6o DISCOVERY REPORTS 



at the other stations. The best and largest specimens were found at St. 196 in 720 m., 

 where it is rare. Beyond 2000 m. it is as a rule represented only by one or two fragments. 

 At several stations, notably Sts. 171, WS 479 and 486, the specimens are dark in colour 

 owing to the incorporation of volcanic sand. 



72. Bathysiphon rufus, de Folin (SG 53). 

 Five stations: 198, 363, 369; WS 494A, 555. 



Very rare every\vhere. A single good specimen at St. 363 in the comparatively small 

 depth of 329 m., and fragments at St. 369 in 1767 m., both in the South Sandwich , 

 Islands. Fragments only at St. WS 494 a in Bransfield Strait and St. WS 555 in the 

 Weddell Sea. A very slender and nearly black specimen, found at St. 198 in the 

 Bransfield Strait, is probably referable to this species, its colour being due to the in- 

 corporation of fine black volcanic sand. 



73. Bathysiphon rufescens, Cushman (SG 52). 

 Three stations : 167, 181, 196. 



The organism referred, in the South Georgia report, with some hesitation to Cush- 

 man 's species, is common and well developed at St. 167, less frequent at St. 196, and 

 rare at St. 181. 



74. Bathysiphon argenteus, Heron-Allen and Earland. 



Bathysiphon argenteus, Heron-Allen and Earland, 1913, CI, p. 38, pi. iii, figs. 1-3. 

 Bathysiphon arge?iieus, Cushman, 1918, etc., FAO, 1918, p. 30, pi. xii, figs. 1-3. 

 Bathysiphon argenteus, Heron-Allen and Earland, 1922, TN, p. 82. 

 Two stations: WS 506, 517. 



A single large specimen at St. WS 517 and a fragment at St. WS 506. The species, 

 originally described from British waters, has already been recorded from the Antarctic 

 (Ross Sea). 



75. Bathysiphon argillaceus, sp.n. (Plate I, fig. 10). 

 Four stations: 177, 180-2. 



Test tubular, very long in proportion to its breadth and exhibiting little tapering in 

 the course of growth ; wall thin but firm, the cavity occupying quite three-quarters of 

 the external diameter of the shell; composed of very fine mud or clay without in- 

 corporation of larger mineral particles; smooth externally but dull and unpolished. 

 Length up to lo-o mm. or more, average diameter about 0-12 mm. 



The distribution appears to be confined to the Bransfield Strait and Palmer Archi- 

 pelago in depths 160-1080 m. It is more or less common at most of the stations where 

 it occurs. In life and while moist it is flexible, but very brittle when dry. Owing to the 

 clay used in construction the test is quite opaque when mounted in balsam. At St. 181 

 many specimens were found with a loosely aggregated mass of mud at one end, ap- 

 parently material in course of collection for enlarging the tube. 



A smaller, but probably identical, organism has been familiar to me for many years in 

 my ' Goldseeker ' dredgings from the central North Sea, where it occurs at several of the 

 muddier stations, notably St. 9 (61° 34' N, 2° 4' E, 370 m.). I have found it also in the 

 Norwegian fjords, so it probably has a wide distribution in cold water. 



