WORK AT THE BEAUFORT LABORATORY 



BY W. C. GEORGE 



The work carried on annually at the Bureau of Fisheries 

 laboratory at Beaufort, l^orth Carolina, is of interest not only 

 to scientific men generally but is of especial interest to biologists 

 and others in North Carolina who are concerned in any way 

 with the natural history of the State. And so it seems fitting 

 to give in this place some account of the work carried on at the 

 laboratory during the past season. There is no intention on 

 the part of the writer to announce results or to encroach in any 

 way upon the special reports on this work ; but to give only such 

 an account as might be given by a scientifically trained visitor 

 of the laboratory. 



The abundance and variety of the fauna and flora of the 

 Beaufort region, together with the laboratory facilities pro- 

 vided by the Bureau of Fisheries, afford opportunity for a 

 great diversity of biological work there, and every season there 

 are a number of investigators at the Beaufort station carrying 

 on varied and important researches. Only a brief reference 

 will be made to the work of each of those who worked at the 

 laboratory during the summer of 1913. 



Professor S. O. Mast, of Johns Hopkins University, carried on 

 an extensive investigation on the behavior of fishes with respect 

 to conditions of light. It was already known that the back- 

 ground on which fishes lie greatly affects the arrangements of 

 the pigment cells in the skin, and thus fish assume a very dif- 

 ferent appearance on one background from that which they have 

 on another. For Dr. Mast's experiments the flounders proved 

 very good subjects with which to work; and with some very 

 ingeniously devised aquarium arrangements he has already 

 reached interesting results and has learned something further in 

 regard to the responses of animals to light. 



Dr. W. P. Hay, Professor of Biology in the Washington 

 City High School, was engaged in a study of the decapod Crust- 

 acea of the region. Some years ago Dr. C. A. Shore, of Raleigh, 

 collected during several summers the larger Crustacea, particu- 



