277 [Packard. 



digious abundance of the ova of the herring yearly deposited in For- 

 tune Bay, and other of the favorite spa"vvning beds of the herring. 

 The water will at times be seen white with milt for many acres." . . . 

 ''From personal observation, and from all the information I can obtain, 

 I believe there are several schules of herring that come in on differ- 

 ent portions of our coast to spawn. It is certain there are several 

 varieties of the common herring differing in size, shape, and solidity 

 of flesh. In Fortune Bay, the spawn is deposited in the months of 

 March and April ; in St. George's Bay, in the month of May, and a 

 fortnight later on St. Barbe's. My impression is that on the southern 

 shore of the Labrador coast, the spawn is deposited in June, or early 

 in July. During the months of August and September, the Labrador 

 coast from Mecatina to Bear Island, is visited by vast shoals of large 

 fat herring, which have in them neither roe nor milt. I consider 

 these herring, by their size and appearance, to be of the same species 

 or the same shoal as those which spawned in St. George's Bay, in May 

 or in June, on the Labrador coast, and which pass on in September 

 and October to the Ai-ctic waters, or more probably to the depth of 

 the ocean. 



"Of late years herring seines have been much used on the Labra- 

 dor coast, almost entirely superseding the use of nets, to the manifest 

 injury of the fishing population. These immense seines, most of them 

 more than one hundred and twenty fathoms long, often enclose over 

 three thousand barrels of herring. Dm-ing the fii-st two to three 

 years, over one hundred and fifty seines were used on the coast by 

 !Nova Scotia fishermen." 



Mr. O. C. Marsh, of Xew Haven, exhibited bone imple- 

 ments, and the bones of several species of animals fi-om a 

 grave in a mound at Xewark, Ohio. This grave contained 

 six or eight skeletons, aj^parently of a short and stout race, 

 differing quite essentially from the present Indian races. 



Mr. Marsh had adopted the method, very successfully prac- 

 tised by Professor Lartet, of preserving the very fi'agile 

 bones by soaking them in melted spermaceti. 



The thanks of the Society were voted to Dr. Thayer for 

 the human cranium presented by him. 



Messrs. E. T. Cresson, Philadelphia, A. R. Grote, ISTew 

 York, and John King, Elgin, 111., were elected Corresponding 

 Members. 



Dr. J. S. Lombard, Boston, Messrs. E. W. Dimond, Cam- 

 bridge, H. A. Purdie, Chas. Jackson, Jr., and T. Hubbard, 

 Boston, were elected Resident Members. 



