[ 520 ] 



XXXVI. 



ON THE ECHINODEEMS COLLECTED BY THE SS. "FINGAL" 

 IN 1890, AND BY THE SS. " HAELEQUIN " IN 1891, 

 OFF THE WEST COAST OF lEELAND. By F. 

 JEFFEEY BELL, M.A., Sec. E.M.S. (Plates XXIII., 

 XXIV., XXV.) 



[communicated by pkofessob haddon.] 

 [Eead March 16, 1892.] 



I HAVE been greatly interested by the fine collection of Echino- 

 derms, chiefly from deep water, which, made in 1890 and 1891 

 under the auspices of the Royal Dublin Society, has, by Professor 

 Haddon's kindness, been submitted to me for examination. 



It has long been, with me, a matter for regret that a complete 

 survey has not been made of an area which promises to be full of 

 instruction and lies as close to our shores as the 500 fathom line 

 off the West of Ireland. The collection here reported on, and 

 especially that part of it which was dredged at St. 201 (45 miles, 

 N.N.W. of Black Rock, Blacksod Bay, Co. Mayo) , where the depth 

 was 500 fathoms, shows how much material of interest we can obtain 

 within a few miles of our own shores. 



Only one species unknown to science is here described, but I 

 cannot pretend that I look upon that with any regret. The 

 anxieties of zoologists^ as to the total number of species with which 

 they expect to become acquainted are, I believe, groundless. The 

 progress of our knowledge and the enlightenment of our ideas will, 

 I am sure, reveal to us great and wide variations, and will lead at 

 last to a diminution rather than an increase in the number of 

 species recognized as distinct. The so-called new species in the 

 present collection shows quite unexpected powers of variation, and 

 the large collection of specimens of Asthenosoma hystrix shows that 



^ See especially tlie annual addresses of tlie present and two preceding Presidents 

 of the Entomological Society of London. 



