230 REPORT ON ALBATROSS MOLLUSCA DALL. 



lusks wore obtained at twenty stations and six anchorages, none of 

 which were in more than 100 fathoms. 



Lastly, on the coast of California at five stations, of which two were 

 in more than 100 fathoms, and at three anchorages, mollusks were col- 

 lected. 



Altogether the dredgings on archibeuthal grounds amounted to 

 twenty-four, all told. The mollusk collection made at these stations 

 was very small in bulk, though important in its nature. 



The collections can be roughly divided into two classes. The first, 

 from the Litoral Region, is of value as indicating the distribution of the 

 species, and as affording rare specimens with the soft parts in condi- 

 tion for study. The full value of this part of the collection will not be 

 evident until the whole has been thoroughly studied, compared, and 

 named, which will necessarily be a work of considerable duration. 



The second portion of the collection is that containing the deep water 

 species whose interest is of a wider sort, for reasons already discussed. 

 Being so much smaller in bulk it can be readily handled and discussed, 

 especially m connection with previous wwkdonein the region between 

 Chesapeake Bay and the northern shores of South America. 



I shall therefore in this report, which is avowedly of a wholly prelim- 

 inary nature, confine my attention chiefly to the deep-sea for.ms of both 

 oceans and the Atlantic shallow-water species; combining with those 

 collected on the voyage from ocean to ocean a few, obtained by the Alba- 

 tross in previous work on our southeastern coast, which naturally fall 

 into the same category, and including with the merely descriptive mat- 

 ter a discussion of some points in regard to the anatomy and biogra- 

 phy of these species. A supplementary report on the shallow-water 

 forms of the Pacific collected on the voyage is in preparation by 

 Dr. R. E. C. Stearns. 



In a general way, before dismissing the shallow-water collections 

 from consideration, I may point out that the collections from the eastern 

 shores of the two Americas are of great value as extending our knowl- 

 edge of the geographical distribution of many species. Thus we find 

 that a good many of the forms common to the shores of Florida and the 

 Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Antilles, extend to the Abrolhos Islands 

 or even to Rio Janeiro, while, mixed with them, area few which seem 

 to find their normal geographical center near the southern extremity of 

 South America. On the west coast of South America the shore collec- 

 tions offer nothing unexpected and the collections from the shores of 

 the Galapagos Islands are unfortunately meager. Those from moder- 

 ate depths of water off the coast of Lower California, on the other hand, 

 show glimpses of a fauna apparently as rich as that of the Antilles and 

 which has so far been little investigated. 



The archibeuthal fauna off the coast of Alta California, like that off 

 the shoals of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in New England, shows 

 an almost entirely distinct facies from that of the shallower water near 



