INTRODUCTION 5 



what was of still greater value to me, his own personal skill in operating it in 

 special cases. I have also enjoyed the advantage of frequent consultation with 

 Dr. E. O. Ulrich, of the U. S. Geological Survey, whose intimate knowledge of 

 the stratigraphy of the American continent, and great familiarity with the 

 interior Paleozoic areas and their faunas, have been of the greatest service. 



Regarding its own fossil crinoid material, the National Museum contains 

 specimens from time to time collected by the United States Geological Survey, 

 including types described by Meek and by C. A. White many years ago. It 

 also has collections made by Dr. Ulrich and by Mr. I. H. Harris in the Cincin- 

 natian and adjacent areas; by Dr. Carl Rominger in the Michigan Devonian; 

 and the extremely important collection of Troost, chiefly from Tennessee, made 

 about the middle of the last century by one of the pioneer paleontologists of 

 this country, and used as the foundation of a monograph of the crinoids of 

 that region prepared by him in 1850, but which remained unpublished until the 

 National Museum brought it out in 1909 under the editorship of Miss Elvira 

 Wood. 



Most important of all the museum material is the truly magnificent and 

 unrivaled collection of Recent crinoids, brought together chiefly during the past 

 10 years, largely through the energetic activities of Mr. Austin Hobart Clark. 

 Beginning with a small nucleus containing some of the material derived from 

 various early dredging expeditions by vessels of the United States Coast Sur- 

 vey, it was in 1907 suddenly enriched by the product of a year's cruise of the 

 United States Bureau of Fisheries' Steamer Albatross in the North Pacific, 

 Alaskan, Japanese and Philippine waters, collected by Mr. Clark as acting 

 naturalist, which revealed a surprising and wholly unexpected wealth of 

 crinoidal life in those regions. This was augmented by collections on subsequent 

 cruises, and by some private donations. To these accumulations must now be 

 added extensive material derived from numerous foreign collections, placed in 

 Mr. Clark's hands for description by the institutions and governments owning 

 them, consisting of duplicates which he was permitted to retain as author's 

 honoraria. From this source came 957 specimens, belonging - to 121 species, 

 which will be further increased from similar collections still under investiga- 

 tion. The cosmopolitan character of these acquisitions may be judged by the 

 following list of the expeditions and collections from which they have been 

 derived: Ingolf (Danish), Greenland and Northwest Atlantic; Helga (Irish), 

 West Ireland; Danish expeditions to Siam and to the Danish West Indies; 

 Investigator and Golden Crozvn (Indian), Indian Ocean; Endeavour (Austra- 

 lian) ; Western Australian Museum, Perth, and Australian Museum, Sydney; 

 Siboga (Dutch), East Indies; Sv. Gad collection from Singapore; Suensson 

 collection from East Asia, Copenhagen; Gazelle (German), East Indies and 

 Australia; Gauss (German), Antarctic; Golden Hind (Japanese), Japan. 



