190 BULLETIN OF THE 



of the inhabitants of the deep waters as they first come up. These 

 drawings can be used to great advantage with the specimens in making 

 the tinal illustrations to accompany the reports of the specialists who 

 may have chai'ge of working up the different departments. . . . 



We left Panama on the 22d of February, and returned to Panama 

 after an absence of twenty days. 



n. 



Albatross, Acapulco, April 14, 1891. 



We have reached the end of our second line of explorations. After 

 coaling we left Panama, and reached Galera Point, where we began our 

 line aci'oss 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 ti-awliug 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 coming 

 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. 



In the deeper parts of the channel between Galera Point and the 

 southern face of Chatham Island we found a great number of Elasi- 

 poda, among them several genera like Peniagone, Bathodytes, and Eu- 

 phrosine, represented by numerous species. The Starfishes of this 

 our second cruise did not diflfer materially from those collected during 

 our first trip, but we added some fine species of Freyella, Hymenaster, 

 Astrogonium, Asterina, and Archasterida) to our collections. Among 

 the Sea-urchins on two occasions we brought up fine hauls of a species 

 of Cystechinus with a hard test, many specimens of which were in 

 admirable state of preservation. Among the Ophiurans nothing of 

 importance was added, unless I may except a lot of Ophiocreas attached 

 to a Primnoa, and a pretty species of Sigsbea attached to a species of 

 Allopora, from the south side of Chatham Island. 



The Gorgonians were remarkably few in number, which is undoubtedly 

 due to the unfavorable nature of the bottom we worked upon. Nearly 

 everywhere except on the face of the Galapagos slope we trawled upon a 



