bes 3 ——/. 0 al erat . a. ee ae? ee) Sr es es eee Sake eS) ts PTT IAP AARAARAAL I ~ vy See eh | MS ~ ada Piped we == Vu Ad ‘' “~via st Se heheh eho Ade y UU vere tad teedithade bade hhe lp tech ~~ I ewe ve~y Aw its PES SST VTS ag Oy —~ IVs AY ed A we" Ws vy ‘ors oe SNVeresunny lire Weed. vue A a BAR Wen, VV Furre ns Ueeey he, Nha ih ESV NO Wye VoU ew y: ee et AAS SW Oy tUNE WUC ele UL Nl ANIA AARAAC uy WS ATT || || Gta rcccss cus FL Sec WA SV URS SuCue eeerseveryte PUI Ss eae ~ SS yByeEse SEA Ouwy' My sian dade ao ee all seuueeter eevee! Nevourn eV Us ueseee aed ete ve Wea s . M wy vse eee | tb Np SN wes SY SU ws ev te wit SUG Sw MAROON ESS LESE SS naam ae — iw = jeSeey ve Ne vs oi = Nee pov. Ag FRAG IL PES RAD oT BAS “a 7S 3 o sad OSL = . RAL See SALRHRISG IO wv ee: d ANG RRA Ihe wry M4 Seg ¥ AIH ww Vor Ww GA =; Seyeye ny SEES yieiuy! NE ee Se =N, ve - 3s w veer S “wave: iA vv SAAS —_ vErer ue ™, vee ~ cocurtvyslNUEEee hott abagat ts ae Mier ee PAI V_INESS Ff Mew TV emrakmialalals | | Suslele wera ITT SI RG phat neh hls oe a i i TTT i ll el nf : y a * wa a | due! re ayaa eae Lien aedaeoreeste ~ Soa a A= J mt LP Ee Mew eet SOE pu wg Dat Det s red al Pp AA A PIA T ES Coyrns = PEL TT si al =—— ~~ = = -~~w~ ? bast Se ee Re SS = Sere eee aneeeuNde hh OL de “A ATARI ASAN A he WISN ere AIA RADA NS SSNs eh Vuela v ewe wv Wwe en Soe ower Meh aaee : hhh re shade TIS irene Se yee vyvv Owed MARMAPRAAS TL LTT Pi oy en oyvury: NRE AACA ve AW WER yy ee” tO here beet SWE We VERS Swiwe) U 4 FOSS SOT ww SSS Sse = — Aah RARDIN ww < we PDADAL SI SSASS Serer Bd IT) TES SIF GISS 4 eerwesy id wy ‘wu w \ —e A PO Away Je Od hd hel ye we Mire we VL SPUN at hed M wy! ~~ z, a oe ys yvgs = we ww GSLSPIGG GSE ‘vee wr std es wy sree ect cue GRADS Te tLe wee sy* punt eesceutlells — = ce J See ‘S — AMS || = (A re e OS MIO Ee MUG & ( wore YuSue wy ae Ww ws AAT aa Wweerhlvuee BG { _ Ne nA dN wer yen ~wte we -, Be Seuss AOR A KAS pods. 4 OS A tah BOA Ae Sead A cee ewe oe ARRAS af ateh jo cd Nig a or o ‘ a ’ WPS AB we eewvuv~s = Sue. eeu VuL ~ wv Ae - ww LOANS \ We o* PAPAX ae Se ane as ER DE POURTALES, > ASSISTANT U. 8. COAST SURVEY. Ca a ae’ : ; Bt f j : pea : ie lished rey permission of the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey. a ‘ ie -- - pr is Sa _ CAMBRIDGE: ZOOLOGY. 98? ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, AT HARVARD COLLEGE. No. IV. DEEHP-SHKA CORALS: BY L. F. pe POURTALES, ASSISTANT U.S. COAST SURVEY. Published by permission of the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey. ae ar ta Zan senian lasting /640/3 Vation al Musew™. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. ItSi (Ake University Press: Wetcn, Bicetow, & Co., CAMBRIDGE, ; 7 —_ ERRATA. Page 59, line 12, for Parasmilia prolifera read Ceratocyathus prolifer. “after line 37, add Lepidopora cochleata .... 270 C. INTRODUCTION. NHE deep-sea corals described in these pages were collected in the years 1867, 1868, and 1869, during the expeditions made for the exploration of the Gulf Stream by the United States Coast Survey, B. Peirce, Superintendent, in the steamers Corwin and Bibb, Acting- Master Robert Platt, U. 8. N., commanding. It will not be superfluous to preface their description by a condensed statement of the successive steps taken by the Coast Survey in deep-sea researches, and by a short review of our present knowledge of the con- stitution of the bottom of the sea on the Atlantic coast of the United States. The subject has been already treated in a paper published by me in Petermann’s Geographishe Mittheihingen, but it may be well to repeat it here for the benefit of English readers. The first step of the investigation may be said to have been taken by the late Professor A. D. Bache, on his assuming the duties of super- intendent of the United States Coast Survey in 1844, when he ordered the preservation of the specimens brought up by the lead during the progress of the hydrographical operations. The object was twofold, — a practical one, to check the indications of the character of bottom laid down on the charts by the hydrographers ; and a scientific one, the for- mation of a collection illustrating the character of the bottom and the distribution of the materials constituting it along our coast. The greater number of the specimens were obtained at first mside of the hundred-fathom line, but the deeper waters of the Gulf Stream soon began to add collections of still greater interest, if of less extent. Simple contrivances were substituted for the usual tallow arming the lead, so as to bring up the sand or mud in sufficient and uncon- taminated quantities. Every specimen is placed in a