THe N@wricus. 
WoL. exer. NOVEMBER, 1898. No. 7. 
SHELL COLLECTING AT MT. DESERT, MAINE. 
BY JOHN B. HENDERSON, JR. 
The coast of Maine has been thoroughly explored by biologists for 
many years, and has, indeed, become a classic ground in the annals 
of American conchology. Frenchman’s Bay and the waters imme- 
diately about Mt. Desert seem to have been less exploited than other 
localities in Maine. Collectors of marine invertebrates going “ down 
Kast” generally take their dredges and trawls to Casco Bay, or, 
if more ambitious, they hurry on to the famous old collecting region 
about Eastport and Grand Menan. A few notes from the shores of 
Mt. Desert Island may, however, prove acceptable. 
Frenchman’s Bay is a large body of water with a wide pass out 
to sea which is somewhat obstructed with bold, rocky islands. 
Through the openings between these islands the twelve and fourteen 
feet tides flow with great swiftness, scouring out the channels to a 
depth of from forty to fifty fathoms. In these deep places a tough 
form of algae clings tenaciously to the rocky bottom, and harbors 
within its tangle of branches and stems a vast multitude of small 
crustaceans (often phosphorescent), many curious star-fishes, and a 
wealth of mollusean life. Margarita cinerea, an occasional Scala 
groenlandica, abundant Trophon clathratus, Bela turricula and de- 
cussata, Cemoria noachina, young Sipho, and the lively little Nassa 
trivittata were observed. Dredging in these deep, rocky places is 
attended with many difficulties, but often yields satisfactory results. 
The general average depth of the bay is twenty to thirty fathoms. 
The bottom is mud, with patches here and there of hard, pebbly 
