REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CIX, 



The Fish Commission is under obligations to the U. S. Weather 

 Bureau for the comparison with standards of a series of N^egretti and 

 Zambra deep-sea thermometers, and for information supplied for the 

 use of Prof. Libbey in connection with the physical investigations of 

 the schooner Grampus. 



WOODS HOLL, LABORATORY. 



The laboratory at the "Woods Holl Station of the Fish Commission 

 was opened as usual for the summer season on July 1, 1891, but sev- 

 eral pevsous arrived there and began their studies during the previous 

 month. The biologists in attendance were Dr. H. V. Wilson, assistant 

 in charge of the laboratory; Prof. F. H. Herrick, of Adelbert College, 

 Cleveland, Ohio; Prof. William Patten, of the University of North 

 Dakota; Dr. James L. Kellogg and Dr. E. J. Conklin, fellows of Johns 

 Hopkins University; Dr. W. McM. Wood worth, instructor in Harvard 

 University; and Prof. H. T. Fernald, of the State College of Pennsyl- 

 vania. The Commissioner and Dr. T. H. Bean, ichthyologist of the 

 Commission, were also present during most of the summer, and Prof. 

 William Libbey, jr., with his assistants on the schooner Grampus, were 

 at the station from time to time. 



Dr. Wilson, who has been employed at the laboratory continuously 

 since May, 1888, was engaged chiefly in the study of the embryology of 

 certain sponges, preparatory to a visit to the coast of Florida, which it 

 was proposed to make the following winter, with the object of investi- 

 gating the development of the commercial sponges and of conducting 

 experiments relative to their artificial propagation. On August 31, 

 however, he resigned his position on the Commission to accept the chair 

 of biology in the University of North Carolina, much to the regret 

 of his associates. Prof. Herrick continued his researches on the life- 

 history.of the lobster, paying most attention to the phenomena which 

 accompany the metamorphoses of the younger stages. Prof. Patten 

 was chiefly occnpied with observations respecting the variety of ways 

 in Avhich the embryo of Limulus, or the horseshoe crab, develops, finding 

 the number of abnormal embryos nnd the grades of abnormality to be 

 unusually large with tliis peculiar species. Messrs. Kellogg and Conk- 

 lin were at work upon the anatomy, embryology, and habits of several 

 edible and harmful mollusks, important species in connection with the 

 commercial fisheries of the Atlantic coast. Their inquiries in this direc- 

 tion had been taken up previous to this summer, and were continued 

 later in the year at the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.* 

 Prof. Fernald made a study of the development of several crabs, and 

 Mr. Woodworth continued for a few weeks his researches on the life- 

 history of the parasitic planarian which infests the gills of Limulus. 



*A contribution to our knowledge of the morphology of Lamellibranchiate mol- 

 Insks. By James L. Kellogg, ph. d. Bull. U. S. Fish. Comm., X, for 1890, pp. 389-436, 

 plates Lxxix-xciv. 



