SMALL SHELLS FROM DREDGINGS OFF THE SOUTHEAST 

 COAST OF THE UNITED STATES BY THE UNITED 

 STATES FISHERIES STEAMER "ALBATROSS" IN 1885 

 AND 1886 



By William H. Dall 



Honorary Curator of Mollusks, United States National Museum 



In 1885 the United States Fisheries steamer Albatross made a series 

 of dredgings along the southeastern coast of the United States, One 

 of the stations, No. 2415, was off the coast of Georgia in north lati- 

 tude 30° 44', and west longitude 79° 26', with a depth of 440 fath- 

 oms (948 meters), in broken coral, coarse sand, and broken shell, 

 bottom temperature 45.6° F. (7.5° C). 



The following year a similar dredging was made off Fernandina, 

 Fla., at station 2668, in north latitude 30° 58' and west longitude 

 79° 38', with a depth of 294 fathoms (678 meters) in gray sand and 

 broken coral, bottom temperature 46.3° F. (8.2° C). 



The material obtained was sifted, the larger shells taken out and 

 the comparatively fine residue retained for its content of minute 

 shells, foraminifera, etc. This residue was chiefly composed of frag- 

 ments of the test of barnacles and echinoderms, the sand having been 

 sifted out, and the fragments of coral, if any, removed; at all events 

 none were found in it. Many of the contents had evidently been 

 crushed or broken by the teeth of fishes. The pteropod remains had 

 been derived from the surface, and very few of the other specimens 

 had been alive when dredged. The total amount of material from 

 off Georgia was somewhat more than a pint, and that from off Fer- 

 nandina about twice as much. 



Noticing that this contained many minute shells I took it home, 

 put it on my desk, and from time to time as I had a few leisure 

 moments, went over it, a teaspoonful at a time, and picked out the 

 mollusks. Later when in quarantine at home on account of illness 

 in the family, I separated these pickings and mounted the specimens 

 for study, a work completed in 1898. Various duties compelled me 

 to give little further attention to this material for some years. In 

 1920 the late John B. Henderson, jr., engaged on a monograph of the 

 Dentalia of the southeast coast of the United States, utilized the 



No. 2667.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 70, Art. 18 



24105— 27t 1 1 



