The Nautilus. 



Vol. VI. SEPTEMBER, 1892. No. 5 



SHELL COLLECTING AT EASTPORT. 



EDWARD W. ROPER. 



The August number of the Nautilus was awaiting me on my 

 return from a collecting trip to Eastport, Maine, with Messrs. B. H. 

 Van Vleck and R. T. Jackson, of Boston, and I could fully appreci- 

 ate Mr. Simpson's excellent article on dredging at Tampa Bay. 

 Eastport is likewise " classic ground " to naturalists, and seldom a 

 year passes that boatman Jerry Sullivan does not have an opportu- 

 nity to take some ardent collector in his trim sloop. "Uncle" 

 Jerry has been a resident of Eastport over forty years, and has 

 coiled the dredge rope for Agassiz, Verrill, Fewkes and other well- 

 known scientists. He knows the fluctuations of the strong tides, the 

 depth of water, and what is of most consequence, the character of the 

 bottom, which enables him to keep away from rocks which might 

 cause the loss of the dredge. 



While not equal to subtropical Florida as a collecting ground, 

 Eastport, for a northern locality, is rich in species and individuals. 

 Our dredgings were in water from fourteen to eighteen fathoms 

 deep, and Mr. Simjjson's statement that it was " hard, heavy, wet 

 work," was certainly not overdrawn. Sometimes the dredge came 

 up full of stones and gravel, with which were huge starfishes ten 

 inches across the rays, curious leathery Boltenias, large red shrimps, 

 sponges, such beautiful shells as Trochus occidentalis, Margarita 

 nndidata and Admefe viridula, and perhaps the long-named 



