142 BULLETIN OF THE 



exploration in the Gulf Stream, leaving with mc the manuscript of this 

 paper for publication, the memoir of Sars on the Iihizocrinus of the 

 Lofoten reached me also, and I at once recognized the identity of the 

 Bourgueticrinus Hotessieri, described above, with Sars's Iihizocrinus 

 lofotensis, — as far as such relations can be predicated without a direct 

 comparison of the specimens. The identity of animals found at great 

 depths in the Gulf of Mexico and on the coast of Norway would show 

 how extensive the influence of the great Atlantic current is in modifying 

 the geographical distribution of organized beings. The close resem- 

 blance of these Crinoids will no doubt lead to a renewed comparison 

 of the Lophohelia affinis Pourt. and Lophohelia prolifera Milne-Ed w. 

 & llaime {Madrepora prolifera Pallas). It is now highly prob- 

 able that Pourtales's species is identical with that long known from 

 the northernmost coasts of Europe, and to which it has very likely 

 been transported by the Gulf Stream ; and I doubt not that the iden- 

 tity of other species from Florida, in which a close resemblance to 

 northern species has already been noticed, will also prove identical, as 

 soon as an opportunity is afforded for direct comparisons. Thus hap- 

 pily blended with the investigation of the Gulf Stream, the study of 

 the geographical distribution of animals at great depths cannot fail to 

 make; rapid progress, now thai — thanks to the comprehensive views of 

 th'' Superintendent of the Coast Survey — it will no longer be left to 

 chance discoveries, but form a part of the systematic work of the Sur- 

 vey. In this connection it become- highly important to explore the 

 ocean floor in the vicinity of the Bermudas, as those islands form, as it 

 were, a half-way station between Florida and Norway. On the other 

 hand, the discovery of a coral, Haplophyllia, allied to the extinct type of 

 the Cyathaxonidae, foreshadows unexpected revelations, as soon as the 

 animal population of the abysses of the ocean shall be extensively ex- 

 plored, instead of being obtained from a few localities only. 



I may add that the Museum will supply other institutions with speci- 

 mens of all the species described above of which duplicates were col- 



lected. 



LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



Camukidgi:, December 10, 1868. 



