206 BULLETIN : MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



These collections indicate that the species is common in the colder 

 waters off the Pacific coast from central California to Bering Sea. 

 The range in depth is from low water to 135 fms. The temperature 

 of the bottom in these localities ranges from 48° F. off California 

 down to 31.9° F. in Bering Sea, even in the month of August. 



This is evidently therefore an arctic form which extends south- 

 ward in the cold watei" at a depth of a number of fathoms as far as 

 the region off the coast of central California, and is found only 

 occasionally at low water on the Alaskan coast, for it occurs but 

 once in the shore collections. 



Emplectonema Stimpson. 



Emjilectonema Stimpson, Proc. Phila. Acad. p. 163, 1857. 

 Nemertes Mcintosh, British Annelids, Part 1. Nemerteans, Ray 



Society, 1872-1873. 

 Eunem.ertes Vaillant, Hist. Nat. des Anneles, 3, Paris, 1890. 



Body veiy long and slender, varying greatly in thickness accord- 

 ing to state of contraction, but most commonly considerably flat- 

 tened ; often sharply bent and folded into an iriegular mass; integ- 

 ument provided with an unusual abundance of mucous secretion ; 

 proboscis and mouth o])ening together on subterminal portion of 

 snout; proboscis sheath limited to anterior third of body; proboscis 

 slender and very short, often not more than one sixth the length of 

 body; a large number of minute eyes usually present; cerebral 

 sense organs sitiiated well in front of brain, and usually very small. 

 The species are of sluggish movement, and many of them are found 

 very near high-water mark among mussels, barnacles, rockweeds, 

 etc. 



Of this genus two species have previously been recorded from the 

 west coast of America. To these a thii'd species, E. purpuratnm, 

 is added in the present paper. Two of these forms have been found 

 nowhere else in the woi'ld ; the other {E. gracile) occurs also on 

 the coasts of Europe and is widely distribiited in the Northern 

 Hemisphere, although it has not been found on the east coast of 

 America. 



