LITTORAL MARINE MOLLUSKS OF CHINCOTEAGUE ISLAND, VIRGINIA. By John B. Henderson and Paul Bartsch, OJ the United States National Museum. INTRODUCTION. During July, 1913, the writers made a short trip to Chincoteague, on the Atlantic shore of Accomac County, Virginia, for the purpose of ascertaining the local marine famia. Owing to the inaccessibility of this strip of coast, generally known as the "Eastern Shore," collectors seem to have neglected it. At all events, there appear to be but few records and no critical lists published of the shallow water shells from any locality between Cape May, New Jersey, and Beaufort, North Carolina. Ovir chief desire was to find out of just what ele-ments the moUuscan fauna consisted — to see how many, if any, species of southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what northern species still persisted in this faunal area. We were happy in om-somewhat haphazard choice of a locality for we encountered at Chincoteague a greater variet}' of stations than likely can be found at any other one point along this section of the coast. There are, fnst, the interior sounds of very considerable extent. These are very shallow (4 to 12 feet), more or less thickly sown with oyster beds and with patches of eel grass, the bottom ranging from hard sand through varying degrees of hard clay to soft mud. Second, we found the unusual feature of a bight or protected cove formed by the southward drift at the southern end of Assateague Island, pro-tected from heavy wave action by a long, curved sand spit. This bight has a soft mud bottom, mth a temperature possibly 8° less than that of the open sea. The mud which we brought up with the dredge seemed almost icy to the touch. This condition is probably produced by cold springs seeping through the floor of the bight. This colder water of the bight yielded to our dredge Yoldia limatula, large and fine, and Nucula proxima, whereas just around the pro-tective spit of sand, on the ocean side, we found dead Terebras of two species, some young Busycon perversa and a valve of Cardium robustum, a somewhat startling association of species. Then, lastly, Proceedings U, S. National Museum, Vol. 47— No. 2055. 411
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