338 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
while at Mollendo (17° S.), more than a thousand miles to the south—or as 
far away from Paita as New York from Miami, Fla—the midwinter temper- 
ature was 16° C. (61° F.). This current leads the fishermen to go southward 
from the port instead of northward, if a prompt return journey is desired, and 
its supposed swinging movements are of further significance, as it causes certain 
pelagic fishes to approach or recede from the coast. 
With such low-water temperatures a tropical fauna is, of course, absent. 
Corals are wanting, sponges nearly so, and the general character of the fauna 
and flora of the region is such as would ordinarily be found in much higher 
latitudes. 
In contrast to the barrenness of the coast there is a peculiar wealth of 
certain forms in the open ocean. The great red seas, formed sometimes, at 
least, of myriads of microscopic dinoflagellates, are of common occurrence. 
They are of uncertain value and sometimes seem to work much injury. Some- 
times, too, great areas of the surface of the sea are reddened by the vast 
numbers of small crustacea (Munida), which then play a part of great importance 
as food for the fishes and for the guano-producing birds. More striking still are 
the immense schools of small fishes, the ‘‘anchobetas” (Engraulis ringens 
Jenyns), which are followed by numbers of bonitos and other fishes and by sea 
lions, while at the same time they are preyed upon by the flocks of cormorants, 
pelicans, gannets, and other abundant sea birds. It is these birds, however, that 
offer the most impressive sight. The long files of pelicans, the low-moving black 
clouds of cormorants, or the rainstorms of plunging gannets probably can not be 
equaled in any other part of the world. These birds feed chiefly, almost exclu- 
sively, upon the anchobetas. The anchobeta, then, is not only an article of diet 
to a large number of Peruvians, and the food of the larger fishes, but, as the food 
of the birds, it is the source from whieh is derived each year probably a score 
of thousands of tons of high-grade bird guano. It is therefore to be regarded 
as the most valuable resource of the waters of Peru. No more forcible 
testimony to its abundance could be offered than the estimate, made roughly, 
but with not wide inaccuracy, that a single flock of cormorants observed at the 
Chincha Islands would consume each year a weight of these fish equal to one- 
fourth of the entire catch of the fisheries of the United States. 
The fishing grounds and opportunities, especially with the methods of 
fishery now in use, are restricted by the scarcity of good bays and by the 
rapid deepening of the water off the shore. Yet there are compensatory 
features. In proximity to almost every port are groups of islands, often 
with numerous coves and abundant outlying rocks, which offer a varied home 
for many species of rock and shore fishes. Along the coast proper some of the 
same species are found, with a good representation of the drums, the lizas, the 
flounders, and silversides. 
