XVII. 
CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES.— WORMS. 
Tux collection of. worms made by the “ Blake” 
expeditions is remarkably rich, and not merely con- 
firms in general the relations which similar materials 
from other deep-sea expeditions had already shown, 
but in a number of instances furnishes a most de- 
sirable supplement to the results of the earlier expe- 
ditions. Unfamiliar worms are here found in well- 
preserved specimens, while worm-cases which had be- 
fore only been seen empty have been dredged occupied 
by their builders. Annelids make up the larger part 
of this collection, and among them the tubicolous 
annelids are by far the most numerous. One of the 
large Eunicide, Hyalinecia tubicola (Fig. 260), was 
specially numerous ; its tubes, sometimes fully fifteen 
inches in length, often filled the bottom of the trawl 
when it was dragging on muddy bottoms. Some of 
these genera are most striking from the exquisite 
beauty of their tubes, which are composed of siliceous 
spicules, and dead pteropod shells, and also from their 
strange association with corals, gorgonians, sponges, 
starfishes, mollusks, and ascidians. A species of 
Phorus was frequently accompanied by a large an- 
nelid, comfortably established in the axis of the shell, 
with its head close to the aperture. Of other worms 
the Nemertin® are represented by isolated fragments ; 
the gephyreans by Sternaspis, from a depth of 158 /. 
fathoms, and Aspidosiphon, from 190 fathoms; while 
Fig. 200. 
many still undetermined species of Phascolosoma Hyalinocia. 
1 The following account of the worms is taken from the Preliminary Report of 
Prof. Ernst Ehlers, of Góttingen, who has supervised the drawing of the figures. 
