MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 5 



other Echini of which former expeditions had only attained a few broken 

 or single specimens. I recognized a nuniber of the Brj'ozoa and Hy- 

 droids described by Smitt and AUman, in addition to several new forms. 



The line (5) extending into deep water from the north of Alacran 

 Reef did not give us anything which had not ah'cady been found in line 

 four (i), extending from the Tortugas across to the Yucatan Bank. 



On the eastern edge of the Yucatan Bank we obtained from deep 

 water a new genus of Diadematidee allied to Centrostcphanus ; the 

 same has also been found by tlie " Challenger " off Madeira, if I am not 

 mistaken. From shallower water we obtained a number of fine specimens 

 of the extinct genus Conoclypus, of a brilliant lemon-color ; with it came 

 up a number of specimens of Rhizocrinus. The latter appear to be 

 more abundant on the rocky bottom in from 300 to 400 fathoms along 

 the edge of the Florida Reefs. On one occasion off Sand Key the dredge 

 must have passed through a forest of them, judging at least from the 

 number of stems and heads of all sizes which it contained. 



On one occasion during a short calm, half-way between the Tortugas 

 and the eastern edge of the Yucatan Bank, I had an excellent oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a number of Globigerinas and Orbiculina) alive. They 

 were swarming -near the surface, the nucleus of a brilliant vermilion, 

 in company with a host of Diphyes, Pteropods, Heteropods, masses of 

 gulfweed, and the accompanying countless larvae of Crustacea, MoUusks, 

 and Fishes, which inhabit this weed. 



Of course, during the cruise, careful soimdings were taken with Cap- 

 tain Sigsbee's modification of Sir William Thomson's sounding-machine, 

 and bottom and surface temperatures with the Miller Casella thermome- 

 ter were all carefully compared from time to time with a standard. No 

 serial lines of temperature were taken, as they were either already on 

 hand, or were to be taken later in the season by Captain Sigsbee in the 

 course of his regular work after I had left the " Blake." We obtained 

 again, as had been found in pi'cvious years, a uniform bottom tempera- 

 ture of 39^° Fahrenheit, below GOO to 700 fathoms. This uniform bot- 

 tom temperature is undoubtedly connected with the depth to be found 

 between the windward islands through which the cold waters of the At- 

 lantic, from similar depths, force their way slowly northward, first into 

 the Caribbean Sea, and then into the Gulf of Mexico, through the Straits 

 of Yucatan. An additional series of observations over a careful line of 

 soundings across these various inlets would be interesting, as affording, 

 in connection with the line to be run by Captain Sigsbee across the 

 Straits of Yucatan, means of compai'ison with the temperatures of the 



