246 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



merits. My cabin opens out into a good-sized dining-room 

 and sitting-room of about twelve feet by tbe width of 

 tbe sbip, where Tanner and I sit and take our meals. It 

 has large portholes, a fine skylight, and is very airy 

 and comfortable. Strange to say, it has the desk and 

 sideboard which were on the Hassler when Father made 

 his trip from New York to San Francisco in 1871-72!" 



The first trip (see Chart 2 in the back cover) was a 

 sort of preliminary trial to test the apparatus ; the ship 

 left Panama on February 22, and returned after an 

 absence of twenty days. On leaving Cape Mala, which 

 marks the western entrance to the Bay of Panama, she 

 proceeded to Cocos Island, over four hundred miles to 

 the westward, and from there made a broad sweep to 

 Malpelo Island, about three hundred miles to the east- 

 ward, and back to Panama. Some idea of what was done 

 on the initial cruise can be gathered from a letter to 

 the Fish Commissioner, written after reaching Panama. 



TO MARSHALL MACDONALD 



On Board the Albatross, 

 March 14, 1891. 



I have found, in the first place, a great many of my 

 old West Indian friends. In nearly all the groups of 

 marine forms among the Fishes, Crustacea, Worms, Mol- 

 lusks, Echinoderms, and Polyps, we have found familiar 

 West Indian types or East Coast forms, and have also 

 found quite a number of forms whose wide geographical 

 distribution was already known, and is now extended to 

 the Eastern Pacific. This was naturally to be expected 

 from the fact that the district we are exploring is prac- 

 tically a new field, nothing having been done except 



