134 <A. #. Verrilli—Results of recent Dredging Hapeditions 
Kennebunkport, Me., Hampton beach, N. H., and Province- 
town, Mass. There is really no sufficient evidence that it was 
not an inhabitant of our shores before the advent of Kuropeans, 
but local in its habitats. It may have become more diffused in 
recent times, by commerce, or it may have been overlooked 
formerly by collectors. 
ne of the localities, most interesting zodlogically, that we 
visited, was a small shallow and sheltered cove, at the upper 
end of Quahog Bay, about thirty miles northeast from Port- 
land. This place is well known to be inhabited by the round- 
clam or “Quahog” (Venus mercenaria), which is not foun 
living elsewhere on the coast of Maine, so far as known to me. 
ndeed, this southern species is rare everywhere north of Cape 
Cod, on the New England coast, and is probably not to be 
found living north of Massachusetts Bay, except in the coves 
connected with Quahog Bay. It is also absent from the Bay of 
Fundy, but reappears in the southern and shallow parts of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. This anomalous distribution would be 
and surrounded on both sides by more northern forms. Sev- 
southern forms. 
In fact, the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from 
Chaleur Bay to Prince cpa Island and Cape Breton Island, 
is a region of shallow water, occupied by another southern col 
ony, but a much larger one than that of Quahog Bay, and contain- 
