PREFACE 
This work is intended as a companion volume to the ‘‘Nar- 
rative and Preliminary Report of the Bahama Expedition From 
the State University of Iowa,’’ published in 1895. The Bar- 
bados-Antigua Expedition, like the Bahama Expedition, was 
somewhat of an experiment, although the general aims of the 
two were much alike and the number of persons constituting 
the party was almost the same, being twenty in the Bahama 
Expedition and nineteen in the one described in the present 
work. 
The two differ, however, in the following particulars: (1) 
Instead of living on shipboard as on the Bahama Expedition, 
the Barbados-Antigua party made their headquarters ashore ; and 
from these bases explored the surrounding reefs and shores by 
means of row-boats, and dredged down to about 150 fathoms 
with a 27-foot gasoline launch. (2) More attention was given 
laboratory work under these conditions than would have been 
possible on shipboard, and more pains were taken in the killing 
and preservation of specimens by the refined methods that have 
been devised during the past twenty-five years. (3) The aver- 
age age and experience of the Barbados-Antigua party was 
considerably greater than in the case of its predecessor, nearly 
all of the members being either instructors or graduate students 
in zoology or professional naturalists of recognized standing 
(4) The photographic equipment was much better than was 
available twenty-five years ago, and included a good outfit for 
making motion pictures and a professional operator of excep. 
tional ability. 
Owing to the numerous explorations which have been made 
in West Indian waters during the past quarter of a century, the 
number of new forms which will be described in the various re- 
ports of the Barbados-Antigua Expedition will doubtless be 
much smaller than in the case of the former expedition, and 
this difference will be still greater from the fact that the Lesser 
(5) 