small bottle, labelled with the date, geographical position, and depth, and preserved in cabinets arranged for the purpose in the Coast Survey Office in Washington. The microscopical examination of the collection was begun by the late Professor J. W. Bailey, of the Military Academy at West Point, and after his death by myself, in the intervals of other duties. NO. 1V. 1 2 INTRODUCTION. The general results are exhibited on the map accompanying the paper in the Geographische Mittheihngen, and representing the bottom off our coast, from Cape Cod to the island of Cuba. The bottom is repre- sented of different colors, according to its principal constituents, which are chiefly of four different kinds, — silicious sand, clay (the “mud” or “ooze” of the charts), Globigerina mud, and coral sand or mud. The silicious sand and the Globigerina mud have the greatest extent. Silicious sand is, with few exceptions, the prevailing material from the shore to the hundred-fathoms line. It extends thus, skirting the shore in a broad band narrowing down to a point as far south as Cape Florida, where it ceases altogether, and is replaced by the coral formation, but reappears again on the west coast of the peninsula near Cape Sable. Clay or mud occurs to a considerable extent only to the southward of the Vineyard Islands and eastern part of Long Island, in a region known to navigators as the Block Island Soundings, and also in a series of depressions off the entrance to New York, called the Mud-Holes. This mud, of a stiff consistency and dark gray color (called blue or green by the sailors), may be derived from the tertiary formations of which the blufls off Gay Head, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, are the remainder. Outside of the hundred-fathom line we find the Globigerina mud forming the bottom of the Gulf Stream, whose western edge coincides nearly with that line of depth, and of the greater part of the ocean, of the Gulf of Mexico, and of the deep channels separating the Bahama Banks from each other and from the neighboring lands. The discovery of this important formation is generally attributed to the expedition sent out under the command of Lieutenant Berryman, U. S..N., to sound out the path of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable in 1855. In reality, however, the discovery was two years earlier, Lieu- tenants Craven and Maffit, U. S. N., having severally, whilst engaged in Gulf Stream explorations, in the service of the Coast Survey, obtained specimens of this formation. (See Proceed. Americ. Assee. for Advance. of Science, Cleveland meeting, 1853.) An interesting discovery was made by Professor Bailey in examin- ing these specimens, — the transformation of Foraminifera into green- sand. The origin of the green-sand grains in geological formations had previously been recognized by Ehrenberg; but here we have evidently the process going on at the present day, particularly along a tract at the meeting of the silicious and Globigerina bottoms off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, and also to a less extent in other places. (The localities are indicated by black dotting on the map quoted ; near the mouth of New York Bay the same sign indicates tertiary green-sand, the continuation of the New Jersey beds.) INTRODUCTION. 3 The specimens obtained by the lead did not suffice to give a true idea of the deep-sea fauna. The Foraminifera alone were numerous enough to give an idea of their distribution, which is approximately attempted by different signs and colors on subdivision B of the same map, representing the approaches to New York. To extend our knowledge, therefore, Professor B. Peirce, when he assumed the superintendence of the Coast Survey, after the death of Professor Bache, ordered, at the instigation of Professor Agassiz, a more thorough exploration by means of the dredge.* A begining was made in 1867, and the work continued during part of the working seasons of 1868 and 1869. The ground explored is the part of the course of the Gulf Stream known as the Straits of Florida. (See map, Plate VIII.) Through these the stream passes from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean. They run at first from west to east between the coast of Cuba and the Florida Reef and Keys, then bend in a semicircular sweep, to take afterwards a course nearly due north. On the outside of the bend, the old Bahama Channel opens into the straits through its two mouths, the St. Nicholas Channel and the Santaren Channel, separated from each other by the Salt Key Bank. In the part of the channel running due north, it is bounded by the Bahama Banks on the