2 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Pontophilus brevirostris, all of which were exceedingly abundant in 1880 
and 1881; butof the first two not a specimen was taken the past season, 
of the Munida only a single specimen, and that on the last trip, and of 
the other species only a very few specimens. Lambrus Verrillii, Acan- 
thocarpus Alexandri, Latreillia elegans, Homola barbata, and Anoplonotus 
politus, which were each taken several times in 1880 and 1881, were 
none of them taken in 1882; they were far less abundant than the other 
species, however, and the non-occurrence of some of them was very 
likely accidental; but the disappearance of part of them at least was 
undoubtedly due to the same eauses which occasioned the disappearance 
of the more abundant species. The disappearance of these species was 
undoubtedly connected directly with the similar disappearance of the 
tile-fish (Lopholatilus) from the same region, and on this account 
specially I give in detail, for many of the species enumerated beyond, 
the tables of specimens examined from the region explored by the Fish 
Commission; and to these I have usually added the specimens which 
I have examined from the collection made by Alexander Agassiz on the 
Blake in 1880. All the species mentioned above as having disappeared 
in 1882 were specially characteristic of the narrow belt of comparatively 
warm water (approximately 50° F.), in from 60 to 160 fathoms, which * 
bas amore southern fauna than the colder waters either side. Professor 
Verrill has suggested (Amer. Jour. Sci., II, xxiv, p. 366, 1882) that 
there was a great destruction of life in this belt, caused by a severe 
storm, in the winter of 1881~82, which agitated the bottom-water and 
foreed outward the cold water that even in summer occupies the great 
area of shallow sea along the coast, thus causing a sudden lowering of 
the temperature along the warmer belt inhabited by the tile-fish and 
the crustacea referred to. 
In the following tables of specimens examined the latitude and longi- 
tude, depth, nature of bottom, &c., are copied from the list of dredging 
sfations of the Fish Commission for 1880, 1881, and i882, in the Bulletin 
of the Fish Commission, vol. ii, pp. 119 to 131, 1882, where further details 
in regard to temperature, &e., are given. In indicating the nature of 
the bottom, the Coast Survey system of abbreviations is used. In the 
column for the number of specimens examined, / is used to indicate large 
specimens; s, Small specimens; and y, young. When the sexes were 
not counted separately the whole number of specimens examined is 
placed in the middle of the column ; when the sexes were counted sepa- 
rately the number of males is put on the right, the number of females 
on the left, and the number of young in the middle, followed by the letter 
y. As a basis for ascertaining the breeding season, I have, in a great 
number of cases, noted the presence or absence of egg-bearing females ; 
when the number of such females was counted it is entered in the ap- 
propriate column; when specimens carrying eggs were found, but not 
counted, a plus sign, +, is used; and when none of the specimens ex- 
amined were carrying eggs a zero, 0, is used. 
