REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CXIX 



about eacli of his collecting stations, and i)reseuts a very interesting 

 series of observations relative to the different fishes taken at each 

 place. Speaking of the region in general he states: 



Albemarle Sound is said to be the largest coastal body of fresh water in the world, 

 and it is certainly the largest of its kind in the United States. It is 60 miles long 

 from east to west, and has a maximum width of 15 miles and an average width of 6 

 to 8 miles; its area is 453 square miles. At its eastern extremity it communicates ou 

 the north with Currituck Sound, and on the south it merges into Roanoke and Cro- 

 atan sounds, through which it enters the ocean by means of openings in the sandy 

 " banks " which skirt the ocean front of the State. * * * Viewed from the 

 standpoint of commercial fishing, the Albemarle Sound region is one of the most 

 important in the United States, and there is no other fresh-water basin ou the 

 Atlantic coast having such extensive fisheries. The especially prominent fish occur- 

 ring here are the shad, ale wives, striped bass, black bass, and white perch. The seine 

 fisheries for shad and alewives are by far the largest in the country. 



Diuiug the summer of 1888 the upper waters of the main tributaries 

 of Albemarle Sound were made the subject of an extensive inquiry by 

 Dr. David S. Jordan, but the fishes in the lower part of the basin had 

 never been studied previous to the visit of Dr. Smith. 



NEW YORK. 



It is appropriate to notice in this connection an important investiga- 

 tion respecting the fishes of Lake Ontario, conducted during August 

 and September, 1891, by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, in view of the fact that 

 the report upon it deals mainly with natural-history subjects.* In 

 describing the results of his expedition, the author has incorporated 

 much material from other sources, and his notes upon the important 

 commercial fishes of the lake contain, in addition to his own observa- 

 tions, an epitome of the principal facts previously made known regard- 

 ing them. The species treated of are the sturgeon, alewife, shad, 

 Atlantic salmon, lake trout, the common and lesser whitefishes, the 

 pike perches, strawberry bass, and many so-called bait fishes. Special 

 attention is given to a discussion of the sources of introduction into 

 the lake of the alewife, and the possible causes of the great and strange 

 mortality which destroys enormous quantities of them every year 5 to 

 the history of the Atlantic salmon, once not an uncommon inhabitant 

 of the lake, but now almost entirely exterminated from it; and to the 

 whitefishes, concerning which, aside from the common form, an uncer- 

 tainty still exists as to the number of species represented and the proper 

 identity of some of them. 



* Report on the Fisheries of Lake Ontario. By Hugh M. Smith, m. d. Bull. U. S. 

 Fish Comm., vol. x, for 1890, pp. 177-215, plates xxi-l. 



