270 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



(p. 316) besides a few Sagittae (p. 298), Eutheniisto, one large 

 Tomopteris helgolandica, and many fish fry of several species. We 

 fully expected to find Salpae more abundant on our line seaward 

 opposite Barnegat ; but this was not the case, for, though great 

 numbers of Mnemiopsis and Salpae were noted on the surface for some 

 thirty miles from the land, both then disappeared, and at Station 

 10070, over the forty fathom curve, the hauls yielded no Mnemiopsis, 

 and only seventeen specimens of Salpa, though the latter represented 

 no less than six species. And Salpae were nearly as scarce at about 

 the same relative position on the shelf off Cape May (Station 10072), 

 none being seen on the surface, and the total catch only about thirty 

 (p. 275). But the water there was full of Mnemiopsis, which clogged 

 the nets; and the haul from fifteen fathoms yielded swarms of Pleuro- 

 brachia, many fish fry and one unmistakable warm water species, the 

 small hydromedusa Niobia (p. 317). 



The Gulf Stream station off Cape May (Station 10071) yielded 

 much the same plankton that was found in the edge of the Stream off 

 New York (Station 10064), as might have been expected from the 

 high temperature and salinity of the water (p. 163). Little was to be 

 seen on the surface except a few bits of Sargassum; and the surface 

 nets yielded practically nothing. But the hauls from 175 and 190 

 fathoms brought in masses of Salpae of four species, notably S. cylin- 

 drica (p. 277) ; and such other warm water organisms as Phronima, 

 Agalma elegans, Diphyes serrata, young myctophids, Leptocephali, 

 Sagitta inflata, Rhizophysa, several southern pteropods (p. 302), 

 and the oceanic schizopod Nematoscelis megalops. The only members 

 of the list from this Station which are regular inhabitants of the coast 

 water north of New York are a few copepods (Calanus and Metridia), 

 which shows how little the coast water influences the plankton outside 

 the continental shelf. 



The plankton of the coast water was composed of much the same 

 constituents south of Delaware Bay as off Barnegat. At Station 

 10073 the surface water was very barren, the total yield of the surface 

 nets being only a few small Doliolum, one Pleurobrachia, two Sagittae, 

 seven or eight copepods, a few small appendicularians, and fish eggs. 

 But at fifteen fathoms the net was clogged by Mnemiopsis, while 

 Geryonia, Diphyes, Cuboides, Sapphirina, several species of warm 

 water pteropods (p. 302), and two specimens of the Leptocephalus of 

 the conger eel gave it a more southern aspect than that of the shallow 

 water further north. The hauls over the forty fathom contour, some 

 fifty miles further south (Station 10074) contained an even larger pro- 



