16 I. IJfMA : HEXACTINELLTDA. I. 



Collecting Hexactinellida and other Deep-sea Animals in the 



Sagami Sea. 



In an article entitled ' Long-Lines as Zoological Collecting 

 Apparatus,' published in the Zoological Magazine ('96«), I have 

 dwelt at length upon the character and extent of the work which 

 can be accomplished in the collecting of specimens from a con- 

 siderable depth by the sort of fishing gear known in general as 

 the long-line. It is the tackle by means of which nearly all 

 the innumerable Hexactinellid specimens hitherto obtained in the 

 Sagami Sea have been collected — from probably the very first 

 * glass-ropes ' described nearly seventy years ago by Gray as 

 Hyalonema, to the numerous superb specimens now to be seen 

 in the British Museum or in the Science College Museum ; and 

 since my above-mentioned paper is likely to be not easily acces- 

 sible to many, I may be allowed to go once again over the same 

 matter. 



There are used in the Sagami Sea two sorts of long-lines 

 (Jap.: Hainawa, i.e., the trailing-line), viz., the mackerel-line 

 and the dabo-line, both of which are adaptations of the form of 

 long-lines in general. The tackling of the mackerel-line, em- 

 ployed for small depths only, is too weak to be of much use for 

 our special purpose. The dabo-line, primarily intended for 

 angling at a depth of 300-400 hiro or over for Balhythrûsa 

 dorsalis Gthr. (Jap.: Daho-gisu, whence the name of the line), 

 is the sort that we have used with much success in our 

 zoological collecting. 



The dabo-line consists of a main-line of about the thick- 

 ness of a quill and of numerous thinner branch-lines, called 



