1885.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 53 



mals known here. Several others contributed to the early num- 

 bers of the annals of the society. Mr. Putnam's work on the 

 fishes is well-known. To extend observation and studies of the 

 lowerforms, especially at tluittime the molluscs, itbecame neces- 

 sary to visit the sea shores at particular places. An interesting 

 ])criod in this history of searchings for invertebrates is just before 

 the trial of steam-dredges, and their use in deep water; when the 

 deep-sea forms were rescued from 



;"The maw and gulf of the ravined salt sea shark," 



and by courtesy of the fishermen of Swampscott, orNahant, the 

 cod and haddock yielded the contents of their interior; when the 

 halibut, from the greater depth, responded with pelagic forms; 

 when, too, the diabolic cat fish, Annaraclms, fresh from the 

 deep, rocky beds, offered up some choicer morsels, the delicate 

 Velutinas, Bullas, and equally fragile bivalves. These were days 

 of enthusiastic working, though tlie subject and the period of the 

 year, the coldest, were not naturally inspiriting. 



William Stim})son, whose memory we revere, in his boyhood 

 days was one of the little party present always when such an expe- 

 dition was forward. Some of the first hand-dredging was done 

 here in those days. The works, now prominently extant, of Wil- 

 liam Stimpson, contribute to a fame well established as eminent 

 in the ranks of authors of invertebrate zoology. 



These somewhat personal items, connected with the early his- 

 tory of invertebrate zoology in North America, may show how 

 recently this branch of scieiice was in its infancy here. 



We have seen how much the Smithsonian Institution has ac- 

 complished through its organization, and by means of the various 

 United States surveys in the great West, which have been planned 

 and fostered by the officers of that institution, but we have to 

 add another important element in the progress of Invertebrate 

 Zoology, that of the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. 

 The facilities offered for study by this Commission have been, 

 and still are, of untold value. The peculiar position of its 

 eminent commissioner, coupled with a natural capacity and 

 whole-heartedness in the love of science, and with singular readi- 

 ness to aid every student that may be benefited by the extension 

 of such privileges, places the pursuit of the several branches of 

 marine zoology under conditions at once the most accessible and 

 liberal. 



The workings of this Commission are familiar. The long con- 

 tinued complaints of the citizens of Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island, that the food-fishes of the coast were steadily becoming 

 reduced in numbers, eventually caused an application to Congress 

 for the appointment of a Commissioner. The immense amount 



