202 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



The fine series of stalked criuoids obtained by the steamer Albatross in 

 the Gulf of Mexico during the past three years has beeu transferred 

 to large glass jars for safe storage, and every specimen labeled sepa- 

 rately. The entire collection of star-fishes contribnled by the Fish 

 Commission, and representing the deep-sea explorations of the steam- 

 ers Albatross and Fish Half k, has been carefully gone over and the re- 

 serve series selected out and properly arranged. Large numbers of 

 specimens were dried and many duplicates set aside for distribution and 

 exchange. 



Mr. A. H. Baldwin and Miss M. J. Rathbun have acted as assistants 

 in this department during the entire year. Mr. Baldwin has been oc- 

 cupied mainly with the sorting and cataloguing of collections and with 

 the rearrangement of the alcoholic specimens above described. Miss 

 Rathbun has assisted the curator more directly in caring for and cata- 

 loguing the dried specimens and those contained in homeopathic vials, 

 and in preparing work for the Fish Commission, especially iu the line of 

 ocean temperature observations. 



During the summer of 1885, while at Wood's Hell, Mass., the curator 

 began the experiments with respect to the artificial i^ropagation of lob- 

 sters, which were continued with great success during the spring of 

 1880 by Capt. H. C. Chester and Mr. John A. Ryder. Acting upon 

 information obtained from Norway that the eggs of the lobster could bo 

 kept alive and hatched even if removed from the body of the parent, 

 several trials were made with the hatching apparatus then in use, al- 

 though it was known that the hatching season for the year was over. 

 The purpose of these experiments was to ascertain the best methods of 

 handling the eggs, in order that there might be as little delay as i)ossi- 

 ble in commencing work the following spring. The best results were 

 obtained with the McDonald shad-hatching jar, and although consider- 

 ble inconvenience was experienced from the amount of sediment and 

 iron rust in the water, the eggs were retained in good condition for a 

 period of over two months. An account of these experiments is given 

 in Vol. VI of the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission. During the 

 spring of this year an entirely new style of jar, devised by Captain 

 Chester for cod eggs, was used for the lobsters and many thousands of 

 eggs were easil^^ hatched. 



The writer has been engaged during the entire year, with the assist- 

 ance of Miss Rathbun, in reducing and tabulating for publication the 

 surface temperature observations made for the Fish Commission by the 

 Light-House Board and the U. S. Signal Service, at about sixty stations 

 distributed along the eastern and southern sea-coasts of the United 

 States, from Maine to Texas. These observations, it is expected, will 

 I)rove of great value iu helping to explain the local movements and 

 general migrations of fishes, a study coming within the scope of that 

 Commission. Thirty-two graphic charts representing twenty-four sta- 

 tions had been prepared up to the close of the year. A separate chart, 



