620 REPORT OF COMMrsSIONER OF FISH AI7D FISHERIES. 



ever studied, those which the Challenge)- brought from her stations 

 262-280, My astDiiishiuent was great when I first saw these planktonic 

 masses, in the autumn of 1876; but it grew boundless when a year 

 later I studied iireparatious talcen from them aud found in them hun- 

 dreds of new species of pelagic animals. 



The wonderfully rich Badiolaria ooze which the ChaUenger brouglit 

 up at the central Pacific stations 263-274 (from depths of 2,000 to 3,000 

 fathoms) is only the siliceous remains of that planktonic mass, from which 

 all organic constituents have vanished and the calcareous shells for the 

 most part dissolved by the carbonic acid of the deep currents.* The 

 numerous surface preparations which Murray finished npon the spot 

 on this remarkable voyage of planktonic discovery through the central 

 Pacific, and mounted in Canada balsam, are ahsolutely the richest planJc- 

 ton preparations which I have ever studied, especially those of stations 

 266-274, between 11° N. lat. aud 7° S. lat. The richest of all stations 

 is 271, lying almost under the e(pmtor (0o33'S. lat., 152o 56' W. long.). 

 I have since shown these pre^jarations for microscopical studies to many 

 colleagues aiul friemls, and they have always expressed the liveliest 

 astonishment over the new " wonder- world " concealed in them. They 

 are jokingly called tlie "mira-preparatious" (comp. 4, §§228-235). 



The wonderful planktoa v/ealth of the tropical Pacific is as well 

 established by the mauifold observations of Chierchia: " The quantity 

 and quality of the organisms tchich inhabit the tropical regions of the sea 

 surpass all conceptions^ (8, p. 75). Inconceivable quantities of pelagic 

 animals of all groups were seen in the middle of the tropical Pacific, 

 between Callao aud Hawaii, between HonoluUi and Hongkong, not 

 only at the surface, but in the most various depths up to 4,000 meters. 

 The quantity of deep-sea siphouopliores was here so enormous that the 

 sounding lead was never drawn up without its being surrounded with 

 torn-off tentacles (p. 85). During the forty days' voyage from Peru to 

 Hawaii the pelagic fishery at tlie surface as well as in tlie depths 

 brought to light *'suc]i a quantity of different organisms that it must 

 seem almost impossible to one who did not follow the work witli his own 

 eyes" (8, p. 88). Similarly, in the Chinese sea and in the Suuda Archi- 

 pelago immense masses of plankton were encountered. 



It is my intention here to bring together the most general impres- 

 sions of the relative planktonic wealth of the various oceanic regions, 

 which I have gained from a comparative study of many thousand 

 planktonic preparations. The iselagic fauna aud flora of the tropical 

 zone is richer in different forms of life than that of the temperate zone, 

 and this again is richer than that of the cold zone of the ocean. This 

 is true of the oceanic as well as of the neritic plankton. Everywhere 

 the neritic plankton is more varied than the oceanic. The wealth of 



*0f this Badiolaria ooze there are 16 saniijles (embracing about 1,000 dilfereut 

 species) coutaiued in the " Radiolariau collection " (1890) above mentioued. The 8 

 richest of these (Nos. 20-27) belong to the tropical central Pacific (stations 265-274). 



