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Filhol’s ‘La Vie au Fond des Mers’ is also a book that contains a great deal of new and interesting matter, together with some excellent coloured plates of deep-sea animals.

Sydney J. Hickson.

Downing College, Cambridge:

September, 1893.

THE FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA

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Our knowledge of the natural history of the deep seas may be said to have commenced not more than fifty years ago. There are, it is true, a few fragments of evidence of a fauna existing in depths of more than a hundred fathoms to be found in the writings of the earlier navigators, but the methods of deep-sea investigation were so imperfect in those days that naturalists were disposed to believe that in the abysses of the great oceans life was practically non-existent.

Even Edward Forbes just before his death wrote of an abyss ‘where life is either extinguished or exhibits but a few sparks to mark its lingering presence,’ but in justice to the distinguished naturalist it should be remarked that he adds, ‘Its confines are yet undetermined, and it is in the exploration of this vast deep-sea region that the finest field for submarine discovery yet remains.’