed by the same line, and a few other smaller banks, denote 
