134 



colder parts of the Gulf and mouth of the River St. Lawrence, in depths of 

 some 10 to 60 fathoms, northward to Labrador, Hudson Strait and Green- 

 land. On the "Diana" exploring expedition to Hudson Bay in 1897, specimens 

 of it were dredged by Mr. A. P. Low between King George Sound and the 

 bottom of Ungava Bay. Some specimens dredged off Grande Greve, Gaspe 

 Bay, by the writer in 1867, were pronounced by Mr. Hanley (in 1868) to 

 be the exact variety of A. Banksii figured in Beechey's Zoology of the 

 Beagle. 



If A. Banksii is the same as the Venus compressa of Montagu, but not of 

 LinnfPus, as maintained by Searles. Wood and G. O. Sars, and the preceding 

 dates are correct, the laws of prioi'ity would seem to require that the present 

 species should be called^. Montacuti (Dillwyn). 



However this may be, as a North American quaternary fossil, A. Banksii 

 is recorded l.'y Sir J. W. Dawson as having been collected in the Leda clay 

 at Portlaiid, Maine; at St. John, IST.B.; at Anticosti, Little Metis, Riviere 

 du Loup, Kamouraska, Quebec, and Montreal, P.Q.; also at Labrador. 



AsTARTE Banksii, var. globosa. 



Astarte globosa, Moller (1842). 



Nicnnia Banksii, var. globosa, G. O. Sars (1878). 



Entrance to Gaspe Bay, where an unusually large living specimen, which 

 measures — length 28 mm., height 25 mm., breodtli, or greatest thickness 

 through both valves, 16 mm., — was dredged by the writer in 1867. A 

 few much smaller specimens were dredged on the north shore of the St. 

 Lawrence, off Egg Island, in 70 to 80 fathoms, by the writer in 1871. 



Astarte Banksii, var. striata. 



Nicania striata. Leach (1819). 



Crassina striata, Brown (1827). 



Astarte striata. Brown (1844) ; Moller (1842) ; et auct., but not 



A. striata, Sowerby (1822) teste Loven. 

 Astarte Banksii, var. striata, G. O. Sars (1878), 



Specimens that have been identified with A. striatahave been recorded as 

 having been collected from the fishing banks off Halifax, by Willis, in Gaspe 

 Bay by the writer, at Murray Bay by Sir J. W. Dawson, on the Labrador 

 coast at Hopedale by Packard, and on the Greenland coast by Moller. 

 Packard has expressed the opinion that A. Laureniiana, Lyell, from the 

 Pleistocene deposits at Beauport, is identical with A. Banksii, and Sir J. 

 W. Dawson that it is the same as A. striata. In the writer's judgment, no 

 living specimens that he has seen, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence or else- 

 where, are exactly similar to A. Laureniiana. 



