64 DR. p. H. CARPENTER ON SOME CEINOIDS 



Notes on some Crinoids from the Neighbourhood of Madeira. 

 By P. Herbert Carpenter, D.Sc, F.E.S., F.L.S., Assistant 

 Master at Eton College. 



[Eead 4th June, 1891.] 



Mr. J. T. Johnson, of Funchal, lias recently been kind enough 

 to send me specimens o£ various Crinoids whicli he lias obtained 

 from time to time in the neighbourhood of Madeira. None of 

 them are new, but tlieir occurrence in this locality is interesting, 

 from its bearing on the question of geographical distribution. 

 Three of them — Pentacrinus Wyville-Thomsoni, Antedon pha- 

 langiuon, and A. lusitanica — were found attached to a cable 

 belonging to the Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company, 

 which was recently taken up for repair from a depth of 500-700 

 fathoms. Mr. Johnson tells me that " when hauled up, a great 

 many objects were found attached to it ; but as no stranger was 

 allowed to go on board, and as the official people were too much 

 occupied or too indifferent to Natural History to give themselves 

 trouble in that direction, it was only with much difficulty, and by 

 special favour, that I succeeded in securing a few objects, all of 

 them, unfortunately, more or less injured." It is much to be 

 regretted that engineers in charge of ocean cables do not more 

 generally follow the now classical example of the late Professor 

 Pleeming Jenkin, whose careful preservation of the animals on 

 the Mediterranean cable which he picked up in 1860 led to 

 such important results. 



1. Pentacrinus "Wtville-Thomsoni, Jeffreys. (See the 

 Report on the Crinoidea, Zool. Chall. Exp. vol. xi. 1884, p. 313, 

 pis. xviii.-xxiv.) 



This species is represented by one adult and some young 

 individuals, one of the latter having but thirteen arms, a number 

 rather smaller than usual. 



The original examples of this type were obtained by the 

 ' Porcupine ' olf Cape Carvoeiro on the Portuguese coast, from a 

 depth of 1095 fathoms. It has since been dredged by the 

 ' Talisman ' in 1480 metres off Eochefort ; in 1917 metres off 



