746 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1064 



ently we could discern, far down in the 

 transparent waters, a formless thing that 

 quickly took shape, and then the trawl was 

 hauled above the surface, the boom swung 

 in, the net emptied into the great sieve, and 

 we had our first view of living examples of 

 the abyssal fauna. Those forms that lay in 

 the sieve had, only an hour or two before, 

 been resting on the ocean floor where their 

 ancestors had lain undisturbed through 

 the ages of the past with no traditions to 

 affright them by visions of some mysteri- 

 ous being reaching down to snatch the 

 dwellers of the abyss to the unknown 

 regions above. 



We had become familiar with the rich 

 and varied fauna of the continental slope, 

 and some of the party had had much ex- 

 perience in dredging in depths of as much 

 as 500 fathoms, but among this material, 

 not large in the mass, were forms that at 

 first no one could assign even to a probable 

 phylum. For example there were a half 

 dozen or more curious-looking objects, not 

 unlike in shape and size to an ordinary five- 

 cent loaf of bread, perhaps a little flatter, 

 and in color and consistency resembling the 

 compound ascidian known as sea-pork. 

 "When these objects were brought to the at- 

 tention of the moUusk specialist he would 

 have nothing to do with them, saying that 

 they were ascidians, or, possibly, worms. 

 The annelid specialist passed them by. It 

 was really not until some of these puzzling 

 creatures had been Ijdng for some time in 

 a tub of sea-water that they were seen to be 

 holothurians, sea-cucumbers of unusual ap- 

 pearance plucked from the abyss. Details 

 of this deep-sea fauna may be obtained 

 from the published reports of the Fish Com- 

 mission. A strange world was opened up to 

 the imagination by these creatures from the 

 depths: Fish with eyes living in those re- 

 gions whither the light of day can not 

 penetrate! Whence comes the light which 



the presence of organs of sight implies? 

 Gorgonia corals, slender and fragile and as 

 delicate as the finest grasses of autumn, 

 shining in shadow with a brilliant phos- 

 phorescent light, suggest that if we could 

 see this ocean floor, we would see it dimly 

 illuminated by the phosphorescence of its 

 living denizens, among them groves of gor- 

 gonians, motionless in the currentless water 

 and shining with a light literally not seen 

 on sea or land. 



I propose now to record brief memory 

 sketches of some of those who were associ- 

 ated with the Fish Commission at the 

 Woods Hole laboratory in 1882 and the 

 years immediately succeeding. 



SPENCEB FULLERTON BAIED 



Information regarding the life and 

 works of this great American can be had 

 from the published accounts. My purpose 

 here is simply to record a few personal rec- 

 ollections. 



I flrst met Professor Baird in the summer 

 of 1882 when I came to Woods Hole as an 

 assistant of Professor Verrill. About the 

 first thing he said to me was to ask what 

 particular field of zoology I was interested 

 in. By this question I can see now two 

 striking characteristics of Professor Baird 's 

 mind : First, his interest in young men who 

 were inclined to the study of nature, and, 

 second, his conviction that such study was 

 best begun by becoming familiar with some 

 particular group of animals. He was then 

 about 60 years of age but looked older than 

 his years. He was a large man, probably 

 fully six feet in height, and possessed of a 

 powerful frame. He stooped slightly, his 

 movements were rather slow and his man- 

 ner deliberate. His hair and beard were 

 becoming gray. He had a kindly smile, a 

 genial but quiet manner, and a bearing 

 which might not improperly be called patri- 

 archal. He had a wholesome sense of humor, 



