150 J. MURRAY 



moss, but the hairy calyptra of the capsules showed it to be a relative of the Ortho- 

 tricum family. 



It was my intention to go on to the top of the ridge, which seemed but a little 

 way in front, and to descend into the Pali road, which I knew was only a little way 

 down on the other side. Nature did not permit this. As I advanced the bushes 

 became very dense and I got into a zone of ferns. The spur had become high and 

 narrow, with very steep sides and scarcely walking room on the summit. 



Though there were few prickly bushes the long trailing branches of some of them 

 were very tough and difficult to negotiate. The fern got so dense that it was 

 difficult to part it. This innocent-looking fern appears to be a bracken, not unlike 

 the British kind, which can be obstructive enough on a hill-side. It was all dry and 

 withered, and the pinnules were mostly broken off, leaving only about an eighth of 

 an inch of the base. These fragments of pinnules were strong and_hard, and with 

 their ragged edges they caught and tore the clothing as Smilax prickles would do. 



At last, not many hundreds of yards from the ridge towards which I was making, 

 the fern was so dense that I never set foot to ground at all, but walked on the 

 entangled fern, a yard or more above ground. It was evident that, at the rate at 

 which I was progressing, if I held on till I gained the Pali road I would miss the 

 steamer, so I turned back by the way I had come. On descending from the spur I 

 struck the stream at a point farther up the valley than where I had left it, and 

 crossed some boggy places where there were plenty of bog Hypna and even 

 Sphagnum. Had it been possible to examine these while fresh there would doubt- 

 less have been interesting additions to the list of species. 



The trip was successful, judging by the quantity of moss collected, and for more 

 than a year afterwards it continued to yield plenty of microscopic animals. Among 

 them there were more than a dozen species of Tardigrada. 



The Sandwich Islands are situated in the Tropics, Honolulu, on the Island of 

 Oahu, being 22 north of the Equator. It is the most isolated land visited. The 

 nearest land mass is N. America, the nearest point being 2000 miles distant. 

 Although the numberless islands of Polynesia lie to the southward, there are few 

 islands near the Hawaiian group which could facilitate migration. The microfauna of 

 the group may thus be expected to be of great interest. 



Previous knoidedge of Haivaiian Tardigrada. The only reference to Hawaiian 

 Tardigrada with which I am acquainted is in Richters' " Moosfauna Australiens " 

 (37). In moss from Oahu and Hawaii, collected by Professor Schauiiisland in 

 1896-7, Richters found E. arctomys and M. hufelandii, both in Oahu, the latter 

 also in Hawaii. We found the Macrobiotus again, but not E. arctomys, unless the 

 record of that species refers to the same animal which I identify as E. mutabilis. 

 The matter requires clearing up, 



