PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 105 
of the Southern States, vol. i, is an account of its occurrence in remark- 
able numbers in the Southern States in 1854. 
It is an interesting fact concerning this insect that it also occurs in 
the Eastern and Middle States, but that in these States we rarely hear 
of its injuries to man or to domestic animals. 
OCarbolic soap is considered an excellent preventive in the Southwest, 
and, according to Prof. J. Parish Stelle, who made the experiment for 
me in 1880, pyrethrum blown upon the sores will induce the worms to 
issue forth and leave them. 
Respectfully, 
C. V. RILEY, 
Curator of Insects. 
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 
FISH MORTALITY IN THE GULE OF MEXICO. 
By Ss. T. WALKER. 
{Letter to Prof. 8. F. Baird. ] 
Knowing your interest in everything connected with fish, &c., I take 
the liberty of giving you all the facts I have been able to collect in 
reference to the late mortality among the fishes in Tampa Bay and ad- 
joining coasts. Had I known before I began my cruise of the extent 
of this mortality and splendid opportunities afforded of collecting speci- 
mens of strange and perhaps unknown species, I might have gone bet- 
ter prepared for collecting specimens, but I had only heard a few vague 
rumors, and I was little prepared for anything further than a collection 
of facts in regard to the matter. 
On leaving Clear Water, November 20, I sailed south through Boca 
Ceiga Bay, and encountered the first dead fish floating on the water 
near Bird Key, a little southeast of Pass A’Trilla. These were mullet, 
and as we progressed to the south and east I began to encounter toad- 
fish, eels, puff-fish and cow-fish, in immense numbers, and, on attempt- 
ing to land on the extreme point of Point Pinellas for the night, I was 
driven to my boat by the stench of thousands of rotting fish upon the 
beach. The next morning I went ashore and found the dead fish drifted 
ashore in countless numbers. The eels appeared most numerous, fol- 
lowed by puff-fish, cow-fish, sailor’s choice, and small fish of every shape 
and variety. After these followed groupers, mangrove snappers, jew- 
fish, gar-pike, spade-fish, sting-rays, and sharks. Other varieties, un- 
known to me, were mixed among these, together with vast numbers of 
catfish. I saw very few mullet here. 
At Gadsden Point about the same species appeared, while at Tampa 
I saw but few dead fish, and they were principally gars and catfish. 
From Tampa I proceeded to the mouth of the Little Manatee to obtain 
