PRELIMINARY REPORT. 70 
tripped, but brought up three specimens of Mopsea and an Astroschema 
attached to it, of a pinkish-orange color, three Actinie (Stephanactis), 
pink in color, with warty columns, a Pheronema, and pieces of siliceous 
sponges. A second haul in the same place brought up a couple of small 
manganese nodules, surface fishes, Sternoptyx, and Cyclothone; a large 
black Malacosteus, like the Malacosteus indicus of Giinther, with long bar- 
bels, a large eye, and a comma-shaped, phosphorescent organ, green-yellow 
at the point; the phosphorescence was quite brilliant when the fish was 
placed in the dark. The spot was $” long, the eye itself was a beautiful 
dark carmine. The net also contained Atolla Alexandri of Maas, and a 
specimen of the thick-nosed phosphorescent surface fish, Ganadis, three 
red deep-water prawns, two specimens of Benthesicymus. The latter we 
have had from 300 fathoms in the open tow-net. 
At Station 31, in 2700 fathoms, lat. 12° 20’ S., long. 144° 15’ W. Red 
clay. The sea being a little too heavy for a successful haul, the “ Blake” 
trawl came up with the net badly torn; it must have had too heavy a load 
of manganese nodules, as the part of the bag left contained about a plate 
full of small, irregularly shaped nodules, incrusting also volcanic rock. The 
net probably gave away as we broke ground, judging from the indications 
of the accumulator. 
There is a marked contrast between the hauls on this oceanic line 
(Stations 1-72) and our results in the “ Albatross” expedition of 1891, 
when never more than 700 miles from shore. We always made excellent 
hauls, and there seemed to be an ample food supply on the bottom of 
that area, brought by currents and winds from the mainland. 
At Station 73 we lowered the trawl in 807 fathoms, lat. 17° 27’ S., long. 
149° 82’ W. Fine volcanic sand, Pteropods. It brought up a mass of fine 
volcanic mud filled with sticks and leaves and decayed vegetation, frag- 
ments of rocks and other telluric material, pieces of sugar cane, and frag- 
ments of cocoanut shells. In addition, in the midst of this mixture, one 
Holothurian, a Willemoesia, broken shells, fragments and specimens of 
Hyalea and many other Pteropod shells, also fragments of Lamellibranchs. 
At Station 133 we lowered the trawl in 742 fathoms, lat. 18° 05’ S., 
long. 142° 23° W. Pteropod ooze. The trawl came up in pieces; the 
