REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 371 



The area that hes between Hamburg Place on the north, the 

 Lehigh Valley Railroad on the south, the Newark and Elizabeth 

 Branch of the Central Railroad on the east, and the Waverly 

 Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad on the west is an irregular 

 square covered with water which has. no outlet whatever. It was 

 originally drained by Pierson's Creek, but when the Lehigh Val- 

 road laid its tracks across the marsh it made a solid embankment, 

 cutting off the head of the creek and leaving a large area abso- 

 lutely without drainage, for the other boundaries mentioned are 

 also solid dams or roadways. In this area is also the beginning 

 of a ship canal which was started in the seventies, but never 

 completed. Fortunately, when the creek was cut off, the water 

 bodies were well stocked with fish and these have continued to 

 breed in what is now a stagnant pond kept down only by evapora- 

 tion, and into which cat-tail and duckweed are crowding from 

 the edges. These natural conditions — the cat-tails and fish sup- 

 ply — prevent mosquito breeding in what looks like a very bad 

 territor)^ 



A similar though much smaller area on the east of the Central 

 Railroad was blocked off in the same way by the Lehigh Valley 

 dam, is also well supplied with fish and these have multiplied to 

 such an extent as tO' penetrate everywhere as far as the water 

 itself covers the ground. There is no danger whatever of mos- 

 quito breeding at this point. 



A veiy bad breeding area was found around a little island of 

 highland just southeast of the junction of the Central and Le- 

 high Valley Railroad. Ditches were cut here and led to tide 

 water taking off all surface water and admitting the killies which 

 now extend tO' the very ends of the ditches. All the holes on the 

 highland were filled with sods and breeding is now impossible. 



The remainder of the space east of the Central Railroad to the 

 bay, between the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Peddie street 

 sewer is largely overgrown by cattails, or flooded with water in 

 which fish are abundant. No larvae were ever found here at any 

 time and there seems to be no possibility of their developing un- 

 der present conditions. 



South of the Peddie street sewer to Maple Creek, extending 

 east from the Central Railroad to Newark Bay, was an extremely 

 bad breeding area. Many ditches were cut here, and some were 

 run from the Peddie street sewer into Maple Creek. Through 

 these ditches the water runs like a mill race and cleans out all the 

 connecting ditches. Fish are plentiful, most of the old breeding 

 pools are directly connected with the ditches, while those too far 

 away to drain quickly are filled by the sods taken from the 



