WHAT WE DREDGED. 291 



mer visitors from Newfoundland, engaged in the herring fisheries. 

 They had quite a good catch, and were about preparing to return 

 home with their cargoes. The majority of these fishermen, we 

 found, were from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, and we everywhere 

 found them a rough, tough, but not ill-natured race, yet one with 

 whom we did not care to deal any more than it was found abso- 

 lutely necessary. 



At Dead Island we produced some of our best results at dredg- 

 ing. The harbor was not deep, but the seaweed, with which the 

 bottom was covered, was everywhere full of life, and covered with 

 shells and minute crustaceans. In one small pass to the north 

 of which we were anchored, I found one of the most remarkable 

 nests of marine animals that I had ever come across, either on La- 

 brador or in any of the harbors of Massachusetts. The water was 

 from one to five fathoms deep, and clear as crystal. The bottom 

 was one large, magnificent flower bed of anemones growing on a 

 ground of red nullipore that covered everything. The extent of 

 this growth must have been acres, and as we sailed along in our 

 boat we could see the magnificent animals as plainly as if they had 

 been before us in the bottom of the boat, and we could pick 

 them with our hands. 



The unevenness of the bottom furnished a pleasing variation of 

 elevations and depressions. Choice nooks and hiding places, or 

 plains were everywhere interspersed. Natural grottoes, and varie- 

 ties of rock-work, all were there, and all covered with " red rock," 

 or "live rock " as the people call this peculiar growth, probably the 

 red nullipore {Lithothaiimion polymorphuni) , and some so heavily 

 incrusted as to represent miniature shrubs and trees even by 

 theh* own incrusted additions. Over this growth the anemone 

 (^Metriditmt) grew as luxuriant as flowers reared in plant house 

 or hot-bed, and a most gorgeous hot-bed, even of beautiful 

 and rare tropical plants could not have excited more admiration. 

 I hauled up, with a huge scoop of the dredge, specimens whose 

 base measured ten and even more inches across, and whose ex- 



