G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 275 



Helmholtz, Dubois - Reymond, Huxley, Darwin, Haeckel, 

 Leuckart, Von Benedeu, etc. He has also invited Professor 

 Agassiz to accept the representation in the committee for the 

 United States, and thereby add the weight of his powerful 

 name. Work on the building: will begrin forthwith under 

 Dr. Dohrn's direction, his address at Naples being to the care 

 of Friedrich Stolte, Consul General of Germany, Piazza Me- 

 dina. 



In the Northern United States the richest marine fauna is 

 to be found in the vicinity of Eastport, Maine, the adjacent 

 region of the Bay of Fundy having become classic ground 

 through the labors of Stimpson,Verrill, Packard, Morse,Web- 

 ster, Hyatt, etc. It is whispered that Mr. J. E. Gavit, of New 

 York, president of the American Bank-note Company, and at 

 the same time an eminent microscopist, has it in contempla- 

 tion, with some friends, to erect a building at Eastport, to be 

 suitably endowed and maintained for the use of any natural- 

 ists who may wish to avail themselves of the facilities it may 

 afford. ' We can only hope that so excellent an idea may be 

 realized at an early day. 



DIVISION OF THE SEA-BOTTOM INTO FATTNAL EEGIONS. 



Professor Mobfus, in his " Fauna of the Bay of Kiel," re- 

 marks that the sea animals of that locality may be divided 

 into those of the region of the sandy shore the green sea- 

 grass (eel-grass), the decayed, rotting sea-grass, the red algae, 

 and the black mud ; and he considers that this is a fair type 

 of the physical character of similar bodies of water. It is 

 in this black mud, resulting from the decomposition of the 

 grasses, that the greater number of animals harbor, and upon 

 which they feed, furnishing, in turn, subsistence to the various 

 forms of carnivorous animals. The quantity of organisms 

 occupying such a muddy bottom is perfectly startling, since 

 single casts of the dredge will bring up almost living masses 

 of cases of worms, crustaceans, etc., and it is upon these that 

 large numbers of our coast fish feed almost exclusively. 19 

 C, August 19,1871, xxxiii., 265. 



MOLLUSCA OF GASPE. 



In the course of an investigation during the season of 1870, 

 the marine fauna of the peninsula of Gaspe, in the Gulf of St. 



