358 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NxVTIONAL MUSEUM. 



larger end, but taper gradually toward the smaller one, and are nearly 

 straight. They may possibly at times stand erect in the mud, but this 

 is doubtful ; in most cases they probably lie free on its surface, and the 

 large and powerful annelid inhabiting them probably has the power of 

 dragging them about ; otherwise it would be impossible to account for 

 the numerous hydroids, actinians, sponges, &c., which often cover them. 



On the harder bottoms, in the shallower localities, especially at sta- 

 tions 805 to 867, we obtained great quantities of a very diflerent, unat- 

 tached worm-tube, composed of bivalve shells, entire and broken, 

 arranged so as to form a strong, tlattened covering around a thin silken, 

 central tube. These are made by a i^ale, opalescent species of Nothria 

 (near N. conchylega), allied to Hyalinoecia. In the localities last named 

 we also took large quantities of another very diflerent kind of worm- 

 tube, made by another Annelid of the same family, a large species of 

 Eunice or Leodice.* This tube is sometimes half an inch in diameter, 

 more or less attached, irregularly bent, often branched, or with side- 

 openings at the angles. It is comj^osed of a parchment-like material, 

 and is usuallj^ covered with hydroids, sponges, actinians, ascidians, &c. 



The sand and mud usually contain a large percentage of calcareous 

 Foraminifera, many of which are remarkably large and handsome spe- 

 cies, often more than o" or 6'" in diameter. In some of the localities (as 

 at stations 8(39, 894:, and 895) there were, in the mud, very large quantities 

 of large sand-covered Ehizopods {Astrorhiza, Bhahdammina^ &c.), which 

 assume a variety of irregularly branched and often rudely stellate forms, 

 but many of them are rod-like, and nearly an inch in length. 



Fishes, Crustacea, Annelids, Anthozoa, and Echinoderms, as well as 

 Mollusca, abounded in new and strange forms. Of many of these spe- 

 cies, i)reviously unknown in our waters, thousands of specimens were 

 obtained. At several of the stations, especially at 880, 881, 893, and 

 894, large numbers of the handsome Mopsea-like coral, Acanella Nor- 

 mani V., were taken ; to these many fine specimens of the rare Pecten 

 vitreus were attached, and also several species of Actinians and Annelids. 

 In many of the localities vast numbers of hermit-crabs {Paguridw), of 

 several species, occurred, inhabiting cases consisting of groups of the 

 compound, sand-coated Actinians, mostly Epizoantlms Americanus V. 

 The bases of these originally covered dead shells of Gastropods or 

 Pteropods, occupied by the crabs, but by some chemical process they 

 have, in most cases, wholly removed the substance of the shell, so that 

 the polyp constitutes the entire residence of the crab. Large numbers 

 of huge Actinians, such as Bolocera Tuedice, JJrticina nodosa, &c., oc- 



* Leodice jyoh/irmicJiia Verrill, sp. nov. A stout species, resembling L. vivida (St.) = 

 X. Norvigica (L.), but the brauchii© commence on the seventh or eighth segment, and 

 continue to near the end of the body, on at least 1'20 segments ; they have four to six 

 branches; eyes large, round; three median antennae, long, the middle one longest; 

 tentacles long, reaching beyond the edge of the buccal segment, which is as long as 

 the three following ones; ventral cirri at first conical, those beyond the fourth, short, 

 with large swoUeu bases. 



