in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 343 



We had been dredging in the afternoon in 212 fathoms, be- 

 tween the east point of Anticosti and the Bird-rocks. About 

 600 fathoms of rope (made of cocoanut-fibre) had been paid 

 out, which when hauled in was, of course, wet. About ten 

 o'clock the same evening we threw the dredge over in 250 

 fathoms water, and again all the coils were paid out. As 

 the line went over the side it was luminous throughout its 

 entire length with electric sparks ! The closest examination 

 witli a triplet lens failed to disclose any trace of animal life 

 entangled in the strands. 



With a view of trying to get some information as to the 

 nature of the food of some of the surface-feeding fishes, and 

 especially of the herring and mackerel, towing-nets were fre- 

 quently used ; but scarcely any thing was taken in these. I 

 attribute these failures to the circumstance that the towing- 

 nets were only used in the daytime ; had they been employed 

 at night the results might have been different. Hempen tan- 

 gles, similar to those devised by Captain Calver, were em- 

 ployed with some success ; but the mistake was made of placing 

 these some 20 fathoms or so in front of the dredge, instead of 

 behind and on each side of it. 



The following is a brief sketch of some of the most inter- 

 esting forms of animal life obtained during the expedition. 

 During the autumn of 1871, Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., 

 visited Montreal, and went over the whole of the testaceous 

 Mollusca with me. I am also indebted to Professors A. Agassiz, 

 A. E. Verrill, and S. J. Smith for the identification of several 

 critical species. 



FOEAMINIFERA. 



Large quantities of these beautiful organisms were collected, 

 especially from very deep water, but at present only a portion 

 of these have been carefully examined. In Mr. G. M. Daw- 

 son's paper on the " Foraminifera of the River and Gulf of the 

 St. Lawrence," published in the ' Annals' for February 1871, a 

 list is given of fifty- five subspecies or varietal forms. Among 

 the specimens collected last year in deep water are a number 

 of large specimens to which it is difficult to attach any i;ame, 

 but which form a series connecting the subgenera Nodosaria^ 

 Dentalina, Margimdina^ and GristeJlaria. One of the most 

 remarkable of these is a MarginuUna fully one eighth of an inch 

 long, from the first chamber of which long spines proceed (at 

 various angles), which, when perfect, must have been as long- 

 as the shell itself; these long spines vary in number from 

 one to three ; and besides these there are others which are either 

 rudimentary or imperfect. Cristellaria crepidula and Tro- 



