64 
encrinite in the seas of Europe, as he was the first who ever had 
the opportunity of examining one in its living state. As the result 
he declared it to be the young of Comatula, and, comparing his 
youngest Comatula with the oldest Pentacrinus he could find, he 
demonstrated this relation to the satisfaction of Professor Edward 
Forbes, Dr Ball of Dublin, and the late William Thompson of 
Belfast. Yet much remained to be done to clear up the whole 
history of this single form, and this occupied Wyville Thomson 
for several years. A sketch of his “ On the Embryogeny of 
Comatula rosacea ” appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal 
Society for 1858, a paper “On the Embryology of Asteracanthion 
violaceus ” was published in the Microscopical Society's Journal 
for 1861-62, and his paper “ On the Pentacrinoid Stages of 
Comatula” was sent to the Royal Society in December 1862, read 
in February 1863, and published in the Philosophical Transactions 
for 1865. This paper is a model of care and accuracy, illustrated 
by many beautiful and highly artistic drawings of the various 
stages, executed by the author, and itself attests his powers of 
research and his accuracy of discrimination and delineation. Whilst 
engaged in this work, Thomson accumulated a large amount of 
material, with a view to give an account of the whole genus Penta- 
crinus at some future time. Indeed, as far as these researches on 
development are concerned, it is almost to be regretted that they 
so soon led to the great work of deep sea research, which, when 
once entered upon, took up so large an amount of time. 
In a correspondence with Michael Sars, the celebrated Professor 
of Zoology in the University of Christiania, Wyville Thomson 
learned that the professor’s son, M. Oscar Sars, whilst engaged, 
as one of the acting Commissioners of Fisheries, in a series of 
investigations as to the fisheries off the Loffoten Islands, north-west 
of the coast of Norway, had dredged up from about 300 fathoms a 
number of living animal forms. In response to an invitation from 
Professor Sars, Thomson visited Norway to examine these objects, 
and he states that amongst them there was a small crinoid of sur- 
passing interest, which they at once recognised as a degraded type 
of the Apiocrinidse, an order which had up to that time been 
regarded as entirely extinct. Some years previously M. Absjornsen, 
dredging in 200 fathoms in the Hardangerfjord, procured several 