east and the Florida Reef on the west. In transverse sections of the channel the greatest depth is nearest its southern or eastern shore, and in a longitudinal section the depth diminishes in passing towards the north, finding its minimum in the narrowest part between Cape Florida and the Bemini Islands, after which it increases again. In a transverse section between Key West and Havana, the greatest depth is 853 fathoms; between Sombrero Light and Elbow or Double-Headed Shot Key, on the Salt Key Bank, 500 fathoms; between Carysfort Reef and Orange Key, on the Great Bahama Bank, 475 fathoms; and between Cape Florida and the Be- mini Islands, 370 fathoms. * I cannot resist the temptation to add a short historical note on that important instrument ot the modern naturalist, —the dredge. ‘The Museum of Comparative Zoology possesses in its library, among the books formerly belonging to Professor de Koningk, the copy of O. F. Miiller’s Zoologia Danica, used by Tilesius in the voyage of cireumnavigation of Captain Krusenstern in the begin- ning of this century. Tilesius, among many interesting remarks written on the fly-leaf, mentions the dredge invented and used by Miiller, and represented in the vignette of the title-page; he purchased it on his passage at Copenhagen, in 1803, from Vahl, Miiller’s collaborator, and used it now and then during the voyage, though, as he admits, not often, as it took several sailors to handle it, the rope alone weighing eighty pounds! The expedition must have been decidedly short and weak-handed. On their return the dredge was deposited in the collection of the Imperial Acad- emy of Sciences of St. Petersburg. To O. F. Miiller belongs the honor of having invented the dredge, very nearly in its more modern form, and of having inaugurated its use’ by naturalists in a most successful manner. His quaint remarks on the hopes and disappointments of the dredger, in the Preface of the Zoologia Danica, are worth reading. 4 INTRODUCTION. In following a cross section from the emerged coral reef called the Florida Keys, the so-called Hawk Channel is first crossed, limited outside by the living coral reef. Its greatest depth is seldom more than six or seven fathoms, generally much less towards its northern extremity; it is often interrupted by shoals and so-called heads of live coral, and its bottom consists of calcareous mud from decomposed corals and corallines. Next comes the reef, rising nearly to low- water mark, but by no means continuous. It extends from Cape Florida south and west to a short distance beyond Key West, and seems to be slowly increasing in that direction. Although the deep blue color of the water after passing the reef seems to indicate a very abrupt slope, there is in no part of it anything to compare with the sudden deepening on the edge of the coral reefs of the Pacifie Ocean, or even of the Bahamas or the coast of Cuba. The distance from the reef to the hundred- fathom line is not less than three miles, and often as much as six. In this space the bottom consists of caleareous mud, and is not particularly rich in animal life. From ninety or a hundred fathoms to two hundred and fifty or three hundred, the bottom slopes rather gently in the shape of a rough rocky floor, without great inequalities; this formation obtains its greatest breadth, of about eighteen miles, a little to the east of Sombrero Light, and tapers off to the west, where it ends in about the same longitude as the end of the reef; towards the east and north it approaches nearer the reef, and ends gradually between Carysfort teef and Cape Florida. This bottom, which is called “ Pourtales’ Plateau,” in Professor Agassiz’s report, is very rich in deep-sea corals, the greater number of those described in these pages having been dredged on this ground. Outside of the rocky bottom the Globigerina mud prevails and fills the trough of the channel.* On the Cuba shore the bottom is rocky and the slope very abrupt, particularly for the first four or five hundred fathoms. Along the Salt Key and Bahama Banks, the slope is also exceedingly abrupt, but the underlying rock is often covered with mud. Each of these regions named has its peculiar coral fauna, as’ will be shown afterwards. The dredgings began with a few casts in 1867 off Sand Key, Florida, and off Chorrera, a small harbor three or four miles west of Havana, the landing-point of one of the Florida and Cuba telegraph cables. The ext year lines of soundings and dredgings were run across the St. Nicholas and Santaren Channels, from the Salt Key Bank to * See Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, Nos. 6, 7, and 13; also Petermann’s Geog. Mittheilungen, 1870, Heft XI. INTRODUCTION. B Sombrero Light, and on four different Imes normal to the reef between Sombrero Light and Sand Key, and extending from the shore across the different kinds of bottom. In 1869 a few casts were obtamed on the Cuba coast and near the Salt Key Bank, and lines of soundings and dredgings ran to the westward of Tortugas, and at intervals of about ten miles between these islands and Sand Key, and between Sombrero and Cape Florida.