392 PROF. F. JEFFREY BELL 0>~ TI1E [May 1, 



1. On the Echinoderms collected during the Voyage of 

 H.M.S. 'Penguin' and by H.M.S. ' Egcria/ when 

 surveying Macclesfield Bank. By P. Jeffrey Bell, 

 M.A.^ Sec. R.M.S. 



[Received March 5, 1894.] 

 (Plates XXIIL-XXVII.) 



Mr. P. W. Bassett-Sniith, Surgeon B.X., was, fortunately for 

 marine zoology, appointed after her cruise had begun to H.M.S. 

 ' Penguin,' Capt. W. U. Moore, who was under instructions to 

 survev parts of North-west Australia and the Macclesfield Bank. 

 Mr. Bassett-Smith had already had experience not only in collect- 

 ing in the Eastern Seas, but of the sympathy his captain had in 

 his work, while on this cruise he had the further advantage of 

 the co-operation of the chief engineer, Mr. J. J. Walker, who, 

 when Mr. Bassett-Smith joined the ship, had already commenced to 

 make his extensive collection of Insects — a collection so extensive 

 that he was able to give over to the Museum no less than 12,000 

 specimens. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have already express ■<! 

 their appreciation of the services rendered by Messrs. Bassett- 

 Smith and J. J. "Walker while on the ' Penguin,'" and it now only 

 remains for the zoologist to do his work of description and 

 cataloguing. 



After the 'Penguin' was paid off Mr. Bassett-Smith had offered him 

 the opportunity of paying on board H.M.S. ' Egeria,' Commander 

 A. M. Eield, yet another visit to Macclesfield Bank ; and it was 

 will he did so, for it was on this occasion that he obtained the 

 most interesting and valuable part of his collection of Echinoderm-. 

 He secured, for example, a specimen of a new species of Eudiocrinus 

 allied to E. indivisus, the type of which is now in the private collec- 

 tion of Mr. W. Percy Sladen ; Ophiopteron elegans, known hitherto 

 only in the Brock collection, was obtained in several dredgings ; and 

 Ophiocrene cenigma is a type of Ophiuroid which is perfectly new. 



Interesting and valuable as this collection of Echinoderms is. it 

 has offered peculiar difficulties in working out. I have never before 

 had passing through my hands a collection containing so large a 

 proportion of young specimens, or, in other words, forms in which 

 the specific characters stated in the diagnoses are not distinctly 

 marked 2 . In some cases the series has been sufficiently long and 

 gradual to enable me to assign quite young examples to what I 

 think is their correct species, but I have had to query a larger 

 proportion of my determinations than I can allow to pass without 

 this word of explanation, and a number of specimens have been 

 merely referred to their genera. 



1 [Annual] Return [Parliamentary] British Museum, 1893. p. ■"•'■>. 

 - I find that the essential part of these remarks is true also of the Crustacea. — 

 14th June, 1894. 



