404 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



different, especially through lacking the spines on the division series and arm bases. The 

 only other littoral or sublittoral criuoid in the Arctic is Poliometra prolixa which, so far 

 as known, never occurs under the conditions found in these fjords. If it did exist in 

 this region, it would surely have been brought to light by the extensive dredging opera- 

 tions which have been carried on in connection with the work of the Murman station. 

 In the northern part of western Greenland, as I am informed by Dr. Morten P. 

 Porsild, this species is occasionally taken by the Greenlanders and by them traded to 

 Europeans. This was the origin of the specimen of which Professor Ltitken describes a 

 color sketch by Mr. H. P. J. M011er, who was Inspector for North Greenland under the 

 Godhavn (Disco) District government from 1843 to 1845; of those recorded from 

 Melville Bay, 1858, and Pr0ven, 1866, which were brought back by Mr. C. M. S. Olrik, 

 the Inspector for North Greenland from 1846 to 1866, succeeding Mr. M011er; and of 

 that from the Upernivik District obtained by Lieut. C. Ryder on October 2, 1887. 

 The example from Kagssimiut (Kaksimiut) in the Julianehaab District, taken on mud 

 in 36 meters and recorded by Professor Liitken, was secured by the Rev. J. F. J0rgensen, 

 the Pastor for this district from 1835 to 1841. 



In the early days the trade between Greenland and Europe was almost entirely 

 in the hands of the inhabitants of the town of Wyck on the island of F0r, one of the 

 North Friesland islands off the coast of Schleswig. In those times all ships trading 

 with distant lands brought back, in addition to the usual articles of commerce, all 

 sorts of curios, the sale of which helped to increase the meager stipends of the crew. 

 From Greenland came such things as Eskimo implements, narwhal tusks, the skins of 

 great auks and other birds, and many strange forms of marine life taken by the sailors 

 themselves or bartered from the natives. 



The Moravian missionaries in Greenland were all Germans, and they too were 

 in the habit of increasing their income by sending home to Germany, especially to Leip- 

 sig where their headquarters were, all sorts of ethnological and natural history specimens. 



At first the trade between Greenland and F0r was Danish, but after the annexa- 

 tion of Schleswig by Germany hi 1864 it became German. The exportation from 

 Greenland of skins and of the more valuable commodities generally was forbidden 

 except to Denmark, but curios could be freely taken out, and thus the German mu- 

 seums were gradually enriched by large collections from Greenland, even some of the 

 smallest and most obscure becoming possessors of most interesting ethnological ma- 

 terial and of the stuffed skins of great auks. 



From these sources came the supply of this species from Greenland in the Ger- 

 man museums and in the hands of the German dealers in curios, especially in Hamburg. 



In England, where Antedon bifida is locally abundant, it was quite natural that 

 all of the early anatomical work on the comatulids should have been done on that form. 

 But in Scandinavia and in Germany, as specimens of H. glacialis were being intermit- 

 tently, but more or less constantly, received from Greenland and from Spitzbergen, 

 in these countries such work was to a large extent carried out on this species. 



In 1866 Prof. Sven Loven described the skeletal structure of this species in con- 

 siderable detail, figuring the articular face of the radials, the dorsal surface of the ra- 

 dial pentagon with the rosette, and the articulating surfaces of syzygies and synarthries. 



The simultaneous publication of this paper by Loven and of W. B. Carpenter's 

 memoir on Antedon bifida was unfortunate as neither had an opportunity to compare 



