126 fl> o s t e I 5 1 a 



as possible to render assistance if we 

 should meet with disaster. 



The water was so muddy over the 

 eel-grass flats that we had to dredge 

 for our specimens with our fingers 

 down among the roots. Of course we 

 feared various stinging things, the 

 water being plentifully supplied with 

 them, but we never received any in- 

 jury worth considering. One day, 

 when dredging off Montego Bay, we 

 were continually stepping on some- 

 thing that felt through our rubber 

 boots like drowned kittens. At last we 

 had the temerity to reach down and 

 bring up one of the objects, and to our 

 great joy and surprise it proved to be 

 an unfamiliar seaweed (Avrainvillea 

 longicaulis [Kutz.] Murr. , and Bood). 

 The plant was a most disgusting fleshy, 

 hairy, dark brown thing, each speci- 

 men harboring colonies of small sea 



