NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 153 



following note about Holopus, 1 which, unfortunately, was not obtained in any of the 

 Challenger dredgings : — 



" Holopus is one of the most curious of the recent Crinoids, and appears to be sessile 

 throughout life. The basals and radials enclose a tubular chamber, in which the viscera 

 are contained ; and this is attached directly to the rock on which it rests by a spreading 

 calcareous expansion, instead of being borne on a stem, as most other Crinoids are, for the 

 whole or part of their life. The central mouth is protected by five triangular oral plates, 

 as in Hyocrinus and Thaumatocrinus, and surrounded by five massive arms, which are 

 articulated in pairs to five axillary plates that rest on the edge of the cup. Only half a 

 dozen specimens are known, most of which have been brought up by fishermen's fines in 

 the neighbourhood of Barbados. One very young individual was obtained by the U.S. 

 Coast Survey steamer ' Blake,' in 100 fathoms, off Bahia Honda, and a fragment of a 

 larger one in 110 fathoms off Montserrat. The genus is not known to occur out of the 

 Caribbean Sea, and was not dredged by the Challenger. It is closely allied to a remark- 

 able fossil known as Cyathidium, which occurs in the upper Chalk of Faxoe in Zeeland, 

 and also to some singular sessile Crinoids characteristic of the Middle Lias in central and 

 western Europe. Certain Palseocrinoids and Cystideans also seem to have been sessile 

 like Holopus, and not stalked like most of the Pelmatozoa." 



Bermuda to Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



The vessel left the neighbourhood of Bermuda on the 21st April, and at first a course 

 was shaped towards New York. After crossing the Gulf Stream and obtaining sound- 

 ings and temperatures to the edge of the 100 fathom bank off the American coast (see 

 Sheet 9), the ship was steered to the northeastward for Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving 

 there on the 9th May. The usual dirty weather was experienced on the passage towards 

 New York : occasional strong winds, amounting sometimes to a gale, with light breezes 

 intervening, and after crossing the Gulf Stream thick fogs, with rain, until close in to the 

 land. 



On the 28th April the sounding line parted as it was being hove in, but later on the 

 dredge brought up a specimen of the bottom. On the 29th the sea was so short and heavy 

 that in keeping the ship head to wind, in order that a sounding might be obtained, the 

 rudder took charge and carried away the wheel ropes, so that the attempt had to be 

 abandoned for that day. 



On the 30th April at 2 p.m. the temperature of the surface water, which, since leaving 

 Bermuda, had varied between 65°-0 and 70 o, 0, rose to 71°"5, and continued at a temperature 

 of from 7l o, to 73°'0 until 6 a.m. on the 1st May, when it rose to 75°'0. At that hour 



1 See Zool. Chall. Exp., part xxxii.. 1884. 



(N'ARR. CHALL. EXP. VOL. I. 1884.) 20 



