cxxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



uniform over the globe, the temperature of the ocean bottom 

 being very uniform. The trawl was used in 1600 fathoms, 

 bringing up the well-known deep-sea genera Euplectella, Hy- 

 alwieta,Umbellularia, and the coral Flabellum, together with 

 two new genera of Crinoids, some new JEchinoderms^ and re- 

 markable Crustacea. The deepest trawling was done in 2600 

 fathoms, when holothurians were taken in abundance, with 

 several star-fishes, actiniae, and an elegant brachiopod shell. 



The labors of the United States Fish Commission were 

 prosecuted at its head-quarters at Noank, Connecticut, and 

 dredging was carried on within a radius of twenty miles. 

 One of the most interesting facts brought out by Professor 

 Verrill and others was the discovery that the cold Northern 

 current which passes around Cape Cod to the south of Mar- 

 tha's Vineyard, and is cut off from Vineyard Sound and Buz- 

 zard's Bay by the main belt of shore water, strikes into Fish- 

 er's Sound, bringing with it the characteristic Northern ani- 

 mals ; so that, quite contrary to the usual expectation, the 

 general fauna of the vicinity of Noank and Watch Hill is 

 more boreal than that of Newport and Wood's Hole. Re- 

 searches in the deeper parts of the Gulf of Maine were car- 

 ried on by Messrs. Packard, Cooke, and Rathbun, in the Unit- 

 ed States Coast Survey steamer A. D. Bache, afforded the 

 Fish Commission by the Superintendent of the Coast Survey. 

 The general results confirm those of the previous year, while 

 a number of forms new to the coast of New England were 

 discovered. The dredgings carried on by Mr. Dall about the 

 Aleutian Islands have brouoht out interesting results. 



Extending, now, our summary to the results of the year 

 from work done by zoologists in special classes, we find that 

 much attention has been paid to the Protozoa, research in 

 this direction having been stimulated by the works of Haeck- 

 el, Cienkowski, Carter, the late H. J. Clark, Lankester, Bal- 

 biani, Stein, and others, in years past. As tending to prove 

 that the Bathybius is really a living being, we may cite the 

 discovery by Dr. E. Bessels, of the Polaris expedition, of a 

 new Moner, belonging to the lowest division of protozoa. It 

 has been named Protobathybius Robesonii. 



Letters from the Challenger party state that one of the nat- 

 uralists aboard has paid great attention to the ooze, with 

 the object of discovering the Bathybius. He finds that the 



