CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. CR1NOIDS. 



decorus seem most vari- 

 able species of a very 

 variable genus. Off St. 

 Vincent the specimens 

 brought u p evidently 

 lived on a rocky bot- 

 tom, and there the spe- 

 cimens were undoubt- 

 edly anchored by the 

 terminal cirri, their 

 stems having become 

 fractured, as has been 

 suggested by Thomson, 

 at the nodes. Thus they 

 continued to lead a semi- 

 free existence, the lowest 

 nodal joint becoming 

 smooth and rounded, 

 showing that the ani- 

 mal had been free for 

 some time, the nodal ter- 

 minal joint being sur- 

 rounded by its whorl of 

 cirri, which curved down- 

 ward like a grappling- 

 iron, 1 so that the animal 

 must have been able to 

 change its position at 

 pleasure by swimming 

 with its arms, like Coma- 

 tulse. Another species of 

 Pentacrinus obtained has 

 been named P. Blakei 

 by Dr. Carpenter. (Fig. 

 410.) It has a slender, 



1 In regard to the movements of Pen- 

 tacrinus the following extract from a let- 

 ter of Lietit.-Commander C. D. Sigsbee 

 will be of interest : 



119 



Fig. 409. Pentacrinus Miilleri. $. (Carpenter. ) 



" On the 1st of April we put to sea 

 again [from Havana] ; we steamed about 

 one and a half miles from the Morro 

 (east), and at the third haul, in 177 fath- 



