COLLECTING HEX. IN THE SAGA3tI SEA. 25 



the dabo-line from a depth of 600 hiro, its own weight upon the 

 rope cut the body into tw^o. One hnlf of this grand prize was 

 securely entangled but the other half went siiihing down and 

 would have been lost forever, had not Kuma pluckily dived and 

 secured it just in time. 



A gigantic specimen of Aphroccdlistes vastus F. E. Sen., pur- 

 chased by jMr. Owston of a fisherman and which doubtless is 

 now in the British Museum, measured about 22 inches in height 

 and 20 inches across at the widest part. It could have been 

 obtained only by the rope of the long-line. 



A dead but a very striking specimen of Ghonelasma calyx 

 F.E.ScH., in the possession of the Sei. Coll. Museum, deserves to 

 be specially mentioned on account of the host of animals that 

 are attached to it (see the halftone figure on p. 31). For, it 

 bears no less than : 1 small Rhabdocalyptus glaber Tj.; 6 young 

 RhahdocalyiJius ca^pillatus Ij.; 5 small Chaunopledella cavernosa 

 Ij.; 1 small, dead and undeterminable Dictyonine Hexactinellid ; 

 several Tlienea sp.; 4 calcareous sponges representing 2 species ; 

 1 Lithistid ; several Monaxonid sponges ; over 70 (!) Terehratella 

 hlanfordi ; 9 Laqueus rubellus ; several Lima sp.; 1 Fusus sp.; and 

 finally a goodly number of Ophiurons and Bryozoans ! Another 

 similarly interesting object is a large barrel-like Hexactinella, 

 which frequently bears on it among other things a number of 

 smaller glass-sponges. These cases will sufficiently illustrate 

 with what delight we have welcomed everything — including stones 

 and rock-fragments (often several pounds in weight), coal-cinders 

 which must have been thrown overboard from steamers, and 

 even old tin-cans and such like things — that the long-line has 

 brought up from the bottom. 



After what I have said above with respect to sponges, I 



