

LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTAM 



P R E F ACE. 



In the autumn of 1887 the steamer Albatross, of the United States 



Bureau of Fisheries, which had previously been employed on the 

 Atlantic coast of North America, was de-patched to the Pacific 

 Ocean, where it has since been engaged in fishery and deep-sea 

 investigations on the western coast of the United States, off British 

 Columbia and Alaska, and also in more distant regions. The bot- 

 tom samples obtained by the dredge and sounding cup during the 

 several cruises from 1888 to 1904, inclusive, were referred to Dr. 

 Albert Mann, an expert student of the diatoms, for separating out 

 and reporting upon these minute plant organisms, a difficult and 

 painstaking task, the results of which are given in the paper here- 

 with presented. 



The titles in the bibliography and the citations throughout the 

 body of the report have, with very few exceptions, been verified 

 from the original papers by Mr. P. L. Kicker, to whom acknowledg- 

 ment is here made. 



in 



