138 



SCIJENCE, 



[Vol. YL, No. 132. 



foundl}' from the series of rocks known in the 

 geological formations. The latter present no 

 analogies to the reel cla3's and oozes, in which, 

 for instance, qnartz may be said to be practi- 

 callj' absent. The deduction from this is made, 

 that the deeps are of great antiquity. In or- 

 der to account for such vast accumulations as 

 were there discovered, it is necessary to sup- 

 pose that these basins have remained the same 

 for a vast period of time. 



From the red clays south of the equator, 

 quantities of ear-bones of whales, sharks' teeth, 

 etc., were obtained, which were embedded in 

 nodules of peroxide of manganese, derived from 

 the salts of that metal contained in the sea- 

 water. Some products of volcanic eruptions 

 also occurred, and, more interesting than either, 

 certain spherules for which a cosmic origin is 

 confidently claimed. These are mostly ex- 

 tremel}' small (not more than a millimetre or 

 two in diameter) , and may be collected from 

 the dry and powdered ooze by a magnet. 

 These contain sometimes a centre of meteoric 

 iron coated with magnetic oxide, sometimes 

 what seems to be an alloy of cobalt and nickel : 

 others are chondritic, and appear to consist of 

 bronzite or enstatite. All these are character- 

 istically meteoric minerals ; and it is indeed 

 remarkable that the investigations of a Nor- 

 denskiold in the arctic snows, should, in their 

 proof of the gain of this planet by the deposit 

 of cosmic material, be upheld and augmented 

 by an investigation of the abj^smal ooze of the 

 great deep. 



To the narrative are appended, among other 

 documents, a bibliography, sufficientl}^ exact 

 for general purposes, of papers and publications, 

 official and otherwise, to which the voyage has 

 given rise. There is a list of the special re- 

 ports already printed (more than fortj^), and of 

 nearl}^ as many more to follow. The conclud- 

 ing part will include an index to the whole, 

 which it is to be hoped will be intrusted to a 

 competent person for preparation. There is a 

 science of indexing, to which we are confident 

 the person who indexed this narrative never 

 served an apprenticeship. Considering the 

 importance, variet}', and multitude of facts re- 

 corded in these pages, and that there is no sys- 

 tematic arrangement of them in the text, a 

 really thorough, sensible, and scientific index 

 was indispensable. The one which exists, 

 though voluminous enough, is far from meet- 

 ing the least of these requisites. In this par- 

 ticular, and a few others, we have, as it were, 

 indicated a few spots upon the sun ; but we 

 should do much less than justice to the editors, 

 and to the authorities who have sanctioned the 



work, were we to omit a distinct enunciation of 

 the opinion that it, and the series it is intended 

 to introduce, as a whole, form the most magnifi- 

 cent contribution to natural science, and mon- 

 ument of enlightened research, which has ever 

 been given to the world in any age or by any 

 country. 



THE CHALLENGER REPORT ON THE 

 STALKED CRINOIDS. 



This magnificent work, which has just been 

 issued b}^ the British government, is beyond 

 question the most important contribution to 

 the literature of the living crinoids since the 

 days of Johannes Miiller. When Miiller wrote 

 his classical work, ' Ueber den bau des Penta- 

 crinus caput medusae,' in 1841, but a single 

 species of stalked crinoids from the existing 

 seas was known. Carpenter now describes six 

 genera, with thirty-two species, of which two 

 genera and eighteen species were brought to 

 light by the Challenger. In the present report 

 he describes also the remarkable comatulid 

 genus, Thaumatocrinus, obtained from a depth 

 of eighteen hundred fathoms, which has under- 

 basals, and interradial plates interposed be- 

 tween the first radials, and a row of anal plates, 

 thus combining, in a measure, the characters of 

 recent and paleozoic crinoids. 



The work, though primarily a report upon 

 the crinoidal collections of the Challenger ex- 

 pedition, is, in fact, an almost complete mono- 

 graph of all recent stalked crinoids known to 

 this time. The descriptive part and illustra- 

 tions are so excellent and copious as to leave 

 nothing to be desired in this particular. 



A large portion of the volume is devoted to 

 comparative discussions of the morphological 

 relations between recent and ancient crinoids, 

 to which he has brought all the resources of a 

 mind equipped with the most varied and accu- 

 rate knowledge of both living and extinct forms. 

 The importance of this portion of the work in 

 stimulating further researches cannot be over- 

 estimated. 



In his classification. Carpenter follows Leuck- 

 art, and separates the stalked echinoderms 

 from the remainder of the group, under the 

 name ' Pelmatozoa,' which he makes a ' branch ' 

 of the ' phylum ' Echinodermata, with three 

 'classes,' — Crinoidea, Cj^stidea, and Blastoi- 

 dea. The Crinoidea are the strictl}^ brachiate 

 Pelmatozoa, for which Burmeister, in 1856, pro- 

 posed the name ' Brachiata,' taking rank with 



Report on the Crinoidea dredged by H. M. S. Challenger 

 during the years 1873-76. Part i. General morphology, with 

 descriptions of the stalked crinoida. By Dr. P, Herbert Car- 

 penter. 



