SMALL SHELLS FROM DREDGINGS OFF THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES BY THE UNITED STATES FISHERIES STEAMER "ALBATROSS" IN 1885 AND 1886 By William H. Dall Honorary Curator of Mollusks, United States National Museum In 1885 the United States Fisheries steamer Albatross made a series of dredgings along the southeastern coast of the United States, One of the stations, No. 2415, was off the coast of Georgia in north lati-tude 30° 44', and west longitude 79° 26', with a depth of 440 fath-oms (948 meters), in broken coral, coarse sand, and broken shell, bottom temperature 45.6° F. (7.5° C). The following year a similar dredging was made off Fernandina, Fla., at station 2668, in north latitude 30° 58' and west longitude 79° 38', with a depth of 294 fathoms (678 meters) in gray sand and broken coral, bottom temperature 46.3° F. (8.2° C). The material obtained was sifted, the larger shells taken out and the comparatively fine residue retained for its content of minute shells, foraminifera, etc. This residue was chiefly composed of frag-ments of the test of barnacles and echinoderms, the sand having been sifted out, and the fragments of coral, if any, removed; at all events none were found in it. Many of the contents had evidently been crushed or broken by the teeth of fishes. The pteropod remains had been derived from the surface, and very few of the other specimens had been alive when dredged. The total amount of material from off Georgia was somewhat more than a pint, and that from off Fer-nandina about twice as much. Noticing that this contained many minute shells I took it home, put it on my desk, and from time to time as I had a few leisure moments, went over it, a teaspoonful at a time, and picked out the mollusks. Later when in quarantine at home on account of illness in the family, I separated these pickings and mounted the specimens for study, a work completed in 1898. Various duties compelled me to give little further attention to this material for some years. In 1920 the late John B. Henderson, jr., engaged on a monograph of the Dentalia of the southeast coast of the United States, utilized the No. 2667.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 70, Art. 18 24105— 27t 1 1
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