No. 392.] THE HOPKINS SEASIDE LABORATORY. 633 
so in the plankton. They are largely the cause of the phos- 
phorescence of the ocean here. The water sometimes has a 
light rusty color, which is due to the occasional abundance of 
Noctiluca. 
About sixty kinds of echinoderms have been found. The 
sea urchins cover the rocks in the strip of land from extreme 
low tide out for thirty to forty feet, and for distances of miles 
along the coast. Some of them are of enormous size. Holo- 
thuria californica, a sea cucumber from ten to twenty inches 
long, is abundant. A great orange-red Cucumaria, three feet 
long, is not uncommon. Serpent stars fairly swarm in the 
sand, together with'Synapta. The starfishes are numerous, and 
there are many large and strikingly colored ones. The Chinese 
fishermen collect, can, and send to China, to be used as food, 
large quantities of the reproductive glands of the sea urchins. 
Ascidians are as numerous as the sponges, and are found in 
the same places, encrusting the rocks over about the same areas, 
The compound forms are especially numerous, but large simple 
ones suitable for study are not so easily procured. 
The fish fauna of the Bay of Monterey and adjacent waters 
presents numerous special features of interest. Hag-fish and 
Chimeera are easily collected in large numbers. The rock-cod, 
a group of peculiar oviparous forms, are abundant in species 
and individuals. The viviparous surf-fishes, found elsewhere 
only in Japan, are numerous. The embryos, when they issue 
from the body of the mother, are surprisingly large in propor- 
tion to the size of the adult female. The fish fauna is an 
unusually large one because of the presence of a number of 
sub-tropical forms, and many northern forms, in addition to the 
forms peculiar to the region. 
At the extremity of Point Pinos peninsula, and along its rock- 
bound western or ocean side, there are a number of “ bird 
rocks.” These isolated rocks, rising twenty to ‘forty feet 
above the water, are fairly covered at times with cormorants, 
pelicans, and gulls. In the breeding season the larger ones 
are occupied as rookeries by various sea birds. As there are 
no storms in summer, an excellent opportunity for observing 
the life of these sea birds is offered, and some extended studies, 
