THE FIRST ALBATROSS EXPEDITION 249 



gration of the rocks, has remained comparatively barren, 

 in spite of its closer proximity to the mainland. 



The most interesting things we have found up to this 

 time are representatives of the Ceratias group of Fishes, 

 which the naturalists of the Albatross tell me they have 

 not met before on the west coast of North America. 

 The Crustacea have supplied us with a most remarkable 

 type of the Willemcesia group. The paucity of Mollusks 

 and also of Echini is most striking, although we brought 

 up in one of the hauls numerous fragments of what 

 must have been a gigantic sj)ecies of Cystechinus, which 

 I hope I may reconstruct. We were also fortunate 

 enough to find a single specimen of Calamocrinus off 

 Morro Puercos, in seven hundred fathoms, a part of the 

 stem with the base, showing its mode of attachment to 

 be similar to that of the fossil Apiocrinidse. The num- 

 ber of Ophiurans was remarkably small as compared 

 with the fauna of deep waters on the Atlantic side, where 

 it often seems as if Ophiurans had been the first and 

 only objects created. The absence of deep-sea corals is 

 also quite striking. They play so important a part in 

 the fauna of the deeper waters of the West Indies, that 

 the contrast is most marked. Gorgoniae and other Hal- 

 cyonoids are likewise uncommon. We have found but 

 few Siliceous Sponges, and all of well-known types. 

 Starfishes are abundant, and are as well represented in 

 the variety of genera and species as on the Atlantic side 

 of the Isthmus. I may also mention the large number 

 of deep-sea Holothurians(Elasipoda) which we obtained, 

 as well as a most remarkable deep-sea Actinian, closely 

 allied to Cerianthus, but evidently belonging to a new 

 family of that group. We found the usual types of 

 deep-sea West Indian Annelids, occasionally sweeping 



