BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 315 



milter. Last mouth I could catch iione but those with ejrgs. Some of 

 tlieiu had 8 rays iu the dorsal fin and some 9 rays. In the aual fin there 

 were 13 and 14 rays." 

 Wood's Holl, Mass., November 23, 1883. 



" I seud to day some jars of sculpin spawn that washed ashore on 

 Nobska Point, and some white roes from the milters. ^N^ovember 20 I 

 M'eut off in the Sound fishiuf;- and found the sculpius very ])leiity, and all 

 were milters. I went again yesterday and fouud them still verj' plenty 

 and all milters. The milt was running out of some of them. Still the 

 spawn is very small and black on the outside. There have been no sculpins 

 caught with eggs for about a month. Then they were all females and no 

 milters. Can it be that the spawners come along and lay their eggs, 

 and then the males come along in three or four weeks and milt them ? 

 I have tried every fall, iu October and the first of November, and never 

 caught a milter, but ever^- one had eggs, then they would go iind I did 

 not try again, thinking the sculpins had all gone by." 



Wood's Holl, Mass., Noremher 30, 1883. 



Large halibut and pompano. — April 24, 1884, INIr. E. G. Blackford, 

 of Fulton Market, New York, received a halibut which with head and 

 tail on weighed 42G pounds. It was the largest he ever handled. May 

 30, he received his largest pompano, weighing 35 pounds. It was caught 

 off the coast of North Carolina. 



Sharks. — Commander J. E. Bartlett, of the Hydrographic Office, 

 United States Navy, at Philadelphia, sent the following memorandum: 

 June 10, 1884 : "American steamship D. J. Foley, at Philadelphia, from 

 Port Antonio, on June 6, ran through an immense school of sharks 

 from latitude 35° 30' to latitude 30° 30' on the meridian of 75° W. The 

 captain reports that he shot GO of them." 



Thk Eocky Mountain whitefish (Coregonus williamsonii) 

 IN Orkgon. — In forwarding a specimen of this fish for identification 

 Mr. I. E. JMoores wrote: "They are a very tine pan fish, by some claimed 

 to be equal, if not superior, to our mountain trout — very solid and 

 white flesh. They are found iu Mill Creek, a tributary of the Willa- 

 mettt- Eiver at Salem, 175 miles from the ocean. They come in immense 

 quantities with the first fall rains iu October and November, hundreds 

 and thousands being taken by seines along the creek and in ponds 

 caused by the overflow. They are very nearly of one size and length, 

 and when alive, having no slime whatever, they can be handled as 

 readily as corncobs. As far as we can learn reliably these fish are only 

 found in Mill Creek, and there only since the construction of the locks 

 at the falls of the Willamette two j'ears ago. Several of us who have 

 given the subject some attention, are of the opinion that they are a 

 salt-water or estuary fish, and have come through the locks at Oregon 

 City in their fall migrations for spawning." 



Portland, Oreg., February 27, 1883. 



