REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 453 



The area further south, toward Carteret, is in about the same 

 general condition as that above mentioned, though not so easily 

 dealt with. There are a great many holes in this meadow which 

 breed myriads of mosquitoes and yet 40 per cent, of all the holes 

 on it contain fish and are safe. Some of these larger pools are 

 deep enough to hold water and maintain the killies during even 

 long droughts; but some of them dry up easily and when, after 

 the death of the fish they become refilled by rains, they make 

 enormous contributions to the general mosquito output. There 

 is practically no natural drainage on this marsh and large ditches, 

 two and one-half feet wide and three feet deep, would have to be 

 cut into the Arthur Kill to receive the necessary narrow drains. 

 The land is solid enough to maintain ditches indefinitely and the 

 banks of the Kill are bold enough to take the wide ditches ef- 

 fectively. Both hand and machine work could be profitably used 

 on this meadow. The ground is in such condition that the ma- 

 chine could cut both six and twelve inch ditches easily, and only 

 a few places would be better done by hand labor. 



The territory on both sides of the Rahway River west of the 

 New York and Long Branch Ralroad is not very dangerous. 

 The meadow is not very wide and contains very few bad breed- 

 ing holes ; the south side more than the north ; but neither is very 

 bad. Hand ditching is indicated here, because only short ditches 

 are needed and the Rahway needs three-foot outlets to drain the 

 area perfectly. The river carries killies in great numbers and 

 these would penetrate to the very head of every ditch, taking 

 care of every larva that was drained into it. 



The territory between the Rahway River and Perth Amboy 

 was surveyed from the latter point and the report reads, there- 

 fore, from the south instead of from the north as in the others. 



The salt marsh extending from Perth Amboy to the mouth of 

 Woodbridge Creek, bordering the Arthur Kill, breeds few mos- 

 quitoes, comparatively speaking. The area is mainly overgrown 

 with reeds and is almost constantly covered with water. There 

 are depressions along the highlands, however, that retain water 

 after the recedence of high tides and these become dangerous and 

 need attention. All of these can be easily drained into already 

 existent ditches. 



Along either side of Woodbridge Creek the marsh area is 

 prolific breeding ground. Almost all parts of the marsh are 

 mown for salt hay and shallow pools are scattered over the whole 

 territory. Close to the creek and along some of the larger ditche:- 

 which cut this meadow there is a broad area of safe ground an(! 

 such large pools as occur are filled with fish. A short distance 



