262 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



of California till off the Tres Marias. Here some good 

 hauls were made, though the character of the bottom 

 did not change materially as the Albatross went farther 

 north into the Gulf. They found the trawling most dif- 

 ficult from the weight of mud brought up in the trawl, 

 but occasionally a rich haul more than repaid them for 

 the less productive ones. 



"Two of the hauls are especially worthy of mention 

 as being characteristic of the deep-water fauna of the 

 Gulf of California, one made in 995 fathoms, and the 

 other in 1588 fathoms. We obtained in these hauls a 

 number of Ophiomusium and Ophiocreas, some speci- 

 mens of Schizaster, a new genus allied to Paleopneustes, 

 and also the same species of Cystechinus, with a hard 

 test, and of Phormosoma, which we had obtained before 

 on the line from the Galapagos to Acapulco." 



The Albatross reached Guaymas on the afternoon of 

 April 23, where Agassiz left the ship and made directly 

 for the East by rail. The collections were afterwards 

 distributed, to be worked up, among the best specialists 

 anywhere available, and proved far richer than one 

 would gather from Agassiz's letters at the time. Writ- 

 ing of the expedition years later, he says : — 



" We spent more than two months dredging and 

 trawling with great activity, and succeeded in bringing 

 together in that time a collection of deep-sea forms which 

 probably has not had its equal in any other expedition. 

 I had always hoped sometime to work with Captain 

 Tanner, and it was natural that with our combined ex- 

 perience we should have been as successful as we were. 



