Xo. 4. — Reports on the Besidts of Dredging, tender the Supervision 

 of Alexander Agassiz, in the Caribbean Sea, 1878-79, hij the 

 United States Coast Surveij Steamer " Blake;' Commander J. R 

 Bartlett, U. S. K, Comnianding. 



(Published by permission of Carlile P. Patterson, Supt. U. S. Coast and Geodetic 



Survey.) 



VI. 

 Report on the Corals and Antipatharia, by L. F. PouRTALis. 



CORALS. 



Although very rich in the number of specimens, the collections made 

 by Mr. Agassiz in the dredging season of 1878-79 have added but few 

 new species. Considering the extent of the ground covered (see Bull. 

 Mus. Comp. ZooL, Vol. VI. No. 1), we may assume that but little will 

 be added hereafter to our knowledge of the association of corals forming 

 the West Indian deep-sea fauna. No other region of the ocean-bottom 

 has yielded so abundant a harvest, and we have therefore no sufficiently 

 complete data for comparisons with regard to geographical distribution. 

 But for the bathymetrical distribution, and its bearing on the deter- 

 mination of the probable depth in which strata of former ages, contain- 

 ing corals, were deposited, the material brought together in the series 

 of papers of which this forms the last * will no doubt prove of some 

 importance. 



The following table is a recapitulation of all the species described, 



* Deep-Sea Corals, by L. F. de Pourtalfes, Illust. Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool., No. IV. 

 Zoolog. Results of the Hassler Exped., by A. Agassiz and L. F. de Pourtales, Ibid., 

 No. VIII. Part 1. Report on the Dredging Oper. of the U. S. C. S. St. "Blake," by 

 A. Agassiz, L. F. de Poiutales, and T. Lyman, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. V. 

 No. 9. 



Compare also, for deep-sea corals of the West Indies, G. Lindstrom, Contributions 

 to the Actinology of the Atlantic Ocean, Kongl. Sveusk. Vetensk. Handl., B. XIV. 

 No. 6 ; and H. N'. Moseley, Preliminary Report on the True Corals dredged by 

 H. M.S. "Challenger," &c., 'Proc. R. S., No. 170, 1875. Of Mr. Moseley's final 

 report I have seen, at the time of writing this, only advance copies of the plates, for 

 which, and for valuable communications, I am indebted to the author. 



VOL. VI. — NO. 4. 8 



