56 . BULLETIN OF THE 
at the limit of 200 fathoms, or thereabout, which we assume now to be 
near the limit of the bathymetrical range of the true oceanic pelagic 
fauna. At 200 fathoms in the Panamic district, the temperature was 
from 49° to 53°, while, as is well known, the temperature of the Medi- 
terranean soon falls, already at 100 fathoms, to about 56°, a temperature 
which is continued to the bottom in this closed basin. Of course, if 
temperature is one of the factors affecting bathymetrical distribution, 
there is no reason except the absence of light which would prevent 
the surface pelagic fauna from finding conditions of temperature at the 
greatest depth similar to those which the surface fauna finds within the 
limit of 200 fathoms in an open oceanic basin. 
My reasons for modifying the results obtained by Chun on his trip to 
the Canaries, I have given elsewhere, on page 23. 
The results even of those who claim to have proved the existence of 
an intermediate fauna agree in showing that the number of species and 
the number of individuals greatly diminish near the 200 fathom limit, 
and that though my first experiment on the “ Blake” proved the rapid 
diminution of the pelagic fauna at or below 150 fathoms, yet the azoic 
limit is a most variable one, judging from the later results of Chun and 
of Hensen, and from my own on the “ Albatross.” As long and as often 
as the experiments for determining the lower limits are confined to the 
Mediterranean or any closed or comparatively closed sea basin, or are car- 
ried on within close proximity to land, disturbing influences are at work 
which carry this limit far lower than we find it to be in an open ocean 
basin, far from land, where below 200 or 250 fathoms ; and at 300 fath- 
oms little or nothing has been found by us. 
Tue GaALApacos ISLANDS. 
As is well known, the Galapagos, when discovered by the Spaniards 
in the sixteenth century, were uninhabited, and remain so to-day ; with 
the exception of the colony still maintained on Chatham Island by Mr. 
Cobos, all other attempts at settlement have failed. 
Distant only a little over 500 miles from the Ecuadorian coast, they 
have often been visited by whalers, who landed on the islands for water, 
and for a supply of the large land turtles which made a pleasant variety 
in the sea fare of the whaling fleet frequenting these waters during the 
first half of this century. 
The temporary occupation of some of the islands as a penal settle- 
ment by the Ecuadorian government followed the attempt at settling 
