XVII. 



CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. WORMS.* 



THE collection of worms made by the " Blake " 

 expeditions is remarkably rich, and not merely con- 

 firms in general the relations which similar materials 

 from other deep-sea expeditions had already shown, 

 but in a number of instances furnishes a most de- 

 sirable supplement to the results of the earlier expe- 

 ditions. Unfamiliar worms are here found in well- 

 preserved specimens, while worm-cases which had be- 

 fore only been seen empty have been dredged occupied 

 by their builders. Annelids make up the larger part 

 of this collection, and among them the tubicolous 

 annelids are by far the most numerous. One of the 

 large Eunicidse, ffyalincecia tubicola (Fig. 260), was 

 specially numerous ; its tubes, sometimes fully fifteen 

 inches in length, often filled the bottom of the trawl 

 when it was dragging on muddy bottoms. Some of 

 these genera are most striking from the exquisite 

 beauty of their tubes, which are composed of siliceous 

 spicules, and dead pteropod shells, and also from their 

 strange association with corals, gorgonians, sponges, 

 starfishes, mollusks, and ascidians. A species of 

 Phorus was frequently accompanied by a large an- 

 nelid, comfortably established in the axis of the shell, 

 with its head close to the aperture. Of other worms 

 the Nemertinse are represented by isolated fragments ; 

 the gephyreans by Sternaspis, from a depth of 158 

 fathoms, and Aspidosiphon, from 190 fathoms ; while 

 many still undetermined species of Phascolosoma 



Fig. 260. 



1 The following account of the worms is taken from the Preliminary Report of 

 Prof. Ernst Ehlers, of Gbttingen, who has supervised the drawing of the figures. 



