76 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



3. Amongst Cetacean remains, those belonging to dolphins and Ziphi- 

 oids are the most common, and most widely distributed ; those belonging 

 to whalebone whales (rorquals) are unknown north of parallel 32° of 

 south latitude ; and no indication of large sperm whales has been found 

 in any part of the Pacific, not even in those regions now frequented by 

 Physeteridae. 



4. On the last "Albatross" Expedition (1904-1905) the largest 

 hauls of sharks' teeth and Cetacean bones were made at stations lying 

 within so-called barren regions, that is to say, areas far removed from 

 the land, beyond the reach of telluric food-supply, and characterized by 

 a most meagre pelagic fauna. The extent of these regions is sometimes 

 such as to constitute veritable deatlitraps, comparable to deserts on the 

 land, for marine vertebrates that happen to have strayed therein. Thus, 

 it is a significant fact that 70 per cent of the entire amount of material 

 obtained during the last cruise of the " Albatross " was dredged from 

 within what Mr. Agassiz has termed the barren area.^ 



One may judge of the extensiveness and variety of the evidence upon 

 which the above generalizations repose from the following brief summary 

 of results of the three expeditions contributing to it. The trans-Pacific 

 cruise of the " Challenger " proceeded eastward from Yokohama to the 

 meridian of 155° W, thence due south to Hawaii, to Tahiti, thence 

 southeastward to the meridian of 130° W, and thence about due east 

 to Valparaiso. Over a dozen stations are distributed along this route 

 from which vertebrate remains were obtained in greater or lesser abund- 

 ance, the percentage of fish, however, greatly predominating over 

 mammalian. With the exception of two fragments, all the Cetacean 

 bones were derived from red clays and Radiolarian oozes ; and as stated 

 by Dr. Murray,^ none such were observed in any of the terrigenous de- 

 posits or calcareous oozes. 



1 The barren area of the Eastern Pacific is thus described by Mr. A. Agassiz 

 in his General Report of the Eastern Pacific Expedition (Mem. Mus. Corap. Zool. 

 1906, 33, p. 11) : 



The extensive barren area of the Eastern Pacific is situated a considerable dis- 

 tance from land. It is bounded on the north by tlie curve indicating the position 

 of—h on Pi. 3c, and it is out of the track of great oceanic currents. Similar but 

 less extensive barren tracts have been indicated by the trawling of the " Alba- 

 tross " Tropical Expedition, and by those of the " Challenger " in the Central 

 Pacific, and in the line from the Paumotos to Valparaiso. All these areas are at a 

 distance from land, where no food comes from telluric sources owing to the steep 

 continental slopes of the adjoining continents. 



2 Murray, J., Report on Deep-Sea Deposits. Scient. Results Chall. Exped. 1891, 

 p. 270. 



