REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 169 



previous to September 6, 1904, was prevailingly southwest for five 

 days, east for three days, south for three days, northwest for three 

 days. The mean velocity, moreover, for the two weeks under con- 

 sideration was greater than the average by a difference amounting to 

 about five miles an hour, the normal hourly velocity for August and 

 September being 13 miles, and the average hourly velocity for the 

 two weeks being 18. Remembering the general trend of the Atlantic 

 coast and bearing in mind the fact that Cape Cod is less than 100 miles 

 distant from the western edge of the Gulf Stream, it is easily seen that 

 the drift of the Gulf Stream and the winds of the direction and velocity 

 noted above would unite to form a resultant acting on the floating 

 masses of gulfweed so as to drive them northward and into the huge 

 "pocket" formed by the configuration of the southern New England 

 coast. 



OGCOCEPHALID.^. The Bat Fishes. 

 199. Dibranchus atlanticus (Peters). 



Geog. Dist.: Deep waters of the Atlantic; very abundant in about 300 

 fathoms; north in the Gulf Stream to Rhode Island. 



Season in R. I.: Very many specimens have been taken in the tile-fish 

 area at depths ranging from 100 to 500 fathoms. A single specimen 

 was captured oE Block Island in 1880 (Goode and Bean, Oceanic 

 Ichthyology, 1896, 501). Specimens from Newport (?) (Jordan and 

 Evermann, 1898). (Gill, Smithsonian Report, 1908, 565.) 



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