SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 527, 



■yivat northerly current which sweeps along 

 the coasts of Pern and Chili and is de- 

 flected westward at the easterly corner of 

 the Galapagos Islands, we obtained with 

 the tow nets an unusually rich pelagic 

 fauna at depths less than 300 fathoms. 

 AVe collected a number of sehizopods, 

 among them many beautifully colored 

 Cinatheuphausiie, pelagic macruraus; huge, 

 brilliant red copepods, as well as many 

 other species of blue, gray, mottled and 

 banded copepods. Lucifer and Sergestcs 

 were abundant in many of our hauls. 

 ]\Iany species of amphipods were collected, 

 hj^jerids withoi;t number, especially where 

 the surface hauls were made among masses 

 of Salpte,^ which, on several occasions, 

 formed a jelly of tunicates. Several spe- 

 cies of Phronima? also occurred constantly 

 in the tow nets. Sagitta^ wei'e very nu- 

 jnerous, a large orange species being note- 

 Avorthy. Several species of Tomopteris, 

 •some of large size and brilliantly colored, 

 ■violet or carmine with yellow flappers, and 

 tM'O species of pelagonemerteans, were 

 1nken. Two species of orange-colored 

 < stracods were also connnon, one having a 

 fiirapace with a long spiny appendage. 

 AN'e obtained several species of pelagic 

 vephalopods, Cranchia and Tao)iius among 

 them. Two species of Dolioluin also oc- 

 curred, but they were never as abundant 

 as the Salpte, two species of which often 

 *-()iistituted the whole contents of the net. 



In the surface and deeper tows we pro- 

 cured H numlx^r nf acaleplis. We have 

 thus far colh-cted more than 50 sp(>cies of ' 

 medusa' and siphoiiophorcs, many of which 

 have been tigured by Mv. Higelow, dil't'ering 

 from those of the 1891 expedition. Alolke 

 and other deep-sea medusa' were coiiniKin 

 within the 300-fathom line. 



The Sai[ia' guts gave us, in additicni to 

 the finer tow nets, immense collections ot' 

 radiolarians, diatoms and Dinoflagellata, 

 many of which have been considered to live 



at great depth and upon the bottom. The 

 number of diatoms found in this tropical 

 region is most interesting. They have 

 usually been considered as characteristic of 

 more temperate and colder regions. On 

 several occasions the surface waters were 

 greatly discolored by their presence, and 

 the extent of their intliience on the bottom 

 deposits is shown by the discovery of a 

 number of localities where the bottom sam- 

 ples at depths from 1,490 to 2,845 fathoms 

 in the track of the great Peruvian current 

 formed a true infusorial earth. 



The tow nets also contained many species 

 of Hyalca, Cymbulium, Styliolus, Cleo- 

 dora, Tiedemannia, Clio and the like. On 

 one occasion the mass of the pelagic hauls 

 consisted entirely of small brown copepods, 

 the contents of the tow nets looking like 

 sago soup. Another time Sagittae, Salpae. 

 Doliolum and Liriope, all most transparent 

 forms, formed the bulk of the tow net's 

 catch. Still another time, Firoloidcs and 

 C urinaria constituted the bulk of the haul. 

 These catches, coming on successive days 

 or interrupted with hauls of more than 

 mediocre quality, show how hopeless it is 

 at sea to make any quantitative analysis of 

 the pelagic fauna and flora at any one 

 station within the influence of such a great 

 oceanic current as the Chili and Peruvian 

 stream. 



Hauls of the trawl made at the western 

 extremity of our lines brought us within 

 the area of the manganese nodules, with its 

 radiolarian ooze mud, cetacean earbones 

 and beaks of cephalopods; nothing could 

 stand the damaging action of these nodules 

 in grinding to pieces all the animal life the 

 trawl ]nay have obtained. Down to the 

 depth of 2,200 fathoms or so the bottom 

 was constituted of globigerina ooze, its 

 character being more or less hidden when 

 near the coast by the amount of detrital 

 matter and terrigenous deposits which have 

 drifted out to sea. 



