1903.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 



401 



POLYCHJETA FROM THE COASTAL SLOPE OF JAPAN AND FROM KAMCHATKA 



AND BERING SEA. 



EY J. PERCY MOORE. 



Hitherto our knowledge of Japanese Polychaeta has been hmited to 

 collections made in the Httoral zone at several points along the south- 

 eastern coast between Yokohama and Nagasaki and ably described 

 in three papers by v. Marenzeller, a few^ species from the Japan Sea 

 described by Grube and Mcintosh, and to the results of about half a 

 dozen dredge and trawl hauls made by the ''Challenger" at points off 

 Japan, which have been recorded by Mcintosh. 



At the close of an extended cruise in the South Pacific Ocean, the 

 United States Fish Commission steamer "Albatross" spent the month 

 of May and part of June, 1900, in dredging and trawHng along the con- 

 tinental slope of Japan. During this cruise the vessel was in com- 

 mand of Captain J. F. Moser, U. S. N., with Dr. H. F. Moore as natur- 

 ahst, to wdiom, and to Dr. H. M. Smith, of the Fish Commission, I 

 owe the pleasure of studying the rich and interesting collection of 

 Polychseta taken.^ 



During May a line of about seventy dredging stations was run along 

 the coast of Nippon or Hanshu from Yokohama westward about 200 

 miles, through Sagami and Suruga Bays and the Totomi Sea. These 

 stations were mostly along the steep slope on the inner border of the 

 Black Current, and about or within the 100-fathom hne, though the 

 trawl was sometimes sent down to much greater depths. In early 

 June, ten additional stations were estabhshed along the coast of north- 

 ern Nippon, beginning at the lower end of Sendai Bay and extending 

 for about 120 miles northward, entirely within the 100-fathom line. 

 Later in June several dredgings were made in the shallow waters and 

 muddy bottoms off Kamchatka, and others north of the Aleutian 

 Islands in the southern portion of Bering Sea. The details of loca- 

 tion, depth, character of bottom, etc., will be found in a Hst of dredg- 

 ing records of the "Albatross" compiled by Mr. C. H. Townsend, and 

 pubhshed in the Report of the U. S. Fish Commission for 1900. In 

 this paper it has been thought necessary to give only the depth and 



1 Acknowledgment is due to Hon. George M. Bowers, Commissioner of Fish- 

 eries, for permission to publish the results in this form. 



26 



