28 BULLETIN OF THE 
single individuals of Siphonophores, Craspedote Medusæ, Ostracods, Am- 
phipods, Decapods, Salps, Doliolum, and young fishes. Eleven casts 
from 1,000 to’600 meters gave similar results, only the diversity was 
still further increased by the presence of Schizopods, Pteropods, Alcio- 
pide, and Tomopteride. How far these animals were the dead or re- 
cently dead carcasses of the mass of pelagic life living nearer the surface 
is of course not known, and, while hauling up from great depths through 
the column of water lying below the 200 fathom pelagic belt, we might 
expect a goodly number of such finds among the presumed inhabitants 
of the depths at which the self-closing net was operated.! 
It must be remembered that, while many of the pelagic animals are 
most delicate, and decompose after death with great rapidity, yet when 
sinking from the surface towards the bottom these dead or dying organ- 
isms, soon reach a belt of water in which the low temperature as com- 
pared to the surface would prevent any very active decomposition, and 
the cold itself of the lower belts may be one of the causes of the limita- 
tion in depth of the bathymetrical range of the pelagic fauna. Moseley 
has found by experiment that a Salpa would take about four days to 
reach the bottom in a depth of 2,000 fathoms. 
A few Velelle, no Physalia, but a few Porpite, were met with, while 
Diphyes occurred in nearly all the hauls, either with the surface or 
with the vertical net. About twenty casts were made to determine 
the occurrence of organisms near the bottom, but owing to the failure 
of the sounding machine and its uselessness it was impossible to tell 
what the depth was, as the Sigsbee machine was not, according to 
Kriimmel and Brandt, constructed according to specification, and gave 
out after the fifth trial; and hence no data of the depth of the bottom 
accompany the casts for the determination of the intermediate fauna, 
To those of us who have been accustomed to fish for the pelagic fauna 
along the course of the Gulf Stream and off the east coast of the United 
States, it seems incredible, as is asserted by Hensen, that the pelagic 
fauna of the Atlantic is much poorer than that of the North Sea or 
the Baltic. 
The success of the Plankton expedition in making their best surface 
hauls on the lee side of the ship is not a new experience to old fisher- 
men. In all our dredging expeditions the lee side of the ship naturally 
has invariably been used to catch floating pelagic stuff, and the tow-net 
is always placed on that side. The floating tow-net of the “ Hirondelle,” 
1 There being no description of Hensen’s self-closing net, we cannot judge of the 
value of his results as settling the existence of a deep-sea intermediate fauna. 
