ARCTIC SEA TO THE WEST OF GREENLAND. 73 



CRINOIDEA. 



THREE species of Comatulse were obtained in high latitudes during the British Arctic 

 Expedition of 1875-76, under Capt. Sir G. S. Nares. These were Antedon Eschrichtii 

 (the widely distributed northern form), A. celtica, and a new species dredged in Dis- 

 covery Bay. Respecting the general occurrence of the Crinoidea within the Arctic 

 Circle, or even within the area treated of in the present memoir, we shall refrain from 

 speaking, as, unfortunately, this group has hitherto been much neglected by naturalists, 

 either from the difficulty of obtaining material in a satisfactory state of preservation, 

 or from the complexity of the subject itself. From this cause little confidence can be 

 placed in many of the determinations. 



Mr. P. Herbert Carpenter is at present engaged in a critical investigation of the 

 Comatulse ; and having had the opportunity of examining very extensive series of spe- 

 cimens (amongst others those of the ' Challenger ' Expedition, of which he has already 

 published a preliminary report*), we feel that the result of his labours, when completed, 

 will embrace an amount of actual knowledge which, in comparison with an analysis of 

 the confused determinations of previous writers, will prove to be so much more trust- 

 worthy and acceptable to biologists at large, that no further remark upon our reticence 

 in that direction will be necessary. 



ANTEDON ESCHRICETII (Muller), Verrill. Plate VI, figs. 1-4. 



1841. Alccto Eschrichtii, Hiiller, Archiv f. Naturgesch., Jahrg. vii. vol. i. p. 142. 

 1853. Alecto Eschrichtii, Stimpson, Mar. Invert. Grand Manan, p. 12. 

 1857. Alecto Eschrichtii, Liitken, Vid. Meddel. N. Forening i Kjobenhavn, 1857, p. 55. 

 1862. Comatula Eschrichtii, Dujardin & Hupe, Hist. Nat. Zooph. chinodermes, p. 199. 

 1866. Antedon Eschrichtii, Verrill, Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. x. p. 343.. 



Dorsocentral semiglobular, closely covered with a great number of cirri, a hun- 

 dred pits being present in large specimens. Frequently, in old examples, the imme- 

 diate apex is smooth and not pitted ; and sometimes this portion of the plate is slightly 

 indented, forming a little hollow or depression, surrounded on all sides by cirri. 



The first radial is invisible (or with only the smallest trace to be seen at the sides 

 in small examples), the second radial appears on the outer surface only as a very short, 

 thin plate at the margin of the dorsocentral, and is seen to thicken at the sides as it 

 recedes inwards ; the third (or axillary) radial is a large, conspicuous plate, rhomboid or 

 somewhat diamond-shaped in external contour, length greater than the breadth ; the 

 sloping sides, which diverge from the distal angle on the margins of the articular facet 

 being somewhat incurved and slightly longer than the lower sides, which join to form 

 the proximal angle, these latter sides being incurved for their distal half and then grace- 

 fully bent outwards to form the slightly rounded proximal angle. Considerable variation 



* Troc. Hoy. Soc. no. 194, 1879, p. 392. 



