16 INLAND FISHERIES. 



periineut made at the Laboratory has been the confirmation of 

 the common, but ahnost incredible, belief that soft and helpless 

 starfish can open oj^sters, and that they ninst therefore be carefully 

 weeded out from the beds. The starfish throws itself over the 

 oyster, folding over the shell on either side like a pair of elapsed 

 hands. It then sets up a steady strain by means of its suckers, 

 a strain which apparently causes it little effort, while the exertion 

 of " holding- the door " at last wears out the oyster. By fixing a 

 weight fastened to strings connected with each shell the strength 

 developed by the starfish to open the oyster has been calculated, 

 and the pulling force by which this strange conquest is achieved 

 determined. The Laboratory is also in touch with that at St. 

 Andrews, and with the Liverpool Laboratory, now about to be 

 transferred to the coast. Norway, France, and above all, Italy, 

 at Naples, possess institutions of a similar kind in a high state of 

 efficiency, and by comparison and division of lal:>our the whole 

 history and wanderings of the migratory fishes will before long 

 be mapiDed out and available for the use of the fishing fleets of 

 Europe. We half wonder that some one does not pity the fish, but 

 pity stops at the water's edge ; and even John Bright was an 

 angler. 



RANGES FOR FISHING GROUNDS. 



The following were copied from a memoranda book ^^Titten in 

 the early part of this century and may be of interest at this day, 

 although some of the land marks have disappeared: 



Easton's Point. 



Hanging rocks and Gardner house, Joshua Beckham's house 

 and barn, just clear Easton's point land. 



Memoranda, good fishing ground about six or eight rods south- 

 ward of the sheep pen. 



Ranges on CoggeslialVs Ledge. 



Walter Easton's house, and the north end of Gull Bock, Church 

 steeple and boat house. 



Inner Ground. 



Walter Easton's house and Coggeshall's bass rock. Church 

 steeple and Sheldon's Boint. 



