36 THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY [February, 



and cup of tea. In the moi-niug, aftei' exploring the beach for some 

 miles, I started to walk over the three miles of railroad track to the 

 Old Colony depot. Before arriving there I met with a crossing keeper, 

 who informed me that if I had waited half an hour I might have come 

 on the train, as the lav\^ obliged the company to run one train a day 

 through the winter. While he was telling this the train passed, and 

 he said the Old Colony train would be due in ten minutes. I hurried 

 on, but in less than a minute heard the whistle of the approaching 

 train, and arrived at the depot only in time to see it receding in the dis- 

 tance. The depot was entirely deserted, but looking around I found a 

 man who told me the time-table had been changed that morning and 

 the train was ten minutes earlier than before, and the next train was 

 not due for four hours. 



Having walked upwards of ten miles, lugging a heav}- basket, I did 

 not feel much like exploring further, and passed the time as best I 

 could until the hour for the train, when I entered the empty depot and 

 sat down. In a few minutes a benevolent individual opened^the door 

 and asked if I was waiting for the train, and informed me that there 

 were none that stopped at that depot, except the one I had missed, but 

 that if I wished to go on I might flag the train myself, which, with 

 many thanks to him, I most promptly did, and was soon on my way 

 home, musing on the exigencies of autumn ti"avel at a summer I'esort. 



But to return, although the beach was bare there was a quantity of 

 vellow, olive, brown, and black algse swashing up and down in the tide 

 ripples, from which I tished out a few fronds of EutJwra cristata and 

 Dclesseria sinuosa^ the latter covered with the usual animal incrusta- 

 tions. I have never succeeded in finding any diatoms on any of these 

 alga2. We noted the great numbers of small starfish tumbling in the 

 tide ripples ; they might have been picked up b}- the peck ; very few of 

 them over two inches in diameter— a discouraging outlook for the suc- 

 cess of oyster culture in this vicinity. 



Reaching Nantasket we were disappointed to find that no row-boats 

 could be procured in the lower part of the harbor. Being now late we 

 gave up for the night, intending to take an early start in the morning, 

 but the morning brought a pouring rain and we started on the tiresome 

 ride for home, a distance of nearly one hundred and fifty miles, looking 

 regretfully as we passed at the coves and inlets where I had hoped to 

 .find interesting, if not new, varieties. I found the mud gathered at 

 Pemberton not very rich, but containing quite a quantity oi Pleurosigma 

 baltic7(7n and the small form resembling P. for?nos7tm I have before 

 noticed at Morris Cove. I was pleased to find a number of large and fine 

 specimens of the tvpical P. formosi/m, some of them the largest Plenro- 

 sigma I had ever seen, so large that the largest P. balticum looked 

 dwarfed beside them. But the most characteristic variety were fine 

 specimens of Stauroptera aspera^ the finest I had ever seen in sufficient 

 quantitv to name the gathering. Next in number was Navicula longa^ 

 then fine specimens of several varieties of N. constricta^ N. elipfica^ 

 N.lyra^ and many others, a few Coscinodiscus^ Actinoptychus^ Catn- 

 pylodiscus, Triceratiujn^ Glyphodesjnus^ several varieties of Bid- 

 dulphia^ Rhabdo7iei7ia^ Mclosira^ Ceratauhis^ Actinocyclus dubius^ 

 Achnaiithes loiigipcs^ Bacillaria paradoxa^ Synedra superba^ Suri- 

 rella ovata^ Nitzschia curvula^ Hyalodiscus subtilis^ Pleicrosigma 



