354 
Proceedings of the Royal Sccicty 
nificent collections of tlie “ Challenger,” that little is known about 
many of the deep-sea animals obtained by these expeditions beyond 
the first references to them in the reports of Sir Wyville Thomson, 
Dr Carpenter, and Dr Gwyn Jeffreys, in the Proceedings of the 
Royal Society. 
The Annelids, Corals, Echinids, and Mollusca soon found their 
way into able hands, and have been fully described in the publica- 
tions of various learned societies. But as regards most of the other 
groups no detailed results have ever been published. This want of 
systematic information about our earlier expeditions is not to be 
wondered at, when it is remembered that the “ Challenger ” sailed 
but little more than two years after the return of the ‘‘ Porcupine ” 
from the Mediterranean, and that Sir Wyville Thomson, in whose 
hands the collections mostly remained, was in bad health, with his 
time much occupied by his professional duties and by the prepara- 
tions for his four years’ absence. When he returned the “ Porcu- 
pine” collections were entirely dwarfed by those of the “Challenger;” 
and it is only now that they have been examined by Mr Murray 
that specimens dredged nearly fifteen years ago are coming into 
the hands of specialists, who are working them up together with 
the “ Challenger ” material, and wdth that of the “ Knight Errant ” 
(1880) and “Triton” (1882). 
Nearly the same thing has taken place on the other side of the 
Atlantic, little being yet known about many of the types obtained 
by the U.S. ships “Corwin,” “Bibb,” and “Hassler” (1868, 1869, 
1872); and they are now being described by those specialists, in 
whose hands have been placed the larger collections of the “ Blake ” 
(1877-80), second only in importance to those of the “Challenger.” 
Before sailing in the “ Challenger,” Sir Wyville Thomson read 
before the Society a paper* entitled “On the Crinoids of the 
‘ Porcupine ’ Deep-Sea Dredging Expedition.” It was, however, by 
no means complete, as regards either the list of species obtained or 
their geographical distribution ; and in the following pages I propose 
to partially make good this deficiency. When our knowledge of 
the Crinoids fifteen years ago is taken into consideration, the 
material obtained by the “Porcupine” must be regarded as com- 
* Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. vii, pp, 764-773. A large portion of tins paper 
was also printed in The Depths of the Sea, pp. 434-454. 
