MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



11 



making a number of deep-sea hauls in the same district with the 

 self-closing Tanner net; — the more so as we were specially well 

 equipped for doing this work, and I anticipated a large harvest of 

 pelagic material from a district about which so little is known. 



I am, however, satisfied that this visit to the Great Barrier Reef 

 of Australia, however unsuccessful it has been, will enable me to 

 carry out future expeditions to the coral districts of the Pacific 

 with far better ideas of the difficulties to be encountered and of the 

 nature of the problems to be solved than if I had made my trip 

 to Australia after an examination of the coral islands of the 

 Southern seas. As it would have been impossible for me to have 

 carried on my own investigations regarding the Great Barrier 

 Reef and to have made a collection of the corals of the region at 

 the same time, I sent Professor H. A. Ward of Rochester to 

 Australia, and he is at present on the Great Barrier Reef, making 

 a collection of the corals of the reef for the Museum. From what 

 I hear, he has been favored with better weather, and has been 

 most successful in gathering a representative collection of the 

 corals of the northeast coast, mainly in Torres Straits. 



I have to thank for information regarding my trip to Australia 

 Mr. W. Saville Kent, formerly Fish Commissioner of Queensland, 

 Commander C. D. Sigsbee of the U. S. Hydrographic Office, and 

 especially Admiral Wharton, R. N., Hydrographer to the Admiralty, 

 whose advice was of the greatest value. To Mr. H. M. Gray, the 

 managing director of the India Rubber and Gutta Percha and 

 Telegraph Works, Limited, I am also indebted for information 

 regarding the deep-sea sounding machinery in use on the telegraph 

 steamer of their company. 



Through the kindness of the Hon. Richard Olney, the Secretary 

 of State at Washington, letters of introduction to the governments 

 of Queensland and New South Wales were sent to me from the 

 Foreign Office, and to prominent officials of the Australian colonies 

 f rom the Colonial Office, in London, and by Sir Julian Pauncefote, 

 H. B. M. Ambassador at Washington. The Governor General of 

 Queensland, Lord Lamington, facilitated my explorations in every 

 possible way, and the u Croydon " received every courtesy in all 

 the ports we touched at. 



To Colonel Duffield, the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, I owe valuable assistance regarding the expedi- 

 tion of Mr. L. S. Griswold to the Everglades. 



