412 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



sissippi yielded no specimens of importance. Throughout 

 the cruise, below 500 fathoms, forms characteristic of deep 

 water in all the deeper basins of the ocean were obtained, 

 while the species characterizing different local fauna? oc- 

 curred at a lesser depth. It was found that the most strik- 

 ing characteristics of the Gulf of Mexico are the two great 

 banks extending, the one to the west of the Florida Penin- 

 sula and northward of the Florida Reef, the other northward 

 of the peninsula of Yucatan; the 100-fathom line in both 

 cases running in a general way parallel to the shore-line, and 

 forming the edge of the steep slopes of the deeper parts of 

 the central portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The depth in- 

 creases rapidly to the north of the Tortugas, and to the 

 northward and westward of Alacran Reef, as shown by the 

 proximity of the 100- and 1800-fathom curves, the eastern 

 and southern edo-es of the central basin of the Gulf of Mexi- 

 co having thus very steep sides, while the western and north- 

 ern slopes are far more gradual. The north slope off Cuba 

 is also quite abrupt, while the southern slope of the Florida 

 Reef into the trough of the Gulf Stream is comparatively 

 gentle. The soundings taken the past year developed a re- 

 markable extension of the southeast end of the Yucatan 

 Bank within the 1000-fathom curve, in the direction of the 

 Tortugas, with a depth of 500 to 700 fathoms for over 100 

 miles. "The greatest depth of the Yucatan Channel is a lit- 

 tle over 1100 fathoms, so that the temperature of all the wa- 

 ter which finds its way into the Gulf of Mexico is necessarily 

 at its deepest point (2119 fathoms) only the temperature of 

 the bottom of the Straits of Yucatan (1127 fathoms) name- 

 ly, 39-J Fahr. The depth of the channel through which the 

 water of the gulf finds its outlet is very much less not more 

 than 350 fathoms; and the Straits of Bernini are not half 

 the width of the Straits of Yucatan, while the temperature 

 of the water at the bottom is much higher, with a far greater 

 velocity at the surface than that of the current flowing into 

 the Gulf of Mexico through the Straits of Yucatan." 



During his live months' exploration last year in Costa 

 Rica, Mr. A. Boucard, a well-known ornithologist of Paris, 

 collected about 1000 specimens of birds, representing 250 

 species ; among them two new to science. 



Dr. Streets's Contributions to the Natural History of the 



