124 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. iii. 



resembling that of Ophiomyxa, to which genus it 

 seems to be allied. The specimens which have been 

 hitherto procured are scarcely sufficiently perfect to 

 allow of its being thoroughly worked out. The other 

 is a large handsome species of Ljungmans genus 

 Ophiopus. The plates covering the disk are small and 

 obscure, and partly masked by a netted membrane. 

 In moderate depths AmpMura balli, Thompson, was 

 common, and we now and then dredged a stray 

 example of the beautiful little Ophiopeltis securigera, 

 D. and K., lately added to the Shetland fauna by 

 the Rev. A. Merle Norman. 



It was a matter of some surprise to us as well as 

 of great pleasure to bring up in many of our cold 

 area hauls considerable numbers of the handsomest 

 of the northern free crinoids, Antedon escrichtii. 

 So far as I am aware,, this species has not hitherto 

 been met with in the Scandinavian or Spitzbergen 

 seas ; all our museum specimens come from Green- 

 land or Labrador. This is also the case with C(eno- 

 discus crispatus. In neither instance do the speci- 

 mens from the north of Scotland appear to be quite 

 so largp as those from Greenland. One or two 

 hauls in moderate water gave us abundant examples 

 of Antedon celticus, Bareett, a form still more com- 

 mon however in the Minch ; and almost every haul 

 we found a broken specimen or some fragments of 

 Antedon sarsii. 



Once or twice we found a fragment of the stem of 

 Hhizocrinus, but singularly enough no living specimen 

 of this interesting little crinoid rewarded us from the 

 cold water, although our conclusion seemed to he 

 just, that the Arctic indraught sets into the Psferoe 



