418 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



On one or two occasions there was practically nothing else in the dredge, and at one 

 station (4860) a 12-foot Tanner net 23 feet in length was completely filled so that we 

 had great difficulty in getting it aboard. 



In its great abundance in certain circumscribed localities this subspecies recalls the 

 arctic form, and like the latter it is associated with Gorgon ocephalus eucnemis, though 

 apparently not so constantly. 



With the masses of large brilliant lemon yellow specimens there were sometimes 

 found others smaller and of a yellowish white (brachymera) , which looked very differ- 

 ent on the steamer's deck but which I am now convinced represent nothing but stunted 

 individuals which for some reason or other fell behind in the struggle for existence 

 among the great crowds of their more fortunate companions. 



In Peter the Great Bay, Schmidt says that this species is very characteristic of 

 the fauna of the deeper levels. It was found by him at depths of from 160 to 228 me- 

 ters (75 to 125 sagens). 



In Siaukhu Bay, to the east, Djakonov (1938) found maxima in great numbers at 

 depths of 150 to 175 meters on muddy-sandy bottoms. It was associated particularly 

 with Ophiura sarsi but also with 0. quadrispina, Ophiopholis aculeata japonica and 

 Ophiacantha bidentata as well as the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis sacha- 

 linica. Djakonov concluded that there is a characteristic biocenosis of maxima and 

 Ophiura sarsi in this area forming a wide belt along the slope of the continental shelf, 

 of which the upper limit in Peter the Great Bay is deeper than it is in Siaukhu Bay. 



History. This Pacific form of the common Arctic Heliometra glacialis was first 

 mentioned in 1903 by Prof. Emil von Marenzeller, who recorded a specimen from off 

 Gashkevicha Bay in 300 meters. In the following year a species of "Antedon" which 

 can not be any other form than this was recorded by Dr. Peter Schmidt from various 

 localities in and near Peter the Great Bay, where it had been dredged in 1900 by the 

 Nadejnii. 



In her work along the Siberian and Korean coasts in 1906 the Albatross found it 

 abundantly, and in 1907 I suggested the recognition of the Pacific form as var. maxima 

 on account of the large size. At the same time I proposed the name brachymera for 

 some interesting specimens which bear about the same relation to the fully developed 

 maxima that guadrata does to typical glacialis. 



In 1908 I described a curious 12-armed specimen which had been collected by the 

 Albatross, and in 1911 I published an analysis of the inorganic constituents of the 

 skeleton which had been made for me by Prof. Frank W. Clarke and Dr. William C. 

 Wheeler. 



In 1909 I recorded some specimens in the collection of the Copenhagen Museum, 

 and in 1915 I listed the localities at which it had been secured by the Albatross in 1906. 

 Prof. Nils von Hofsten in the latter year discussed its distribution in comparison with 

 that of H. glacialis glacialis. 



Prof. K. M. Derjugin of the Academy of Sciences, Leningrad, sent me for study 

 a small collection of crinoids dredged by the steamers Gagara and Rossinante in the 

 Okhotsk Sea and the Sea of Japan. On the basis of this collection I prepared a de- 

 tailed account of the crinoids of the region, including the complete synonymy and all 

 the records of the known species, which was published, in Russian and English, in 1937. 

 In this I said that Heliometra glacialis var. maxima differs from specimens of Arctic 

 and North Atlantic Heliometra only in being generally larger and more robust. 



