92 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



only data derived from the regular dredging operations of the first three years, and have 

 plotted out the records of these supplementary dredgings in the case of the Foraminifera. 



The meager representation of the Foraminifera in our local fauna is realized in a 

 striking way when the present records are compared with those for deep-sea dredging. 

 There occurs in these waters none of the "ooze" which forms such a marked feature of 

 the ocean bottom the world over. The maximum number of species found by the survey 

 at any single station was 9 (Phalarope station 78), and the average number found 

 throughout the period during which a careful examination was made was 1.4 species 

 per dredge haul. During the Challenger dredgings, it was not uncommon to find 100 

 species of Foraminifera at a single station, and over 240 species were found in one case. 



The Canadian list of Whiteaves comprises 64 members of this group, 13 of which 

 are known to occur in our local waters; while the Plymouth list comprises 109 species, 

 19 of which are common to Woods Hole. The list for the Irish Sea comprises 209 species 

 of Foraminifera. All three of these foreign surveys have extended to waters of consider- 

 ably greater depth than any which occur within the "Woods Hole region" of the present 

 report. The great disparity in the wealth of Foraminifera is thus largely accounted for. 



Distribution charts have been plotted for those 9 of our local species which were 

 taken at 10 or more of the dredging stations. Regarding the distributions here por- 

 trayed few definite conclusions can be offered, owing to the incompleteness of the records 

 upon which they are based. As already stated, these organisms were not looked for 

 during the regular dredgings of the Fish Hawk in Buzzards Bay, nor during the Phala- 

 rope dredging in Vineyard Sound, though the former deficiency was in some measure 

 rectified during the summer of 1907. As a consequence, one might easily be misled 

 respecting the relative abundance of certain species on various parts of the local sea 

 floor. For example, most of the species seem to be scarce or absent in the central parts 

 of Buzzards Bay. This is doubtless due in part to the fact that material was examined 

 from less than 30 stations in the deeper parts of the Bay, as compared with about 125 

 in the Sound. During the supplementary dredging of 1907 a number of species (Mili- 

 olina seminulum, Polymorphina lactea, Polystomella striate punctata, and Rotalia beccarii) 

 were encountered at Fish Hawk stations in the Bay; the two last named, indeed, being 

 taken with considerable frequency. It does not seem unlikely, however, that the soft, 

 black mud which prevails throughout much of Buzzards Bay is unfavorable to some 

 species of Foraminifera, as to many other organisms of all sorts. On the other hand, 

 with a very few exceptions, every species which was recorded from Vineyard Sound was 

 taken with greater or less frequency along the island shores of Buzzards Bay. 



One feature in the distribution of nearly all the species which have been plotted 

 is the greater frequency with which they occur at the western end of Vineyard Sound. 

 Indeed, certain species are entirely lacking in the eastern half. So far as is known, the 

 same degree of care was taken in preserving and examining the bottom samples through- 

 out the whole length of the Sound during the Fish Hawk dredging of 1905. This greater 

 abundance of Foraminifera at its western end would thus seem to be a genuine fact in 

 distribution. Whether it is due to the character of the bottom, which is predominantly 

 sandy in the western half of the Sound, or to the comparative absence of the swift tidal 

 currents in the latter part can not be stated with any certainty. 



a Including only the Fish Hawk and Phalarope stations of 1905. 



