ANTILBUTIU BENTHOS
19
the South Orkneys and the South Shetlands. The position of all the
major Subantarctic and Antarctic island groups were largely determined
or confkmed during this period of intensive sealing activity around the
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
In 1821 Palmer sighted the Antarctic Peninsula (Graham Land, or the
Palmer Archipelago). British sealers, particularly James Weddell and
the vessels of the Enderby company carried out much useful geographical work on the American sector and later in the New Zealand and
Australian Subantarctic islands. Many of the geographical results of
these excursions were at first kept as tight commercial secrets but
eventually appeared on charts, available to all. But very little biological knowledge resulted from all these traffickings, except as they
related to the body of lore on seals, whales and penguins which were
utilized commercially, or to the other obvious birds of the area.
The first government sponsored United States Antarctic exploring expedition was under the command of Benjamin Pendleton, but with other
ships commanded by Nathaniel B. Palmer and Alexander S. Palmer,
one or other vessel of which visited the South Shetlands in JanuaryFebruary 1830. The expedition was accompanied by several independent investigators, one of whom was Dr James G. Eights, who collected
shells andcrustacea. One of the shells was described by J a y (1839),
from a Couthouy manuscript, as Nucula eightsi (now Aequiyoldia
eightsi). Eights himself published several papers describing other
animals from the South Shetlands, most of which have proved to be
important Antarctic species. The first in 1833 described Brongiartia
trilobitoides (now Serolis trilobitoides according t o Sheppard, 1933). I n
another paper Eights (1852) described the giant isopod, Glyptonotus
antarcticus, whose important ecological position around Antarctic
coasts is only slowly being realized. Perhaps the most interesting of
these finds was the ten-legged pycnogonid, Decobpoda australis (Eights,
1835). At the time the very idea of a ten-legged pycnogonid seemed a
contradiction in terms, and Eights’ description was largely ignored,
when it was not tacitly considered to be an error of observation.
Hodgson, on Scott’s first expedition was to collect a very different
pycnogonid with five pairs of legs from the Ross Sea, and the following
year (1 905) recognized Dewbpoda austraZis among material collected
by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Eights remarkable
pycnogonid thus had to wait for 70 years before it was recognized again
and made respectable. Calman (1937) gave an interesting account of
Eights’ career as far as known and reproduced the original figures of
Decolopoda, Glyptonotus and Serolis. Eights died in obscurity. It is
perhaps fitting that this first naturalist to describe some of the charac-
19
the South Orkneys and the South Shetlands. The position of all the
major Subantarctic and Antarctic island groups were largely determined
or confkmed during this period of intensive sealing activity around the
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries.
In 1821 Palmer sighted the Antarctic Peninsula (Graham Land, or the
Palmer Archipelago). British sealers, particularly James Weddell and
the vessels of the Enderby company carried out much useful geographical work on the American sector and later in the New Zealand and
Australian Subantarctic islands. Many of the geographical results of
these excursions were at first kept as tight commercial secrets but
eventually appeared on charts, available to all. But very little biological knowledge resulted from all these traffickings, except as they
related to the body of lore on seals, whales and penguins which were
utilized commercially, or to the other obvious birds of the area.
The first government sponsored United States Antarctic exploring expedition was under the command of Benjamin Pendleton, but with other
ships commanded by Nathaniel B. Palmer and Alexander S. Palmer,
one or other vessel of which visited the South Shetlands in JanuaryFebruary 1830. The expedition was accompanied by several independent investigators, one of whom was Dr James G. Eights, who collected
shells andcrustacea. One of the shells was described by J a y (1839),
from a Couthouy manuscript, as Nucula eightsi (now Aequiyoldia
eightsi). Eights himself published several papers describing other
animals from the South Shetlands, most of which have proved to be
important Antarctic species. The first in 1833 described Brongiartia
trilobitoides (now Serolis trilobitoides according t o Sheppard, 1933). I n
another paper Eights (1852) described the giant isopod, Glyptonotus
antarcticus, whose important ecological position around Antarctic
coasts is only slowly being realized. Perhaps the most interesting of
these finds was the ten-legged pycnogonid, Decobpoda australis (Eights,
1835). At the time the very idea of a ten-legged pycnogonid seemed a
contradiction in terms, and Eights’ description was largely ignored,
when it was not tacitly considered to be an error of observation.
Hodgson, on Scott’s first expedition was to collect a very different
pycnogonid with five pairs of legs from the Ross Sea, and the following
year (1 905) recognized Dewbpoda austraZis among material collected
by the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Eights remarkable
pycnogonid thus had to wait for 70 years before it was recognized again
and made respectable. Calman (1937) gave an interesting account of
Eights’ career as far as known and reproduced the original figures of
Decolopoda, Glyptonotus and Serolis. Eights died in obscurity. It is
perhaps fitting that this first naturalist to describe some of the charac-