polyps and corals, including a small pink sea-anemone, the coral 

 Astrangia which occurs all along the Atlantic coast, beautiful purple 

 or yellow Gorgon corals with black horny axis and delicate wliite 

 polyps, and finally the less spectacular Alcyonium digitatum. 

 Echinoderms were represented by the common starfish, Aslerias 

 forhesii; by living specimens of Mellita, the "sea biscuit" so 

 abundantly cast up on the beaches; and by a very interesting 

 little Brittle Star not much over an eighth of an inch across the 

 disc. The worms included the common scale worm, Polynoe, 

 and calcareous or sand tubes of Serpula-like forms. 



Landing at Cummings Point on Morris Island three parties were 

 organized: one to dig between tide marks on the back beach, one 

 to search the front beach for shells and other forms cast up by 

 the waves, while the third explored the sand dunes for shore 

 birds. 



The first party found the shell-covered tubes of the worm Dio- 

 patra cuprea protruding abundantly above the sand between tide 

 marks. This species is of special local interest from the fact 

 that Charleston is the first American locality from which it was 

 reported. The leathery tube has shells adhering only above the 

 sand and extends down so far that a considerable excavation must 

 be made to secure the worm at the bottom. When once obtained, 

 however, it displays richly arborescent gills and a beautiful iri- 

 descence rivaling a fire opal over the surface of the body. Many 

 members of the party had not known that a worm could be beau- 

 tiful. Surprise and pleasure came with the discovery of the large, 

 somewhat shrimp-like crustacean, Gebia, buried in considerable 

 numbers in the wet sand. 



The second party collected good specimens of common beach 

 shells but nothing especially rare. The empty egg cases of the 

 Channeled Conch, Fulgur canaliculata, and the Pear Conch, F. 

 carica, were found and compared. Several more or less imper- 

 fect tubes of the worm Pectinaria had been thrown up by the 

 waves and showed how exquisitely quartz sand grains of uniform 

 size had been cemented into a conical mosaic tube. 



59 



