388 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
Verneuilina pygmcea is a common deep-water Foraminifer, its area of distribution 
extending from abont lat. 60° N. to the Antarctic Ice-barrier. It has been observed 
at fourteen Stations in the North Atlantic, at depths ranging from 420 to 2750 fathoms; 
at six in the South Atlantic, 675 to 2475 fathoms; at four in the Southern Ocean, 
1300 to 1950 fathoms; at twelve in the South Pacific, 129 to 2375 fathoms; and at 
six in the North Pacific, 1850 to 3125 fathoms. Of these forty-two localities, only eight 
have a depth of less than 1000 fathoms, and fourteen are above 2000 fathoms. 
Little can be said of the occurrence of the species in the fossil state. Parker and 
Jones think that it may be recognised amongst Ehrenberg’s figures of Foraminifcra from 
the Chalk of Meudon in France, and of the Island of Moen, in Denmark. Egger’s specimens 
were obtained from the Miocene beds of Lower Bavaria, and Karrer’s ( Verneuilina 
rotundata) from a Tertiary clay in the Island of Luzon, Philippines. 
Verneuilina polystropha, Eeuss, sp. (PI. XLYII. figs. 15-17). 
Bulimina polystropha, Reuss, 1845, Yerstein. Bolim. Kreid., pt. 2, p. 109, pi. xxiv. fig. 53. 
Polymorpliina silicea , Schultze, 1854, Organism. Polythal., p. 61, pi. vi. figs. 10, 11. 
Bulimina scabra, Williamson, 1858, Rec. For. Gt. Br., p. 65, pi. v. figs. 136, 137. 
„ arenacea, Id. Ibid. p. 98. 
Verneuilina polystropha, Parker and Jones, 1862, Introd. Foram., Appendix, p. 311. 
Textularia agglutinans, var. (Verneuilina) polystropha, Id. 1865, Pliil. Trans., vol. civ. p. 371, 
pi. xv. fig. 26. 
„ scabra, Fischer, 1870, Actes. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, vol. xxvii. p. 393, No. 32. 
Verneuilina polystropha, Brady, 1878, Ann. and Mag. Nat'. Hist., ser. 5, vol. i. p. 436, pi. xx. 
fig. 9, a.-c. 
Since the publication of Carpenters “ Introduction,” the name Verneuilina 
polystropha has been very generally adopted for a small arenaceous, Bulimina- like 
Foraminifer, well known by Schultze’s, and still better by Williamson’s figures. 
In recent specimens of this species the test is coarsely arenaceous, and rough 
externally, but it is generally thin and fragile, and seldom exceeds ^>th inch ((P63 mm.) 
in length. I have had no opportunity of comparing living and fossil specimens, and am 
unable to say whether those of Cretaceous age agree more closely with this or with the 
allied, but much larger, deep-water variety, described under the name Verneuilina 
propinqua. 
Verneuilina polystropha is seldom met with at a greater depth than 50 fathoms, 
and it most affects muddy bottoms of less than 10 fathoms, littoral sands, and shallow 
estuaries. It has been found as far north as Novaya Zemlya, Baffin’s Bay, and Davis 
Strait, and is common on the shores of Great Britain, Denmark, France, and Spain ; in 
the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. It has also been taken on the coast of Ceylon, and 
at Port Jackson, Australia. 
Of its occurrence in the fossil condition little can be said except that it appears in 
