552 * THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and deposited in the Coast-Survey Office in Washington, The micro- 

 scopical examination of the specimens was commenced by the late 

 Professor J. W. Bailey, and after his death this work passed into the 

 hands of Pourtales, who devoted his time to it in the intervals of 

 other duties. That most important deposit, Globigerina mud, was first 

 discovered by Lieutenants Craven and Maffit, U. S. N,, during Gulf- 

 Stream explorations in 1853. In 1867 systematic dredging in deep 

 and shallow water was commenced on the assumption of the superin- 

 tendence of the Survey by Professor B, Peirce, who ordered the dredg- 

 ing. At the suggestion of Louis Agassiz, dredgings were made down 

 to a depth of one thousand fathoms. In Professor Agassiz's report, 

 one of the richest grounds for deep-sea corals, lying off Cape Florida, 

 was named Pourtales Plateau. In 1871 Pourtales published what is 

 probably his best-known work, namely, his " Deep-Sea Corals " (" Il- 

 lustrated Catalogue, Museum of Comparative Zoology," Harvard, No. 

 iv), a most excellent memoir containing valuable disquisitions on the 

 affinities of various genera, and excellent notes on the geographical 

 distribution of the sj^ecies and the nature of the bottom on which the 

 dredgings were made. 



" Count Pourtales's name is indissolubly connected with deep-sea 

 zoology by means of the genus Poiirtalesia, named after him, Pour- 

 talesia, a sea-urchin, one of the Spatangidas allied to Ananchytes, was 

 found by the Challenger Expedition to be one of the most ubiquitous 

 and characteristic deep-sea animals. Numerous species of the genus 

 new to science were obtained by the expedition in deep water, some 

 of them being of most extraordinary shapes. In conclusion, it need 

 only be added that Count Pourtales's kindness and good-nature were 

 as much appreciated by English naturalists as elsewhere. He was 

 most generous, always ready to give advice to naturalists working in 

 the same most difficult field as himself, to supply them with specimens 

 for investigation, and to discuss in the freest manner, with perfect 

 impartiality, any question of systematic arrangement. He will be 

 regretted by many friends in England, to which he paid frequent vis- 

 its on his way to his native country, his last visit having been made in 

 the spring of the present year." 



Count Pourtales was a man of a strong frame, a vigorous constitu- 

 tion, and a temperate mode of life, which gave hope of a long period 

 of usefulness. But he was attacked by a fatal internal disease, and, 

 after several weeks of great suffering, heroically endured, he died at 

 Beverly Farm, in Massachusetts, on July 17, 1880, aged fifty-seven 

 years. 



