318 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
case of the lowest whorls this may be due to the cirri having been soldered to the bottom 
by calcareous expansions, I have never seen any traces of such a condition. 
In the first place, there is a stem-fragment of Pentacrinus asterius, consisting of a few 
internodal joints with a nodal joint beneath them which is somewhat worn and has its 
central canal closed up by a low rounded tubercle ; so that it must have been detached 
for some time from the infra-nodal joint which completed the syzygy. But all the cirri 
borne by this modified nodal joint are perfect throughout their whole length, nearly 
70 mm., and were most certainly not soldered to the bottom at the time the animal was 
captured. 
Then again, in a fine Pentacrinus miilleri from Martinique with a stem 120 mm. 
long, which is closed below at the thirteenth node, all the cirri of this node are perfect 
from the base to the terminal claw. They reach 50 mm. in length, and are spread out 
in different directions, two being curved sharply upwards, while the others are more or 
less horizontal. Their general appearance is very similar to that of the long cirri of 
Antedon phalangium. But not one of them shows any trace of having been soldered to 
the bottom. The cirri of the next four whorls above are all long enough to have touched 
the bottom had the animal been attached like the individuals of Pentacrinus wyville- 
thomsoni dredged by the “Talisman.” Hight of these twenty cirri, four in the first 
whorl, two in the next, and two in the highest one, are now more or less broken; but 
this is clearly due to accident, and not to the fracture of an attachment. The same may 
be said of a specimen of Pentacrinus miilleri in the Natural History Museum, which has 
a stem 135 mm. long, with several of the lower cirri remaining unbroken; while the 
under surface of the twelfth nodal joint at which the stem ends is worn and somewhat 
rounded, and bears two or three attached Foraminifera. The animal cannot, therefore, 
have been attached by the base of the stem, though the cirri may have been soldered to 
the bottom ; but their appearance is against this supposition. 
The same remarks apply to Pentacrinus alternicirrus, in which the cirri reach 50 mm. 
in length. Those of the four or five lowest whorls turn more or less directly downwards, 
and all reach below the level of the terminal nodal joint, which may be anywhere between 
47 and 155 mm. from the calyx. But none of these cirri in any of the twelve individuals 
which I have examined show any signs of having been soldered to the bottom. Many of 
them are now broken; but others are quite perfect, though they must have been in 
contact with the bottom, had the animals been permanently anchored like the “Talisman ” 
examples of Pentacrinus wyville-thomsoni. The single Pentacrinus dredged by the 
Challenger on hard ground belonged to this species; and as all the cirri of the lowest 
whorls are more or less broken, it is quite possible that they may have been torn away 
from a permanent attachment to the bottom. Another conclusive argument against the 
general application of the “Talisman” observations is afforded by the condition of the 
single specimen of Pentacrinus maclearanus which was dredged by the Challenger from a 
