122 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1885. 



during the summer. A catalogue of all the species and specimens con- 

 tained in our collection has also been prepared, and will he submitted 

 for publication in the fall. 



The specimens of stalked crinoids collected by the steamer Albatross 

 in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, in 1884, several hundred in 

 number, have all been examined and identified, and placed in good con- 

 dition. There are but two species of Fentacrmus (P. Miilleri and P 

 decorus), and one species of Rhizocrinus {B. Baivsoni). 



A beginning has been made toward revising the older part of the col- 

 lection of Gorgonian corals, and identifying the specimens of the same 

 group recently received. The collections made in Florida during the 

 pnst two years by Dr. Edward Palmer and Mr. Henry Hemphill liave 

 already been examined and mostly named. A brief preliminary report 

 upon the marine invertebrates (exclusive of the Mollusca) collected in 

 the Alaskan region, in 1884, by the revenue steamer Corwin, Capt. M. 

 A. Healy commanding, was transmitted to the chief of tlie Eevenue 

 Marine Service. Much has also been done in the way of revising and 

 adding to the unj)ublished manuscripts of fishery reports, prepared for 

 publication in the quarto fishery report, now going through the press. 



Prof. A. E. Yerrill, Prof. S. I. Smith, and Miss K. J. Bush have con- 

 tinuedtheir studies on the Fish Commission collections of the eastern 

 coast of the United States, at New Haven, Conn. Professor Verrill has 

 devoted most time to the Mollusks, Echinoderms, and Anthozoa, and 

 Professor Smith has been occupied exclusively with the Crustaceans. 

 Other collaborators on Fish Commission collections, from which results 

 maj^ be expected at an early date, are Prof. L. A. Lee, of Bowdoin Col- 

 lege, Brunswick, Me., intrusted with the Foraminifera ; Mr. James B. 

 Benedict, naturalist of the steamer Albatross, who is studying the An- 

 nelids; and Prof. Edwin Linton, of Washington and Jefferson College, 

 Washington, Pa., and Prof. B. F. Koons, of the Storrs Agricultural 

 School, Mansfield, Conn,, who are engaged in working up the collection 

 of internal i:)arasites of fishes. 



The Hon. Theodore Lyman, of Brookline, Mass., continued to interest 

 himself in this department as long as he remained in Washington, and, 

 as often as his Congressional duties permitted, gave us the benefit of 

 his experience in the special line of investigations in which he has taken 

 so prominent a stand. He has nearly completed the identifications of 

 the numerous specimens of Ophiurans collected by the steamer Alba- 

 tross in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea during the past two 

 winters, and will finish this task in Cambridge, to which place the re- 

 mainder of the collection will be sent in the fall. 



Mr. J. Walter Fewkes, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cam 

 bridge, Mass., has kindly volunteered to work up and report upon the 

 free Medusae obtained by the Fish Commission, and from other sources, 

 and all of the materials of this character in the Museum have been for- 

 warded to him. Most of the free Medusae collected by the Fish Com- 



