No. 6. — Notice of Calamocrinus Diomedcs, a iiew Stalked Crinoid 

 from the GalaiKigos, dredged hy the U. S. Fish Commission 

 Steamer "Albatross" Lieut.-Commandee Z. L. Tanner, U. S. N., 

 commanding. By Alexander Agassiz. 



[Published by Permission of Maksuall McDonald, U. S. Fish Commissioner.] 



In 1887, Professor G. Bx'own Goode, Acting U. S. Fish Commissiouer, 

 was kind enough to invite me to join the "Albatross" at Panama, and 

 to take part in the dredging operations to be carried on between that 

 port and the Galapagos Islands. 



I always hoped to have the opportunity of comparing, at some time, 

 the deep-water fauna of the Pacific side of the Istlmms of Panama with 

 that of the Caribbean, and to see how far the parallelism which has 

 been traced between the littoral fauna of the two sides was carried out 

 with the deep-water fciuna. Unfortunately, I was unable to avail my- 

 self of this exceptional opportunity, although Colonel McDonald, the 

 U. S. Fish Commissioner, detained the "Albatross " at Panama to allow 

 me to join her at the last moment. 



To have thoroughly dredged the line from Panama to the Galapagos 

 would have been to collect material for the solution of many an inter- 

 esting problem in the geographical distribution of marine animals, to 

 say nothing of the rich harvest likely to have been gathered, when 

 dredging in a district so prolific as that of the Piay of Panama, in 

 shallower waters; and if the haul made at Station Xo. 2818, off In- 

 defatigable Island, is at all a measure of what we may obtain in the 

 way of novelties, the naturalist who is the first to run that line may 

 be prepared for remarkable discoveries. 



In addition to the Stalked Crinoids collected by the "Albatross," 

 which the Fish Commissioner has kindly placed at my disposal for 

 study, he has also intrusted to me the Echini collected by the " Alba- 

 tross " on her voyage frf)m the east coast of the United States to San 

 Francisco. The route she followed was about the same as that taken 

 by the " Hassler," and the material collected differed but little from 

 the collection made by the latter vessel. The Echini were more nu- 



VOL XX — NO. 6. 



