THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1«94. 



133 



whatever was of most interest to him. 



The first dredge brought up several 

 species of crabs, inchiding three species 

 of Hermit crabs, and three fine speci- 

 mens of Rock crabs. Starfishes, some 

 bright red, others violet, yellow, brown 

 or gray, of all sizes, from :f-inch to 8 

 inches across ; some excellent specimens 

 of Scallops, Sand-dollars, all sizes, 

 a white Holoturium, Sea anemones, 

 ^several young Hake and about a dozen 

 Skate eggs in which the embryos were 

 plainly visible when the eggs were held 

 up against the light As quickly as 

 these specimens Avere picked up they 

 were deposited in the dishes on the 

 tables, containing fresh sea water, where 

 they soon got over their scare, and 

 where their motions could be watched. 



The Commissioner and Dr. Patten 

 were now much besieged men ; half a 

 dozen questions were jiut to them at 

 once, and every one of tliem was an- 

 swered in a most satisfactory manner. 

 Dr. P. cut the horny shells of the Skate 

 eggs open and separated the embryos 

 from the yolk and the albumen, describ- 

 ing, while he was doing this in a dish 

 of clear water, the different parts. The 

 little Skates were in different stages of 

 develojiment, from one to two inches in 

 length; all however were far enough de- 

 veloped to show the characteristic shape 

 of their parents. Being highly inter- 

 esting specimens, the doctor prepared 

 them at once in fluid, to be used as 

 museum specimens. By this time the re- 

 fuse of the dredge having been shoveled 

 overboard, the trawl appeared again in 

 front of the port. It was promptly 

 hauled in and the second heap of 

 ''wonders of the deep" was soon sur- 

 rounded by us all, each searching, feel- 

 ing or scratching in the pile as if it 

 contained precious stones. Such little 

 things as being pinched in the finger by 



a crab were overlooked; the occupation 

 of picking up specimens was so fascin- 

 ating that the positions assumed by 

 some of us were real comical ; one vis- 

 itor got so deeply interested in it that 

 he dropped his eye-glasses, lead -pencil, 

 pocket knife, match-safe, in fact, all 

 the contents of his pockets, including 

 some small change, right among the 

 Crab, Fish and Sand-dollars. 



This second haul duplicated many 

 things we had already found in the 

 first. In addition it contained several 

 adult Skates, about fifteen inches in 



Wandering of the Left Eye of Young Flounder. 

 (After Benecke.) 



length, a Sculpin, several Tautog, small 

 Pipefish, a different species of Spider- 

 crab, some colonies of Hydromedusfe 

 and Anthozoa and two species of marine 

 worms. 



The third haul brought among some 

 Sea urchins and other specimens some 

 full grown Flounders and also several 

 young of these interesting fish, the lat- 

 ter ranging in sizes from one to two 

 inches, showing all but No. 1 of the 

 different stages of the wandering of one 

 of their eyes, as rej)resented in our 

 drawing. The young flounders swim in 



