CHAPTER IX 
ZOOLOGICAL NOTES, CONTINUED 
ANNELIDS, COELENTERATES, INSECTS 
Annelids—I have already referred to the wonderful display 
of tube-dwelling worms on the sea-wall surrounding the Dock- 
yard. It was the outstanding zoological feature of our environ- 
ment and the source of constant admiration. Just below sea- 
level they were attached in what seemed to be almost a solid 
mass reaching down nearly to the bottom, rank on rank of their 
beautiful tentacled crowns outspread in graceful whorls. When 
first seen I thought that they were luxuriant growths of plumu- 
larian hydroids. These tentacles, or rather branchie, have a 
spread when fully extended of fully a foot, and are by far the 
largest serpulids that I have ever seen or heard of. 
The commonest form was apparently a Sabella, having the 
characteristics of that genus as described by Miss Katharine 
Jeanette Bush in Vol. XII of the’‘ Harriman Alaska Expedition 
Reports.’’ The branchial crown is set upon a sort of lophophore 
somewhat like a double horseshoe in shape, but with a very 
graceful spiral effect. The branchiw are close-set and very 
numerous, some of them as much as six inches long and beauti- 
fully barred with dark purplish brown and cinnamon red. The 
colors, however, vary considerably, some being almost white 
with indistinct barring, like watered silk. There is a double 
row of pinne on each branchia, projecting upward in full ex- 
pansion, and inward when partially retracted. A singie slen- 
der whip-like tentacle is mserted inside the whorl and near 
the mouth, as are also some tag-like cartilaginous structures 
which seem to serve as a sort of operculum when the branchiz 
are retracted. Below this branchial crown is a stiff flaring col- 
lar of cartilaginous consistency, and below this is a diagonally 
set series of parapodia, each with a stiff brush of setz which are 
very slender bristles without hooks or serrations of any kind. 
(204) 
