16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 
lower portion of the bay, the line-men have had all the seup and 
squeteague fishing that they could desire. Indeed, scup were 
never more abundant in Narragansett Bay than during the past 
season, and the squeteague were never more plentiful. Rod and 
line fishermen were literally satiated. The young of both these 
fish have been seen in enormous numbers in the more shallow 
inlets, and there is every indication that the coming year will be 
quite as productive as the past. 
During the last two days of October and the first six days of 
November there was a run of mackerel along the shores of Cape 
Cod, as unexpected as the numbers were unprecedented. Although 
many traps had been removed, and the mackerel fleet had aban- 
doned work for the season, fully six thousand barrels of mackerel 
of large size and excellent quality were taken from the shores of 
Cape Cod Bay, not to mention those that were taken from the 
southern shores of New England. The sudden appearance of 
such an enormous number of large fish is evidence that the mack- 
erel has not suffered seriously from the wholesale methods of 
capture to which it has been subjected, for according to all ae- 
counts the fish that were taken were only the scattering individ- 
uals along the edge of a veritable migratory wave passing from 
the north toward the south. 
It is certainly worthy of note that while Rhode Island is profit- 
ing by her one hundred fish-traps, giving employment to many of 
her residents, and receving a generous income from her exports, 
Buzzards Bay, although offering no greater inducement to the 
hook and line fishermen, is yielding little or nothing because of 
the closure of the area to the trap-fishermen by legislative enact- 
ment. 
6. Tur Conrinvep EXAMINATION OF THE PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL 
CONDITIONS OF THE WATERS OF THE Bay, BEGUN IN 1898. 
Through the courtesy of the U.S. Fish Commission, we have 
been enabled to collect additional data of a physical and biologi- 
