240 THE ATLANTIC. | CHAP. IV. 
edly add enormously to zoological knowledge. The objects of 
the present expedition do not, of course, include a detailed in- 
vestigation of this kind, which must be done quietly in a small 
steamer by some one on the spot, and will require the patient 
work of several years. Even the few hauls of the dredge 
which we had it in our power to make brought to light a num- 
ber of new and highly interesting animal forms representing 
nearly all the invertebrate groups. A thorough investigation 
of the belt must yield a wonderful harvest. 
In dredging on the 15th, we got several sponges belonging 
to the hexactinellidee, very closely allied to those which we had 
previously met with in moderately deep water off the coast of 
Portugal, showing that the distribution of this remarkable or- 
der in deep water is very wide. Several stony corals occurred ; 
but of all these, with the exception of a species of Stylaster, 
which was very abundant at this station, we got better ex- 
amples on a subsequent occasion. The Stylaster agrees very 
closely with the description and figure given by Pourtales of 
S. complanatus. The only marked difference is, that the pri- 
mary and secondary septa do not unite to the same extent as 
shown in Count Pourtales’s figure. The genus Stylaster is re- 
cent and widely distributed. One or two very elegant aleyona- 
rian zoophytes, as yet undetermined, adhered to the tangles. 
The EcutnoperMATA were represented by the variety abyssicola - 
of Cidaris hystrix ; several fine star-fishes, among them a fine — 
Archaster, a species of Lwidia, and Astrogonium longimanum, 
a species described by Oerstedt from a specimen in the Ham- 
burg Museum from an unknown locality ; and some large ophiu- 
rids, including two species of Ophiomusium, and some unde- 
scribed forms. 
In this dredging two very interesting crustaceans occurred, 
both belonging to the macrurous decapoda, and both participa- 
ting in a singular deficiency—the total absence of eyes. One 
of these has been referred to the genus W7llemoesia, Grote. 
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