574 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iDg the summer of 1859, at Naples aud at Oapri, I endeavored to gain 

 as wide a knowledge as possible of the marine fauna. In the following 

 winter, at Messina, I devoted my entire attention to the investigation 

 of the radiolaria, and thus obtained the material which forms the 

 basis of my monograph of this class (1802). Daily boat trips in the 

 harbor of Messina made me acquainted with all the forms in the 

 pelagic fauna which make this classic spot, in consequence of the com- 

 bination of uncommonly favorable conditions, far richer for planktonic 

 study and investigation than any other point on the Mediterranean 

 (3, pp. v, 25, 166, 170). 



For a full generation, since that time, the study of plankton has 

 remained my most i^leasant occupation, and I have haidly let a year 

 pass without going to the seacoast and, by means of the j)elagic net, 

 getting new material for work. Various inducements were offered to 

 me in addition ; on the one hand the radiolaria, on the other the siphouo- 

 phores aud medusie, to which I had already given some attention while 

 at Mzza in 1864. The results of these studies are given in my mono- 

 graphs of these two classes (1870 and 1888). In the course of these three 

 decades I have by degrees become acquainted with the entire coast of 

 the Mediterranean and its fauna. I have already made reference, in 

 the preface to my "System of Medusae," p. xvi, to the places where 

 I have studied this subject. In addition to the Mediterranean I iave 

 continued my planktonic studies on the west coast of Norway (1869) ; on 

 the Atlantic coast of France (1878); on the British coast (1876 and 

 1879); at the Canary Islands (1866-67); in the Eed Sea (1873), and in 

 the Indian Ocean (1881-82). 



By far my richest results and my deepest insight into the biology of 

 the plankton were vouchsafed me during a three months' residence 

 at Puerto del Arrecife, the seaport of the Canary island Lanzarote 

 (in December, 1886, and in January and February, 1887). The pelagic 

 fauna in this part of the Atlantic is so rich in genera and species; 

 the fabulous wealth of life in the wonderful "animal roads" or Zain 

 currents (18, p. 309) is, every day, so great, aud the opportunities for 

 investigation on the spot are so favorable that Lanzarote afibrded 

 me greater advantages for planktonic study than all the other places 

 ever visited by me (excepting perhaps Messina). Every day the 

 pelagic net brought to me and to my companions (Prof. Eichard Greeff" 

 and my two students, N. Miklucho-Maclay and H. Fol) such quanti- 

 ties of valuable tow-stufi' {Auftrieh) that we were able to work up only 

 a very small part of it. At that time I concentrated my chief inter- 

 est on the medusae and siphonophores, and the larger part of the 

 new material which is worked up in my monographs of these two 

 classes was collected at Lanzarote. All my observations "On the 

 Development of the Siphonophores" (1869) were made there. 



