DREDGINGS MADE IN THE GULF OF MAINE. 689 



the gulf. It was a rare sight to see the tangle come in over the ship's 

 side hung with that gorgeous star-fish, the bright-red Astrogonium phry- 

 gianum, measuring fully eight inches across, with lesser forms of sea- 

 stars, Asterias, Cribella, and sand-stars, an enormous sea-spider or 

 Nymphon, Hyas ara?iea, an arctic spider-crab, and a species of Janira, 

 with beautiful sponges allied to Tethya, Thecophora, and Holtenia -\ike 

 forms four or five inches in diameter, these latter appearing in the 

 trawl with Tealia and tubes of Cerianthus borealis of Verrill, a large sea- 

 anemone. The excitement was shared by the crew, some of whom aided 

 in the tedious work of separating the collections from the strands of the 

 tangle. 



On our way back to Gloucester we again dredged on each side of 

 Jeffrey's Ledge at depths of 112 and 118 fathoms, at the former station 

 east of the bank dredging the rare Myxine limpsa Girard, (bag-fish,) in 

 soft mud, with a bottom temperature in both stations of 39°. 



On the 23d, dredgings were made in Salem Harbor and off Marble- 

 head. Two days, the 25th and 26tb, were devoted to investigating the 

 summit of Jeffrey's Ledge, at a distance of nine to eighteen miles east 

 of Cape Ann. The temperature here was between 40° and 49° in about 

 twenty-five fathoms, a difference of about ten degrees from that of the 

 abysses on each side of this submarine elevation. Both here and after- 

 ward we used two dredges, one being thrown over from the bows, the 

 other cast from the stern of the vessel, while the tangle was put over 

 from the side. 



On the 27th, we began to run a line of dredgings and soundings from 

 Oape Ann to Cape Cod, crossing the middle of Stellwagen's Bank. 



Dredging in depths between fifty and sixty fathoms in soft, blue mud, 

 northwest of Stellwagen's Bank, in the deepest portions of Massachu- 

 setts Bay, the fauna was found to closely resemble that of similar 

 localities on each side of Jeffrey's Ledge, the assemblage not more 

 southern in character, while the temperature of the bottom water 

 ranged between 41J° and 45° (two thermometers being used as before). 

 In one haul of the tangle, ninety-five Ctenodiscus crispatus, the common 

 pentagonal star-fish of muddy bottoms, were brought up, with several 

 very large Asterias vulgaris f and several young Solaster endeca and 

 papposa ; also a gigantic Corymorplia, a hydroid polyp, six inches in 

 height, and fully half an inch in diameter near the base. We found on 

 Stellwagen's Bank, in 22-30 fathoms, coarse sand, temperature 4S^° to 

 50J°, an abundance of Mactra polynema, the hen-clam, Cyprina islandica, 

 a shell resembling the quahaug, and Glycimeris siliqua, with five sponges. 

 The Corymorplia was abundant here, and the tangle brought up at a 

 single haul from 300 to 400 star-fish, mostly Asterias. At night, about 

 ten miles north of Cape Bace, the tangle was kept over from half past 

 ten until two o'clock, when it came up loaded with Astrophyton, or 

 Medusa's-head, and other kinds of star-fish, the temperature being 



between 48° and 50°, at a depth of 34 fathoms. 

 44 f 



