Putnam.] 134 [Nov. 5, 



just beginning to develop as a fringe; at this stage there was al- 

 ways a mass of fat in large flakes along the edge of the ovary, which 

 was not present at any other stage. In those specimens where the 

 ovary was simply a thin narrow band running along the side of the 

 intestine, the eggs could be traced by using a lens. In two specimens 

 from the Straits of Magellan no eggs could be traced, even by a 

 careful microscopical examination made by Dr. Packard and myself, 

 and though we could find no trace of spermatic cells, I am inclined 

 to consider these two specimens as males, with the testes undevel- 

 oped, simply from the fact that in all other specimens with the ovary 

 of no more corresponding development, minute eggs could always 

 be made out. 



Prof. Steenstrup has called attention to the fact that the single 

 specimen which he describes is the only instance when the eggs have 

 been found with the hard, or horny, shell, and its little hooks for at- 

 tachment, and it is singular that in all the specimens that have 

 passed through my hands, embracing as they do many that have 

 the eggs as large, and even larger than those figured by him, not 

 one shows the least development of the horny covering, or of 

 the hooks, though the large eggs are all enclosed in a tough mem- 

 brane, which unquestionably is the stage just preceding the one 

 which he describes. The large, or nearly mature, eggs are from ten 

 to eighteen in number in all the specimens I have examined, either 

 from Grand Menan or the Straits of Magellan ; sixteen is the most 

 usual number. In one specimen from Grand Menan the large eggs 

 were sixteen in number, and measured .8 of an inch in length and 

 .4 in width. In a very large specimen from the Straits of Magellan, 

 of a total length of 21^ inches, the large eggs were also sixteen in 

 number, and measured .9 of an inch in length by A in width. 



The collection made in the Straits of Magellan by the Hassler 

 Expedition, shows conclusively that the time at which the eggs are 

 excluded is not the same with all the females, for in each lot of spec- 

 imens collected, during the few weeks in March that the Expedition 

 was in the Straits, there are females with the eggs in all the different 

 stages of development, and the specimens collected at Grand Menan, 

 probably from August to October, show the same to be the case. It 

 is very probable, however, that the large eggs in all these specimens 

 would very soon have attained their horny envelopes and hooks, and 

 it is reasonable to suppose that in the Straits of Magellan many eggs 



