REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 37 
tagged and released after the eggs had been taken, and at the close of 
the year 46 had been reported captured, many of them at long distances 
from the station. 
The collecting station at Plymouth was opened in November, work 
at that point being under the direction of Mr. R. N. Veeder. The 
spawn-takers, four in number, commenced work December 1, and on 
December 3 collected 3,000,000 eggs, which were shipped to Woods 
Hole. On account of the scarcity of fish, very few vessels operated 
in the vicinity of Plymouth early in the season, and later, when they 
became plentiful, the weather was so unfavorable and the sea so rough 
that fishermen could not get to the fishing-grounds. In addition to 
this, for three weeks during February the harbor was closed by ice and 
the steam launch frozen in, but notwithstanding all these difficulties 
71,713,000 eggs were collected, 52,068,000 being sent to Gloucester and 
the remaining 19,645,000 to Woods Hole. 
The brood fish commenced spawning November 14 and yielded 
140,754,000 eggs, bringing the total handled at the station to 160,399,000. 
From these 102,405,000 fry were hatched and planted on the spawning- 
grounds in the vicinity of the station. 
Early in January three fyke nets were set in Woods Hole for the 
purpose of collecting flat-fish, and about January 22 a number were 
placed in Waquoit Bay. This work was seriously interfered with by 
an exceedingly cold wave, which swept over New England early in 
February, lasting nearly the entire month and closing the harbors 
and bays with ice, so that it was impossible to reach the nets. Asa 
result of the work 63 ripe fish were taken at Woods Hole and 107 at 
Waquoit Bay, but 42 died before spawning. Between January 28 
and the 13th of April 53,099,000 eggs were collected, from which 
44,230,000 fry were hatched. The methods followed in handling the 
brood fish were similar to those employed the previous season, and 
the results were equally good. 
Although every effort was made to increase the lobster work, the 
results, as indicated by the number of eggs collected, were for several 
reasons the poorest that have been secured at this station. Arrange- 
ments were made early in March to collect egg lobsters at Plymouth 
and Scituate, Mass., but the receipts from those points were small, 
only 10 being secured from the fishermen in the immediate vicinity of 
the station, though large numbers of fish had been furnished them 
during the winter for lobster bait. An effort was also made to col- 
lect egg lobsters in Connecticut waters, a schooner being chartered 
for this purpose, but the returns were so poor that the work was aban- 
doned at the end of May. Owing to a change in the laws of Rhode 
Island it was late in the season before arrangements could be per- 
fected for the collection of eggs in that State, and it was only done 
then through the courtesy of the commissioners of inland fisheries, 
Dr. A. D. Mead and Mr. Henry T. Root. 
