1912-13.] Hy droids of British Antarctic Expedition, 1908. 
9 
II. — The Hydroid Zoophytes collected by the British Antarctic 
Expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton, 1908. By James Ritchie, 
M.A., D.Sc., Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh,* Communicated by 
W. Eagle Clarke, F.L.S. 
(MS. received September 11, 1912. Read December 2, 1912.) 
Hydroid Zoophytes were collected by the Nimrod at eleven different 
stations within the Antarctic Circle. These stations centre round three 
definite areas of Victoria Land — the open waters of M‘Murdo Sound to the 
west and north-west of Cape Royds (“ M‘Murdo Sound ” in the following 
pages) ; the open waters of the Sound from Cape Royds southwards (“ Cape 
Royds ” in the following pages) ; and the Bay, a small indentation in the 
land to the east of Cape Royds. 
There are differences in the conditions of these areas, for the two former 
are in the open Sound, exposed to strong currents. The bottom, as one 
would expect in such a case, is destitute of mud, and is composed of 
stones and pebbles down to a depth of 25 fathoms. Beyond this its 
character is unknown : nothing but living things came up in the dredge, 
and this led to the supposition that here the floor of the sea is entirely 
carpeted with organic growths, of which sponges form the main constituent. 
The Bay, on the other hand, is sheltered and shallow. The bottom is 
composed of a very fine, tenacious black mud, the result of the decom- 
position of lava; and the animals are attached to small pebbles, and to 
shells and other organisms. All the stations, however, lie within half a 
mile of each other, on the western shore of Ross Island, roughly in latitude 
77'5° S., longitude 166T 0 E., far within the Antarctic Circle. 
Since this position is only some twenty miles north of that investigated 
by the Discovery, it was natural to expect that the Hydroid collection 
should resemble that described by Professor Hickson and Mr Gravely. 
And this is indeed so, for of the sixteen species found (two of which remain 
undetermined) eight appear in the Discovery report. To these should be 
added Campanulina belgicce, which seems to be identical with Cam- 
panulina A of that report. 
Leaving the undetermined Tubularia out of count, the remaining six 
are recorded for the first time from the neighbourhood of Victoria Land — 
Clavatella (?) juv., Eudendrium ramosum (perhaps the E. insigne of 
Hickson and Gravely ranges with this species, as Vanhbffen suggests), 
* The investigation of this collection was aided hy a grant from the Carnegie Trustees. 
