MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 53 
was closed. We found in the lower closed part of the net, in addition 
to the same shrimps and Copepods obtained from 100 fathoms, Firo- 
loides, Mertensia, and a small Sagitta. In the upper part of the net, 
which was towed open from 200 fathoms to the surface at the rate of 
four minutes to 100 fathoms, the animal life consisted of the same 
species as in the lower part of the net, and in addition the tasters of a 
large Pterophysa fully two and a half inches long,— the same species 
fragments of which so frequently came up on the dredge rope, — speci- 
mens of a large and of a small Sagitta, two species of Phronima, a Ty- 
phis, and two species of Salpz ; the Doliolum were more abundant than 
in the lower depths. Fragments of the bell of a large Diphyes of an 
unknown genus, from two to three inches in length, with a delicate 
yellow stem, and a few bells and fragments of another species of 
Diphyes and of Crystallodes, and a few specimens of Scopelus. Time 
of messenger in reaching the detacher at 200 fathoms, fifty seconds. 
At this same station the Tanner net was next sent to tow at 300 
fathoms, but, the detacher lines having got entangled with the dredge- 
rope swivel, it failed to close, and came up open all the way to the sur- 
face from 300 fathoms. The contents of the open net were identical 
with those of the previous haul from 200 fathoms to the surface; we 
added, however, a number of young specimens of Sternoptyx. The net 
was sent again to tow at 300 fathoms, and the messenger sent to close 
the net after towing fifteen minutes ; time of messenger in reaching the 
detacher, two minutes and forty seconds. The lower part of the net 
came up well closed, and its contents were carefully examined, taking 
the usual precautions. The lower closed part of the bag contained noth- 
ing. The upper open part of the net contained Sternoptyx, Stomias, 
Scopelus, a small violet cuttle-fish, and a number of Schizopods, Eu- 
phausiz, Thysanopode, Siriella, Nyctiphanes, Eucopia, and the like, 
apparently identical with those found in the hauls from a depth of 
100 and 200 fathoms to the surface. Many of the same Crustacea 
(Schizopods, etc.) were also obtained in the surface tow-net at this 
locality, although the wind and swell continued during our experi- 
ments, and the surface was greatly disturbed. 
On the morning of the 11th of April, the Tanner net was sent to tow 
for twenty minutes at a depth of 300 fathoms, at a locality about thirty 
miles southeast of Acapulco, at a depth probably of over 1,800 fathoms, 
the surface being moderately rough, a light wind having blown all night. 
The messenger was sent to close the net after the usual precautions, 
time occupied three minutes and fifteen seconds, and the net hauled 
