362. = Dr. C. Semper on a new Genus of Comatulide. 
The currents by which most parts of the Atlantic are more 
or less affected, and of which the Gulf-stream is the most im- 
portant, generally prevail from the west. Along the coast of 
Norway the action is decidedly from south to north, and has 
the effect of keeping the entrance of the most northern ports, 
such as Hammerfest, free from ice at all seasons. To the 
south of the Bay of Biscay, more particularly south of Gib- 
raltar, the current sets southward, past the Canary Islands ; 
but I cannot say that I have been able to detect any effect 
from these currents upon the distribution of Mollusca—a sub- 
ject to which I have paid some attention. 
It is a remarkable fact that the shells of the Acores are of 
European and West-African species, and not American, as 
would have been the case had they been carried there by the 
prevailing currents ; and, what is still more remarkable, the 
Littorina most abundant in these islands (L. striata) is not a 
European species, but common to the Madeira, Canary, and 
Cape Verde Islands, and to the west coast of Africa—a 
circumstance deserving the attention of geologists, as poimting 
to a former distribution of land. 
Isleworth House, Oct. 16, 1868. 
XLIII.— On Ophiocrinus, a new Genus of Comatulide. 
By Dr. C. Semper, of Wiirzburg*. 
Amone the numerous Comatulide found by me at Bohol, 
there is one species possessing only five, wholly undivided arms. 
At first I held it to be a young specimen of some real Coma- 
tula; but, not corresponding exactly to any of the Philippine 
species, I consider myself justified in describing it as a separate 
species. In this case the fact of the arms being undivided 
gives it a claim to a separate genus. 
OPHIOCRINUS, n. gen. 
Five wholly undivided arms; they spring direct from the 
central knob, which below bears the cirrhi: other ossicula of 
the calyx are entirely wanting throughout. Disk ? 
Ophiocrinus indivisus, n. sp. 
Sixteen cirrhi range in a single row around the small flat knob. 
Joints of the cirrhi 18-20, very knotty, especially at the basis; 
the knots correspond to the articulations : the first two joints 
are short, as high as they are broad; the third to sixth are 
* Translated by Frau Anna Semper. 
