158 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



That the i)lanting of embryo sea bass, as well as soup, in the shallow 

 waters south of Oape ('od would undoubtedly be attended witli good 

 results, is well illustrated by an ex])eiinieut made by Mr. Edwards in 

 1890. In June of that year he liberated about 50,000 fry of each of 

 these species in tlie so-called Eel Tond at Woods lloll, a shallow tidal 

 basin having an area of only a few acres. On November 7, while sein- 

 ing in the pond, he (;aught thousands of both species, the smallest 

 measuring 2 inches long and the largest 4.;l inclies. During most of 

 the same month they were observed i^assiug out in large schools 

 through the narrow outlet from the pond, becoming very common in 

 the harbor at Woods IToD, but occurring nowhere else. Sea bass 

 young placed in Eel Pond during the spring of 1881> api)arently re- 

 mained there continuously until the fall of 1890, when they had attained 

 a length of 1*0 to 11 inches. 



The embryology of the sea bass has been worked out in a very com- 

 plete and satisfactory manner by Dr. H. V. Wilson, assistant in charge 

 of the Woods Holl laboratory. A preliminary notice of his researches 

 was published in the Johns Hopkins University Circular, vol. ix, No. 

 80, 1890, and the final report in the Bulletin of the Fish Commission 

 for 1889.* Very instructive and important results were obtained by 

 Dr. Wilson, and his observations throw much additional light on the 

 origin and structure of many organs, the developmental history of 

 which has been only imperfectly understood. His explanation of the 

 derivation and function of the lateral line is especiallj- interesting. 



The Spanish Mackerel {Scomleromoruft maculatuf<). 



On June 14, 1891, the steamer _F/,s7/ Ilaick was temporarily detached 

 from the oyster survey in Tangier Sound and was detailed to carry on 

 investigations respecting the hatching of Spanish mackerel in the vi- 

 cinity of Cai)e Charles City, Virginia. Similar inquiries and experiments 

 had been made in the lower Chesapeake Bay during several previous 

 years ending with 1885, but the work had never been conducted on a 

 large scale, and only a^ comparatively small number of fry had ever 

 been obtained at any <me time. The rapid diminution in tlie abun- 

 dance of this valuable food species, reported from year to year, had 

 again cdled attention to tliis subject, and rendered it of considerable 

 imi)ortance that additional and more positive information should be 

 obtained. Lieut, llobert Piatt, U. S. Navy, was charged with the fish- 

 cultural operations, and the services of Mr. J. Percy Moore, an assist- 

 ant in the University of Pennsylvania, Avere secured to conduct the 

 scientific observations, with the view of supplementing the studies pre- 

 viously nnide by Prof. John A. Pyder, and juiblished in the Fish Com- 

 mission Bulletin for 1881. The principal work mapped out was to de- 



* The Embryology of the Sea Bass (Scrravus atnirius). By Henry V. Wilson, Ph. 

 D., iiHsi.st.int U. S. Fish Commission, Bull. U. S. Fish Couunissiou, vol. IX, 1889, pp. 

 209-277, pis. 88-107. 



