124 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



The harbor of Golding Cay, Andros Island, is one of the best along the 

 formidable barrier reef of the eastern side of the island. No detailed chart 

 of it has, however, been published, and believing that so important a place of 

 refuge should be more accessible, the Director made a compass survey of the 

 harbor, which is published herewith, and is believed to be sufficiently accu- 

 rate for purposes of ordinary navigation (Plate 3). Vessels drawing 9 feet 

 may enter at high tide, and the recommended anchorage is in good holding 

 ground on a muddy bottom. 



STUDIES AT TORTUGAS. 



During June and July the Director, accompanied by Professors L. R. 

 Cary, A. J. Goldfarb, E. W. Gudger, T. Wayland Vaughan, and John B. 

 Watson, remained at Tortugas, where we installed the new hard-rubber 

 pump and pipes designed to supply our aquarium tanks with constantly run- 

 ning sea-water. This hard-rubber circuit proves to be entirely satisfactory, 

 and the most delicate marine animals appear to thrive in our tanks. The 

 large glass supply-tank into which the water is pumped is maintained in 

 darkness to prevent the growth and subsequent decomposition of plant life 

 within it, and all pipes are impervious to light. A trestle-work about 60 feet 

 long extends from the eastern shore of the island and carries the intake pipe 

 out to pure water. 



Dr. L. R. Cary, who studied at Tortugas from August 15 to September 

 5, continued his observation upon the growth-rate and regeneration of gor- 

 gonians. He concludes that the breeding season in these forms is of brief 

 duration. During the first year Gorgonia flabellum becomes somewhat less 

 than 50 mm. high. At the end of the second year it is about 150 mm., at the 

 end of the third year 220 mm., of the fourth 280 mm. in height, after which 

 it continues to grow slowly until it becomes about 750 mm. high. Thus, in 

 common with the stony corals, the relative growth-rate is greater during the 

 second year than at any other time. 



Professor Goldfarb found that if larvae of certain echini, such as Cen- 

 tr echinus (Diadema) , Hipponoe, and Lytechinus (Toxopneustes) were sub- 

 jected to solutions of magnesium or of sodium salts and then returned to 

 sea-water, the entoderm evaginates in the manner discovered by Herbst, 

 who, however, used lithium chloride to produce this result. 



Professor Goldfarb also found that if the eggs be subjected to the action 

 of sea-water containing an excess of sodium chloride and then removed to 

 natural sea-water, some of them fuse or adhere to one another, producing 

 double or giant embryos, or causing the fusion of many eggs into masses 

 which develop in an abortive manner. 



In another series of experiments, Professor Goldfarb cleverly drew out 

 the ventral nerve-chain of the annelid Amphinoma, and found that these 

 worms regenerate in a normal manner, and therefore regeneration is not 

 initiated by stimuli from the axial nervous system. 



