LINNEAN SOCIETY OP LONDON. 35 



by Prof. Bailey. The dredge then succeeded the sounding-lead, 

 still under the auspices of the Survey ; but as it was used in 

 more southern latitudes, I shall refer to these pioneeriug opera- 

 tions, with which the name of Pourtales is associated, further on. 



The ' Challenger ' was the first to cross this area with the 

 deep-sea trawl, in the year 1873. With Bermuda as centre, lines 

 of stations radiate south- and north-, east- and westwards. At 

 about 15 stations the trawl or dredge was successfully used, some 

 of the hauls coming up loaded with treasures. The deepest 

 haul, east of Bermuda, came from 28.50 fathoms, and brought up 

 new Echinoderms and Cirrij)eds. The ' Challenger's ' track just 

 missed the Gulf-Stream slope, on which a little later the 

 American explorers met with such an abundance of abyssal life. 



Of the men to whom America is most indebted for the rapid 

 advancement of marine biological research, I have to mention in 

 the first place the late Dr. Spencer Baird, a man with a wonderful 

 talent for organization, capable of taking the broadest views of 

 any work in which he engaged, who urged his Grovernment to 

 take systematic measures for the development of the enormous 

 interest involved in the fishing industry of the freshwaters and 

 coasts of the United States. A Commission of Fish and Fisheries 

 was appointed in 1871, of which Dr. Baird was the first Com- 

 missioner. He conceived that the practical object of the 

 Commission — the development of the fisheries, or rather the 

 enquiry into the causes of their decline — could be attained only 

 by a thorougli investigation not only of the fishes themselves, 

 but of every condition or all the surroundings, by which the life 

 of fish is afi'ected in a direct or indirect manner. So far as 

 marine fishes are concerned, it practically meant a searching 

 investigation of the Flora and Fauna, as well as of the physical 

 and chemical conditions, of the American seas. He therefore 

 directed one branch of the Commission's work to the investiga- 

 tion of the Littoral of the Atlantic States by means of the 

 dredge. He commenced with small hired vessels, or vessels lent 

 to him by other Grovernment Departments, and devoted the first 

 eight or nine years to a thorough examination of the littoral of 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine, that is, an area rather 

 less than the west coast of Ireland. I find more than 800 

 dredging-stations recorded for that period, besides many of 

 which no special note was taken ; but only 39 of them extended 

 beyond the 100-fathoms line. Exceedingly numerous collec- 

 tions, chiefly of Invertebrates, were obtained, which formed the 

 subjects, then or at some later period, of the annual reports of the 

 Commission, and from which not only the museums in America, 

 but also those in Europe, reaped great benefits. Professor 

 Verrill *, w^ho was in charge of the Invertebrate collections, 

 estimates that, exclusive of Protozoa, the number of marine 

 species known from New England has been more than doubled 



* U.S. Fish Commiss, Eeport. for 1880, p. 57. 



d2 



