12 



as investigated, appears to have very similar relations. The reef- 

 building polyps find here their farthest northern remove from the 

 equator. That the subtropical character of the marine fauna and 

 flora is determined to a great extent by the influence of the Gulf 

 Stream is rendered very evident by comparing the life on the land 

 with that of the surrounding waters. The latter is much the more trop- 

 ical and West Indian in character; while the former, although many 

 West Indian species are represented in the flora, is a curious assemblage 

 of forms brought together from various quarters by winds, ocean-cur- 

 rents, and the agency of man. Drift-wood and seeds from the Antilles 

 are cast up in great quantities with the flotsam and jetsam of the shore, 

 and many of the commonest plants of the Bermudas are supposed to 

 have found their way thither in this manner. Thus the transporting 

 power of the Gulf Stream appears to have been quite as important in the 

 introduction of tropical forms of life to this group as has been its thermal 

 effect in rendering it a suitable home for them. Since the Bermuda atoll 

 is comparatively recent in origin, it is not difficult to believe that it has 

 thus been supplied with living forms. Many fishes of the West Indian 

 fauna have been found in the waters of the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, 

 the Cape Verde Islands, and other points in the Eastern Atlantic; it 

 appears easy to account for their wanderings by an extension of the 

 action of the same transporting agent. 



The occurrence of several strictly European species is also to be noted. 

 All of these appear to be powerful, rapid swimmers, with the exception, 

 perhaps, of Synodus lacerta. 



The subjoined tables are intended to exhibit the geographical relations 

 of the fishes observed in Bermudian waters. Several of the species men- 

 ftioned in the paper are not included, since confusion in their synonymy 

 has rendered their limits of distribution doubtful. 



The total number of species enumerated is 75. Of these, 18 are so 

 widely distributed as to be of little importance in a comparison of this 

 nature. Of the 57 remaining, 50, or 86 per cent. {QS, or 89 per cent, of 

 the whole number, 75), are common to the Bermudas and the West 

 indies ; 18 species, or 32 per cent, of the whole, or 37 per cent, of those 

 ■common to the two faunas compared above, occur on the coast of Bra- 

 zil, only 2, however, south of Bahia ; 8 species, or 14 per cent., are found 

 on the eastern coast of the United States north of Georgia ; 4 of these 

 are undoubtedly accidental there, while 2, Decapterus punctatus and Pa^ 

 ratractus pisquetus, have a range along the coast from Eio de Janeiro to 

 Cape Cod, and the seventh, Anguilla hostoniensis, is not sufficiently 



