BIGELOW: COAST WATER EXPLORATION OF 1913. 295 



(Wright, 1907). Its absence in the Gulf Stream water and in southern 

 waters in general, agrees with its distribution in European waters 

 (Farran, 1910) where it seems to be of northern origin, and with 

 Wheeler's (1901) and Williams's (1906) statements that it is most 

 abundant in winter at Woods Hole and in Narragansett Bay. 



Metridia lucens, unlike M. longa, was taken regularly in the Gulf of 

 Maine (eighteen out of twenty-one stations), and it likewise occurred 

 at all three of the Stations outside the continental shelf (10064, 10071, 

 10076). But it was found at only one Station on the continental 

 shelf, south or west of Cape Cod, (10083) where the haul yielded twenty 

 specimens. And we did not find it on George's Bank or Nantucket 

 Shoals. Metridia lucens was not abundant anywhere; in fact so far 

 as known it never swarms in the Gulf of INIaine as it does in European 

 waters. It was not taken in any surface haul, the shallowest captures 

 being 15-0 fathoms off Cape Ann (Station 10104), and 8-0 fathoms 

 off Long Island (Station 10083). And its invariable absence from the 

 surface in our Avaters is evidence that it was not at home in the high 

 temperatures and low salinities of the surface, because it has a well- 

 marked habit of coming to the surface at night in other regions (Farran, 

 1910). The lowest salinity in which its presence can be established 

 was about 32.4%o (Station 10104), with a maximum of at least 35.00%o 

 (Station 10071). In the Gulf of Maine most of the specimens were 

 living in water of 32.6%o to 33.7%o. The limits to the temperature 

 range of our captures were about 42° to about 50°. Metridia lucens 

 has usually been called a northern species (Cleve, 1900) . But Farran's 

 (1910) tabulations of the data of the International Committee seem 

 to show that it really belongs to the oceanic waters of the North Atlan- 

 tic; and that it is carried to the coasts of Iceland and to the northern 

 part of the North Sea by the Atlantic Current; an explanation which 

 agrees fairly well with its occurrence in our waters. 



Anomalocera patter soni was taken at most of the stations in the 

 Gulf of Maine, which supports my suggestion (1914a) that it is more 

 universal in the Gulf than the records of 1912 would indicate; at five 

 localities on the shelf south of New York (Stations 10070, 10077, 

 10080, 10081 and off Hog Island) and at one of the off shore Stations 

 (10071); while Wheeler (1900) records it as abundant in the Gulf 

 Stream south of Woods Hole. Most of the records are from the 

 surface; only one from a haul as deep as forty fathoms; and of course 

 that one specimen may have been caught at or near the surface; and 

 this may also be true of the few specimens yielded by hauls from 

 twenty, twenty-five, and thirty fathoms in the Gulf of Maine. Its 



