84 
by Stations 73 and 74 in the accompanying map, PI. III). More 
recently, 1907—09, Professor P. N. van Kampen has made 
fisheries investigations over an extensive area of the Java Sea, and 
also in the tract West of the Thousand Islands, during which also 
zoological observations and collections were made. Only a very 
small part of this material has, however, been scientifically worked 
out, while the general record of these investigations deals solely 
with the results applying to the fisheries.^) The work ofj. Brock 
(1885) was confined to collecting on the riffs of the islands Edam 
and Noordwachter (and Amboina), that of A. Kor o t n e f f (1885) 
to shore- and riff-collecting in the Strait Sunda and the Batavia Bay 
(his dredgings at Billiton not directly concerning us here, as being 
outside the area in question). Thus the investigations now under- 
taken, especially those in the Sunda Strait, for no small part cover 
entirely virgin ground and accordingly may claim some interest. 
Regarding ihe Bay of Batavia 1 have noihing to add to the 
description given bySluiter in 1887,2) having only made a few 
dredgings there, while SIuiter worked there through several years. 
My researches which were in the main confined to the West of the 
Thousand Islands, gave in general the result, that the fauna is per¬ 
haps somewhat less rich than might be expected in such a tropical 
sea. Near the coast of Java the bottom was found to be very soft 
mud, inhabited by the usual mud-loving forms, among which the two 
small Spatangoids, Palæostoma mirabile, and a small (undescribed) 
Pericosmus, which were in places fairly common, were the more 
interesting. Foremost in biological interest, however, stands a 
foot-long, red fish, which lives entirely buried in the mud, like 
earthworms in the soil, and which is, in accordance with this mode 
of life, entirely blind, the eyes being rudimentary and covered by 
1) Verslag van de verrichtingen van het Onderzoekingsvaartuig „Gier 
gedurende het tijdvak 2 September 1907 tot U« 1908. Mededeelingen van 
het Visscherij-Station te Batavia. Nr. IV, 1909. Verslag der verrichtingen 
van.„Gier“ over het jaar 1909. Ibidem. Nr. V. 1910. 
2) C. Ph. SI u i ter. Die Evertebraten aus der Sammlung des kgl. natur- 
wiss. Vereins in Nederl. Indien in Batavia. Zugleich eine Skizze der 
Fauna des Java Meeres. Natuurkundig Tijdschr. voor Nederl. Indié. 
XLVII. 1887. 
