PRELIMi;fAKY REPORT. 65 



NOTES ON THE DEEP-SEA HAULS OF THE TRAWL AND DREDGE MADE BY 

 THE "ALBATROSS" AND THE " CHALLENGER " IN THE PACIFIC. 



The "Challenger" inude four hauls of the trawl or dredge from the 

 Admiralty Islands to Japan, eight between Yokohama and the Hawaiian 

 Islands, four between the Hawaiian Islands and Tahiti, and eleven between 

 Tahiti and Valparaiso. The "Albatross" made thirteen hauls in the line 

 San Francisco to Tahiti across the deep Moser Basin. 



In otlier parts of the Pacific exclusive of the Southern Ocean we have 

 only the deep-water trawling of the "Challenger" near Fiji and Tongatabu 

 and thence to New Zealand and south from Valparaiso ; exclusive of hauls 

 made in the enclosed seas to the westward of Borneo and New Guinea, 

 the number of hauls in the deep areas of the Pacific are few in number, 

 and have thus far made us acquainted with a comparatively small number 

 of deep-water types. The few hauls made by the " Albatross " in the 

 insular area of the Pacific would seem to indicate that in the Paumotus, 

 Society Islands, Tongas, P]llice, Gilbert, and Marshall Islands the fauna of 

 these areas was extremely poor as compared with the wealth of animal life 

 brought to light by the " Blake " in the West Indies and by the " Alba- 

 tross " in the Panamic district near the Galapagos and off the coast of 

 Central America. The only other hauls in the Pacific are the few made by 

 the "Gazelle" near the Fiji in less than 800 fathoms, and the large col- 

 lections made for many years by the " Albatross " along the shore of 

 Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and in the Bering 

 Sea. It must be remembered, however, that these collections of the "Alba- 

 tross" were all obtained at a comparatively short distance from the Ameri- 

 can continent, — the greatest number of deep-sea hauls made at a distance 

 from a continental area being those of the " Albatross " Expedition of 

 1891 in the Panamic district, a number of wliich were from five to 700 

 miles from the continental slope of Central America. 



It is interesting to compare the lines run across the Pacific by the " Chal- 

 lenger" with those explored by the "Albatross" in the present expedition. 

 The line run by the "Albatross" from San Francisco to Tahiti starts in lat. 



