May 25, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



443 



the urgent request of the committee, and hy 

 permission of the Austrian government, he 

 remains a few months to attend to the print- 

 ing of important papers, which will appear in 

 the nest volume of the Travaux et mimoires 

 of the bureau, and to superintend the adjust- 

 ment of the new universal comparator. 



In the latter part of 1881 the kingdom of 

 Roumania expressed a desire to subscribe to 

 the regulations of the international commission, 

 and is now numbered among the states repre- 

 sented in that body. The metric system is now 

 used in all ofladal transactions in Roumania ; 

 and on the 1st of Januar3', 1884, its use will 

 become compulsorj- throughout the kingdom. 



RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN THE RE- 

 GION OF THE GULF STREAM OFF THE 

 EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED 

 STATES BY THE U. S. FISH-COMMIS- 

 SION.^ 



1. Introductory. 

 Althocgh several extended surve3's along 

 the region of the Gulf Stream had been made 

 bj' the officers of the U. S. coast-survey since 

 1844, no systematic dredging had been done 

 along its course, north of Florida, until 1880. 

 During the previous survej'S, large numbers 

 of bottom samples had been saved. Some of 

 these were studied manj" years ago bj' Professor 

 Bailey, and later bj' Mr. L. F. de Pourtal^s. 

 Manj' of the Foraminifera and other micro- 

 scopic forms have been described b}' them. A 

 few small shells from the same source were 

 described by Dr. A. A. Gould in 1862. These 

 investigatious gave a general idea of the nature 

 of the materials of the bottom and the depth, 

 but manj- errors existed in the earlier survej^s 

 in the determinations of temperature, and in 

 man}' cases the recorded depths were unre- 

 liable. The extensive surveys made by the 

 Blake, since 1880, have been conducted with 

 much better apparatus and greater 'accuracj'. 

 The real character of the fauna inhabiting 

 the bottom beneath the Gulf Stream, oft" our 

 coast, was completel}' unknown until 1880, 

 when numerous and successful dredgings were 

 made, first, by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, on the 

 coast-survej' steamer Blake (J. R. Bartlett, 

 U.S.N. , commanding), and, later in the sea- 

 son, by the U. S. fish-commission party, on the 

 Fish Hawk. The Challeno-er, on her celebrated 



This article is published hy per: 



1 of the r. S. iish- 



voyage, made a line of dredgings from Ber- 

 muda toward New York ; but, on approach- 

 ing our coast, she turned northward, and went 

 to Halifax. Her station nearest to our coast 

 was about 160 miles off New York, in 1,240 

 fathoms. This is much farther oif the coast 

 than any of the fish-commission dredgings, and 

 outside the Gulf Stream slope. The few dredg- 

 ings made by the Challenger off Halifax were 

 partly on the shallow fishing-banks (Le Have 

 bank), and partly in the deep water of the 

 Atlantic basin. By mere chance, therefore, the 

 Challenger missed the discovery of the exceed- 

 ingly rich and varied deep-water fauna that is 

 now known to occupy the Gulf Stream slope all 

 along our coast. In 1872 one haul was made 

 by Messrs. S. I. Smith and O. Harger, on the 

 Bache, in 430 fathoms, south of George's bank, 

 on this slope ; but it happened to be on a 

 comparatively barren spot. In 1877 the U. S. 

 fish-commission party dredged on the north- 

 ward continuation of the slope, about 120 

 miles south of Halifax, in 90 and 190 fathoms ; 

 but the bottom was of barren gravel, and the 

 results meagre and unsatisfactory. In that 

 region the cold currents are rapid, and the 

 slope of the bottom is exceedingly steep, mak- 

 ing the dredging very difiScult. In 1880 Mr. 

 A. Agassiz, while on the Blake, made several 

 lines of dredgings oif our eastern coast, cross- 

 ing the Gulf Stream slope. The most south- 

 ern of these were off the Carolina coasts, and 

 the most northern stations were just south of 

 George's bank. These dredgings extended 

 from shallow water to 1,632 fathoms. The 

 Blake was furnished with excellent apparatus 

 for sounding and dredging, temperature de- 

 terminations, etc. The officers of the Blake 

 secured bj' this exploration a large amount 

 of reliable phj'sical data ; and Mr. Agassiz 

 obtained very interesting collections, includ- 

 ing large numbers of new forms of animal life, 

 manj' of which have already been described 

 in the bulletin of the Museum of comparative 

 zoologj'. 



Later in the season of 1880, the U. S. fish- 

 commission dredging-party, under the direction 

 of the writer, made its first expedition to the 

 Gulf Stream slope in the steamer Fish Hawk 

 (Lieut. Z. L. Tanner commanding). The 

 region visited was about 75 to 80 miles south 

 of Martha's Vineyard, in 65 to 192 fathoms. 

 On Sept. 4, when this ground was first visited 

 b}' us, a long daj- was spent in dredging and 

 trawling, and with mar\ellous results. The 

 bottom was found to be occupied by an ex- 

 ceedingly rich and abundant fauna, including 

 great numbers of new and strange forms of 



