6(5 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. n. 



among them a magnificent specimen of a new star 

 fish which has been since described by M. G. O. Sars 

 under the name of Brisinga coronata (Fig. 5). The 

 genus Brisinga was discovered in 1853 by M. P. Chr. 

 Absjornsen, who then dredged several specimens of 

 another species, B. endecacnemos, ABSJ., at a depth 

 of 100 to 200 fathoms in the Hardangerfjord on 

 the Norway coast a little to the south of Bergen. 

 These are certainly very wonderful creatures. At 

 first sight they look intermediate between ophiurids 

 and star-fishes, the arms too thick and soft for the 

 former, but much more long and delicate than we 

 usually find them in the latter group. 



The disk is small, about 20 to 25 mm. in diameter ; 

 in B. endecacnemos nearly smooth, in B. coronata 

 covered with spines. The madreporiform tubercle is 

 on the dorsal surface close to the edge of the disk. A 

 firm ring of calcareous ossicles forms and supports the 

 edge of the disk, and gives attachment to the arms. 

 The arms are ten or eleven in number : the latter 

 number is probably abnormal. They are sometimes 

 as much as 30 centimetres in length ; narrow at the 

 base, where they are inserted into the ring ; enlarging 

 considerably towards the middle, where the ovaries are 

 developed ; and tapering again to the end. Rows of 

 long spines border the ambulacral grooves ; the spines 

 are covered with a soft skin, which, when the animal is 

 quite fresh, forms a little transparent, sack-like expan 

 sion full of fluid at the end of each spine. The soft 

 covering of the spines is full of small pedicellariae, 

 and pedicellarise are likewise scattered in groups over 

 the surface of the arms and disk. 



The arms in B. endecacnemos are nearly smooth, 



