BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 379 



caught, bnt it was found impracticable to capture any of the squid, as 

 they would not bite a jig and could not be taken by other means. 



Work was begun early in the morning of July 12, and a line of dredg- 

 ings and trials for cod, with hand-lines, was run across La Have Bank, 

 beginning on its eastern side and extending to the southeast part of 

 Brown's Bank. These operations were carried on in depths rangingfrom 

 47 to 104 fathoms. In all the dredgings except the last, which was made 

 in 104 fathoms, the ship's dredge was used, it not being possible to use 

 the beam-trawl, owing to the rocky character of the bottom. The difS- 

 culties of dredging on such bottom are very great, as was evident by 

 the loss of a dredge on the second attempt for the day (at station 2516),. 

 while in most instances the dredge came up more or less nearly filled 

 with stones, pebbles, and coarse gravel, and the amount of animal life 

 was generally very small. 



At station 2517 (latitude 43° 10', longitude 64^ 18'), in 55 fathoms, 

 bottom of yellow sand and black specks, 4 hand-lines were put out, 

 baited with capelin, and 12 cod were caught, these averaging about 

 two-thirds large fish (i. e., over 30 inches in length). The bait we used 

 was very soft and would scarcely stay on the hooks until they reached 

 the bottom. Fish were fairly abundant, and with fresh squid bait 

 could probably have been caught in large numbers. Nearly all the 

 cod taken at this station had squid ( Ommastrephes illecehrosus) in their 

 stomachs, in a more or less digested condition, and they had also been 

 feeding on bank-clams [Olycimeris). The animal life brought up by the 

 dredge at this station comprised 2 species of sea-urchins (the sand-dol- 

 lar and spiny sea-urchins), 2 species of starfish, 2 spider-crabs, 1 sea- 

 anemone, several sea-spiders {Pycnogonum)^ and various kinds of dead 

 shells. 



At station 2518 the dredge was filled with stones of various sizes up 

 to 6 or 8 inches in diameter. To these were attached some small sponges. 

 In the dredge were also a few ascidians, a starfish, and some shells. 



A little after meridian a 10-pound torpedo was exploded on the bot- 

 tom at hydrographic station 821, in 47 fathoms, rocky bottom (latitude 

 43° 01' north, longitude 64^ 45' 30" west), but no results were ob- 

 tained. After the explosion of the torpedo 3 hand-lines were put 

 out for from 20 to 30 minutes, and 4 cod and 1 haddock were caught. 



At station 2520 the dredge was filled with coarse gravel and stones, 

 among which the most noticeable forms of life were some shells {Denta- 

 Hum and Leda), large numbers of worm-tubes of sand and gravel, con- 

 taining • live worms (Nothria). There were 2 young sculpins and a 

 few shrimps, sponges, ascidians, and barnacles. At station 2521 the 

 dredge was partially filled with clean coarse gravel, with a few small 

 stones. It contained almost no living animals, a single starfish and a 

 few dead shells being the only objects of interest. 



The last dredging for the day was made with the small beam-trawl on 

 the southeast slope of Brown's Bank, in 104 fiithoms, sandy and grav- 



