PKOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 357 



second trip was made September 12 to 14, nearly south from Newport, 

 90 to 105 miles, where the depth was from 85 to 325 fathoms (stations 

 873 to 881). The third trip, October 1 to 3, was to the same region, but 

 somewhat farther west and south, and in deeper water (stations 891 to 

 895). At all these stations, except 8G7, a large beam-trawl was used ; 

 at 867 a heavy "rake-dredge", of a new form, was used with good 

 success. 



All these stations are situated in the region designated on the charts 

 as " Block Island soundings", and nearly all proved to be exceedingly 

 rich in animal life, the vast abundance of individuals of many of the 

 species taken being almost as surprising as the great number and 

 variety' of tlie species themselves. 



In this region the slope is exceedingly gradual till the dei^th of 75 to 

 100 f Vithoms is reached, at about 90 miles from the coast ; the slope then 

 becomes much more rai)id, but yet not steej), and the bottom is of very 

 fine comi)act sand, mingled with more or less mud, fragments of shells, 

 and sometimes with small stones,* and generally has a smooth and 

 rather hard surface, 'uell adapted to support a very great variety of 

 animals of nearly all classes. In some places the material is softer mud 

 and sand ; in others it is covered with broken shells and great numbers 

 of sponges, hydroids, and worm-tubes. 



Many species owe their existence, on these bottoms, to the suitable 

 places of attachment furnished by the large tubes of annelids, which 

 formed a marked feature in many of the localities. 



In several localities with muddy bottoms (869,879,880,894), we trawled 

 large quantities (several thousands in all) of very singular, large, round, 

 unattached worm-tubes, occui^ied by a large, undescribed species of 

 HyalinceciaA These tubes are firm and translucent, composed of a 

 tough substance resembling the quills of birds. They are open at both 

 ends, but often have internal sei^ta near the larger end ; they are often 

 more than a foot long, and about a third of an inch in diameter at the 



* These stones, which were common in nearly every haul of the third trip, are of all 

 sizes, from small pebbles up to bowlilers G inches or more in diameter. They are of 

 various kinds of rocks, like those found in the drift formation along the opposite 

 shores of the mainland and on the shores of Block Island and the eastern end of Long 

 Island. Their presence, so far from land and beneath the edge of the Gulf Stream, can 

 easily be explained by supposing that they have been carried out to sea by the shore 

 ice that forms along these coasts in winter in vast quantities and of considerable 

 thickness. This ice, when it breaks up in spring, is carried out to sea, with its 

 inclosed stones and gravel, by the tides and currents, till it comes in contact with the 

 Avarmer waters of the Gulf Stream, where its loads of stones drop to the bottom. "We 

 have often met with large, loose, and fresh bowlders, sometimes of large size, in 

 various localities, f;ir from land, on muddy bottoms, off the coasts of Maine and Nova 

 Scotia, where thoy have doubtless been recently dropped from shore ice. 



t Hi/aJinwcia ariifex Verrill, sp. nov. Closely related to H. fiihicola of Europe, but 

 much larger, with the buccal segment as long as the three or four following segments ; 

 anterior autenn;T3 small, short, rounded, ovate; three median ones sabequal, very 

 long, reaching the 15th segment ; eyes rudimentary; branchiie slender, commencing 

 at about the ^Sth to 30th segment; bidentate sette with the hook terminal and less 

 curved. Surface opalescent. 



