14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
The investigations of the past summer were confined to the Kas- 
kaskia rocks of Monroe and Randolph Counties, Ill. They were 
systematically carried on in connection with the geological work 
for the State of Illinois, in progress at the same time under the 
direction of Prof. Weller, in order to have the benefit of accurate 
determinations of the horizons from which the collections were 
made, with reference to the several subordinate formations into 
which the Kaskaskia of that region is divided. In this way it was 
hoped to correct some confusion as to the stratigraphic relation 
of a number of species described in the geological reports of 
Tllinois and Iowa. The operations were successful in this respect, 
and at the same time six large boxes of fine specimens were obtained. 
Among the specimens there are a number of slabs covered with 
erinoids not hitherto found in that formation in an excellent state 
of preservation, a portion of one slab containing 22 specimens of 
9 different species. 
MOLLUSCAN FAUNA OF VIRGINIA COAST. 
Mr. John B. Henderson, jr., a member of the Board of Regents of 
the Institution, and Dr. Bartsch, of the National Museum, visited 
the Atlantic shore of Accomac County, Va., which had heretofore 
received little attention from collectors. 
The chief objects of this trip were to determine of just what 
elements the molluscan fauna consisted; to see how many, if any, 
species of southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what 
northern species still persisted in this faunal area. The collectors 
were fortunate in their somewhat haphazard choice of a locality, 
for they encountered at Chincoteague a greater variety of stations 
than can probably be found at any other point along this section of 
the coast. Here there are interior sounds of very considerable 
extent which are very shallow (4 to 12 feet), more or less thickly 
sown with oyster beds and with patches of eel grass, the bottom 
ranging from hard sand through varying degrees of hard clay 
to soft mud. 
They found also the unusual feature of a bight or protected cove 
formed by the southward drift at the southern end of Assateague 
Island, protected from heavy wave action by a long, curved sand 
spit. This bight has a soft mud bottom, with a temperature possibly 
8° less than that of the open sea. The mud brought up with the 
dredge seemed almost icy to the touch. This condition is probably 
produced by cold springs seeping through the floor of the bight. 
This colder water of the bight yielded to their dredge Yoldia lima- 
tula, large and fine, and Nucula proxima, whereas just around the 
protective spit of sand, on the ocean side, they found dead Terebras 
