58 BULLETIN OF THE 



Young specimens, from 15 to 20 mm. in diameter and 20 to 30 mm. high, 

 have been taken at several localities, off Martha's Vineyard, by the U. S. Fish 

 Commission. These are usually more or less obconic, or pear-shaped, with 

 the base narrow and the upper part of the body swollen. The base, in these, 

 is generally concave, clasping mud or sand, but in several cases it is clasped 

 around a worm-tube, or some similar object. Probably, when very young 

 they may all have this habit of attaching themselves to some solid object, which 

 is abandoned later. A small specimen, of similar character, was taken by the 

 Blake, at Station 311, in 143 fathoms. 



These young specimens have the tentacles not very numerous, in few rows, 

 the inner ones much the longest, stout and pointed, the outer ones short and 

 acute. The surface of the body is smooth, or nearly so, and is usually tinged 

 with chocolate-brown or purplish; a darker brown ring surrounds the margin, 

 at the base of the tentacles; the tentacles and disk are, usually, deep purpli.'^h 

 brown. In these the integument is much thinner than in the adult, and more 

 or less translucent. 



Of this species large and typical specimens were obtained by the Blake, 

 off George's Bank, at Station 303, and off Cape Fear, N. C, at Station 326, in 

 464 fathoms. These, as usual, enclose, in the deeply concave basal disk large 

 masses of mud and- sand. One of those from Station 326 was also adherent, 

 by one edge of the disk, to worm-tubes. 



The following specimens were dredged by the Blake, in 1880. 



station. Fathoms. N. Lat. W. Long. Specimens. 



303 306 41° 34' 30" 56° 54' 30" 3 1., clasping sand and gravel. 

 326 464 33° 42' 15" 76° 0' 50" 2 1., 3 m., clasping mud and sand. 

 311 143 39° 59' 30" 70° 12' 0" 1 young, clasping stem. 



Large specimens have been taken by the U. S. Fish Commission, often in 

 large numbers, at many stations, off Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, in 100 

 to 640 fathoms, 1880-82; off Cape Cod, in 55 to 90 fathoms, 1879, 1882; 

 Gulf of Maine, in 50 to 150 fathoms, 1873, 1877, 1878; off Nova Scotia, 1877. 

 It has also been taken on George's Bank and the various fishing banks off 

 Nova Scotia, in 45 to 300 fathoms, by the Gloucester fishermen, in consid- 

 erable numbers. Also from the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, in 100 to 150 

 fathoms. 



Actinernus saginatus Veerill? 

 Actinernus saginatus Verrili., Amer. Jour. Sci., XXIII., 1882, p. 225. 



A specimen in bad condition, perhaps of this species, was dredged at Station 

 326, off Cape Fear, N. C, N. Lat. 33° 42' 15", W. Long. 76° 0' 50", in 464 

 fathoms. Its form in contraction is low, broad obconic, with narrow base. 

 Integument pale, cartilaginous. Tentacles numerous, small, slender, in two 

 or three rows close to the margin. Disk broad, concave, and with the tenta- 



