204 I. IJIMA : HEXACTINELLIDA. I. 



mens of E. oicent, as well as much information supplied me by- 

 friends'-', sufficiently establishes the habitat of this species to be 

 Soutliern Japan, particularly the waters of the Corean Channel 

 to the north-west of Kyiishyu. 



With respect to the characteristics and structures of the 

 species, I have but little of importance to add to what is already 

 known. 



General Characters. 



The body is straight, phallus-like. The broadest part is 

 usually in the lower half; frequently the greater part of the body 

 presents a nearly uniform breadth. Appended is a list of measure- 

 ments of 17 specimens including not only those studied by me 

 but also those which had been definitely measured by previous 

 writers. 



*In reply to inquiries made for my sakr, sivcr:il years ago, liy Atr. S. IIattori, then 

 teacher of natural history in the Karats Middle School (Prov. Hizen), certain localities in 

 the Genkai Sea (NW. of Kyushu) were mentioned as the places where the Euplectella is now 

 and then hauled up by the hooks of the long-lines used in the fishery of the bream (Pagrus). 

 He reports : ' The bream-catchers hail from Nagahama and vicinity in the Prefecture of 

 Hiroshima, and are accustomed to fish fur away from the coast at a depth of 30-50 hiro. 

 It is possible that by encouraging these fishermen the Euplectella might be secured. I was 

 told tliat in this way Mr. M. Kanamak, residing on Kabesliima (a small island not far 

 from Karats), came at one time into possession of eeven specimens, varying from about two inches 

 to a foot in length; so that, the species does not seem to be rare after all.' — Moreover, more 

 than one informant had pointed out to me the neighborhood of Tsushima, in the Corean 

 Channel, as the Enidectella locality, the truth of which information has subsequently been 

 borne out by the specimens received by Mr. Komeyama from that island. — The specimens 

 which were presented by Mr. UNO to the Science College were accompanied by a note, written 

 by the fisherman who is said to have originally obtained them, to the effect that they were 

 brought up hanging to the bream-line at a spot about 80 kilometers to -yVSW. of the southern- 

 most end of Tsushiraa and from a depth of ajjproximately 120 hiro. 



Captain UsuMr, of the Osaka Mercantile Steamship Company, has informed me that in 

 his native province, Suwo, Euplectella? are well-known objects, being considered as indis- 

 pensable to the marriage ceremony (see anon under Misc. Notes), and that he used to think 

 that they were fished up near Oshima, close to the coast of that province, in the Inland Sea 

 and not far distant from Shimonoseki. 



