REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 407 



there is no turf to hold a ditch. Filhng material is quite plentiful 

 in the sand hills, so there need be no trouble on that score. On 

 the land side there are no very serious breeding areas and none 

 that cannot be readily drained. In Wildwood the streets have 

 been recentlv improved and many of them continued from bay 

 to the shore. Those that have been newly made are faced with 

 gravel and so far as the public highway is concerned there is not 

 a sino-le breeding area within town limits. But some of the 

 areas between the streets lie lower than them, and in some -of 

 these areas water may lodge long enough to mature a mosquito 

 brood. It is easy in most cases to fill these danger spots and in 

 some places that is being- done. On the marsh side of the ele- 

 vated ridge things are not so favorable and there are yet many 

 breeding places, but they are usually small and can be readily 

 drained or filled. 



Anglesea occupies the northeastern end of the island and is at 

 present a sufferer from the sea which has cut off heavy slices at 

 the mouth of Hereford Inlet for the several years last past. In 

 a few places the sand hills between the highland and the shore 

 have formed depressions which hold water and some of these, 

 with a coating of vegetation, are mosquito breeders. But the 

 location of such pools shifts from year to year, and it is not easy 

 to determine just where conditions will favor breeding. There 

 is one point, however, in all cases : Wherever such a depression 

 exists the material to fill it is equally at hand and a few days' 

 work early in the season by an intelligent man will prevent all 

 trouble later. Here the highland tapers off into the marsh, but 

 conditions are not nearly so bad as they are at Holly Beach within 

 town limits. Nevertheless just beyond the railroad station and 

 on both sides of the road leading from the Hotel Germantown 

 to the creek there is an area that supplies the entire town and 

 leaves a surplus to spread over the marshes. On the marsh side 

 of the highland its outline is irregular, and many cuts and inden- 

 tations extend inward for a longer or shorter distance. Almost 

 all of these are breeding places and there are some breeding 

 places between the old and new railroad line where natural drain- 

 age has been interfered with. Ditch drainage is quite possible 

 for most of this area, though in some places, at the edge of the 

 highland, filling will be cheaper and more advantageous. In a 

 few places the wagon roads across the marshes have cut up the 

 surface so that pools form in which thousands of specimens 

 breed. Filling these depressions with marsh grass or sedge will 

 stop the breeding and improve the road. 



