ECHIXOIDEA. II. 



and Iceland must accordingly for the present not be named among the localities of this species. At 

 the Fseroe Islands I have taken (in 1899) enormous quantities of dead tests together with some living 

 specimens; tlms in ca. 150 fathoms, 13 miles W. by S. of Munken (at the South End of Sudero) I took 

 in one dredging 672 dead tests and only 14 living specimens; in ca. 70 fathoms, 9 miles E. S. E. of 

 <Bispeii! (at the north end of the islands) one dredging gave 50 dead tests and 2 living specimens. 

 At these localities also enormous quantities of dead [mollusc-shells and very few living specimens 

 were found; they may with full right be termed submarine cshellbanks; '. 



For the rest, Echinocyamus pusillus occurs from Northern Norway, along the European coasts, 

 in the British Seas, the Mediterranean, at the Azores and along the African Coast down to Cape Bojador 

 (Doderlein. Op. cit. p. 234). The bathymetrical distribution is from o ca. 400 fathoms, the greatest 

 depth from which the species is hitherto known with certainty being 835 meters (61 7' Lat. N. 9 30' 

 Long. W. - Thor 1904). The fairly numerous records of its occurrence at greater depths (down to 

 (800 1000 fathoms) are, so far as I have been able to ascertain, all based on wrong identifications, as 

 shown below. (A pair of small, old dead tests of Ech. piisilhis from a depth of 1290 M. (Lat. N. 38 

 Long. W. 30) do not prove that the species lives at so great a depth.) 



According to Professor A. Agassiz, whom all the later authors follow in this, Eckmocyamus 

 pusillus is found also on the American side of the Atlantic, viz. at Florida and the West Indies (Gulf 

 of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, Brazil) at a depth of 75 ca. 800 fathoms (most abundant between 150 and 

 400 fathoms 2. Blake >-Echini. p. 40). It is also recorded from 5 fathoms at Salt Key (Pourtales); but 

 since Professor Agassiz himself owns to have at first mistaken young Clypeasters (Stolonoclypusi for 

 Echinocyamus (Rev. of Echini p. 304), it ma)- perhaps be allowed to suggest that the specimens from 

 Salt Key are also really young Clypeasters, this Echinocyamus having nowhere else been recorded 

 from less than 75 fathoms. The fact that Ech. pusillus is not known (living) from Iceland, Greenland 

 and the American Coast north of the Florida Strait makes it beforehand doubtful, whether the American 

 form can be really identical with the European species (though, of course, it is not impossible, other 

 instances of species occurring both at the West Indies and in the Mediterranean being well known). 

 A close examination of specimens from the Blake , the Albatross and the < Challenger (St. 122), 

 respectively in the U. S. National Museum, the Museum of Yale College and the British Museum has 

 fully confirmed my doubt. These specimens differ from Eck. pusillns in so many important features 

 that there can be no doubt of their forming a very distinct, new species. I am especially indebted to 

 Professor Rathbun for sending material of this species for study to Copenhagen. 



Echinocyamus pusillus is further recorded from a depth of 1300 M. from the Azores (Koehlev. 

 Op. cit. p. 24) and from 1694 M. at Cape Verde (Doderlein. Op. cit. p. 234). Having seen that the Ameri- 

 can specimens were not really Ech. pusillus I felt some doubt, whether the specimens from such great 

 depths might not prove identical with the American species, and I therefore applied [to Professors 

 Doderlein and Koehler for permission to examine the specimens from these localities. With their 

 usual great liberality they gave their permission; Professor Koehler even sent me all his rich ma- 

 terial of Echinocya tints, and Professor Chun, besides allowing me to partly denude the only specimen 



1 Comp. A. C. Johansen: Om Aflejringen af Molluskernes Skaller i Indsoer og i Havet. Vidensk. Medd. fra Natur- 

 hist. Foren. Kjobenhavn. 1901. p. 30. 



