on board the U. S. S. Lookout and brought "a large sunfish 

 weighing 300 pounds which was dissected by Dr. Bean who 

 also found many parasites attached to gills. " On the 14th 

 of July, we read that the steamer Fish Hawk went to No Mans 

 Island securing four ground fishes. During the trip a trawl 

 net was used collecting many fish, mollusks, crabs, etc. 

 The large number of specimens collected by biologists 

 apparently incited the imagination of the local reporter who 

 on July 2 9 wrote (Cape Cod Item) that "on last dredging 

 expedition of the U. S.F.C. Steamer Fish Hawk 172 barrels 

 of alcohol were used in preserving specimens. " In the next 

 issue of this weekly paper a correction was printed which 

 said "our correspondent wrote 1-1/2 but types read it 172-- 

 quite a difference. " 



News items appearing in the local press are indicative 

 of public interest in the new laboratory, which offered new 

 opportunities for employment and trade, attracted tourists, 

 and in this way became an important factor in the economy 

 of the small village. At the same time the press emphasized 

 the impuortance of the tourist trade and encouraged the owners 

 of "farm houses to make them attractive to summer visitors. " 

 The number of tourists was rapidly increasing as can be 

 judged, for instance, from the following lines in an August 19, 

 1881, issue of the Cape Cod Item: "Last week Saturday the 

 4:10 train started from Boston with 18 cars loaded with 

 passengers and about every train since has been filled. 

 Undoubtedly many of them took advantage of the opportunity 

 to visit the marine laboratory of the Fish Connmission. " 



Probably the most significant achievements of marine 

 exploration in the vicinity of Cape Cod were the studies of the 

 invertebrate fauna conducted by Verrill, and described by him 

 in a large number of papers. He strongly believed it to be a 

 duty of a scientist to publish the results of his investigation for 

 the benefit of other scientists. Following this conviction, he 

 produced nearly a hundred scientific articles based on the 

 collections accumulated during his association with the U. S. 

 Fish Commission. The majority of the papers appeared in 

 reports attached to the annual reports of the Commissioner of 

 Fish and Fisheries; others were published in the American 

 Journal of Science, the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences, and other journals. The collection of 

 invertebrates made by the Fish Commission from 1871 to 1887 

 at over 3, 000 localities within New England waters comprised 

 several hundred thousands of specimens of more than 2, 000 

 species (Verrill, 1958). The huge collection was taken by 

 Verrill to Yale University in New Haven where he continued to 

 work on it during the winters. As a partial compensation for 

 his work he received the duplicates after the first set of specimens 



47 



