76 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 



Pecten magellanicus, the great "scallop shell, which lives 

 in five or six feet of water. This, mollusc, which is lo- 

 cally known in Labrador by the name of "pussel," we 

 afterwards obtained in quantity, fried it in butter and 

 meal, finding it to be delicious eating, combining the 

 properties of the clam and oyster, the single large ad- 

 ductor muscle being far more tender than that of the 

 common scallop of southern New England and New 

 York. 



With our man, James Mosier, and his sailboat we 

 spent two days in dredging in from forty to fifty fathoms 

 out in the Strait of Belle Isle, three or four rniles from 

 land. The collection was a valuable one, containing 

 some new species. The crown of the bank which we 

 raked with our poorly constructed dredge was packed 

 with starfish, polyzoans (including a coral-like form, or 

 myriozoum), ascidians, shells, worms, and Crustacea. The 

 collection was purely arctic, and had not the only dredge 

 I had become broken, we should have reaped, or rather 

 dredged, a rich harvest. As it was, the novelties were 

 quite numerous, and the interest and excitementras well 

 as labor, of overhauling, sorting, and preserving what wt- 

 did obtain lasted for several days. 



The only plant besides stony vegetable growths called 

 "nullipores" dredged at this depth was a delicate red 

 sea-weed, the Ptilota elegans, which was found after- 

 wards to extend as far down in depth as ninety fathoms. 

 Those who glibly talk, on terra firma, of plant life as 

 affording a basis for animal life, should dredge in deep 

 water. They will find that a vast population of animals 

 of all sorts and conditions in the scale of life is spread 

 at all depths over the sea-bottom, thriving almost with- 



