84 
MICEOSCOPICAL AND NATUEAL HISTOEY SECTION. 
October 9tli, 187G. 
Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, F.B.S,, President of the 
Section, in the Chair. 
Mr. Peecival exhibited specimens of Campi/lopus para- 
doxus (Wilson), a very rare moss, from a new locality, at 
foot of Cader Idris, North Wales, where he gathered the 
plant on October 5th. The specimens were barren; as are 
those from the two other known British localities. 
The Peesident then read an address, in which, after 
some introductory remarks, he said, to-night I can only 
bring before you a few of the more notable points v/hich 
have occurred to me in the course of my reading amongst 
the scientific literature of the year, in scientific research, in 
the study of the Ancient History of Life upon the earth, 
and some general considerations which seem to me oppor- 
tune under the circumstances of the time. 
1. The Deep Sea Dredgings. 
Two most important additions have been made to our 
knowledge of recent zoology, by the publication of Wallace’s 
Geographical Distribution of Animals [2 vols. 8vo., 1876.]; 
and of the Reports of “The Challenger,” in the proceedings 
of the Royal Society. To the former of these it is neces- 
sary merely to allude, for it is in everyone’s hand. The 
latter is peculiarly valuable, because it proves the existence 
in the deep sea fauna of many forms which occur fossil in 
our European rocks. According to Mr. Moseley, out of 
forty-tWo true corals brought up in the dredge, no less than 
