620 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ever studied, those wliicli tlie Vhallcttycr brouy;ht IVom lier statious 

 262-280. My astouisliment Avas great wheu I first saw these plaiiktonic 

 masses, in tlie autaniu of 187G; but it grew boundless wlien a year 

 later I studied i)reparations tal^en from them and found in them hun- 

 dreds of now species of pehigic animals. 



The wonderfully rich RadioUtria ooze which the ChaUoujer brouglit 

 np at the central Pacific stations 2G3-274 (from depths of 2,000 to 3,000 

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

 all organic constituents have vanished and the calcareous shells for the 

 most part dissolved by tlie (larbouic acid of the deep currents.* The 

 numerous surface preparations which Murray finished upon the spot 

 on this remarkable voyage of planktonic discoveiy through the central 

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

 ton preparationfi Avhich I have ever studied, especially those of stations 

 260-274, between 11° :N'. lat. and 7° S. lat. The richest of all stations 

 is 271, lying almost under the equator (O^SS'S. lat., 152° 56' W. long.). 

 I have since shown these ]>reparations for microscopical studies to many 

 colleagues and friends, and they have always expressed the liveliest 

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

 are jokingly called tlie "inira-preparations" (comp. 4, §§228-235). 



The wonderful phiiiktou wealth of the tropical Pacific is as well 

 established by the manifold observations of Chierchia: '■'■The quantity 

 and quality of the organisms ichich hihahit the tropical regions of the sea 

 sur^jass all conception'''' (8, p. 75). Inconceivable quantities of pelagic 

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

 between Callao and Hawaii, between Honolulu and Hongkong, not 

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

 The quantity of deep-sea siphouophores 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 pelagii? fishery at the surface as well as in the depths 

 bnmght to light ''su<'h a quantity of different organisms that it must 

 seem almost impossible to one Avho did not follow the work with his own 

 eyes" (8, p. 88). ^Similarly, in the Chinese sea and in the Sunda 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 i)reparations. The pelagic fauna and flora of the tro])ical 

 zone is richer in diffiM-ent foiins 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 \\\\» RadioJar'ia oozo there .-iro 16 Hiunples (embr;u4iig uboiit 1,000 diftert'iit 

 species) couUiued in tht^ " Rudiolariau coUei-tion " (18!)0) above mentiouotl. Tlie8 

 richeat of tbeso (Nos. 20-27) bidong to the tropicul ceiilnil I'aciftc (statious 265-271). 



