PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 357 
second trip was made September 12 to 14, nearly south from Newport, 
90 to 105 miles, where the depth was from 85 to 325 fathoms (stations 
373 to 881). The third trip, October 1 to 3, was to the same region, but 
somewhat farther west and south, and in deeper water (stations 891 to 
895). At all these stations, except 867, a large beam-trawl was used; 
at $67 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 slope is exceedingly gradual till the depth of 75 to 
109 fathoms is reached, at about 90 miles from the coast; the slope then 
-becomes much more rapid, but yet not steep, and the bottom is of very 
fine compact sand, mingled with more or less mud, fragments of shells, 
and sometimes with smail stones,* and generally has a smooth and 
rather hard surface, well adapted to support a very great variety of 
animals of nearly all classes. In some places the material is softer mud 
and sand; in others it is covered with broken shells and great numbers 
of sponges, hydroids, and worm-tubes. 
Many species owe their existence, on these bottoms, to the suitable 
places 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 (869,879,880,894), we trawled 
large quantities (several thousands in all) of very einouiay! large, round, 
unattached worm-tubes, occupied by a large, undescribed species of 
Hyalinecia.t These tubes are firm and translucent, composed of a 
tough substance resembling the quills of birds. They are open at both 
ends, but often have internal septa near the larger end; they are often 
more than a foot long, and about a third of an inch in iivamcter at the 
* These stones, which were common in nearly every haul of ‘the thir d trip, are of all 
sizes, from small pebbles up to bowlders 6 inches or more in diameter. They are of 
various 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 
easily 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. 
+ Hyalinecia artifec 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 antenne small, short, rounded, ovate; three median ones subequal, very 
long, reaching the 15th segment ; eyes rudimentary ; branchi:e slender, commencing 
at abont the 28th to 30th segment; bidentate sete with the hook terminal and les¢ 
curved, Surface opalescent. 
