380 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888. 



crab, Hippa talpoidea, and the little mollusk, Donax Jossor. Above 

 tides, the beach oft-times is lively with sand-fleas, among which are 

 conspicuous the Talorchestia macrophfhalma, and less commonly the 

 T. lonr/icomis. Still higher extending to the sand-hills, the sand- 

 crab, Ocypoda areuarla, is frequent. The mud of the bays and 

 sounds swarms with the scavenger snail, Ilyanassa obsoleta, while 

 the meadows abound -with the marsh snail, Melavipus bidentatus. 

 The borders of the meadows are thickly planted with the horse- 

 mussel, Modiola pllcatula, or are honey-combed by the tidier crab, 

 Gelasimus pulgihitor. The bays supply the market with abundance 

 of the oyster, which is extensively cultivated for the ])urpose. The 

 clam, Venus mercen.aria, also occurs in the greatest abundance, and 

 is constantly gathered for the market. The squirt-clam, 3{ya 

 arenaria, is likewise sui)plied from mud flats of the bays. The 

 edible crab, Callinedes hastntus, often occurs in the bays in great 

 numbers. The previous summer, the bottom appeared to swarm 

 with them, but the last summer they were less numerous, in conse- 

 quence, as the fishermen report, of great numbers having been de- 

 stro3'ed by the severe cold of last winter. In a visit to Beach 

 Haven, in February, I observed many recently dead crabs thrown 

 up on the ocean beach, and feasted on by multitudes of the isopod 

 crustacean, Cirolana conchariim. 



The previous summer also, the lady-crab, PMyonichus oeellatus, 

 was frequent on the ocean beach near low tide, but during last sum- 

 mer was almost absent. It probably, also suffered from the cold of 

 last winter, for in February, at Athvntic City, I found a number 

 recently dead, and likewise feasted on by the Cirolana. 



In the bays the spider crab, Lihinia canaliculafa, the shrimp, 

 Palaemoneies vulgaris, and the hermit crab, Pagurus longicarpus, 

 are in abundance, and the P. pollicaris is not infrequent. The 

 shrimp is infested to a wonderful degi'ee witii a parasitic crustacean 

 Bopyrus palaemoiidicola. The horse-shoe crab, Limulus polyphem- 

 us also occasionally occurs on the ocean beach. 



The sand of Beach Haven is remarkably sonorous ; when scraped 

 in walking, it emits a sound like that produced by sliding a rubber 

 shoe on the pavement. 



The condition of the ocean beach varies with the direction of the 

 winds and violence of the waves. Mostly, it is remarkably uniform 

 and free from organic debris, and is composed of fine, white quartz 

 sand without {)ebbles, and with streaks and ])atches of black sand, 

 W'hich from its greater specific gravity is incessantly sifted from the 

 white sand by the winds and waves. On one occasion, during the 

 prevalence for several days, of a strong north-east wind, the beach 

 above high tide was covered with a broad stratum of black sand 

 from a fourth to an inch thick, over whicli the white sand was 

 blown like columns of smoke and accumulated at the base of the 

 sand hills where it looked by contrast likcsnow drifts. The organ- 

 ic debris cast ashore mostly consists of materials carried out from 

 the bays, commonly, masses of eel-grass, Zostera marina, and bunch- 



