Expeditions organized or participated in by the Smithsonian . to determine of just what ele-ments the molluscan fauna consisted ; to see how many, if any. speciesof southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what northernspecies still persisted in this fatuial area. The collectors were for-tunate in their somewhat haphazard choice of a locality, for they en-countered at Chincoteague a greater variety of stations than canprol)ably be found at any other point along this section of the coast. Here there are interior sounds of very considerable extent whichare very shallow (4 to 1
Expeditions organized or participated in by the Smithsonian . to determine of just what ele-ments the molluscan fauna consisted ; to see how many, if any. speciesof southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what northernspecies still persisted in this fatuial area. The collectors were for-tunate in their somewhat haphazard choice of a locality, for they en-countered at Chincoteague a greater variety of stations than canprol)ably be found at any other point along this section of the coast. Here there are interior sounds of very considerable extent whichare very shallow (4 to 12 ft.), more or less thickly sown with oysterbeds and with i)atches of eel grass, the bottom ranging from hardsand, through varying degrees of hard clay, to soft mud. They found also the unusual feature of a bight or protected coveformed Ijy the southward drift at the southern end of AssateagueIsland, protected from heavy wave action by a long, curved sandspit. This bight has a soft mud bottom, with a temperature possibly 26 s:mithsoniax miscellaneous collectioxs vol. 63. Fig. 2/.—Medusa from (.hincoteague, \irginia. Collected b}- Air. Hendersonand Dr. Bartsch. Photographed in alcohol by National Museum. NO. 8 SMITHSONIAN ENPLORATIONS. I913 27 eight degrees less than that of the open sea. The mud brought upwith the dredge seemed ahiiost icy to the touch. This condition isprobably produced by cold springs seeping through the floor of thebight. This colder water of the bight yielded to their dredge YoldiaIuiiotula, large and fine, and Niicnla proxuna, whereas just aroundthe protective spit of sand, on the ocean side, they found dead Tere-bras of two species, some young Busycon perversa and a valve ofCordiuiii robnstum; a somewhat startling association of species. Then there was the open sea, which here presumably differs in nomanner from other open sea stations along the 200 miles or more ofthis coast. The bottom drops ofif very gradually to the edge of thecontinental shelf, so
Size: 1220px × 2049px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectscienti, bookyear1912
