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EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The Starfishes collected by the Harriman Alaska Expedition were 

 sent to Professor A. E. Verrill for study and report ; and through the 

 courtesy of various museums of the United States and Canada 

 numerous additional specimens from the West Coast were placed in 

 his hands. With this rich material at his disposal, Professor Verrill 

 undertook a monographic revision of the Starfishes inhabiting the 

 shallow waters of the Pacific from Arctic Alaska south to California. 



In the course of three or four years (by 1904) the larger part of 

 the monograph had been written, most of the species (including 

 Stimpson's types, in the United States National Museum) had been 

 photographed, and more than 40 plates had been reproduced and 

 printed. But pressure of other duties so delayed the completion of 

 the work that a dozen years have elapsed since it was begun. The 

 long delay, however, has not been without compensations, for much 

 new material has come to Professor Verrill's hands, including col- 

 lections from Patagonia and Fuegia, enabling him to add matter of 

 great importance on the geographic distribution of the group. 



In the meantime, Mr. E. H. Harriman, organizer and patron of the 

 Expedition, having passed away, the publication of the work, with 

 its large series of plates, has been generously provided for by Mrs. 

 Harriman. 



In view of Professor Verrill's lifelong studies of the Starfishes, it is 

 believed that the present monograph will long remain a standard 

 authority on the subject, and that it will receive a hearty welcome 

 from all workers on the Echinoderms. 



C. Hart Merriam, 

 Editor. 



Washington, D. C, 

 May, 1913. 



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