MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 197 
CORALS. 
Tur rich collections made by Mr. A. Agassiz, in the United States 
steamer “ Blake,” Commander Sigsbee, U. S. N., in the southern and 
eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, have yielded a number of interesting 
forms of deep-sea corals, in addition to most of those already described 
by me from those seas in former publications of the Museum. Mr. 
Agassizs dredgings extended farther to the westward and southward 
and into greater depths than mine, thus giving a more complete view of 
the distribution of deep-sea corals in that sea. As far as our present 
knowledge goes, no sea-bottom can rival in abundance of deep-sea 
corals the West-Indian. It is not at all unfrequent for a single cast 
of the dredge to bring up a dozen different species, represented by 
more or less numerous specimens of each. 
The larger number of tho deep-sea corals of this region are found om 
the rocky bottom extending along the coast of Cuba and outside tho: 
Florida reefs, comparatively few being found in the Globigerina ooze:of 
the greater depths of the gulf and of the Florida straits. I have: had 
occasion before to remark on some differences in the distribution on the 
two sides, As the coral fauna of the extremity of the Florida peninsula 
is a colony of the West-Indian, of comparatively recent origin, it is: not 
surprising that some forms have not borne the transportation, or failed to 
propagate in the new habitat for some cause or other. I feel tolerably 
certain of it in the case of Pentacrinus, the presence of which in a region 
is so generally revealed by the numerous joints of the stem found in the 
débris of the bottom. It is more difficult to account for the absence or 
rarity on the coast of Cuba of forms very abundant on the Florida side. 
Thus Mr. Agassiz obtained but few specimens of Terebratula cubensis and 
Waldheimia floridana, which were almost a nuisance in my dredge on the 
Florida coast, The same remark will apply to Balanophyllia floridana, 
Thecopsammia tintinnabulum, Rhizotrochus fragilis, Distichopora Joliacea, 
Allopora miniacea, and a few others rare in Cuban waters, common on 
the other side, 
It is to be regretted that no additional specimen of the singular 
Haplophyllia paradoxa was obtained ; there is not even a fragment that 
can be referred to it. 
