In this volume, Agassiz gives a detailed account of the results of the cruises of the Coastal Survey Steamer "Blake". The cruises covered the East coast of the United States along with some parts of the Caribbean waters and the Gulf of Mexico. The deep sea formations are described in detail. It is during these cruises that the first nodule from the Blake Plateau was recovered and its mixed nature of both phosphate and manganese deposit was identified.

From 1983 until 1989 NOAA-NCEI compiled the NOAA-MMS Marine Minerals Geochemical Database from journal articles, technical reports and unpublished sources from other institutions. At the time it was the most extended data compilation on ferromanganese deposits world wide. Initially published in a proprietary format incompatible with present day standards it was jointly decided by AWI and NOAA to transcribe this legacy data into PANGAEA. This transfer is augmented by a careful checking of the original sources when available and the encoding of ancillary information (sample description, method of analysis...) not present in the NOAA-MMS database.

Supplement to: Agassiz, Alexander (1888): Three Cruises of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer "Blake" in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea and along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, from 1877 to 1880. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard. Kraus Reprint Corporation, New York, U.S.A., 1