INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 9 



sand or mud precipitated over the animal produced no sensible effect ' 

 upon its movements. Pelagic forms of life, such as jelly-fishes, were 

 decidedly scanty, and it must be admitted that their absence was a source 

 of no little disappointment. Unfortunately, we were not sufficiently 

 equipped for prosecuting zoological researches by night, otherwise as 

 far as the pelagic fauna is concerned, our efforts at collecting might 

 have been attended with better success. Toward evening we obtained a 

 number of Idyas of the form of Idya roseola, only colorless, which were 

 retained alive in a basin of sea-water for very nearly two days. 



While in our enforced captivity off Sand Key we were much inter- 

 ested in watching the habits of the hundreds of pelicans, cormorants, and 

 gulls that frequented a small sand island or shoal in the mkldle of the 

 harbor. The pelicans and cormorants seemed to mingle indiscriminately 

 into a single household, but the gulls evidently preferred an independent 

 position of their own, ranging themselves in linear series, lumps of silvery 

 white, like so many sentinels to a flock. 



TAMPA AND HILI.SHOKO BAYS. We left our anchorage early on the 

 2 ist, and tire same evening made Point Pinellas, at the entrance to 

 Old Tampa Bay. The passage of Boca Ceiga (John's Pass) was effected 

 without much difficulty, although its direction had to be made from the 

 mast-head. Recourse to the mast-head has frequently to be had in the 

 navigation of Florida waters, owing to the numerous shoals that bar 

 the passages, and the difficulty of their determination from a low level. 

 Even the most experienced pilot will consider himself fortunate if he 

 escapes one or two trials of stranding during a day's journey, and there 

 are probably very few who can claim immunity from the results of what 

 the non-initiated might consider bad sailing. 



We dragged in shallow water just after passing the Boca Ceiga, but 

 the dredge brought up little of consequence ; the haul consisted 

 almost exclusively of myriads of Venus canccllata and Nassa trivittata. 

 At our anchorage inside of Point Pinellas we secured a specimen 

 of a beautiful rose Aurelia, measuring some seven inches across the 

 disk, the first of our jelly-fish captures ; a species of brittle star, 

 Opliiolcpis clcgans, was very abundant, and several individuals could 

 almost invariably be obtained from every bunch of grass that was scooped 

 up by the net. We tried the experiment of night collecting, and obtained 

 a number of forms that would otherwise probably have been lost. The 

 young of an undetermined species offish, and numerous small crustaceans 

 were especially attracted by the glare of our lamp, and through it we also 

 obtained a specimen of the balloon-fish (Tctrodou tiirgidus), ' and a 

 half-beak (Hemirhamphus unifasciatus), which, in its eager survey of 

 the artificial " moon," skipped over it and landed in our boat. 



