286 KEPORT — 1867. 



were otlier hermit crabs ; but in tlicso instances there was not a shell on which 

 the sponge had iucrusted itself, I can scarcely imagine how a shell can 

 have disappeared after having been thiis incriistcd ; and it is difficiilt also 

 to imagine how, without a solid support, this sponge could have formed itself 

 into a baU round the crab (which had a defined cavity within) as we find it 

 to have done*. 



IJ. incrustans, covering the carapace and legs in patches, of a species of 

 spider crab. 



Hispida dictyocylindnis, H. Eowerbank. — There is something remarkable 

 in the circumstances which have attended the dredging of this species, and 

 which I can explain only by su^iposing that two species are confounded 

 together, which on the other hand I am assured, on high authority, is not 

 the case. Thus, in spaces or districts at the depth of about twenty, and 

 again in forty fathoms, there came up examples of this slender, branched 

 sponge, measuring, some of them, a foot in length, with the surface truly 

 hirsute, and which had been fixed to the ground by a well-marked and 

 rather broad root. But at other places and in deeper water, there clearly 

 had never been, of any one of the many examples obtained, an attachment 

 to the ground; and the branching growth proceeded from both ends, with an 

 intermediate space, not always in the middle, of from one to two or three 

 inches in length, and which appeared to be that middle Line or stem from 

 which the branches at each end derived support, but which had not even a 

 slight mark of a root or point of attachment. Secondary branches are at 

 least rare, if they occur at all in this (variety) ; and its surface has a much 

 finer grain than is common on the rooted examples. Some of these speci- 

 mens at least appear to have lain along the ground ; but in a single instance 

 one of the ends must have been erect, since on it was growing, parallel with 

 it, a flexible coral and two examples of FolUcipes scaJpdlum. In one instance 

 also a fine specimen of Graniia dliata had become fixed on a prostrate branch ; 

 and of another, of small size, now in the possession of Dr. Eowerbank, 

 with three liranches at each end of a short middle stem, it was the opinion 

 of that gentleman that two examples had been brought into contact with 

 each other and had thus become united ; but on examination I was not able 

 to discern any such mark of union, and of a root or footstalk there was no 

 appearance. 



Other species of sponge obtained in these dredgings are : — Ilalichondria 

 ficus, named by my late friend Joshua Alder, from sixty fathoms ; Desma- 

 cidon fruticosa, Eowerbank ; Hymcniacidon vm/idtosa, Eowerb., near the 

 land at Lantwit Bay ; Dysidea fragilis, Johnston ; Grantia compressa ; 

 G. Jistulosa, Johnst. ; Leuconia JisHdosa, Eowerb. ; G. ciliata ; G. lacunosa, 

 Johnst. ; Lcucosolenia, Eowerb., in shallow Avater, on the carapace of the 

 Corwich crab ; Aniouraciwn prolifermn and A. lave, from rocks in Lantwit 

 Bay. 



Of a large abundance of Annelids wc are not able to give an account, but 

 they have been placed in safe hands, examples having been sent to the Ee- 

 portert and to the British Musonm. What appear to be three species of 

 Aphrodyte have afforded mc figures. Folynoc sqvamaUi, Oanis hnmnevs, and 

 two or three species of Sipvnndus derive their interest in our labours from a 

 knowledge of the depth of water and distance from land in which they live. 



* [The sponge is first formed on the shell, wliich is afterivards destroyed hy the sponge, 

 by the snme power that enable sponges to bore into shells. — EEroTiTEu.] 



t These arc sent to Dr. Mactinlcsh for csaniination, and will be described in oiu* neit 

 Report. 



