IV 
PREFACE. 
tor, were visited by vessels of the squadron ; and these Pacific wander- 
ings were followed up by a rapid passage among the reefs of the East 
Indies. The attention of the author was first directed to this subject in 
the Feejee Group, the department during a previous summer having 
been in the hands of Mr. J. P. Couthouy. The field for geological in- 
vestigation there offered, was limited, as we were shut out from the inte- 
rior of the islands by the character of the natives : at the same time, coral 
reefs spread out an inviting field for observation, hundreds of square miles 
in extent. The three months, therefore, of our stay in that group were 
principally devoted to exploring the groves of the ocean, where flowers 
bloomed no less beautiful than those of the forbidden lands, and rocks of 
coral growth afforded instruction of deep interest. The specimens were 
obtained by wading over the reefs at low tide, with one or more buckets 
at hand to receive the gathered clumps : or, where too deep for tins, by 
floating slowly along in a canoe with two or three natives, and, through 
the clear waters, pointing out any desired coral to one of them, who 
would glide to the bottom, and soon return with his hands loaded, lay 
down his treasures, and prepare for another descent. When taken out 
of its element, the coral often appears as if lifeless ; but placing it in a 
basin of sea-water, the polyps after a while expand, and cover the 
branches like flowers. Four-fifths of the observations in this department 
were made at the Feejee Group. 
The number of species collected in the course of the cruise, exclusive 
of the Hydroidea and the Bryozoa, amounts to two hundred and sixty - 
one, of which two hundred and three are here described as new. The 
animals of seventy species were figured from the living specimens ; yet 
minute dissections were necessarily few where the time was so short, and 
the novelties so numerous. 
Investigations, with such advantages, were calculated to throw much 
light upon a department less thoroughly understood than any other in 
