2 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



thermal distribution, and with cecology, in which I had become interested largely 

 through my observations while at sea. 



Prof. Walter K. Fisher, of Stanford University, California, had been working 

 upon the echinoderms collected by the Albatross among the Hawaiian Islands in 1902 ; 

 with the greatest liberality he offered me the crinoids of the collections for exami- 

 nation in connection with my other Pacific material. 



To Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, had been assigned a large collection of crinoids from Japan 

 and eastern Asia brought together by the Albatross in 1900, and this he most courte- 

 ously offered me to supplement the 1906 collections from the same locality. 



The Japanese collections which I had seen up to this time had all been from 

 comparatively deep water, and certain species, long known as inhabitants of the 

 coasts of that country, were conspicuously absent. Mr. Frank Springer, however, 

 realizing the situation, most generously purchased and deposited in the United 

 States National Museum the entire collection made during years of investigation of 

 the marine fauna off southern Japan by Mr. Alan Owston, of Yokohama, in his yacht, 

 the Golden Hind. 



Up to now my material had been almost entirely from the North Pacific, and 

 from deep water, although I had examined some of the more common littoral 

 species of Australia and Brazil. The absenq) of specimens from that great wonder- 

 land of marine zoology, the East Indian Archipelago, was keenly felt as a great 

 handicap. But Dr. Theodor Mortensen, of Copenhagen, Denmark, understanding 

 my predicament, with the greatest generosity offered me the entire magnificent, 

 collection under his charge, a collection doubly interesting in having been previ- 

 ously examined both by Prof. C. F. Lutken and Dr. P. H. Carpenter. Most of the 

 specimens were from the eastern tropics, many of them having been collected by the 

 Danish consul at Singapore, Mr. Svend Gad; notwithstanding all the Japanese 

 material I had previously studied I found no less than six new species from that 

 country ; altogether it formed an invaluable supplement to the Pacific material 

 already at hand. 



Shortly after I received the Copenhagen collections, Drs. W. Weltner and R. 

 Hartmeyer, of Berlin, at the instigation of Dr. Th. Studer, of Berne, sent me the 

 collection made by the German steamer Gazelle in northwestern Australia, hitherto 

 an unknown territory so far as regards its crinoid fauna. This collection had been 

 examined by Dr. P. H. Carpenter, and most of the specimens had been tentatively 

 identified, but he had been unable to complete a report upon it before his death. 



Mr. Owen Bryant had been conducting dredging operations along the coast of 

 Labrador and had collected some crinoids there, which he very kindly turned over 

 to me. 



The great area occupied by the Indian Ocean had hitherto remained almost a 

 blank in so far as our knowledge of its crinoidal inhabitants was concerned ; a few 

 specimens had been noted from the Mergui Archipelago, the Andamans, Ceylon, the 

 Red Sea and Mauritius, with one or two, usually more or less doubtful, additional 

 records. I was therefore delighted when Dr. N. Annandale, of the Indian Museum, 

 at the instigation of Dr. F. A. Bather, of the British Museum, offered me for study 



