REPORT FROM THE FABBRI YACHT 11] 
The most effective apparatus for getting specimens proved to be a 
large seine. ‘This was especially useful on smooth sand bars sloping 
down into water of moderate depth. At times a strong current and the 
mud at a river’s mouth would make the seine almost too heavy to draw, 
or some huge snag would anchor it to the bottom temporarily, but the 
results obtained fully compensate for the trials and labor of its operation. 
A small hand seine yielded good results where the large one could not 
be used, and variously improvised dip-nets turned up rare things from 
the tide-pools and shallows. Off shore specially constructed bearm- 
trawls were used without great success, owing to the treacherous nature 
of the bottom. Yet the beam-trawl turned up several forms of life not 
obtained in any other way. 
Collecting off shore from a small boat was highly profitable, when, 
on fine warm days, light airs from the south and east wafted Gulf Stream 
conditions into the very harbor of Key West, driving in the colored, 
bubble-like floats of the Portuguese-man-of-war (Physalia), the little 
violet snail (Janthina) and masses of gulf weed (Sargassum). A fine 
series of Nomeus gronovii was obtained. These little fishes swim about 
under the float of the Portuguese-man-of-war, receiving protection 
through the powerful sting of its host’s long tentacles. It is easy to dip 
up Physalia and fishes together in a net and carefully disentangle and 
throw back the Physalia without getting stung. ‘The small fishes are 
very beautiful, but their black, blue and silver colors do not keep well in 
preserved specimens. Swimming among the Portuguese-man-of-war 
were also the very young of the amber jack, pretty little banded fishes 
searcely an inch long, as well as small schools of sead, Trachurus 
trachurus. "Vhis latter fish, abundant and an important food fish in 
Europe, is considered rare on our coast. ‘The young are probably 
common enough here where the Gulf Stream washes the shore of Florida. 
Many of the fishes collected about Key West range southward among 
the West Indies. At Cape Sable, where much collecting was done, 
there is a predominance of forms that range along the South Atlantic 
coast, from about Cape Hatteras, or even Cape Cod, to Texas, but it 
was a surprise to find the blow-fish (Spheroides) obtained there identical 
with the one so common about New York in summer, whereas a quite 
different species was found common at Miami and a third form was 
abundant at Key West. 
