106 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



eight specimens recorded above were taken by the Yacht Anton DoJiru 

 of the Carnegie Institution on July 31, 1930. 



Many species of corals flourish in these semitropical waters, and as 

 a result dredging is carried on with considerable hazard to one's gear, 

 nets on occasion becoming hopelessly torn or caught on the huge coral 

 heads. On one occasion our steel cable parted in ten fathoms of water, 

 and the only large net seemed irrevocably lost. The swift run of 

 tidal currents so stirs up the sediment in these otherwise unusually 

 clear waters that the bottom can be seen only with difficulty. The buoy 

 which marked the net was carried away in rough weather a day or 

 two after its loss, but a week later, just at slack water when the sedi- 

 ment disturbance was practically at a standstill, Captain Mills of the 

 Laboratory's yacht with rare good fortune saw the mud-covered 

 meshes of the net on the bottom with the aid of a water glass. It was 

 caught by several grapnels but could not be raised, and Captain Mills 

 with the aid of only a metal diving hood descended in the 60 feet of 

 water to affix a line to a strategic point of the net. He found that the 

 net had at the time of towing brought up under a coral head not less 

 than 12 feet high and thick and solid in proportion. Even a steel cable 

 had to give way before such a mass of coral. It was with this net, 

 after its recovery, that the most notable of the dredge hauls ever made 

 by the Anton Dohm were accomplished. 



I returned to Washington by way of Tampa and Tarpon Springs 

 for the purpose of visiting this headquarters of the Gulf sponge fish- 

 ery. It is conducted almost entirely by Greek spongers, who, with 

 their families, form a considerable percentage of the population of 

 Tarpon Springs. On the way to Tortugas, I called upon Mr. Robert 

 Ranson of St. Augustine, Florida, and upon Will Wallis at Braden- 

 ton, both of whom have contributed a number of interesting speci- 

 mens to the invertebrate collections of the Museum from time to time. 

 I am very grateful to them for the many courtesies shown me in their 

 respective cities, and to the Carnegie Institution for the opportunity 

 afforded for studying the Decapod Crustacea of the Tortugas region. 



