INTRODUCTORY. vii 



study which signalized the Natural History School of the pre- 

 Restoration days is happily revived, hut with higher and wider 

 purposes, and with greater facilities for successful attainment. 

 Though only twenty years have passed since the " new departure," 

 a vigorous school of Zoology has already sprung up. 1 shall 

 perhaps not he overstepping the bounds of modesty, if I say for 

 my confreres that a more earnest, more enthusiastic, or more 

 industrious set of men could with difficulty be found anywhere. 



There can be no doubt that the establishment of the Marine 

 Station at Misaki, by the Imperial University, in 1887, gave a 

 great impetus to the study of Zoology in Japan. Situated at the 

 point of the peninsula jutting out between the Bay of Sagami 

 and the Bay of Tokyo, it has access to localities long since famous 

 as the home of some remarkable forms of animal life. Along the 

 coast, all sorts of bottoms are found, yielding a rich variety of 

 animal forms, while the hundred-fathom line is within two or 

 three miles of the shore, and depths of five hundred fathoms are 

 not very difficult of approach. The existence of a remarkable 

 deep-sea fauna in these profounder parts has been ascertained 

 within the last few years, and zoological treasures are now being 

 constantly hauled up. The groat " Black Current" (Kurt) Shiivo) 

 sweeps by, not many miles out, and a branch of it often comes 

 into the very harbor of Misaki, gladdening the heart of the Plankton 

 explorer. Face to face with this inexhaustible treasury of animal 

 forms, the zoologist will have to possess unusual powers of self- 

 restraint, indeed, not to grow enthusiastic over his science. 



By the year 188H, the number of those devoted to the study 

 of Zoology in our country had so far increased that the need of an 



