32 APPENDIX. 



the same as in the previous year. Only small schools of mackerel were 

 encountered, and those not until late in ^fay. Low water temperatures 

 prevailed during the early part of the season, and the mackerel food was 

 found to bo abundant only in streaks or scattered patches. The experiment 

 of carrying living mackerel in the schooner's well proved successful, and it 

 will therefore bo possible to undertake the reproduction of this species at one 

 of the coast stations of the Commission." 



During the winter of 1888-89 the Grampus was chietly at work in 

 the Gulf of Mexico, making general investigations into the fisheries. 



Commissioner'' s Report, 1888, p. 15. — "Being impressed with the import- 

 ance of a systematic study of the temperature, conditions, and the changes 

 of conditions in our oflF-shore waters, I have instituted a systematic investi- 

 gation to this end, and have assigned the Fish Commission schooner Grampus 

 to this work. Prof. William Libbey, of Princeton College, has been selected 

 to take charge of the investigation, and the vessel is now being fitted with 

 the necessary apparatus and appliances for the work, and will enter upon it at 

 the beginning of the next fiscal year." 



Commissioner'' s Report, 1889-91, p. 5. — "The physical inquiries in the 

 mackerel region off the southern New England coast, under the direction of 

 Prof. William Libbey, jun., referred to in the last Annual Report, were 

 conducted during a part of July and August, 1889, and again during the 

 summer of 1890. The former season the work was performed by means of 

 the schooner Grampus alone, but during the latter the Coast Survey steamer 

 Blake was detailed to act in co-operation with the Grampus, and, through the 

 courtesy of the Lighthouse Board, a party of observers was also stationed on 

 the Nantucket New South Shoal Light-ship. Parallel lines of observing 

 stations were carried seaward from the coast for distances of 130 to 150 miles, 

 the lines being 10 minutes of longitude apart and the stations 10 miles 

 apart. At each of these stations, which numbered several hundred in the 

 course of the two seasons, the temperature of the water was taken at regular 

 intervals between the surface and bottom, or down to depths of 300 to 500 

 fathoms, where the depth of water exceeded that amount, and at the same 

 time a full set of meteorological observations was recorded. The result has 

 been to furnish a large series of vertical temperature sections through the 

 water, which show very clearly the relations of the Gulf Stream with the 

 colder waters of the Arctic current; and the surface variations are accompanied 

 by very complete meteorological data, with which, it is hoped, a correlation 

 may ultimately be rendered possible. These observations will undoubtedly 

 throw much light upon the habits of several species of pelagic fishes, of 

 which the mackerel is most conspicuous, and even the movements of such 

 bottom fishes as the tile-fish will probably find their explanation in a 

 knowledge of these physical characteristics." 



Ditto, p. 129. — "From May 5 to June 8, 1891, the schooner Grampus was 

 engaged in making a series of observations over the mackerel grounds, from 



