96 Prof. A. E. Verrill on the Distribution of Marine Animals 



August, was 69° to 71° in Vineyard Sound. On Sept. 9th, 

 in the mouth of Vineyard Sound, west from Gay Head, the 

 surface temperature was 67° F., and the bottom, in 15^ 

 fathoms, was 63° ; but proceeding about two miles further 

 out, off No Man's Land, the surface temperature was 62°, and 

 the bottom, in 18 fathoms, was 58^°, showing a decrease of 

 5° within this short distance, both at the surface and bottom. 

 A few miles further out, at the same depth, the bottom tem- 

 perature was 57°, which was the lowest temperature obtained. 

 A short distance west of No Man's Land, on a gravelly bottom 

 in 11 fathoms, where codfish are caught in winter, the tem- 

 perature was 63° at the surface and 59° at the bottom. Off 

 the mouth of Narragansett Bay, about sixteen miles south 

 from Newport, the depth over a limited area is 29 fathoms, 

 which was the deepest water found. At this locality the 

 surface temperature was 62° and the bottom 59°. The 

 bottom in these deeper waters was generally composed of 

 soft mud, filled with innumerable tubes of worms and Amphi- 

 pod Crustacea, among which a species of Ampelisca, which 

 makes a soft flabby tube, two or three inches long and 

 covered with mud, is extremely abundant. At the last named 

 locality numerous specimens of the rare and beautiful Epi- 

 zoanthus americanus^ V., were found coating the shells in- 

 habited by hermit crabs [Eupagurus hernhardus) and finally 

 absorbing the shells entirely. This remarkable Actinian has 

 been found previously only on two occasions, — first on a deep 

 bank off the coast of New Jersey, by Capt. Gedney, and since 

 in deep water off Massachusetts Bay. With this was also 

 found a rare Holothurian [Molpadia oolitica), previously known 

 only from specimens taken from fish-stomachs. 



The various muddy bottoms in the deeper and colder areas 

 yielded nearly the same assemblages of animals, most of which 

 are either strictly northern types, many of them not before ob- 

 served so far south, or else species of wide range extending 

 much further north as well as south. Among those of special 

 interest are the following. Of Radiata : — Edwardsiafarinacea 

 v., previously known only from the Bay of Fundy ; Thyoni- 

 dium, sp. Of MOLLUSCA: — Molgida pilularis^ ., and Glandula 

 mollis, Stimp., both known before only from the Bay of Fundy ; 

 Cyprina islandica, Cardita horealis, C. novanglice, Yoldia 

 sapotilla, Y. limatida, Nucula proxima, N. delphinodonta, 

 Cardium pinnulatum, Astarte quadrans, A. castanea, A. 

 lutea (?), Perkins, Lyonsia hyalina, Anatina papyracea, Lu- 

 cina jilosa, Gallista convexa, Grenella glandiila, Modiolaria 

 nigra, M. corrugata, Pecten tenuicostatus (young = P. fuscus 

 Lins.), Buccinum undulatum, Chrysodomus pygmceus (large 



