450 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. ix. 



canals, equal in number to the number of arms, pass 

 across the disk, and are continuous with the arm- 

 grooves. The mouth is surrounded by a row of 

 flexible cirri, arranged nearly as in the pentacrinoid 

 of Antedon> and is provided with five oval calcareous 

 valve-like plates occupying the interradial angles, 

 and closing over the mouth at will. A low papilla 

 in one of the interradial spaces indicates the position 

 of the minute excretory orifice. 



Rhizocrinus loffotensis is a very interesting addition 

 to the British fauna. We met with it in the Fseroe 

 Channel in the year 1869 three examples, greatly 

 mutilated, at a depth of 530 fathoms, with a bottom 

 temperature of 6'4C., Station 12 (1868). Several 

 occurred attached to the beards of the Holtenice, off 

 the Butt of the Lews, and specimens of considerable 

 size were dredged in 862 fathoms off Cape Clear. 

 The range of this species is evidently very wide. It 

 has been dredged by G. O. Sars off the north of 

 Norway; by Count Pourtales in the Gulf- stream off 

 the coast of Florida; by the Naturalists on board 

 the 'Josephine,' on the ' Josephine Bank, 5 near the 

 entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar ; and by ourselves 

 between Shetland and Pseroe, and off Ushant and 

 Cape Clear. 



The genus Bathycrinus must also be referred to the 

 Apiocrinidae, since the lower portion of the head con 

 sists of a gradually expanding funnel-shaped piece, 

 which seems to be composed of coalesced upper stem- 

 joints. 



The stem of Bathycrinus gracilis (Fig. 73) is long and 

 delicate ; in one example of a stem alone, which came 

 up in the same haul with the one nearly perfect speci- 





