572 Dr. R. von Willemoes-Suhm on Observations 



by breaking themselves np into small pieces like certain Synaptce. Of 

 Mhabdoccela and Dendrocoela I never saw a trace ; but they are still more 

 liable to be spoiled or overlooked than the former. 



There are, I think, a few free Nematodes ; but certainly they are very 

 scarce. Of great interest is, however, a case of parasitism, which may be 

 compared to the attacks which on shore the young Gordii make on our 

 grasshoppers. I found once in a shrimp from a great depth a worm 

 coiled up in its carapax, and afterwards the same thing when on our way 

 to New Zealand ; and we made sure that the worm which was contained 

 in the second shrimp was a young Grordiacean. During our Antarctic 

 cruise we have also got two free-living Nematodes, which we suspect very 

 much to be the mature animal ; anyhow it is quite certain that shrimps 

 in great depths are liable to be attacked by considerably large Gordiaceous 

 worms. 



Of Bryozoa there is a great variety in nearly all depths where animals 

 have been found ; but only one of them, being a very striking form and 

 differing in its features from the hitherto known species, has attracted 

 our attention and been described by Professor Wyville Thomson under 

 the name of Naresia cyathus. It has been got three times, in 350, 1525, 

 and 1950 fathoms, near the coasts of Portugal, as well as off those of 

 Brazil. In the dredgings near the latter coast the fauna of Bryozoa was 

 especially rich. 



Grephyreans were got now and then, especially in cases where a great 

 deal of mud had been brought up. Whether their first order, the chseti- 

 ferous ones, are represented in our collections of the Atlantic (we consi- 

 der, of course, Sternaspis to be an annelid) is uncertain, as I find men- 

 tioned on our list only a fragment, which might be ascribed to Echiurus, 

 from 39 fathoms, and a very large worm, perhaps allied to Bonellia, with 

 which it shares the presence of only one genital pore, but which has lost 

 the anterior portion of its body. The consequence is that we are unable 

 to find out whether hooks have been present or not ; anyhow this speci- 

 men, which has a length of 76 millims., and which came up off Nova 

 Scotia from 1340 fathoms, is a very interesting one. 



The unarmed Grephyreans were more commonly got. Of the genus 

 Priapulus we had a specimen from 2750 fathoms on our way from Ber- 

 mudas to the Azores ; and Chcetoderma (Loven's curious little worm with 

 calcareous spines in its skin) was found twice in depths of 390 and 1250 

 fathoms. I was rather astonished never to find Halicryptus, as I had 

 expected that this genus, which inhabits the Baltic and the high north, 

 would be very common in deep water. 



A curious intermediate form between Priapulids and Sipunculids came 

 up from 1945 fathoms off the island of Eerro. This worm has no ten- 

 tacles and no proboscis like the former, but has at the same time the 

 anus in the anterior part of its body (Sipunculids). Its pharynx is very 

 short, and is attached to the body by four retractores. Its inside shows 



