REPORT ON THE CRINOIDEA. 29 



III.— THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND BATHYMETRICAL DISTRIBUTION OF 



THE COMATULSE. 



Our knowledge of the existing species of the Comatulse is at present so imperfect 

 that it affords but a slight foundation for any generalisation respecting their geographical 

 distribution and the origin of specific types. For they occur in the most extraordinary 

 abundance over certain large areas, such as the Caribbean Sea, and more especially the 

 Eastern Archipelago and Australasia. Every large collection that I have examined, and 

 they are many, contains a number of forms from the latter district, the specific relations 

 of which will require months of detailed work before they can be properly elucidated. 



Nearly all of these are littoral species, and it is chiefly with regard to them that any 

 generalisation would be premature at present. But the dredgings of the Challenger have 

 accumulated a large mass of information concerning the Comatulse of other seas than those 

 of Australasia. This relates more especially to the Comatula-fawaa of the continental and 

 abyssal regions, about which we cannot expect to gain very much additional knowledge 

 in future. The Comatulse of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic seas are also pretty completely 

 known ; while the Strait of Magellan and the Southern Indian Ocean between Marion 

 Island and Melbourne have yielded some dozen species for comparison with those of the 

 northern circumpolar fauna. 



The following conclusions, then, embody the condition of such knowledge of the 

 Comatulse as I have been able to gain from the study of the Challenger collection and 

 preliminary work upon the material dredged by the U.S. Coast Survey steamer "Blake"; 

 together with my notes upon the Comatulse in the museums of London, Paris, Berlin, 

 Vienna, Copenhagen, Lund, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Leyden, Hamburg, Dresden, Kiel, 

 Munich, Stuttgart, and also upon the collections made by Professor Semper in the 

 Philippines, Dr. Doderlein in Japan, Dr. Anderson in the Mergui Archipelago, and Dr. 

 Hickson in North Celebes. 



The Comatuke range in latitude from 81° 41' N. to 52° 5' S., being represented in 

 each locality by a ten-armed Antedon, a point which will be considered later. 



Although abundant near the coasts in the Arctic Ocean and on both sides of the 

 North Atlantic, no Comatulse have been dredged there at a greater depth than 800 fathoms, 

 nor were any met with in either of the Challenger's two traverses of the North Atlantic; 

 while, though one species has been obtained at the Canaries and Madeira, there is no record 

 of any from the Azores, Bermuda, or the Cape Verde Islands. The two Mediterranean 

 species range as far north as Scotland, but I do not know of their passing the meridian 

 of 20° E., either in the Mediterranean or in the Baltic. In the Florida Channel and in 

 the Caribbean Sea, however, Comatulse have been dredged in abundance. But none arc 

 known from the African Coast between Cape Verde (Goree) and the Cape of Good Hope, 



