152 MARINE ANIMALS OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. 



accepted tlieories, if we can judge of its future by the brilliant 

 results of the last few years. 



From 1861 to the present time the Swedish government has 

 sent several expeditions to Spitzbergen and Greenland. They 

 carried on dredging operations most successfully to a depth of 

 twenty-six hundred fathoms. For some years past Loven, Koren, 

 and Danielssen, the elder and younger Sars, and other Scandi- 

 navian naturalists, have made systematic dredgings along the 

 coast of Norway, which, though not extending below four hun- 

 dred fathoms or thereabouts, have yet furnished most astounding 

 results. 



The United States Coast Survey has, in connection with an 

 exploration of the Gulf Stream, been the first to establish a sys- 

 tematic series of dredgings at great depths, continued during 

 several years. The results have proved conclusively that there 

 exists everywhere, in the deep sea, modified, of course, according 

 to the nature of the bottom and the temperature, a most varied 

 fauna, totally distinct from that characteristic of the shores and 

 of shallower waters. Since 1867 Count Pourtales has had charge 

 of these investigations, first established many years ago by Pro- 

 fessor Bache and continued by his successor Professor Peirce. 

 He has dredged across the Gulf Stream between Florida and 

 Cuba to a depth of about seven hundred fathoms, collecting an 

 immense number of marine animals entirely unknown before, and 

 characteristic of the different belts of depth, having a most ex- 

 traordinary geographical distribution, many of the species being 

 found in Florida, the Azores, the Faroe Islands, and the west 

 coast of Norway. 



The English Admiralty has for two summers detailed a vessel 

 admirably fitted for such purposes, intrusting the scientific di- 

 rection of the expedition to Dr. Carpenter, Professor Thomson, 

 and Mr. Jeffreys. Their dredgings, carried on to the enormous 

 depth of two thousand four hundred and thirty-five fathoms, have 

 in every respect corroborated the conclusions drawn from the 

 collections made by Count Pourtales and the Scandinavian nat- 

 uralists, who, not content with so thoroughly exploring their own 

 coast, have even sent a ship of war to dredge across the whole 

 Atlantic. 



