MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 197 



As soon as we have reached G nay mas, I shall be able to give you a 

 better resume of the character of the deep-sea fauna of the Panamic 

 region, and of its relationship on the one side to the Pacific fauna and 

 on the other to the West Indian region. 



III. 



Guatmas, April 25, 1891. 



We left Acapulco on the 15th of April, for our third cruise, into the 

 Gulf of California, and steamed as far as Cape Corrientes without 

 attempting to do any trawling. The character of the bottom, as indi- 

 cated on the charts, promised nothing different from what we had dredged 

 off Acapulco, and on the line from there to the Galapagos Islands. 

 We made one haul off Cape Corrientes, bringing up nothing but mud 

 and decomposed vegetable matter. This induced us to keep up the Gulf 

 of California, till we were off the Tres Marias. We there made several 

 hauls, and obtained some Umbellulse, Pennatula?, Trochoptilum, An- 

 thoptilum, and a fine Antipathes, a few Comatulse, a large Astropec- 

 ten, some fine specimens of Urechinus and of Schizaster, a few Holo- 

 thurians, Lophothuria, Trochostoma, and two species of Elasipoda, besides 

 a few fragments of Gastei-opods, with an empty shell of Argonauta. 



Among the Crustacea there came up the usual types found living upon 

 muddy bottom, such as Glyphocrangon, Heterocarpus, Notostoma, Penta- 

 cheles, Nematocarcinus, Nephrops, together with species of Lithodes 

 and of Munida. The usual types of limicolous Annelid also were found 

 here, Halinrecia, Terebella, Maldania, and the like, a few Ophiurans, 

 Ophiopholis and Ophiocantha, a few fragments of Farrea, and a huge 

 Hyalonema of the type of H. toxeres. Among the Fishes there were a 

 few Macrurans, Bathypteroides, Lycodes, and Malthe. The trawl was 

 usually well filled with mud, and with the mud came up the usual 

 supply of logs, branches, twigs, and decayed vegetable matter. 



On going farther north into the Gulf of California, the nature of the 

 bottom did not change materially, and we found the trawling most diffi- 

 cult from the weight of the mud brought up in the trawl. But occa- 

 sionally a haul was made which more than repaid us for the time spent 

 on the less productive ones. Two of the hauls are specially worthy of 

 mention, as being characteristic of the deep-water fauna of the Gulf of 

 California, one made in 995 fathoms, and the other in 1,588 fathoms. 

 We obtained in these hauls a number of Ophiomusium and Ophiocreas, 



