sufficient to say “ Mers australes,” New Holland, or Australia in
dealing with a continent which extends over 30 degrees of latitude
and 40 of longitude, howsoever wide the distribution of the dwellers
on its shores may he ; nor could it be permitted by one who would
study a collection of Port-Jackson specimens, and then take up the
corresponding forms from Port Molle or Torres Straits (cf. Tables
I.-V . of Distribution).
Ophiuroidea.— Ophiopinax stellatus, described from Singapore, and
found by the ‘ Challenger ’ at lat. 11° 37' N., long. 123° 32' E., has
now been found at Port Molle, Port Denison, and Torres Straits. I f
Ophiothrix fumaria has been correctly identified, this is apparently
the first time th at a definite locality has been ascribed to i t ; _ 0.
martensi has been shown to he very common in the Australian
seas; 0. galatece (from the Nicohars) and 0. punctolimbata (Ja,\a)
have their distribution extended eastwards ; 0. rotata_ has been extended
from Mindanao to Thursday Is la n d ; and 0. ciliaris, known
from the “ Indian Ocean,” has been seen to appear at Port Jackson.
If we might with justice attempt any generalization from such
facts as these, we should be led to a belief in the significance of the
free-swimming larva as affecting the extent of the distribution of
not-stalked Echinoderms.
With regard generally to the Echinoidea, it may he said th at in
seven cases we have the area of distribution increased : Diadema
setosum, Salmacis hicolor, Temnopleurus toreumaticus*, T. granulosus
have never yet been found on the eastern coast of Australia ;
Clypeaster humilis and Alaretia plamdata have been reported from
New Caledonia, hut not from such a locality as Port Molle or Clair-
montf. Temnopleurus hothryoides, found by the ‘ Challenger ’ in the
Arafura Sea and Kobi, Japan, is now known from an intermediate
locality. The members of this class bear ample witness to the
now well-known fact th at Indian-Ocean and Pacific specimens invade
largely the Australian seas.
A question which presented itself to me, but on which I can throw
but little light by way of answer, might perhaps be formulated th u s:
What differences are there between the forms of the eastern and
northern and the western coasts of Australia ? t
To the south of the East-Indian islands there lies an area of deep
sea almost free from islands, and having sweeping across it, in obedience
to the laws of motion, a current with a south-westerly direction
from the equator ; this current sweeps, as we know, round the Cape
of Good Hope, and there comes into contact with the southern cou-
* Mr. Tenison-Woods reports it from “ all the coasts of Australia, but rare
outside the ! tropics.”tropics.
t But W.I. planulata ' ■
was taken at Port Jackson by the ‘Challenger; the
presence of f tuio this species in the Australian .....seas —-------------- is additionally ^ ----------- interesting „ ------
from
the fact that a form allied thereto, Ai. anomala, has been described by Prof.
Martin Duncan (Q. J. Geol. Soc. xxxiii. p. 52).
I Por Echinoderms, as for Fishes (see Glinther, ‘ Introd. Study of Fishes,’
p. 284), the western half of the south coast of Australia is still almost a terra
incognita. I t is earnestly to be hoped that the investigation of this area may
be soon undertaken.
necting or southern Australian currents, which form probably the
northern boundary of the Antarctic circle, and along the lines of
which some species are now satisfactorily known to be extensively
distributed*. This south-westerly current leaves on its east the
western shores of Australia, and it seemed to be interesting to make
a definite examination of this question : Have the species in extending
westward along the northern shores of Australia, and thence
southward, become specially modified in their journey ?
Interesting as such a discovery would have been, it must he said
th at the view th at there might be a fauna special and peculiar to the
western coast of Australia cannot be in any way sustained either by a
consideration of the Echinoidea of the present collection or by a
general review of the distribution of the Order.
The voyage of the ‘Gazelle’ resulted in the discovery at Naturalist
Channel, or Mermaid Straits, of four of the species noted in our list
— Salmacis sulcata, Echinometra lucunter, Lovenia elongata, and
Breynia australasice ; Salmacis alexandri (glohator) is known from
the west coast; and all the following species would appear to be
found on the westerly as well as the easterly coasts of the continent:
— Goniocidaris geranoides, G. tuharia, Centrostephanus roclgersi,
Amblypneustes griseus, A . pallidus, Aiicrocyphus zigzag, Sphcer-
echinus austrcdasioe, and Echinocardium australe ; or about 25 per
cent, of the Echinoidea found on other parts of the Australian coast
have already been found on the western shores, and no species are
known to be peculiar to them.
I t is, no doubt, reasonable to suppose th at the species which are
widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific wiU he found on the western
coast of Australia, and th at the more southerly forms will he represented
by the species of Amblypneustes, Aiicrocyphus, or Holopneustes,
which we are in the habit of regarding as truly “ Australian.”
A somewhat similar story is told by the Ophiuroids.
Till lately fourteen species of Asteroids were known only from
Western or South-western Australia; but Mr. Woods reports Culcita
pentangularis from N.E. Australia, Fentagonaster dubeni from 8.
Australia, and Tosia australis from S. Australia and Tasmania;
while the present collection enlarges the range of Patiria crassa.
Although there appeared at one time to he good reason for disagreeing
with M artin t, the present amount and weight of evidence
in our hands goes to point to the existence of a tropical oceanic
fau n a ; to-day, as in those Tertiary times when a wider sea separated
the Australian from the Asiatic continent, there are forms whose
breadth of range is coincident rather with isothermal lines than
topographical boundaries.
For the elucidation of the details of this tropical fauna, we may
look with almost more than confidence to the information afforded
by the species of Crinoids : here, however, the cabinet naturalist can
as yet only appeal to the collector.
* Evidence as to this was given by the_ earlier collections of the ‘ Alert ’
m
the Straits of Magellan (see P. Z. S. 188), pp. 1-141).
t Notes Leyd. Mus. ii. p. 73 et seq.
I I
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