250 Mr. J. W. Fewkes on Deep-fiea Medusce. 



present, the greatest contribution of any naturalist to the study 

 of the Medusan representatives of the deep-sea fauna. 



If space permitted one or two other smaller contributions 

 might be mentioned ; but these two works are the most 

 important additions to our knowledge of the deep-sea Acras- 

 peda and Siphonophora. 



We have no complete account of the deep-sea jelly-fishes 

 of the Gulf-stream. That great body of water, which sweeps 

 along our coast from the Straits of Florida northward, bears 

 a nomadic life, of the wealth of which no one has yet a just 

 conception. Those who have studied the stream in all lati- 

 tudes have spoken of this fact, and one needs but to lower a 

 drag-net in its waters for a few minutes to become convinced 

 of its truth. The surface of the Gulf-stream has been but 

 partially explored, the inhabitants of its depths, except on the 

 very bed, are unknown. 



The means which have been used for the collecting of ani- 

 mals from intermediate depths are not all that could be wished 

 for. There is a call for greater refinement in this kind of col- 

 lecting. A common way of obtaining this life is as follows. 

 The dredge, trawl, or drag-net drawn up from a great depth 

 is found to bring with it a Medusa. That ]\ledusa is recorded 

 from the depth of the trawl. What then is the possibility 

 that it entered the dredge on the passage up through the 

 water? I think every one will acknowledge that the possi- 

 bility is very great, and that the Medusa may or may not 

 have come from the deep sea. A drag-net attached to a 

 dredge-rope or wire is sometimes lowered to a certain deptli 

 and then drawn up. Here also we may ask, how is it known 

 that the Medusa found in the net entered it at the recorded 

 depth ? A Siphonophore clinging to a wire-rope used in 

 sounding or dredging may or may not, as shown by A. Agas- 

 siz, have become twisted upon it at the depth at which the 

 animal appears to be found when brought on deck. " In 

 most cases," wa-ites Prof. Verrill, " it is impossible to say 

 \\ hether the novel forms of Medusa3 taken in the trawl and 

 trawl-wings are inhabitants of the bottom waters or the sur- 

 face, or of intermediate depths. Eventually those that belong 

 to the surface-fauna ^^ ill doubtless be taken in the surface- 

 nets ; but this will require much more extensive collecting of 

 the surface animals than has yet been attempted." 



It will thus be seen that the means of determining the 

 depth at which the collecting of free oceanic animals takes 

 place are too imperfect for any accurate knowledge of the 

 bathymetrical limits of so-called deep-sea Medusae. We are, 

 in tact, on the very threshold of this kind of research, and 



