Before dismissing the subject of microscopic vegetables, I may remark, that the colouring of the waters of the Red Sea is now generally supposed to be caused by the presence of countless multitudes of a minute alga, which is perfectly invisible to the naked eye, except when great numbers are congregated together. Some writers have denied that the water of the Red Sea has any peculiar colour, or that its name is owing to the colour of its waters. Others, on the contrary, describe a red shade, of a very singular character, as present, and various explanations of the phenomena have been given. The differences among travellers in their account of this sea may be reconciled by supposing their observations to have been made at different seasons of the year; for, if the colour of the water depends on the presence of the vegetable matter, it is highly probable that it will vary in degree at different seasons. That its waters are occasionally coated with a scum of a red colour is certain, and portions of it have been brought home and carefully examined by several naturalists. M. Montagne has given an elaborate account of specimens which he had received, and has proved that the scum is entirely made up of a very minute alga, which consists of delicate threads, collected in bundles, and contains rings of a red matter, within a slender tube. This little plant has a structure very similar to the Oscillatoriæ, which form green scums on stagnant pools; or perhaps it more nearly resembles the pretty little fresh water alga, called (by the somewhat jaw-breaking name of) Aphanizomenon. Minute algæ of this description are by no means confined to the waters of the Red Sea, but are met with in many parts of the ocean, sometimes extending in broad bands for hundreds of miles. Mr Darwin, in his interesting Voyage, gives an acccount of several extraordinary bands of this description which he met with in the Pacific Ocean. I have had the advantage of inspecting some of the specimens brought home by this naturalist. They are very similar to the species of the Red Sea.-(The Sea-Side Book, by Harvey, p. 174.)

Notice of Land-Shells found beneath the surface of Sandhillocks on the Coasts of Cornwall.* By RICHARD EDMONDS Junior, Esq.

In my Paper on the origin of our sand-hillocks, read before the Society in 1846,† it is stated that in one of the deep cuttings in the Towans of Phillack, within the space of a few inches, was found a great number of the shells of the Helix pulchella, a species now sel

* Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall for 1848, p. 70. Read 5th October 1848.

↑ See Jameson's Journal for July 1847, p. 181.

dom met with in the living state in the west of Cornwall; and it was remarked by the Author of the Cornish Fauna, that "should further research shew they are of frequent occurrence in other parts of the Towans, we must come to the conclusion that they were once abundant in Cornwall but are now gradually becoming extinct in this locality." To ascertain the fact, I again went thither last summer with my nephew and two other young conchologists; and in the short space of two hours we picked up (amongst numerous other species) hundreds of these little shells in different parts of the sands, at depths varying from 1 foot to 30: they appeared almost as numerous, and as generally distributed throughout the hillocks, beneath the surface, as any species we saw. The Zua lubrica and some species of Pupa were also very abundant, particularly the Pupa marginata. We had not leisure to examine the surface for living individuals of any of the smaller species; but amongst the larger, we observed the Helix aspersa, virgata, ericetorum, caperata, and fusca, and the Bulimus

acutus.

The exuvice of the Helix pulchella we found also in the sand-hills of Whitesand Bay, and in those near Gunwalloe and Mullion in Mounts Bay; they are abundant, too, in the sand-hills of Gorran, on the southern coast of East Cornwall; where also many living specimens have been observed on the surface. The last-mentioned sandhills have been frequently visited by Mr Peach, to whom fossil geology is so much indebted; and his observations on them, at the last meeting of this Society, confirm the hypothesis suggested in my former Paper respecting the origin of our sand-hillocks.

The following is a list of the land-shells which we found last summer beneath the surface of the Phillack Towans; to which is added the Zonites pygmæus that we found in the Whitesand Bay Towans. Specimens of these 27 species are deposited at the Museum of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, with the exception of the Conovulus bidentatus, which was accidentally lost after being brought home. Those marked with asterisks are not now found in the living state within ten miles of Penzance.—

On the Geographical Distribution of the Languages of Abessinia and the Neighbouring Countries. By CHARLES T. BEKE, Esq., Ph.D., F.S.A., &c.* (With a Map.) Communicated by the Ethnological Society.

A consideration of the Report on the Languages of Africa, made by Dr Latham to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Meeting at Oxford in 1847,† has led me to believe that an acceptable addition to that Report will be afforded by the accompanying map, showing the approximate geographical limits of the several classes of languages spoken in Abessinia and the neighbouring countries, according to that philologist's provisional classification of them.

These languages are made by Dr Latham to consist of the following groups or classes :

XIV. The Nubian.

XV. The Fátsokl (Fazoglo).

XVI. The Bishárye or Bidja (Beja).

XVII. The Ethiopic.

XVIII. The Agau (Agow).

XIX. The Galla.

XX. The Gonga.

XXI. The Shánkala.

XXII. The Dalla.

XXIII. The Takue (or Bodje,) and Bárea.

Upon each of these classes I propose to make a few brief remarks, in explanation of the map.

XIV. The Nubian Class. These languages belong to countries which are partially shown, merely for the purpose of defining the limits of those which are subsequently enumerated. They are themselves too remote from Abessinia Proper, to come within the scope of the present observations.

XV. The Fatsokl Languages. In this class Dr Latham places only the languages of Fatsokl and Kamámil. From

* Read before the Section of Ethnology of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Meeting at Swansea, on the 14th August 1848; and before the Ethnological Society of London, on the 22d November 1848. † See Report of the Seventeenth Meeting at Oxford, 1847, p. 154, et seq.