THE MUSEUM. 



come into the harbor and can soon see 

 a monster fish lashed to the rail. This 

 is too good to miss, so we go over to 

 the particular landing place and see 

 them unload and cut him up. it 

 proved to be only an ordinary speci- 

 men and dressed 150 pounds, length 



10 feet, the nose or sword being one- 

 third the length of the fish. Coming 

 back I at once arrange for a trip after 

 Sword Fish, which will be described in 

 a later paper. 



The next day was a steady fog but 

 we were bound to get out, even if 

 everyone else staid around the house. 

 Taking the row boat we pull along the 

 shore for some two hours. These 

 short rides along in the shallow water 

 near the beach, where one can see ev- 

 erything on the bottom, were greatly 

 enjoyed. Frequently it got so interest- 

 ing we quit rowing entirely and I sim- 

 ply pushed the boat along with one 

 oar, and stood in the front end with 

 scoop net in hand. In places where 

 the water was 3 feet deep, a sort of 

 sea grass as thick as a mat would be 



1 1 feet high. These patches of Sea 

 Grass were of irregular shape and from 

 a rod in diameter to several rods. The 

 grass being of extremely dark color, 

 the water on the surface would look 

 "spotted," for all around these grassed 

 plots would be the finest clear white 

 sand imaginable with not a living thing 

 growing in it. It was really amusing 

 to watch the various species of crabs. 

 As one passed over a patch of sea 

 grass the spider crabs would be seen 

 moving about. They are very inquis- 

 ative chaps and not a bit afraid. Put- 

 ting the scoop net down they would 

 invariably walk in to see what it was 

 like and the next minute seem much 

 surprised when they were in the boat. 

 Along in this grass we found species of 

 very minute shells and any quantity of 

 Pcctcn irridians but really large ones 

 were scarce. Later on I met a col- 

 lector on the island who had a salt 

 pond in which he had planted a lot of 

 beautiful Red Pectens. These he had 

 fed and cared for and now had the 



largest and finest specimens I ever 

 saw. They equaled any of the rarer 

 and high priced species in beauty. 

 His price was $1 a pair, which at first 

 thought seemed ridiculous, when I 

 had already seen thousands of bushels 

 of Pecten shells, where the regular 

 scallop fishermen had opened them. 

 But after all it was not so high when 

 one may hunt for days and not find a 

 single really large and choice highly 

 colored specimen. 



Of the several species of crabs sec- 

 ured, one was beautifully spotted with 

 blue. He was a shy chap and didn't 

 relish being caught. If you put the 

 net in front of him he would slide off 

 side ways a mile a minute. Not over 

 half were secured that were seen. 

 Occasionally one would run a short 

 distance and apparently stop an in- 

 stant, tip up edgeways and dodge out 

 of sight. He really dug a little hole 

 in the twinkle of an eye and covered 

 himself with sand. Lots of soft shell 

 crabs were easily taken and a small 

 brownish species. The little "fid- 

 dlers" would dodge into their tiny holes 

 as one walked along a portion of the 

 beach covered with low grass, and 

 along the edges of the inland ponds of 

 salt water. 



It was during my first ride this 

 morning in the fog I came to a large 

 pond of several miles extent, called 

 "Cape Pogue Pond." I turned into 

 it and as the fog lifted for an hour or 

 so had a pleasant time exploring its 

 shores. On a little sandy point I ap- 

 proached close to 40 odd Common 

 Tern. While poling along I saw a big 

 black thing on the bottom moving 

 about but it was too big to go in my 

 net, which was only about a foot in 

 diameter. I therefore reached down 

 behind him and heading him for shore 

 finally persuaded him to walk out on 

 the beach. It was a horse shoe crab, 

 so-called, the biggest I had ever seen. 

 Keeping close watch I soon had six 

 more big ones in the bottom of the 

 boat, lying on their backs. They 

 made things lively the balance of the 



