376 Agassis — Albatross Expedition to the Eastern Pacific. 



rug. It recalls the division of Southern Atlantic into an East- 

 ern and Western Basin by a central connecting ridge, the 

 Challenger ridge. The Albatross Plateau joins the western 

 extension of the Galapagos Plateau as developed by the Alba- 

 tross in 1891. 



The existence of a sounding of 2554 fathoms near the equa- 

 tor in longitude 110° west would seem to indicate a small basin 

 included in this plateau disconnected from Grey's Deep and 

 Moser Basin by its extension to the west. How far west 

 towards these basins that extension reaches, no soundings 

 indicate as yet. It is interesting to note that along the Mexi- 

 can coast there are a number of deep basins lying discon- 

 nected close to the shore just as there are a number of discon- 

 nected deeps close along the South American coast extending 

 from off.Callao to off Caldera, Chili, opposite high volcanoes 

 or elevated chains of mountains. These basins and a great 

 part of the steep Mexican continental shelf are deeper than 

 the Albatross Plateau to the south, and form a deep channel, 

 separating in places the Plateau from the steep continental 

 slope. The steepness of the continental shelf is well seen, 

 especially oif Acapulco and Manzanilla. One of the small 

 basins along the Mexican coast with 2661 fathoms lies off Sebas- 

 tian Yiscaino Bay ; another with more than 2900 fathoms is to 

 the west of Manzanilla Bay ; a third to the southeast of Aca- 

 pulco has about the same depth, and a fourth with 2500 

 fathoms is off San Jose, Guatemala. Our last soundings off 

 Acapulco about 29 miles south of the lighthouse, in 2494 

 fathoms, showed the western extension of one of these deep 

 holes to the east of Acapulco. These basins off the west coast, 

 close to the shore at the foot of a steep continental slope, are 

 in great contrast to the wide continental shelves which charac- 

 terize the east coast of Central America and the east coast 

 of the United States. 



The collections made during the present expedition will give 

 ample material for extensive monographs on the holothurians, 

 the siliceous sponges, the cephalopods, the jelly-fishes, the 

 pelagic crustaceans, worms and fishes of the Eastern Pacific, 

 as well as on the bottom deposits and on the radiolarians and 

 dinoflagellates, diatoms, and other protozoans collected by the 

 tow nets. Small collections of plants were made at Easter 

 Island and Manga Beva which may throw some light on the 

 origin and distribution of the flora of the Eastern Pacific. 



