Preliminary Reports on the Ophiurans of the " Challenger " 

 expedition, by Theodore Lyman ; two papers on the Development 

 of Crustacea, by Walter Faxon ; and Preliminary Reports of the 

 dredging operations of the United States Coast Survey Steamer 

 " Blake,'' containing articles on Sounding Apparatus in use on 

 the" Blake," by Lieut-Commander C. D. Sigsbee ; on the Echini, 

 Corals, Crinoids, Ophiurans, Worms, and Hydroids, by Messrs. 

 Agassiz, Pourtales, Lyman, Ehlers, and S. F. Clarke ; also, a 

 paper on the Classification of Rocks, by M. E. Wadsworth, and 

 an account of the Dredging Operations of the " Blake," during 

 the season of 1878-79, by Alexander Agassiz, addressed to Car- 

 lile P. Patterson, Superintendent of the Coast Survey ; making in 

 all pp. 250, with 32 plates. 



In addition to these publications, Dr. Steindachner has con- 

 tinued in the Proceedings of the Vienna Academy his descrip- 

 tions of new species of Fishes collected by the Thayer Expedition. 

 Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards has likewise continued to de- 

 scribe and figure the Crustacea of the " Bibb," " Hassler," and 

 " Blake," in his great work on the Crustacea of Mexico ; he also 

 published in the " Comptes Rendus " a preliminary account of 

 the remarkable gigantic Isopod discovered in the first " Blake " 

 expedition, to which he has given the name of Bathyonomus 

 giganteus. 



The first part of the final Report on the Sponges dredged by 

 the " Blake " has been published in Germany by Professor Oscar 

 Schmidt. It forms a beautifully illustrated quarto memoir, 32 

 pp., 4 plates. 



The Museum has also supplied materials for the publication of 

 the new edition of the Catalogue of the Diptera of the United 

 States by Osten-Sacken, issued by the Smithsonian, as well as for 

 Part VIII. of the Revision of the Trichoptera, by R. M'Lachlan. 

 In addition to these publications, numerous papers have been 

 written by the Professors and Assistants of the Museum for other 

 serials than those of the Museum. 



During the past winter I was again invited by the Hon. Carlile 

 P. Patterson, Superintendent of the United States Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, to join the United States Coast Survey Steamer 

 " Blake," Commander J. R. Bartlett,U. S. N., and to take charge of 

 the dredging operations for the season of 1878-79. Three months 

 were spent in exploring the deep-sea Fauna of the eastern part of 



