26 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
four-rayed, tetract spicules. In the length of the tuft and in the numerous 
spicules which composed it, this sponge had also affinities with Hyalonema, 
though none of Schulze’s figures had so bulky a tuft. Hyalonema sieboldii , 
however, seems to be the sponge which most closely corresponds with it in 
this particular. 
Two other questions of interest arise out of this specimen, viz. : the 
locality and the depth from the surface. Schulze, in his map, showed the 
distribution of the order Hexactinellida, and localised a small species, 
Rossella antarctica (Carter), obtained by Sir James Ross in 1839-43, as far 
south as lat. 74*5°, at a depth of 300 fathoms ; also a small species, Polyrhabdus 
oviformis (Schulze), obtained by the Challenger in lat. 62*26°, in 1975 
fathoms. With these exceptions no other specimen of this order, which 
from the size of the basal tuft was obviously a large species, had previously 
been obtained so near the Antarctic circle as 62° S. In his chapter on the 
bathymetrical distribution of the Hexactinellida, Schulze gave several 
species as dredged from a depth at and near 100 fathoms ; but the depth 
of only 20 fathoms, given by Mr Coughtrey for the South Shetland specimen, 
localises Hyalonema in a shallower sea than had previously been recorded. 
( Issued separately December 31 , 1913 .) 
