ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 3 
which jackdaws (Quéscalus major) were flying. This 
bird is said to spend the winter here. 
At high water one can sail over many of the shoals of 
the inner part of the sound, but at low water the course 
from the mainland to the banks channel is a meandering 
one. ‘he shoals are alive with worms, Arezicola, Dio- 
patra, Clymenella and other annelids, along with the 
ereat Balanoglossus, were dug up in quick succession. 
The reddish egg masses of Arenicola lay about in abund- 
ance on the flats. The low water collecting in the shoal 
part of the sound is very easy. Pushing along in a skiff 
through the shallow channels between the flats, one finds 
starfish (As/eréas), the red and white sea-urchins (Aréa- 
claand Toxopneustes), abundant crabs and other common 
bottom forms. Scattered about over the bottom in great 
numbers is the interesting anemone, Certanthus america- 
nus. ‘The tubes that were dug up were something over 
a foot in length; they contained animals, which of course 
had greatly contracted, about six inches long. This dis- 
tinctively Southern actinia, originally found on the South 
Carolina coast by Professor Louis Agassiz (Verrill, Re- 
vission of the Polypi of E. Coast of U. S., p. 32. Mem. 
Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I.), has been observed by 
Mr. Wm. Stimpson and Professor McMurrich at Beau- 
fort, N. C., where I have seen it myself. It is, however, 
far more abundant at Wrightsville, and any one wishing 
to work out the life-history of this remarkable form could 
find no better locality than the latter place. I may add 
that the reproductive organs of the specimens I collected 
were very small. The breeding season probably comes 
on later. 
Just before high water I towed in the neighborhbod of 
the old inlet. As I had anticipated from previous expe- 
riences in Beaufort harbor at this time of year, not much 
of interest was in the water. Small hydromeduse, crus- 
lacean larve, abundant Sagi//as, make up the tow stuff. 
Later in the year, doubtless as at Beaufort, the towing is 
