2 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



thermal distribution, and with cecology, in which I had become interested lai^ely 

 througli my observations wlulo at sea. 



Prof. Waher K. Fislier, of Stanford University, CaUfornia, had been working 

 upon the ccliinoderms collected by the Albatross among the Hawaiian Islands in 1902 ; 

 with the greatest hberaUty ho olTcrcd me the crinoids of the collections for exami- 

 nation in connection with my other Pacific material. 



To Dr. Hubert LjTiian Clark, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- 

 briiige, Massachusetts, had been assigned a largo collection of crinoids from Japan 

 and eastern Asia brought together by the Albatross in 1900, and tliis he most courte- 

 ously olTered me to supplement the 1906 collections from the same locality. 



The Japanese collections wliich I had seen up to tliis time had all been from 

 comparatively deep water, and certain species, long kno^vn as inliabitants of the 

 coasts of that countr}-, were conspicuously absent. Mr. Frank Springer, however, 

 reahzing the situation, most generously purchased and deposited in the United 

 States National Museum the entire collection made during years of investigation of 

 tlie marine fauna olf southern Japan by Mr. iVlanOwston, of Yokohama, in his yacht, 

 the Golden Rind. 



Up to now my material had been almost entirely from the North Pacific, and 

 from deep water, although I had examined some of the more common littoral 

 species of AustraUa and Brazil. The absence of specimens from tliat great wonder- 

 land of marine zoology, the East Indian Archipelago, was keenly felt as a great 

 handicap. But Dr. Theodor Mortensen, of Copenhagen, Denmark, understanding 

 my prechcament, with the greatest generosity offered me the entire magnificent 

 collection under his chaise, a collection doubly interesting in having been previ- 

 ously examined both by Prof. C. F. Liitken and Dr. P. H. Carpenter. Most of the 

 specimens were from the eastern tropics, many of them having been collected by the 

 Danish consul at Singapore, Mr. Svend Gad; notwithstanding all the Japanese 

 material I had previously studied I found no less than six new species from that 

 country; altogether it formed an invaluable supplement to the Pacific material 

 already at hand. 



Sliortly after I received the Copenhagen collections, Drs. "W. Weltner and R. 

 Hartmoycr, of Berlin, at the instigation of Dr. Th. Studer, of Berne, sent mo the 

 collection made by the German steamer Gazelle in northwestern Australia, hitherto 

 an unknown territory so far as regards its crinoid fauna. This collection had been 

 exaniined by Dr. P. II. Carpenter, and most of the specimens hatl been tentatively 

 identified, but he had been unable to complete a report u[)on it before his death. 



Mr. Owen Bryant had been conducting th-edging operations along the coast of 

 Labrador and had collected some crinoids there, wliich he very kindly turned over 

 to me. 



The great area occupied by the Indian Ocean had hitherto remained almost a 

 blank in so far as our knowledge of its crinoidal inhabitants was concerned; a few 

 specimens had been noted from the Mergui Archipelago, the Andamans, Ceylon, the 

 Red Sea and Mauritius, with one or two, usually more or less doubtful, additional 

 records. I was therefore dehglited when Dr. N. Annandale, of the Indian Museum, 

 at the instigation of Dr. F. A. Bather, of the British Museum, offered me for study 



