40 ECHINOCYAMUS PUSILLUS. 



Toxopneustes variegatus A. Ag. 



Yucatan Bank, Florida, Lesser Antilles. Lat. 32° 2-V N., Long. 77 : 42' 30" W. 14-300 fathoms. 

 For list of Stations, see Bull. M. C. Z.. VIII., No. 2, p. 78, 1880. 



Hipponoe esculenta A. Ac. 



Yucatan Bank, Cuba, Florida, Lesser Antilles. 14— l.jl fathoms. 

 For list of Stations, see Bull. M. C. Z., VIII., No. 2, p. 78, 1880. 



Echinocyamus pusillus Van Ph. 



Florida Bank. Florida. Cuba, Lesser Antilles. 98-805 fathoms; most abundant between 150 and 



4i« i fathoms. 

 Fur list of Stations, see Bull. M. C. Z., V., No. 0, p. 189, 1878; VIII., No. 2, p. 78, 18S0. 



An immense number of dead tests of this species were dredged in the 

 Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Straits of Florida, It has not yet 

 been found to tiie northward of the Straits of Bernini. The number of 

 living specimens brought up is small. It is interesting to note, in this 

 connection, that the dead tests of species of Clypeaster, of Echinanthns, 

 of Encope, of Schizaster, of Macropnenstes, of Agassizia. of Echinolampas, 

 of Linopneustes, of Toxopneustes, of Trigonocidaris, of Temnechinus, of 

 Salenia, and of Cidaris, were also frequently dredged, and sometimes in 

 considerable numbers. This has an important bearing as indicating the 

 species which are likely hereafter to be preserved as fossils, and shows us 

 how difficult it may become, even when we have such an abundant and 

 characteristic Ecbinid fauna as that of the West Indies, to reconstruct it 

 from the future fossils. It is also interesting to note that the genera 

 (except Echinocyamus) of which we so frequently find the dead tests arc 

 the same which have been known as characteristic of the AYest Indies 

 since the earliest tertiary. Evidently, except under the most favorable 

 circumstances, we cannot expect to find represented as fossils the Echino- 

 thuriae, Pourtalesiae, and many of tin' Echinidae, which alter death readily 

 fall in pieces, and may be dissolved by the excess of carbonic acid at 

 great depth before they become protected by a covering of deep-sea 

 ooze. 



