president's address. 97 



and Rhahdospheres. The ooze thus consists almost entirely of cal- 

 careous matter, though minute fragments of mica, quartz, pumice, 

 scoria, manganese, and other mineral particles may generally be 

 detected in it, when the calcareous matter has been removed. The 

 Globigerina Ooze is inhabited by a fauna which is remarkably 

 rich and highly interesting. From it there have been brought 

 to us, as it were, messengers from another world — animals related 

 to a Fauna which a few years since was supposed to have ceased 

 to exist for countless ages Here we find in the Hexactinellid 

 Sponges representatives of the Ventriculites of the Chalk, to 

 which such species as AsJconema Setubalense, Kent, Lefroyella 

 decora, "Wyville-Thomson, Azorica crihrophora, Schmidt, Sijringi- 

 diun Zettelii, Schmidt, and Seleroplegma conicum, Schmidt, bear 

 a most striking resemblance. The Stalked Crinoids, which are 

 extraordinarily abundant as fossils in many strata, were until 

 recently believed to be excessively rare in a living state ; and a 

 single specimen of the two Pentacrini then known was worth 

 fifty or sixty pounds, or even more. Several additional Pentacrini 

 have now been discovered, and one of these, P. Wyville-Thomsoni, 

 Jeffreys, was dredged so near the coast of Portugal that it may 

 be regarded as a member of the European Fauna. The two 

 longer known species, which live in shallower water than the 

 Globigerina Ooze, have been taken in great abundance in the 

 West Indian Seas. Mr. A. Agassiz writes, "Our collection of 

 Pentacrini is quite extensive. We found them at Montserrat, 

 St. Yincent, Grenada, Guadaloupe, and Barbadoes in several 

 places, and in such numbers that on one occasion we brought up 

 no less than one hundred and twenty-four at a single haul of the 

 bar and tangles. We must, of course, have swept over actual 

 forests of Pentacrini crowded together much as we find the fossil 

 Pentacrini on slabs. Our series is now sufficiently extensive to 

 settle satisfactorily the number X)f species of the genus found in 

 the West Indies. There are undoubtedly the two species which 

 have thus far been recognised. It is evident that they vary 

 greatly in appearance, P. Midler i being the most variable."'^ 



* Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. V., p. 269. According to Carpenter the Pentacrinus here 

 named P. MiiUeri is not that species, but P. decorus, Wyrille Thomson. 



H 



