76 BULLETIN OF THE 
compare with that of the West Indian side, or that off the eastern coast 
of the United States. I have little doubt that this comparative poverty 
is due to the absence of a great oceanic current like the Gulf Stream, 
bringing with it on its surface a large amount of food which serves 
to supply the deep-sea fauna along its course. 
The same comparative poverty of animal life also characterized our 
second line of explorations. After we reached Galera Point, we began 
our line across the Humboldt Current, which was to give us a fair 
idea of the fauna of that part of the coast as far as the southern face of 
the Galapagos. With the exception of three good casts, the trawling 
on that part of the sea bottom proved comparatively poor, nor did the 
sea face of the southern slope of the Galapagos give us anything like the 
rich fauna I had expected. Theoretically, it seemed certain that a sea 
face like that of the Galapagos, bathed as it is by a great current com- 
ing from the south and impinging upon its slope, and carrying upon its 
surface a mass of animal food, could not fail to constitute a most favor- 
able set of conditions for the subsistence and development of a rich 
deep-sea fauna. 
On leaving the Galapagos we took up a former line of the “ Albatross” 
run off Indefatigable Island, hoping to obtain from that quarter our 
best results, but our hauls were very disappointing. The ground proved 
not only most difficult to dredge upon, but also comparatively barren, 
and it was not till we got into the oceanic basin again, between the 
Galapagos and Acapulco, that our catches improved. But even then 
they were not to be compared with the hauls at similar depths in the 
Atlantic off the West Indies, or along the course of the Gulf Stream. 
In the first cruise we also found great difficulty in trawling, owing 
to the considerable irregularities of the bottom. When trawling from 
north to south, we seemed to cut across submarine ridges, and it was 
only while trawling from east to west that we generally maintained a 
fairly uniform depth. 
In the Panamic region proper, — the region occupied by our track 
to Cocos, to Malpelo, and back to Panama, and from there to Galera 
Point, the Galapagos, and on toward Acapuleo,— the most interesting 
things we found were representatives of the Ceratias group of Fishes, 
which the naturalists of the “ Albatross” tell me they have not met 
before on the west coast of North America. I may also mention many 
types of Macruride and of Ophidiide, fine specimens of Bathyonus, 
of Bathybrissa, and of Bathypterois, and a few specimens of Ipnops 
in excellent condition. The Crustacea have supplied us with a most 
