164 



WILSON, 



[Vol. I. 



the results of the recent Harriman Alaskan Expedition are 

 published another even better known European form will be 

 found among them. 



It is hoped also to clear up the cloud of doubt which has 

 hung about the questionable American Echiurus chrysacan- 

 thophoruSy for the reports on this species have contained so 

 many gross errors and conflicting statements, and so little 

 accurate description, that the determination of the exact species 

 has been impossible. 



This has been due to a variety of causes, chief among which 

 may be mentioned two. First, it is essentially a shore species, 

 frequenting muddy shallows where the water is too deep or too 

 roily for the shore collector and not deep enough for dredging. 

 Consequently only a limited number of specimens have been 

 obtained. 



Again, so far as known, every one of these was so mutilated 

 in the getting as to render a full description impossible. The 

 part most easily injured is the delicate proboscis. This breaks 

 off upon the slightest provocation, and leaves no scar that 

 can be detected even with a good hand lens. 



Hence it is difficult to obtain a specimen with the proboscis 

 intact even under favorable circumstances, and absolutely impos- 

 sible by dredging. It was this denudition of the proboscis with 

 no resultant scar which led the discoverer of the species, Cou- 

 thouy, to mistake it for a holothurian, and to describe it as 

 Holothnria chrysacanthopJiora in 1838 (3). 



The same mistake was made by Gould in 1841 (5), who says : 

 ''This is not unlikely to be H. forcipata of Fabricius. Several 

 specimens which I have seen were all taken from fishes' stom- 

 achs in a mutilated state. Some of the essential characters, 

 therefore, remain yet undetermined. The surface is light col- 

 ored and appears to be naked, except that there are several 

 long, flexible, sharp-pointed spines about the mouth ^ of a 

 shining golden yellow. One specimen is five or six inches in 

 length." 



Pourtales rectified this mistake in 1851 and located it cor- 

 rectly among the Gephyrea, giving it a name which it has since 



1 Really the anus. 



