1869.] 403 . [Atwood. 



winter time it has proved a very dangerous one. In a single year 

 sixteen Gloucester vessels with one hundred and thirty-eight men 

 were lost, leaving seventy widows and one hundred and forty-seven 

 orphans; scarcely a year passes but one or more vessels are lost with 

 all their crews. 



Until within a few years, Capt. Atwood had never seen a halibut 

 weighing less than ten pounds; now much smaller specimens are com- 

 mon in Quincy Market. Other smaller species of this family are 

 found in our waters, and are used for food, although they are not so 

 desirable as halibut. A species of plaice (Platessa ohlonga) was once 

 an abundant fish, and he had formerly attempted to introduce it 

 largely into the market during the warm season; but was prevented 

 by the introduction, in 1848, of halibut packed in ice. He had form- 

 erly taken as many as two thousand pounds in an afternoon ; now 

 only a few remain, because they have disappeared before the blue-fish 

 (Temnodon saltator'), which have quite changed the character of our 

 fisheries; not because the blue-fish devour the plaice, but its natural 

 food, the squid. 



The history of the blue-fish is quite remarkable. In 1764 they 

 disappeared from New England waters, and were not seen for sixty 

 years. When they returned, — at first to the waters south of Cape 

 Cod, afterwards, in 1847, to Massachusetts Bay, — they were few in 

 number, tender, and disappeared with the first cold; now they are 

 quite acclimated, comparatively hardy, and remain later in the season. 

 Another consequence of their reappearance is the rapid diminution 

 of the mackerel during the spawning season, which they then devour 

 in vast numbers, and also the tenfold increase of the lobster, the 

 young of which were devoured by mackerel. The previous balance 

 of numbers of these difierent animals is now entirely changed. 



Messrs. C. J. Sprague and R. C. Greenleaf and Dr. J. B. 

 S. Jackson were appointed a Committee to nominate officers 

 for the ensuing year. 



Mr. F. "W". Putnam called the attention of the members to 

 the approaching meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, in Salem, Mass., and suggested 

 the appointment of a Committee of arrangements to unite 

 witli other institutions in inviting tlie members of the Asso- 

 ciation to visit Boston and vicinity. The following gentle- 



