Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/434



"My dear Sir James,

"I have found much interest in the examination of the specimens you have sent me which were obtained by soundings, and the use of the dredge at great depths, and have to apologise both for delaying so long to send you some observations upon them, and for sending them now in so imperfect a state.

"The fragments obtained by soundings from 400 fathoms, 11th August, 1841, lat. 33° 31′ S., long. 107° 40′ E., consist of pieces of shells and small corals, none of which appear to have been brought up in a living state, with small angular pebbles very little rounded by attrition. Among them I find two joints of stems of a small fossil pentacrinite.

"Among the small sand taken up by the soundings in 400 fathoms, August, 1841, Professor Forbes finds portions of spines of echinus and of spines of cidaris.

"Of shells, a small broken cerithium, mouth of a Resida, a Pteropod allied to Peracle, and a fragment of Cleodora.

"Of Annelides, Spirorbis on the stones.

"Many foraminifera, among which are Textularia, Nodosariæ, and several of orbicular and renoidal forms in abundance.

"The corals brought up by the dredge from 270 fathoms, 19th Jan. 1841, lat. 72° 31′ S., long. 173° 39′ E., consist of three species of Lepralia: Retepora cellulosa—a small piece in a perfectly fresh and living state: a Retepora or Hornera,