164 
At high water one can sail over many of 
the shoals of the inner part of the sound, 
but at low water the course from the main- 
land to the banks channel is a meandering 
one. The shoals are alive with worms, 
Arenicola, Diopatra, Clymenella and other 
annelids, along with the great Balanoglossus, 
were dug up in quick succession. The red- 
dish egg masses of Arenicola lay about in 
abundance on the flats. The low water col- 
lecting in the shoal part of the sound is 
very easy. Pushing along in askiff through 
the shallow channels between the flats, one 
finds starfish (Asterias), the red and white 
sea-urchins( Arbacia and Toxopneustes), abun- 
dant crabs and other common bottom forms. 
Scattered about over the bottom in great 
numbers is the interesting anemone, Ceri- 
anthus americanus. The tubes that were dug 
up were something over a foot in length; 
they contained animals, which of course had 
greatly contracted, about six inches long. 
This distinctively Southern actinia, origin- 
ally found on the South Carolina coast by 
Professor Louis Agassiz (Verrill, Revision 
of the Polypi of E. Coast of U. S., p. 32. 
Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. I.), has 
been observed by Mr. Wm. Stimpson and 
Professor McMurrich at Beaufort, N. C., 
where I have seen it myself. It is, how- 
ever, far more abundant at Wrightsville, 
and any one wishing to work out the life- 
history of this remarkable form could find 
no better locality than the latter place. 
I may add that the reproductive organs of 
the specimens I collected were very small. 
The breeding season probably comes on 
later. 
Just before high water I towed in the 
neighborhood of the old inlet. As I had 
anticipated from previous experiences in 
Beaufort harbor at this time of year, not 
much of interest was in the water. Small 
hydromeduse, crustacean larve, abundant 
Sagittas, make up the tow stuff. Later in 
the year, doubtless as at Beaufort, the 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. VI. No. 135. 
towing is excellent. Iam told that abun- 
dant large jelly-fish and Portuguese men-of- 
war make their appearance in August and 
September. 
The sea-beach has a very gentle slope, 
and judging in part from specimens sent me 
by Mr. Chas. M. Whitlock, of Wilmington, 
many things of interest are to be had just 
beyond the line of breakers, where the sea is 
frequently calm enough to permit collecting. 
In the main the Wrightsville fauna is evi- 
dently very similar to that of Beaufort (see 
the lists in Studies of Biol. Lab. Johns Hop- 
kins Univ., Vol. IV., No. 2, and the list 
of annelids by Professor Andrews, Proc. 
U.S. Nat. Mus. Vol. XIV., No. 852). I 
may add that some of the local collectors 
would recognize, from a description, many 
of the striking forms, such as Chetopterus, 
Chalina arbuscula, Leptogorgia virgulata, all of 
which may be had here. 
H. V. Witson. 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 
PETRIB’S ‘NEW RACE’ IN EGYPT. 
Two years ago (Scrmncr, August 28, 
1895) I described the discovery by Mr. 
Flinders Petrie in Middle Egypt of remains 
which he attributed to an invading race 
about the twelfth dynasty, and which he 
was inclined to believe were Libyan stock. 
Since then there has been considerable 
discussion of the subject, the general trend 
of which was in favor of Petrie’s view. 
Dr. G. Schweinfurth, however, in the Ver- 
handlungen of the Berlin Anthropological 
Society for January, attacks this theory, 
and claims that the remarkable stone arte- 
facts unearthed in the tombs of the ‘New 
Race’ are such as are made to-day by the 
Ababde in the Thebais. He is inclined to 
the belief that the ancestors of these tribes 
in prehistoric times were the so-called ‘ New 
Race’ and came from the Bedcha stock, 
near the coast of the Red Sea. 
