222 PANAMIC DEEP SEA ECHINI. 



central tropical Pacific realm, of which the Sandwich Islands, the Panamic, 

 the Paumotus, Samoan, and the Fijian may be similar primary subdivisions. 



None of the trawl hauls made by this Expedition were at a great distance 

 from shore. Our stations, centring as they did at the Galapagos, always 

 had that group as oceanic terminus. From Galera Point to the Galapagos 

 (Cliatham Island) the distance is about six hundred miles, and though our 

 line from the Galapagos to Acapulco measured 1200 miles, the greatest 

 distance normal from the shore was not more than 900 miles, and no point 

 on our lines inside of the Galapagos was more than 300 miles from the 

 shore. See Plate 110. 



There was hardly a station at which a considerable amount of vegetable 

 matter was not brought up in the trawl, derived either from the nearest 

 part of the mainland or from Cocos Island or the Galapagos. This vegeta- 

 ble deposit dropping from the surface plainly shows the extent of the area 

 which may thus be supplied with food by the prevailing currents. The 

 distance of our stations from land was not great enough to have modified 

 to any extent the abundance of the abyssal fauna ; for although Echini 

 were brought up in the trawl at only forty-one stations, there was not a 

 single haul of the trawl made which did not bring up abundant animal life, 

 so that representatives of either fishes, Crustacea, mollusks, annelids, alcy- 

 onarians, or other groups were always represented, according to the nature 

 of the bottom. On the track from Panama to Cocos Island and eastward 

 toward Galera Point, then to Malpelo and to Panama, as w^ell as from Galera 

 Point to Chatham Island, Echini were found at nearly every station. We 

 found them more abundant immediately off Mariato Point, around Cocos 

 and Malpelo, Galera Point; but between Culpepper to off Acapulco they 

 only occurred near Culpepper and about seventy miles off Acapulco in 

 deep water at the foot of the continental slope. We found Echini again 

 along our line from Cape Corrientes into the Gulf of California as far as 

 Guaymas, where the distances from shore were inconsiderable. 



As will be seen by the chart of our route, PI. 110, tlie continental slope 

 of the Panamic district is steep, the 1500 and 2000 fathom lines both run- 

 ning generally parallel to the coast line at a distance of from thirty to 

 ninety miles, except where the 2000-fathom line bulges out to sea to 

 enclose the Galapagos. 



The dredgings made by the "Albatross" in 1891^ were not sufficiently 



' See List of Stations, p. 242. 



