CARRIED BY THE GULF STREAM.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 22 June 1912, Page 10

CARRIED BY THE GULF STREAM.

A remarkable instance of the way thnt the most delicate of microscopic animals may be carried across an ocean was exhibited at a recent meeting of the Linnean Society. Dr. John Martin sent two microscope slides for exhibition both of polycistina shells, which had been found under unusual circumstances. "On September 4th, 1911," he said, "a few days after a stormy sea and wind, on the coast off Whitby, Yorkshire, I saw a little patch of beautiful iridescent color floating on the surface of the then calm water. I skimmed this cloud of color, and, on cWmg later find it to be varieties of Ftfycistina, of the family. Rhizopoda, but havmg siliceous instead of calcareous shells. These shells, which are of magnificent forms, are identical with those usually found in the West Indies r^t aIo/ 1? c th? GOasts of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. I believe they are the first discovered on the English coast, to which they will most probably have been brought by the Gulf Stream. Up to the present I have failed to find similar one* in any private or public collection which have been found locally. They are all purely West Indian varieties,, and appear to be absolutely new on these snores." Professor bendy remarked upon the interest of this exhibition, and tkat the forms shown were similar to thos« proraabfe from Barbados.