1869.] on the Scientific Exploration of the Deep Sea. 445 



edly its extraordinary richness in Echinoderms, the prevalent types being 

 of a decidedly Boreal and even an Arctic character. During the course of our 

 exploration we met with nearly all the members of this group which have 

 been described by Scandinavian naturalists as inhabiting the coast and 

 fiords of Norway ; and we were particularly struck with the abundance 

 of the beautiful Antedon (Comatula) Eschrichti, which has hitherto been 

 obtained only from the neighbourhood of Iceland and Greenland. On the 

 other hand, such of the characteristically Southern forms as here presented 

 themselves were so reduced in size that they might almost be accounted 

 specifically distinct, if it were not for their exact conformity in general 

 structure ; the Solaster papposa, for example, being dwarfed from six inches 

 in diameter to two, and having never more than ten rays, and the Astera- 

 canthion violaceus and Cribella oculata being reduced in like proportion. 

 One striking feature of the group, however, showed no modification. The 

 coloration of these animals, though brought up from a depth of 500 or 600 

 fathoms, was as rich and beautiful as that of their littoral representatives. 

 Their orange, violet, and scarlet blended admirably with the pale green of 

 the large Sponge-stem when grouped together in a basin of water ; and we 

 were led to wonder, on the one hand, how such vivid hues could be pro- 

 duced in the absence of light, and, on the other, what purpose they can serve 

 in the economy of animals which live on a bottom supposed to be entirely un- 

 illumined by solar rays, and which only exhibit these hues when brought 

 within reach of daylight. Whilst our explorations in the Cold area have thus 

 added to the British Fauna a large number of types of Echinoderms which had 

 been previously supposed to lie altogether beyond its range, they have also 

 brought up several forms which altogether are new to science, some of them 

 of very considerable interest. Thus in the Shetland channel we procured a 

 full-sized specimen of the remarkable Clypeastroid Pourtalesia, of which 

 young examples had been obtained in the First cruise (§ 3G), and a very 

 singular Asterid allied to Pteraster, which is covered with a regular brush 

 of long paxillse. Since, for the reason formerly mentioned, we have found 

 ourselves precluded from dedicating the former of these types (as we had 

 intended) to our friend Capt. Calver, we propose to give the generic name 

 Calveria to the latter, with the specific designation hystrix. 



78. Of the Crustacea of the Cold area, many are most distinctly referable 

 to the Fauna of Spitzbergen, whilst others are characteristically Norwegian. 

 We were struck with finding attached to the " tangles," on nearly every 

 occasion, numerous specimens of very large Pycnogonids, measuring, when 

 their limbs were extended, as much as four or five inches across. The 

 comparatively small forms of these animals that are common on our own 

 shores are commonly found imbedded in the gelatinous layer that enve- 

 lopes the surfaces of Algce ; and the suctorial character of their mouths, 

 taken in connexion with the feebleness of their locomotive powers, seems 

 to indicate that they are nourished by the ingestion of this material. 

 Hence it is probable that their gigantic representatives living on the Sea- 



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