7 
The Fishes of New Jersey. 
BY HENRY W. FOWLER. 
INTRODUCTION. 
New Jersey has a more extensive seaboard than any of the 
Middle Atlantic States in proportion to its area. It lies entirely 
on the Atlantic slope and intrudes its northwestern portion into 
the Appalachian province. The lower half of the state is low, 
sandy and covered with pine woods. From this it may be seen 
that three rather characteristic faunas exist, 7. ¢., a marine, a low 
land or pine-woods, and an alpine. The marine fauna is un- 
questionably the most important in every feature, either for its 
richness in forms or its great economic value. In fact it com- 
prises by far the greater number of species known from the state, 
many of them of the greatest importance to the commercial world. 
While it may be said that many are regular visitors to our coast 
during the summer and others are only found or taken in abund- 
ance during the winter or cold weather, it is also true that some 
are residents. The marine fauna is well represented by the lit- 
toral shore-fauna of the Virginian. Of the deep-sea fauna off 
the New Jersey banks nothing much is known. Pelagic forms 
are likely to occur at any time and some of the more usual have 
already been recorded. Among the most interesting forms, how- 
ever, are those which wander from the tropical waters in the 
Gulf Stream, sometimes even beyond our limits as far as Massa- 
chusetts. In fact many young fishes of different groups only 
known from their tropical habitats are distributed at times along 
the Atlantic coast of the United States in this way. Of the shore- 
fauna many forms occur in the inlets and salt ponds, sometimes 
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