LOUIS F. DE POURTAL^S. 439 



depth of Khizocriiius from the Straits of Florida to the LofFoden Islands 

 opened a fi(?ld of investigation, dimly foreshadowed, it is true, hy the 

 earlier dredgings of the older and younger Sars, and the wider bearing 

 of which Loven had anticipated in a paper read before a meeting of 

 the Scandinavian natnralists as early as 1863. 



In the Coast Survey Reports for 18G7 and 18G8 are to be found 

 Pourtales's first reports on the fauna of the Gulf Stream in the 

 Straits of Florida. These rejiorts were published with greater 

 biological detail in the first volume of the Bulletins of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology for 1867 and 1868. 



The large and valuable collections made by Mr. Pourtales in the 

 Gulf Stream, as well as those made under his direction on board the 

 Hassler, were deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, and thence distributed as rapidly as possible to be worked 

 up by specialists throughout the scientific world. To these were after- 

 ward added the results of the three Blake expeditions, which were 

 indeed the natural continuation of the work initiated by Pourtales. 

 The collections thus sown broadcast have already borne a rich harvest 

 in special reports upon Echinoderms, Corals, Crinoids, Foraminifera, 

 Sponges, Annelids, Hydroids, Bryozoa, Mollusks, and Crustacea, pre- 

 pared by the most eminent investigators of America and Europe, and 

 published principally in the Bulletins of the Museum. They fonn 

 a part of that series of international monographs to which Sir Wyville 

 Thomson, following the liberal policy adopted and advised by the 

 Director of the Museum, is making such generous contributions 

 through the collections of the Challenger. 



An examination of the characteristic deep-sea Echinoderms, Sponges, 

 and Corals showed at once the ancient characters of the types ; while 

 the similarity of the genera of Echini to those of the chalk, the dis- 

 covery of representatives of the Infulasterida^ (Pourtalesia),* of 

 Salenia, of Hemipedina, Conoclypus, and others, led the way to the 

 theories of Thomson regarding the great antiquity of these forms and 

 to the modern theories as to the formation of the chalk. The old 

 view of Guyot and of Dana upon the great antiquity of continents 

 and of oceanic basins received also a strong support from the data 

 obtained in Mr. Pourtales's dredgings. The specimens of bottom 

 showed conclusively that we had not had, in former geological times, 



* This genus is the representative of the piost interesting family of Echini 

 brought to hght by deep-sea dredging : it was named in honor of Pourtales in 

 1869. 



