MUSEUM OF COMPAEATTVE ZOOLOGY. 175 



*' Albatross" in the Antilles and on the eastern coast of the United States 

 south of Cape Hatteras. These collections, to which frequent reference 

 will be found in the following pages, though less extensive than those 

 of the " Blake," often supplemented the latter in a very helpful manner, 

 without which this report would have been in many cases less full and 

 accurate. They also contained many novelties which will form the sub- 

 ject of future study, and are occasionally noticed here when they tend 

 to throw special light on the subject in hand. 



To the Eev. R. Boog Watson I am especially indebted for advice, criti- 

 cism, early copies of liis papers on the Challenger gastropods, and advance 

 proofs of some of his plates to appear in his final report. To Dr. Paul 

 Fischer, conchologist to the French expeditions on the " Talisman " and 

 " Travailleur," and to Mr. Edgar A. Smith of the British Museum, reporter 

 on the Challenger pelecypods, I am also under serious obligations. 



To Dr. J. C. McConnell, whose pen drawings of shells for the process 

 adopted in illustrating this paper speak for themselves, every reader will 

 appreciate my indebtedness. It is proper to say, however, that this pro- 

 cess does not lend itself like lithography to the reproduction of texture 

 or surface, and that the details of description are in all cases to be taken 

 as conclusive, even when the minor characters mentioned are not fully 

 presented by the figures, or in the case of any supposed discrepancy. 



The types of the species described will be found in the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, and in the U. S. National Museum. 



It has not been thought necessary to reprint the descriptions published 

 in 1881, but, for the convenience of the student, the maximum length 

 of the specimen figured, given in millimeters, follows the references to 

 figures in the description of the plates. 



The names adopted for species, etc., although conformed to Latin 

 construction and whatever their resemblances, are not to be taken aa 

 derived from any classical language. The ravages of the purists upon 

 our nomenclature, already disastrous, must be checked if possible, and 

 I know no other way of doing it than to declare the above-mentioned 

 names absolutely without meaning, whatever reminiscences they may 

 awaken. Compare the observations of Adanson, more than a century 

 ago, on this topic, in the prelude to his " Histoire Naturelle du Senegal." 



The arrangement of tables of distribution, in area and depth, is de- 

 feiTed until the second part of this Report shall be printed. For a satis- 

 factory account of the faunae of the deep sea the data are wanting, and 

 can hardly be gathered in many years to come. The anatomical plates, 

 which will probably have to be lithographed, are also deferred. Some 



