LITTORAL MARINE MOLLUSKS OF CHINCOTEAGUE 

 ISLAND, VIRGINIA. 



By John B. Henderson and Paul Bartsch, 



OJ the United States National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During July, 1913, the writers made a short trip to Chincoteague, 

 on the Atlantic shore of Accomac County, Virginia, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the local marine famia. Owing to the inaccessibility 

 of this strip of coast, generally known as the "Eastern Shore," 

 collectors seem to have neglected it. At all events, there appear to 

 be but few records and no critical lists published of the shallow water 

 shells from any locality between Cape May, New Jersey, and Beaufort, 

 North Carolina. Ovir chief desire was to find out of just what ele- 

 ments the moUuscan fauna consisted — to see how many, if any, 

 species of southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what 

 northern species still persisted in this faunal area. We were happy 

 in om- somewhat haphazard choice of a locality for we encountered 

 at Chincoteague a greater variet}' of stations than likely can be found 

 at any other one point along this section of the coast. There are, 

 fnst, the interior sounds of very considerable extent. These are 

 very shallow (4 to 12 feet), more or less thickly sown with oyster 

 beds and with patches of eel grass, the bottom ranging from hard 

 sand through varying degrees of hard clay to soft mud. Second, we 

 found the unusual feature of a bight or protected cove formed by 

 the southward drift at the southern end of Assateague Island, pro- 

 tected from heavy wave action by a long, curved sand spit. This 

 bight has a soft mud bottom, mth a temperature possibly 8° less 

 than that of the open sea. The mud which we brought up with the 

 dredge seemed almost icy to the touch. This condition is probably 

 produced by cold springs seeping through the floor of the bight. 

 This colder water of the bight yielded to our dredge Yoldia limatula, 

 large and fine, and Nucula proxima, whereas just around the pro- 

 tective spit of sand, on the ocean side, we found dead Terebras of 

 two species, some young Busycon perversa and a valve of Cardium 

 robustum, a somewhat startling association of species. Then, lastly, 



Proceedings U, S. National Museum, Vol. 47— No. 2055. 



411 



