REPOKT ON THE HEXACTINELLIDA. 61 



corky-looking substance reducing them to round tube-like holes and rising into spirally 

 arranged ridges between them ; but the ridges, instead of having a continuous glassy 

 skeleton, have their soft substance supported by a multitude of delicate six-rayed 

 separate spicules interspersed with the usual minute sUiceous stars and rosettes. The 

 sponge is hirsute, with sheaves of feathered spicules which project from the crests of the 

 spiral ridges, and a series of like sheaves of great length replace round the mouth the 

 fretted frill of the Phihppine Islands form. The mouth is closed by a very delicate 

 network of a gelatinous substance supported by sheaves of fine needles. The corre- 

 spondence in form between its ultimate spicules and those of Euplectella aspergillum 

 appeared to be so close, that when I first saw this sponge I suspected that it might turn 

 out to be the same thing under different conditions. I am now, however, convinced 

 that the two species are entirely distinct." Of importance, too, is Sir Wyville Thomson's 

 further observation :-^-" No commensal Crustacean has been found in any of the Atlantic 

 specimens of Eiqylectella." 



On Euplectella aspergillum, Dr. v. Willemoes-Suhm ' also made some notes during 

 the Challenger Expedition. He writes : — " A single specimen of the water-pot-like sponge 

 was first accidentally dredged seventy years ago, and this, about thirty years ago (1841) 

 fell into the hands of Owen. High offers for further specimens were then made and the 

 second was purchased at a high price. Eight or ten years ago they were still dear, when 

 suddenly the fishermen, induced by this circumstance, discovered in the immediate 

 vicinity of the city of Zebu, a place from which they captured Euplectella in abundance 

 by means of an apparatus, constructed of bamboo rods and provided mth hooks, which 

 was pulled along the sea bottom. The sponge Uves at this place at a depth of 100 

 fathoms in blackish mud. During our stay in Zebu the ship proceeded one day to the 

 place in question for the purpose of procuring specimens. A bamboo apparatus from a 

 fishing boat and a small dredge from the ship were simultaneously lowered. While, 

 however, the former procured an abundant supply, we got nothing, and only the force 

 of one of the large dredges was suSicient to tear up the sponges, which were evidently in 

 great numbers, but very firmly implanted in the mud." A detailed account of the 

 capture of Euplectella asjxirgillmn by the fishermen of Zebu, and of the apparatus used 

 for the purpose, has been given by Chimmo in a paper '^ which appeared independently, 

 and is accompanied by a plate. 



With Chimmo's account, the report given by Moseley ^ of the method and apparatus 

 of capture employed by the fishermen of Zebu, entirely coincides. 



Agassiz* mentions a specimen of Eupilectella from the collection of Sponges made by the 

 expedition in the Carribean Sea. It is probably the same specimen which Oscar Schmidt * 



1 Zeitschr. f. vdss. ZooL, Bd. xxvi. p. Ixxiii. * Natural History of Euplectella aspergilliun, 1878. 



3 Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, 1879. ♦ Bull. Mus. Conip. Zobl., vol. v., 1879. 



* Spongien des Meerbuseus von Mexico, p. 60. 



