THE WEST INDIAN FAUNA. 5 
which forty-six were undescribed. As the total number of spe- 
cies does not exceed five hundred, the value of these additions 
to the group is readily estimated. Prior to the explorations of 
the “ Blake," twenty-seven species had been described from the 
Caribbean region, so that the number of the species character- 
istic of the district has been nearly trebled; plainly showing 
that the deep-water starfish fauna is far richer and more varied 
than that of the littoral district. 
The collection of ophiurans is perhaps the largest ever made. 
They seem to play a very important part in determining the 
facies of a fauna. They occur everywhere, at all depths, and 
often in countless numbers. 1 hardly think we made a single 
haul which did not contain an ophiuran. They often came up 
when the trawl brought nothing else. In some places the bot- 
tom must have been paved with them, just as the shallows are 
sometimes paved with starfishes and. sea-urchins, and many spe- 
cies hitherto considered as extremely rare have been found to be 
really abundant. Most of the deep-sea Atlantic species obtained 
by the * Challenger" have been rediscovered in large numbers. 
Such rare species as Sigsbeia murrhina, Ophiozona nivea, 
Hemieuryale pustulata, and Ophiocamax hystrix, were found 
in plenty. As representatives of northern seas may be cited 
Astronyx Loveni, while the great rarities are represented, by 
a single specimen of Ophiophyllum. Of Astrocnida isidis, 
of which only three specimens were known, we have half a 
dozen. A large Pectinura recalls the shallow fauna of the 
Fast Indies, while a new Ophiernus brings to mind the antarctic 
deep-sea forms. Finally, the supposed existence of simple 
armed Astrophytons is fully confirmed by the various species of 
Astroschema, and by a new species of Ophiocreas. 
The diligent search of Pourtalès in the Straits of Florida, the 
« Hassler” expedition, the “ Challenger ” explorations, and the 
expeditions of the “ Blake,” have evidently brought up the 
majority of the species of ophiurans ; for in the enormous mass 
of specimens gathered in the last “ Blake” expedition and by 
the “ Albatross” the number of new species was small. 
It is noteworthy that the explorations of the “ Blake” and the 
subsequent dredgings of the “ Albatross ” only added one species 
