402 LIST OF LABRADOR MARINE ANIMALS. 



sediment, the bottom is most curiously paved with polished and 

 clean " cobble stones." This barren bottom is scattered over with 

 patches of Desmarestia, Ptilota, and Agarum, which give shelter 

 to Hyas, Chiton, Cynthia, and a few Echini. Three or four miles 

 farther out into the Straits, a long narrow ledge forms the " Bank," 

 whose crown rises to within eighteen fathoms of the surface, and 

 it is here that the Astrophyton abounds most. On this bank the 

 Ptilota elegans and the Nullipora polymorpha were the only plants 

 observed. Indeed I was struck with the poverty of this ^locality 

 in sea weeds, compared with the mouth of the St. Lawrence river, 

 as catalogued in a previous number of this journal. 



The rocky shores exposed to surf from the Grulf did not seem 

 to harbor any animal life, but a narrow, interrupted belt of sand 

 and mud flats in Salmon Bay, with patches of Zostera marina, 

 about six inches in length, exhibited a feeble assemblage of littoral 

 animals compared with that of Maine, even. In the higher levels 

 of the zone, whose whole extent was only six feet verticallv, were 

 Littorina rudis, Rissoa. minuta, Balanus balanoides and Jaera 

 copiosa ; and below, Mya a'renaria, Macorna fasca, Mytilus edu- 

 lis, Littorina Uttoralis, Tectum testudinalis, and Nereis. In the 

 pools on the flats, myriads of Mysls and Crangon occurred with 

 Platessa and Cottus; under the rocks and seaweed, Gammarus 

 muiatus, Cancer borealis, and occasionally Homarus Americanus ; 

 and on the fuci Laomedea, mthDynamena pumila. 



The entire absence of any specimens of Purpura lapil- 

 lus was inexplicable, though I searched for that shell. So also I 

 did not find any species of Idotaea, though it is found at Anti- 

 costi, and I took it from seaweed floating a few miles off Cape 

 Ray, Newfoundland. There were also no Planarians or Nemerteans 

 observed between tide marks. 



Another belt, extending a fathom or two below low water mark, 

 was characterized by the three species of Asterias, Solaster pappo- 

 as, Echinus, Echinarachnius, Pecten tenuicostatus, Mesodesma Jau- 

 resii, Margarita helicina, JBuccinum undatzim, Pycnogonids, 

 Curna, Hyas aranea, Desmarestia with Spirorbis, Eupagurus, 

 two species, and Agarum with eggs of Nudibranchs ; but no forests 

 of Laminaria such as those in Maine, occurred around Caribou 

 Island. 



The muddy and sandy bottom of Salmon Bay in 15 to 20 fath- 

 oms was characterized by Opkoiglypha nodosa, Pentacta calcigera^ 

 Nucula tenuis and expansa, Leda buccata, Thyasira Gouldii, Car- 



