The Echinodermata of dN ew (Brunswick. 59 
Figure. (A) p. 209. (K) p. 100. (U) pi. I. 
Distribution, (a) General ; — Low water to one hundred 
•and forty-one fathoms. South of Cape Cod to Greenland and 
Assistance Bay, (lat 74° N); around the North Atlantic to 
'Scandinavian coast and British Islands, Spitzbergen. Alaska? 
(b) In N. B, imters ; — Grand Manan. ‘‘Nothing can ex- 
ceed the profusion in which this species exists in some parts 
of the islands. It is found just below the ordinary low-water 
mark on rocky shores, and is, therefore, exposed at spring 
tides. I have seen areas of several square rods entirely occu- 
pied by them.” — Sti77ipso7i, (D). Eastport, twenty fathoms, 
stony bottom, abundant, Verrill, (L) ; on the shores to fifteen 
fathoms, (E). Passamaquoddy Bay, L’Etang Harbor, very 
large, Ganong, (X). Gulf of St. Lawrence, Whiteaves, (P). 
Very abundant everywhere in the harbors of the southern 
■coast. 
This is one of the most abundant shore animals upon our southern 
coast. It is a good typical Holothurian, and affords a most excellent 
subject for dissection and study. 
Its shape is quite well described by its name of sea-cucumber, or even 
•better, of sea-pumpkin. When out of the water and in a contracted 
state, it is of an ellipsoidal, sometimes nearly spherical form; but when 
alive and undisturbed in the water it may take any one of several shapes, 
from long and slender cylindrical to short and rounded or even dumb- 
bell form. Large specimens, which are a foot long, have the power of 
extending themselves to two or three times that length. In cross section 
the animal is somewhat pentagonal in form, and at each of the angles 
is a band of tube-feet running nearly the entire length of the body, con- 
sisting of two rows, the individual members of one row alternating with 
those of the other. The skin is very tough and wrinkled and of a dark 
reddish or purplish brown or chocolate color on the upper side, shading 
to grey, flesh-color, or even white, on the side in contact with the bot- 
tom. The tentacles, which the animal may be seen to protrude when 
placed in a dish of water, or when undisturbed in some pool, are ten in 
number, much branched, and very graceful when fully expanded. 
This species lives about and just below low- water mark, preferring 
Lard bottoms and clear water. It can move but slowly and captures its 
food, consisting chiefly of small animals, by means of its tentacles. In 
its development it passes through a metamorphosis in which the fully- 
grown larva {Anricularia) is of a red color, cylindrical, with a few con. 
strictions or annulations and four or five l)ands of cilia by means of 
which it can swim freely about. 
