BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 171 



sion, both in respect of number of men employed and quantity of money 

 expended. 



Although activity in this direction may be regarded in the light of 

 applied rather than pure scientific work, it is particularly important to 

 the biologist, since it affords opportunities for investigating many new 

 problems in physiology and embryology. 



The origin of the commission, its purposes, ami methods of organiza- 

 tion, having been described, it now remains to review the accomplished 

 results of its work. In many departments, especlialy that of direct 

 research, most efficient services have been rendered by volunteers ; in 

 fact, a large share of what has been accomplished in biological and 

 physical exploration is the result of unpaid labor on the part of some of 

 the most skillful American specialists. Although it would be interest- 

 ing to review the peculiar features of the work of each investigation, 

 the limits of this paper will not allow me to do so, or even to mention 

 them all by name. 



Since the important fisheries center in New England, the coast of this 

 district has been the seat of the most active operations in marine research. 

 For ten years the commission, with a party of specialists, has devoted 

 the summer season to work at the shore, at various stations along the 

 coast, from Connecticut to Nova Scotia. 



A suitable place having been selected, a temporary laboratory is 

 fitted up with the necessary appliances for collection and study. In this 

 are placed from ten to twenty tables, each occupied by an investigator, 

 either an officer of the commission or a volunteer. From 1878 to 1879, 

 important aid was rendered by the Secretary of the Navy, who detailed 

 for this service a steamer to be used in dredging and trawling, and this 

 year the steamer built expressly for the commissiou is employed in the 

 same manner.* 



The regular routine of operations at a summer station includes all the 

 various forms of activity known to naturalists — collecting along the 

 shore, seining upon the beaches, setting traps for animals not otherwise 

 to be obtained, and scraping with dredge and trawl the bottom of the 

 sea, at depths as great as can be reached by a steamer in a trip of three 

 days. In the laboratory are carried on the usual structural and sys- 



* The number of dredging and trawling stations on record is as follows: 



1871. Wood's Holl 345 



1872. Eastport, 200 by hand, 35 bv steamer 235 



1S73. Portland 149 



1874. Noank 223 



1675. Wood's Holl 109 



1877. Salem "1 



Halifax ...~ I g~g 



1878. Gloucester j 



1879. Provincetown J 



Total in ronnd numbers 1,500 



The number of seine hauls is about GOO. 



