170 COLLECTIONS I'EOM MELANESIA. 



The first four or five brachials hare the sides pretty even, the 

 succeeding are very distinctly -wedge-shaped, and the distal edge 

 becomes faintly denticulated. , Further out the wedge becomes wider, 

 and the denticulation disappears. 



Syzygies 3, 10, 14 ; then about three joints between each. The 

 pinnules generally are delicate and short, the first rather the 

 longest. 



Arms not very long, thin ; cirri about 10 mm. long ; disk as much 

 as 30 mm. in diameter, owing to the extensive development of the 

 interradial plating which extends to the distichal axiUaries. 



Colour yellowish green with darker spots, patches, or lines ; the 

 ends of the arms and the lower surface darker, or the upper surface 

 may be of a pale fiesh-colour. 



Thursday Island. 



28. Actinometra, sp. juv. 



It is very possible that a young specimen from Dundas Strait be- 

 longs to a species, A. purpurea, of which a single example is alone 

 known ; and that, as Mr. Carpenter informs me, is in rather bad 

 condition. It is to be hoped that further exploration will result 

 in the discovery of more representatives of this incompletely known 

 form. 



General Eemaeks on DisTErBuiioN. 



After concluding the survey of the Echinoderms collected in the 

 Australian seas by Dr. Coppinger, I arrived at certain results, which 

 it is unnecessary now to state ; for my views have since been pro- 

 foundly modified by what I have since learnt from a closer study of 

 the marine fauna of Port Jackson than was possible with the com- 

 paratively scanty material that was in my hands two years ago, when 

 the body of , this Eeport was being framed. 



I have learnt since, thanks to the opportunities afforded me by 

 arrangements made with Mr. E. P. Ramsay, the Curator of the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney, what are the characters of the Port- 

 Jackson fauna, and what is the extent of its resemblance to that 

 of Port MoUe and Torres Straits. 



I have, in the first place, learnt that no view can be more erroneous 

 than one which speaks of an Australian (marine) fauna without 

 some sort of qualification ; Cape York and Port MoUe are as much 

 part of Australia as Port- Jackson, but between the two faunse the 

 resemblance is as slight as is in the nature of things possible. 



This statement is abundantly proved by the first two tables of 

 distribution which I now give, and which are based on the 27 Echi- 

 nids and 16 Ophiurids from the collection of the Sydney Museum, 



