18 THE NAUTILUS. 



A DREDGING TRIP TO SANTA CATALINA ISLAND. 



H. N. LOWE. 



Last October it was the writer's good fortune to spend a week at 

 Avalon, Santa Catalina Island. 



A small dredging outfit was included among the baggage. The 

 same dredge had five years ago brought up Fusus roperi Dall and 

 Turbonilla lowei Dall and previous to that had been used with such 

 good results by the late Edward W. Roper off Eastport, Maine and 

 with what results it was now used the following list will show. As 

 there were numerous small power launches at anchor in the bay, I 

 decided to venture the price of a day's use of a launch and see what 

 strange creatures live in old ocean " a hundred fathoms deep." 



I invited to go along as a traveling companion, my young friend, 

 John Paine, for whom at my request Dr. Dall has named two of the 

 new species dredged. 



The morning selected was clear and bright and the water smooth 

 as glass as we steamed up the island till just off " Moonstone Beach " 

 and under the lee of " Long Point." Here we decided to make our 

 first haul in some 30 fathoms of water. 



The water was so transparently blue that we could see our dredge 

 as it sank down, down into the realms of Mermaids and sea-serpents. 



Anyone who has done any dredging well knows we did not take 

 along any rocking chair or wear our Sunday clothes. 



After the dredge had been down a reasonable length of time we 

 commenced hauling in our thousand feet of dripping rope, by no 

 means an easy task. Almost every haul would be different, some- 

 times the dredge would be entirely filled with soft mud or sand, 

 again with broken shells, and twice it came up filled with small stones 

 to which beautiful bunches of Brachiopods were attached. 



The second day we dredged in somewhat deeper water up to fifty 

 fathoms with very good results. 



After my return it took every evening for over three weeks to sort 

 over the dredgings with the aid of a strong lens. 



Dr. Dall has kindly worked up the doubtful material and described 

 the new species, in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of 

 Washington, Dec. 13, 1903, pp. 171-176. 



The following is a full list of the species dredged : 



