174 KEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



which occupied about six mouths. The large collectious of marine in- 

 vertebrates made during this trip will not directly benefit the Museum, 

 but it is expected that the type series of each group will be transferred 

 to its keeping as fast as they are studied and described. There have 

 been no important explorations besides those of the Fish Commission 

 which have contributed to our stores. 



Duplicate sets belonging to Series iv, prepared some time ago, have 

 been distributed to twenty-two institutions of learning located in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, but no additional sets of the same charac- 

 ter have been made up during the year. 



Thirty- three accessions were received by this department during the 

 year, of which seventeen were contributed by or through the United 

 States Fish Commission. A much smaller quantity of material than 

 usual was sent in from the Wood's Holl Station, the steameT Albatross 

 having made only a single dredging trip during the summer, and the 

 inshore work of the steamer Fish Hawlc having afforded comparatively 

 few specimens that were considered of sufficient importance for perma- 

 nent preservation in the Museum. The Albatross collection was, how- 

 ever, obtained chiefly from deep water, and contained many rare forms. 

 The cruise of the schooner Grampus to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and to 

 the outer coast of Newfoundland, during the summer, also yielded an 

 interesting though small lot of specimens, mostly crustaceans and echin- 

 oderms, which were collected on the shores and by the use of the surface 

 net. The collections made in the vicinity of Wood's Holl, Massachu- 

 setts, by Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, from October to June, were of special 

 value, consisting for the most part of the internal and external parasites 

 of fishes and of surface towings. Several contributions were received 

 from the Gloucester fishermen, the most important being a large and 

 fine specimen of the tree coral, Paragorgia arborea, from a depth of 200 

 fathoms, off Banquereau. This specimen forms a valuable addition to 

 the exhibition series of the Museum, having greater spread and being 

 in a better state of preservation than any now in the cases. Among 

 other donations from the Fisb Commission worthy of mention are a se- 

 ries of crustaceans obtained in the vicinity of Great Egg Harbor, New 

 Jersey, by Dr. T. H. Bean, and a number of parasites of the striped 

 bass, collected in Virginia by Mr. S. G. Worth. 



From Mr. N. Grebnitzky, of Bering Island, eastern Siberia, there 

 was received a very important addition to his collection of two years ago, 

 consisting chiefly of small species of crustaceans, worms, echinoderms, 

 and sponges, from Bering Island. Dr. P. Herbert Carpenter, of Eton 

 College, England, has contributed well preserved specimens of two spe- 

 cies of crinoids which are new to our collection, namely, Pentacrinus 

 Wyville-Tliomsoni, from the Eastern Atlantic, and Antedon phalangium, 

 from the coast of Tunis, both collected in 1870, by H. B. M. S. Porcu- 

 pine. Many specimens of Gammanis and two specimens of leeches, col- 

 lected in Missouri, were presented by Mr. K. Ellsworth Call, and a spec- 



