On a Fi'7u Califorman Medusa;. 
AN MI-DL'S/E. 
"\ T'KRY little is known of tlu' diruivnt L^encra and species of 
of Southern California. Tlurc is every reason to believe that 
this fauna is very rich, and extremely interesting and instructive 
so far as its i^eo-raphical distrilnition is concerned. The ani- 
mals of this grou[) from the west coast are represented by genera 
and species widely different from those found on the Atlantic 
seaboard. The coast of CaHfornia. washed as it is by the largest 
ocean of the globe, is bathed b\- L^reat oceanic currents, bringing 
with them their quota of oceanic and pelagic life. We should 
naturally expect there forms of medusan life of .strange appear- 
ance to one who has always studied similar animals from the 
Atlantic. 
A few attempts have been made to u.se the dip-net in the 
Pacific coa.st, but we cannot say that more than a beginning has 
been made, and it may rit^iitly be concluded that an abundant 
harvest awaits the collector of pelagic animals who first carries 
on continued work in these waters. 
In the present paper I have attempted to consider a i&\K repre- 
sentatives of the group of Medusa,^ which were captured in a 
trip across Santa Barbara Channel in the spring of 1887. No 
accounts^ of several of these Medusae have ever been published, 
although some of them are very different from those which are 
found in the waters of the Atlantic. Our work on these animals 
may serve as an introduction, or to call attention, to a line of 
