74 EXPEDITION OF THE "ALBATKOSS," 1809-1900. 



but it being on the line of tlie equatorial current, it also shows the effect 

 of the increased supply of food carried by a great oceanic current. This 

 haul is a striking contrast to those taken farther south to the southeast 

 of Tahiti at about the same depth, but outside the range of any great 

 current. In that district we found practically nothing living on the red- 

 clay bottom. It seems natural to infer that the lines of migration of the 

 deep-sea fauna of the tropical Pacific must have been along the track of 

 the equatorial current. 



The trawl contained three species of Holothuriuns. one of which was 

 bright carmine ; a number of siliceous sponges, among which a small 

 Hj'alonema with its Zoanthus attached to the bundle of spicules ; a few 

 colossal spicules nearly as thick as a lead pencil ; a lot of the Neusina we 

 collected in 1891 in the Panamic region ; two species of ActinifB, one of 

 which a brilliant carmine, the other heavy, thick-skinned, whiti.sh, both 

 found attached to siliceous spicules ; a species of Archaster, and a good 

 specimen of Linopneustes ; a peculiar fish with a long head and pec- 

 toral fins, spread vertically upright across the flanks, and having two 

 long caudal filaments ; a few manganese nodules, and a number of small 

 sharks' teeth; a couple of specimens of Scalpellnm. and what I took to 

 be fragments of the interesting Ascidian Octacnemus of Moseley. Some of 

 the large siliceous spicules must have been 24" long. Also a small white, 

 thick, stiff-armed Ophiuran ; some worm-tubes built up in part of mud and 

 of siliceous spicules; two excellent specimens of Terebella, a Pectinaria-like 

 worm, and great numbers of Radiolarians collected from the intestines of 

 the Linopneustes ; two specimens of Ainusium ; a Gasteropod ; a Webbina 

 attached to Neusina ; a small Plumularian ; a fragment of a Polyzoan ; 

 and a Eucopia which found its way into the net near the surface. The 

 list of the contents of this trawl-haul is quite sufficient, when contrasted to 

 that of the haul at Station 173, to emphasize the contrast between locali- 

 ties in the wake of the great equatorial current and those outside of 

 its influence. 



At Station 25 we lowered the beam-trawl in 830 fathoms, lat. 8 48' S., 

 long. 139' 48' W., in the channel between Nukuhiva and Washington 

 Islands, the bottom being Globigerina ooze and volcanic mud. The trawl 



