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358 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
larger end, but taper gradually toward the smaller one, and are nearly 
straight. They may possibly at times stand erect in the mud, but this . 
is doubtful; in most cases they probably lie free on its surface, and the 
large and powerful annelid inhabiting them probably has the power of 
dragging them about; otherwise it would be impossible to account for 
the numerous hydroids, actinians, sponges, &e., which often cover them. 
On the harder bottoms, in the shallower localities, especially at sta- 
tions 865 to 867, we obtained great quantities of a very different, unat- 
tached worm-tube, composed of bivalve. shells, entire and broken, 
arranged so as to form a strong. flattened covering around a thin silken, 
central tube. These are made by a pale, opalescent species of Nothria 
(near V. conchylega), allied to Hyalinecia. In the localities last named 
we also took large quantities of another very different kind of worm- 
tube, made by another Annelid of the same family, a large species of 
Hunice or Leodice.* This tube is sometimes half an inch in diameter, 
more or less attached. irregularly bent, often branched, or with side- 
openings at the angles. It is composed of a parchment-like material, 
and is usually covered with hydroids, sponges, actinians, ascidians, &e. 
The sand and mud usually contain a large percentage of calcareous 
Foraminifera, many of which are remarkably large and handsome spe- 
cies, often more than 5" or 6" in diameter. In some of the localities (as 
at stations 869, 894, and 895) there were, inthe mud, very large quantities 
of large sand-covered Rhizopods (Astrorhiza, Rhabdammina, &e.), which 
assume a variety of irregularly branched and often rudely stellate forms, 
but many of them are rod-like, and nearly an inch in length. 
Fishes, Crustacea, Annelids, Anthozoa, and Echinoderms, as well as 
Mollusea, abounded in new and strange forms. Of many of these spe- 
cies, previously unknown in our waters, thousands of specimens were 
obtained. At several of the stations, especially at 880, 881, 893, and 
894, large numbers of the handsome Mopsea-like coral, Acanella Nor- 
mani V., were taken; to these many fine specimens of the rare Pecten 
vitreus were attached, and alsoseveral species of Actinians and Annelids. 
In many of the localities vast numbers of hermit-crabs (Paguride), of 
several species, occurred, inhabiting cases consisting of groups of the 
compound, sand-coated Actinians, mostly Hpizoanthus Americanus V. 
The bases of these originally covered dead shells of Gastropods or 
Pteropods, occupied by the crabs, but by some chemical process they 
have, in most cases, wholly removed the substance of the shell, so that 
the polyp constitutes the entire residence of the crab. Large numbers 
of huge Actinians, such as Bolocera Tuediw, Urticina nodosa, &e., oc- 
* Leodice polybranchia Verrill, sp. nov. A stout species, resembling L. vivida (St.)= 
L. Norvcgica (L.), but the branchize commence on the seventh or eighth segment, and 
continue to near the end of the body, on at least 120 segments; they have four to six 
branches; eyes large, round; three median antenne, long, the middle one longest ; 
tentacles long, reaching beyond the edge of the buccal segment, which is as long as 
the three following ones; ventral cirri at first conical, those beyond the fourth, short, 
with large swollen bases. : 
