BIGELOW: EXPLORATIONS IN THE GULF OF MAINE. 99 



zontal lor half an hour at some intermediate depth. When stations 

 were occupied after dark, we usually used the four-foot net within a 

 fathom or so of the surface, in this way getting very rich tows. The 

 data of the hauls is listed in the table of stations (p. 135). The 

 hauls with the quantitative (Hensen) net are discussed separately 



(p. 127). 



By far the most important member of the animal plankton over 

 most of the Gulf, numerically at least, was the small copepod Calanus 

 finmarckicm, which was taken at every Station (p. 115). This species 

 plays much the same role in the ^^tal economy of the Gulf as it does 

 in Norwegian waters on the other side of the Atlantic, being the chief 

 food for pelagic fishes, particularly the mackerel. It is well known to 

 fishermen under the name of "red feed," from the reddish color of a 

 mass of these little crustaceans. At times it occurs in almost un- 

 believeable numbers ; for example our four-foot net hauls in Massa- 

 chusetts Bay near Cape Ann in July often yielded two or three quarts 

 of this Calanus. At this time the plankton of the Bay was almost 

 exclusively composed of C. finmarchicus, with very few other copepods; 

 e. g. Pseudocalanus, Eurytemora, and Metridia; an insignificant num- 

 ber of Sagittae (chiefly S. elegans); a few larval schizopods; an occa- 

 sional full-grown schizopod {Mcganydiphanes norvcgica), and a few 

 medusae, e. g., Aurelia, Cyanea, Melicertum, and the northern 

 ctenophore, Bolinopsis infundibulum. We also obtained one specimen 

 of the large pteropod Clione limacina in the Bay, and others off Cape 

 Ann (p. 119). In the northeastern corner of the Bay, this general type 

 of plankton was varied by the presence of great numbers of fish eggs 

 (Station 1), and our several stations in the northeast corner of the Bay 

 yielded many pelagic larvae of the cunner (Tautogolabrus), cod 

 {Gadus coUarius), witch flounder {Glyptocephalus cytioglossus) , and 

 sanddab {Hippoglossoides platessaides), with a few silver hake 

 (Merluccius), redfish {Schasies marinus), haddock {Melanogrammus 

 aeglifinus), rockling (Enchelyopus) and other species (p. 107). 



Twelve miles or so off Cape Ann (Station 2) there were very few 

 fish eggs; and no fry; and over the western arm of the deep basin 

 (Station 7) there were no eggs at all, but a considerable number of fish 

 larvae, mostly cod, of which twenty-nine specimens were taken. 

 The Calanus swarm, however, was nearly as dense as in the Bay; and 

 we noted here, for the first time, the large boreal copepod Euchaeta 

 norvegica, between seventy-five fathoms and the surface. There were 

 no other copepod species in the haul. At this station we likewise cap- 

 tured two large Meganyctiphancs norvegica, and one specimen of the 



