1896.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 39 



eggs, and among them were obtained the earliest stages of de- 

 velopment. For the later stages the eggs were retained in a 

 case sunken in about three fathoms of water immediately off the 

 beach of the laboratory, and from these several more stages 

 were later taken. 111 fortune, however, overtook some of the 

 eggs which had incubated the longest, a storm causing the hatch- 

 ing case to be swept away. And still another stroke of ill for- 

 tune was the loss, in spite of additional precautions, of a second 

 case of eggs, which Dr. Dean had left in charge of the fisherman 

 Ah Tack Lee. But still a third one is now stocked with eggs, 

 and from it he hopes that many of the later stages will be ob- 

 tained. 



As far as the securing of embryos of Bdellostoma was con- 

 cerned, the chances seemed for a long time adverse. For up- 

 ward of eight weeks of iiis sta.3' Dr. Dean did not succeed in ob- 

 taining even a single embryo. Several times strings of eggs 

 had been brought liim by the fishermen and he had collected 

 them himself, but in every case they proved to be worthless. 

 The eggs, it was found, could only be taken by accident in the 

 following way : The mature Myxinoid, having taken a hook of 

 the trawl line, secretes an enormous quantity of thick and viscid 

 slime, and if by chance during this process its writhing body 

 comes in contact with a string of eggs these may become en- 

 slimed, and thus, together with the fish, be brouglit to the 

 surface. Such an accident, it may readil}" be understood, is de- 

 cidedly uncommon, and the capture of a bunch of eggs means 

 the catching of scores or even hundreds of Myxinoids. By good 

 fortune, however, the first embryo was at last taken by Ah Tack, 

 and thanks to this skilful fisherman the particular spot was lo- 

 cated from which this had been taken. Here, it was inferred, 

 was possibly a favorable spawning ground where eggs were both 

 numerous and contained embryos, and therefore from this spot 

 it was very desirable to take as many Bdellostoma as possible. 

 An arrangement was accordingly made by which the dozen or 

 more fishing boats of the Chinese village were impressed into 

 zoological service. This little fleet was then taken to the ground 

 and during the remainder of Dr. Dean's sta^^ its efforts in trawl- 

 ing yielded the best results. Over seven hundred eggs were 

 taken for inspection and of these no less than one hundred and 

 fifty proved to contain embryos, and these when more carefully 

 examined yielded at least twenty-two well-marked developmental 

 stages. 



The collections of material, chordate and non-chordate, made 

 by the western party have been safel^^ received at the laboratory 

 of the department of Zoology, and have there been assorted and 



