710 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME I 



In "Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain" (Paris, 1613) Champlain specifically 

 mentions the occurrence of sea urchins in 1604 on the island of St. Croix. This St. 

 Croix is the island now known as Dochet or Neutral Island off the coast of New Bruns- 

 wick. It is not unlikely that, as this species occurs in this region in shallow water (as 

 is shown by Stimpson's record from Grand Manan nearby), Champlain himself may 

 have found a specimen on the shore (as Mr. Peale did many years later on the New 

 Jersey coast), or on the anchor rope, or have secured one there in some other way 

 which he took back with him to Paris. Retzius, although he did not travel himself 

 was very widely known and had many friends in foreign lands. If Champlain actually 

 brought back a specimen with him to Paris it would have been quite likely to have 

 found its way into the possession of Retzius. 



We have no direct evidence that this actually happened, but it is not unlikely that 

 something of the sort did occur, and at any rate Dochet or Neutral Island was 

 probably the place of origin of the type specimen, being the only St. Croix past or 

 present, except for the St. Croix river in the same region, within the range of the 

 species, or at least within the district where the species occurs in shallow water. 



The second specimen was found by Mr. Titian Peale on the beach at Great Egg 

 Harbor, New Jersey, and was described by Mr. Thomas Say in 1825 under the name 

 of Alectro dentata. The description was short and unsatisfactory, and in 1866 Prof. 

 Addison E. Verrill suggested that possibly it might prove to be identical with the 

 Comatula meridional-is which had been described by E. C. and A. Agassiz in the pre- 

 ceding year from the coast of South Carolina. 



The third specimen was dredged in 1852 in 46 meters near Duck Island, Grand 

 Manan, by Mr. William Stimpson who recorded it in 1853 under the name of Alecto 

 eschrichtii, of which he considered it a young example. The size ("nearly four inches 

 in diameter") and the color as given by him are sufficient to identify it with the tenella 

 of Retzius and the dentata of Say. 



In 1873 Prof. Verrill ventured the statement that Say's dentata possibly occurs 

 on the southern coast of New England, a statement which was soon confirmed in a 

 most remarkable manner. 



In 1874 Verrill recorded Antedon sarsii from off Monhegan Island and Cashe's 

 Ledge in the Gulf of Maine, where it had been dredged by the Speedwell, and in 1880 

 he listed it from 9 additional stations. In the same year Mr. Alexander Agassiz re- 

 corded Comatula sarsii from a Blake station off Georges Bank, his determination being 

 confirmed by P. H. Carpenter in 1881. 



In 1882 Verrill discovered the identity of the species he had been calling sarsii 

 with Say's dentata, and recorded it under the latter name from a large number of addi- 

 tional Fish Commission stations between Cape Cod and Chesapeake Bay, materially 

 increasing the number of records in 1884. In that year P. H. Carpenter adopted the 

 name dentata as including both American and European specimens, dentata having 

 about 20 years precedence over sarsii. 



In 1885 Verrill noted that the Albatross had obtained this species off the northern 

 coast of the United States in 1883, but he gave no details. 



On examining the type specimen of Retzius' Asterias tenella at Lund, Carpenter 

 found it to be identical with Say's dentata; in 1888 he therefore substituted the name 

 tenella for dentata. 



