THE OTTAWA H.ATURAL1ST. 



Vol. XIII. OTTAWA, MARCH, 1900. No. 12 



NOTES ON HUDSON BAY SPONGES. 

 Bv Lawrenxe M. Lambe, F. G. S. 



The number ot" species of recent marine sponges known to oc- 

 cur in the waters of Hudson Bay and Strait is, up to the present, 

 only four in number, viz., taking- them in the order in which they 

 have been collected, Phakellia ventilabrum, Johnston, Reniera 

 mollis, Lambe, Suberites ynontalbidus. Carter and Craniella cran- 

 ium, (Miiller). 



The specimens representing these species are in the collection 

 of the Geological Survey. 



Two specimens of Phakellia ventilabrum were obtained by Dr. 

 Robert Bell, of the Geological Survey, in 1880, one at York Factory, 

 the other between York Factoryand Fort Severn, and later, in 1896, 

 Mr. A. P. Low, of the Geological Survey, collected another speci- 

 men of the same species on the east coast of Hudson Bay, near 

 Great Whale River. This species has been recorded in North 

 American waters from the Norih Pacific Ocean, Behring Sea and 

 the Arctic Ocean in the west, and from the River and Gulf ot St. 

 Lawrence, and the north-east coast of the United States in the 

 east, (vide Transactions, Royal Society of Canada, vol. xii, 1894, 

 and second series, vol. ii, 1896). 



The second species is represented by a fragmentary specimen 

 dredged by Mr. Low in 1897, in Wakeham Bay, Hudson Strait, 

 in 10 fathoms, mud bottom. Reniera mollis, like P. ventilabnun, 

 has been found on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the con- 

 tinent, in Elk Bay, Discovery Passage, Vancouver Island, B. C, 

 and off the coast of Labrador and at the entrance to the Baie des 

 Chaleurs (vide Transactions, Royal Society of Canada, vol. xi, 

 1893, and second series, vol. ii, 1896). 