* The localities of the dredgings are indicated on the map by small crosses. As an appendix, I have added a preliminary list of the shoal-water and reef corals of Florida; a fuller account of them will be given by Professor L. Agassiz. In the classification used, the system of Milne-Edwards and Haime has been followed generally ; some of their subfamilies, however, I have thought proper to elevate to the rank of families and to separate altogether from their former associations. The affinities of the families to each other cannot be expressed by the order of arrangement in which they are placed, as a family or group may form the connecting link between more than two others. The larger groups are still more difficult to limit than the families, and have not heretofore been hap- pily formed ; as an instance, I would mention the association of the Eupsammide with the Madreporida, based only on the porous con- dition of the coenenchyma, whilst the polyps of the two groups are entirely different from each other. As long as we are confined to the knowledge of the hard parts of the corals, their classification must remain incomplete. For a full study of the soft parts a long residence on the spot is indispensable, as the investigation requires much time and patience. Much confusion has been introduced by a hasty examination of imperfectly expanded polyps, in which the shape and arrangement of the tentacles, of the . mouth and the folds surrounding it, ete. is often exceedingly different from their condition in a well-developed, healthy animal. I must express my thanks for aid received, in the shape of specimens for comparison, or the gift of publications not readily accessible, to Pro- fessor P. M. Duncan of King’s College, Mr. W. 8. Kent of the British Museum, Mr. J. G. Jeffreys of London, Professor A. E. Reuss of Vienna, Professor A. EK. Verrill of Yale College, and lastly and principally to Professor Louis Agassiz, the instigator of these researches, the com- panion during part of the cruise of 1869, and the kind and obliging friend and adviser. * The succession of the reefs or keys which may be mentioned in the descriptions of the corals are from west to east: Tortugas, Rebecca Channel, Quicksands, Marquesas, Boca Grande, Sand Key, Samboes, American Shoal, Babia Honda, Sombrero, Coftin’s Patches, Tennessee Reef, Alli- gator Reef, Conch Reef, French Reef, Carysfort Reef, Pacific Reef. DEEP-SEA CORALS. Family TURBINOLIDA M.-Edw. & H. Caryophyllide DANA (pars). Caryophyllide VERRILL. With some exceptions the family of Turbinolidee, as defined by Milne- Edwards and Haime, seems to form a good natural group. The name is unfortunately chosen from one of the most aberrant genera com- posing it; but it is not a sufficient reason for changing it, as long as the genus Turbinolia and a few allied ones remain in the family. The subdivision of the family into subfamilies (Caryophyllinse and Turbinolinz) characterized by the presence or absence of pali is not natural, genera nearly allied being thus separated from each other, and associated with very dissimilar ones. It would be better to make sev- eral groups of equal value, gathered around the genera Caryophyllia, Turbinoha, Desmophyllum respectively, and perhaps a part of the Parasmilidee, CARYOPHYLLIA Strokes. Caryophyllia Cu. Stokes. Zool. Journ., t. III. p. 481, 1828. Cyathina EureeG., Dana, M.-Epw., & H. Caryophyllia M..Epw. & H. Hist. Nat. des Corall. Caryophyllia formosa Pourt. Caryophyllia formosa Pourt. