PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 357 



second trip was made September 12 to 14, nearly sontli from Newport, 

 00 to 105 miles, where the depth was from 85 to 325 fathoms (stations 

 873 to 881). The third trip, October 1 to 3, w%as to the same region, bnt 

 somewhat farther west and sonth, and in deeper water (stations 801 to 

 805). At all these stations, except 807, a large beam-trawl was used ; 

 at 8G7 a heavy "rake-dredge", of a new form, was used with good 

 success. 



All these stations are situated in the region designated on the charts 

 as " Block Island soundings", and nearly all proved to be exceedingly 

 rich in animal life, the vast abundance of individuals of many of the 

 species taken being almost as surprising as the great number and 

 variety of the species themselves. 



In this region the slo^ie is exceedingly gradual till the depth of 75 to 

 100 lathoms is reached, at about 00 miles from the coast ; the slope then 

 becomes much more rapid, but yet not steep, and the bottom is of very 

 fine comi)act sand, mingled with more or less mud, fragments of shells, 

 and sometimes with small stones,* and generally has a smooth and 

 rather hard surface, well adai)ted to support a very great variety of 

 animals of nearly all classes. In some places the material is softer mud 

 11 nd sand; in others it is covered with broken shells and great numbers 

 of sponges, hydroids, and worm-tubes. 



Many si)ecies owe their existence, on these bottoms, to the suitable 

 idaces of attachment furnished by the large tubes of annelids, which 

 formed a marked feature in many of the localities. 



In several localities with muddy bottoms (800,870,880,804), we trawled 

 large quantities (several thousands in all) of very singular, large, round, 

 unattached worm-tubes, occupied l>y a large, undescribed species of 

 Hi/aUnoeciaA These tubes are firm and translucent, composed of a 

 tougli substance resembling the quills of birds. They are open at both 

 ends, but often have internal sei)ta near the larger end ; they are often 

 more than a foot long, and about a third of an inch in diameter at the 



* These stones, wliicli were common in nearly every baiil of the third trip, are of all 

 sizes, from small x)ebbles up to bowlders G inches or more in <liameter. They are of 

 \ ariwis kinds of rocks, like those found in the drift formation along the opposite 

 shores of the mainland and on the shores of Block Island and the eastern end of Long 

 Island. Their presence, so far from land and beneath the edge of the Gulf Stream, can 

 •'asily be explained by supposing that they have been carried out to sea by the shore 

 ice that forms along these coasts in winter in vast quantities and of considerable 

 thickness. This ice, when it breaks up in spring, is carried out to sea, with its 

 inclosed stones and gravel, by the tides and currents, till it comes in contact with the 

 warmer waters of the Gulf Stream, where its loads of stones drop to the bottom. We 

 have often met with large, loose, and fresh bowlders, sometimes of large size, in 

 various localities, far from land, on muddy bottoms, off the coasts of Maine and Nova 

 Scotia, where they have doubtless been recently dropped from shore ice. 



t Uyalinoccia artifex Verrill, sp. nov. Closely related to H. tubicola of Europe, but 

 much larger, with the; buccal segment as long as the three or four following segments ; 

 anterior antenn;c small, 'short, rounded, ovate; three median ones subequal, very 

 long, reaching the 15th segtncnt ; eyes rudimentary; branchii© slender, commencing 

 at about the 28th to 30th segment; bideutate setiB with the hook terminal and~ less 

 curved. Surface opalescent. 



