84 GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 



on the time of the appearance of pelagic animals have been 

 made in the summer months and very little is known of 

 the genera characteristic of winter months. Our rigorous 



-> o 



climate, however, does not invite collecting at that time 

 and probably very little embryological work could be suc- 

 cessfully carried on in the colder months. Of the life 

 which I have collected in midwinter by surface fishing, 

 larvae and young form a very small proportion of the 

 whole. 



Every collector has his own preference for the best place 

 to visit to collect marine animals, and it is not strange 

 that it generally corresponds with the place which he has 

 most often visited. I have worked at only a few stations 

 in New England and am no doubt prejudiced in their fa- 

 vor. The wealth of floating life at Newport is the greatest 

 known to me on the New England coast, but in the few 

 excursions I have made at Wood's Holl, it has seemed to 

 me that there was little difference in the amount of float- 

 ing life in the two places. 



For dredging, however, neither of these places can com- 

 pare with Eastport and Grand Man an. The latter place 

 is a paradise for the collector of Ccelenterata and Echino- 

 dermata. Several circumstances combine to make it such. 

 The enormous tides which sweep around the islands lay 

 bare a littoral zone of great breadth. They also, since 

 their volume is so great, bring a large number of floating 

 animals from deep water. " The opportunities for work 

 at Grand Manan with the dip-net in the study of free- 

 swimming animals are very great. The student of these 

 forms of life is particularly recommended to visit the so- 

 called "ripplings" or tide eddies, several miles from the 

 shore, near the line where the platform of the islands sinks 

 to the deeper sounding of the Bay of Fundy. These ed- 

 dies are favorite feeding places of many marine animals, 



