SKETCH OF COUNT POURTALES. 551 



rians, and Crinoids. A number of his j^apers on the deep-sea corals of 

 Florida, of the Caribbean Sea, and of the Gulf of Mexico, have ap- 

 peared in the Museum publications. He had begun to work at the 

 magnificent collection of Halcyonarians made by the Blake in the Ca- 

 ribbean Sea, and had already made good progress with his final report 

 on the Holothurians. The Crinoid memoirs published by him relate to 

 a few new species of Comatula and to the interesting genera Rhizocri- 

 nus and Holopus. 



" The titles of his memoirs indicate the range of his learning and 

 his untii'ing industry. His devotion to science was boundless. A 

 model worker, so quiet that his enthusiasm was known only to those 

 who watched his steadfast labor, he toiled on year after year without 

 a thought of self, wholly engrossed in his search after truth. He never 

 entered into a single scientific controversy, nor ever asserted or defended 

 his claims to discoveries of his own which had escaped attention. But, 

 while modest to a fault and absolutely careless of his own position, he 

 could rebuke in a peculiarly effective, though always courteous, man- 

 ner ignorant pretensions or an assumption of infallibility. 



" Appointed keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology after 

 the death of Professor Agassiz, he devoted a large part of his time to 

 the administration of the Museum affairs. Always at his post, he 

 passed from his original investigations to practical details, carrying out 

 plans which he had himself helped to initiate for the growth of the in- 

 stitution. As he had been the devoted friend of Professor Agassiz's 

 father, he became to his son a wise and affectionate counselor, with- 

 out whose help in the last ten years the Museum could not have 

 taken the place it now occupies. If he did not live to see the realiza- 

 tion of his scientific hopes, he lived at least long enough to feel that 

 their fulfillment is only a matter of time. He has followed Wyman 

 and Agassiz, and like them has left his fairest monument in the 

 work he has accomplished and the example he leaves to his suc- 

 cessors." 



H. N. Mosely communicates to the same journal the following ob- 

 servations on Pourtales's scientific work : " Almost from the com- 

 mencement of his connection with the United States Coast Survey he 

 deeply interested himself in deep-sea questions, and some of the ear- 

 liest observations on the nature of the deep-sea bottom and of Globi- 

 gerina mud were made by him. He wrote on the structure of Globi- 

 gerina and Orbulina, and described the occurrence of the small Globi- 

 gerina-like shells bearing spines in the interior of certain Orbulinse, 

 which he concluded were the swollen terminal chambers of Globige- 

 rinse containing young in progress of development. The first step in 

 deep-sea investigation in the United States was taken by the late Pro- 

 fessor Bache on his assuming the duties of the United States Coast 

 Survey in 1844, when he ordered the preservation of specimens brought 

 up by the lead. Every specimen was carefully preserved and labeled, 