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., No. 6. Plate I., fig. 16. More or less turbinate,on a rather slender curved or straight stem. Coste equal, distinct only near the calicle; the latter circular or sub- ovate, moderately deep. Columella formed of four to six twisted, 8 CARYOPHYLLIA. rather loose laminee. Septa in six complete systems and four cycles, thin, prominent, sharp, and rounded on the edge, sparsely granulated. Twelve pali, equal, large, flexuous, with few and comparatively large granules. The young are elongated, and show much diversity in their devel- opment as regards the columella and pali; when the columella is developed early, the pali are much delayed in their appearance, and vice Versa. The differences between this species and @. cyathus are not very striking ; our specimens are, however, always smaller, slenderer, and have the columella much less developed. None of my specimens attain the size of a full-grown Mediterranean specimen. ; Off Havana in 270 fathoms. Off Tortugas in 60 to 68 fathoms. Caryophyllia Berteriana ? Ducmass. Caryophyllia Berteriana DucHAssAinG. Anim. rad. des Antilles, 1850. A single specimen obtained in 68 fathoms off Tortugas, with the preceding species, differs from it and from C. formosa by its very prom- inent primary and secondary septa, thus resembling the figure of Milne-Edwards and Haime. The systems of septa are, however, all complete and very regular, so that there are twelve pali, as in all other Caryophylliex. The descriptions of Duchassaing and Milne- Edwards and Haime appear to have been made from the same specimen, perhaps an exceptional one. Caryophyllia clavus Scaccut. Caryophyliia clavus Scaccut. Notiz. int. alle conch. ed. a zoof. foss., ete , 1835. Cyathina turbinata Puttrerr. Enum. Moll. Sic. 1836. Caryophyllia pseuloturbinolia Micu. Icon. Zooph. 1841. Cyathina cyathus Lyuckarr. De Zooph. corall., 1841. Cyathina pseudoturbinolia M.-Epw. & Haime. Ann Sci. Nat., 3d Ser., t. XX., 1848. I have selected, from the numerous authors who have mentioned this coral, those who have given figures representing the type ap- proaching nearest my specimen. Not having the materials at hand to enable me to pronounce an opinion on Dr. Dunean’s sweeping reduction of all the European species to a single one, and not wishing STENOCYATHUS. 9 to burden the nomenclature with a new name, I refer to C clavus a number of specimens obtained near Tortugas, and also a few found with C. formosa on the coast of Cuba. The passage from one form to the other is not plainly marked, though a good deal of variety certainly exists. On the Florida side not a single specimen of the C. formosa was found. Caryophyllia cornuformis Pourr. Caryophyllia cornuformis Pourt. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zodl., No. 7. Plate I, figs. 14 and 15. Corallum simple, conical, always regularly curved, distinctly but faintly costate. Calicle circular, rather shallow. Septa very little exsert, thi, and somewhat wavy, in six systems and four cycles. Pali in front of secondary septa only, sometimes twisted. Columella of one or two twisted processes. Height about 6 mm., diameter of ealicle 3 mm. Off Sand Key in 237, 248, and 298 fathoms, Off Cojima, Cuba, in 450 fathoms. All the specimens have the base broken and apparently decayed even when living, and were never seen attached. A specimen still living was agglutinated to the shell of a Xenophorus. I was at first tempted to refer this species to the genus Cera- tocyathus of Seguenza (an inconvenient name, by the way, very apt to be confounded with Ceratotrochus), but I have seen good reasons lately to remove altogether Seguenza’s genus from the Caryophyllidze and place it next to Parasmilia (which see). STENOCYATHUS Povrt. Corallum simple, free, very elongated, and of nearly equal diam- eter throughout ; a single crown of pali; a columella of one or more twisted processes ; no epitheca. The single species known of this genus was placed by me in the genus Cenocyathus, having supposed the few specimens then in hand to be detached from clusters formed by budding.

) Yea, mt NS te pe “ Vol ef YO WS Pa vn Yy as =~ ow ‘A ne ms igi MAA ay! ¥e8 RTC eA ‘PO _ > Lv Wows a SS ee ] - DAR nad | ¥ wt WRAY - wf Ae Yanan aA iy Wer PY Ow aA ; aaA ~ A om Put "| = = {2 ~ - = re a» * 74 , =~ : eA: . es ea a - ail me 9 Aanrea. \ p! v Qua a ‘Se Oy \ ANY a . N\ P ae : ¥ tf x ~ a ay sf Ww ~ | ~ ae hla a . YS ai : p hoe ‘p » Tia | WV! U Y > a ? ~-fh af Rea Se oN ee Nl) -" a.- a, & as A; A ie eee en a i oe alas a, ie Ye x Yaa ES ov es Sams Ee =. S- @ te UNL PRs NAY Ae N ff. a a q V9 3 ce ads » ir ma GS 4) td = P & ~ ON ae Y pata, ms ay a2 Prone - +a R823 =, > ane aia aal = an Ot ay oe o of. NAM AAD LE fern Aor r Oe +P ~2 Oe earn vn e i ee Ao % Arh. mire : Be AA >= ea ‘ yY way rq’ Y¥ yahagAs. On a me Aon FER Arm a v Vv. AAA eees BAPata. naa A nan +. ene ae OF AP. AAAS epi A rs lat aa ao RRAEN yo a ae ~~ ae a ae = 0°. lm i S| ye u ee et PS te Saks Mi _ 1erN ‘ 2 ar \Aa As later PY \ AmAAAaA, q byon of . 1. =AA anak an A AA agar AMNASA, AS . a oe Aa y A A agar aga: naa AARARARAAANE SARA aA ARRASSA= = af fm as Pes Rie eA Oooo COR AMARA ARABAAAl | aa .enee em Ne F Po wim mm te Ones Ti Liaas VALS Sa. ~ ARR BAaAPaahs~5 “Ge oa AA Pa Ra ak’ > foe le eon . , ny + pes =P AN a >a “~*~ Pr a F —a: F iL