872 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Janxtary 5. — Turbot that was weak is dead. 



January 0. — Foiiud a sole out of the can on tbe grating — sailors let the 

 water on too strong ; tbe tisli being alive was pub back. Sailors promise 

 more care ; spoke to them about temperature, cautioning not to use hose 

 if the water was cold, no danger, however, until near the banks of New- 

 foundland. 



January 7. — All looking nicely ; men washed another fish out at 6 \}, 

 m.; find it is another set of men in kindness giving the fish an extra 

 change. 



January 11. — This morning found the last turbot and fifteen soles 

 dead ; the water at midnight was 42°; this morning at 7.30 it is 46°. 

 The men say that they were all right at 4 when they changed the water ; 

 it has been very cold during tt;e night ; perhaps the fish were killed by a 

 sudden change of warm water at about o^'^, but which had cooled down 

 before my arising. Emptied one tank, ilut it over the steam-pipe, threw 

 out tbe gravel which had bruised some of tbe fish, and put the remaining 

 six soles into it. 



January 12. — On the banks ; very cold ; three of the soles dead and 

 one missing; the two remaining ones were brought through alive with- 

 out change of water from this until the IGtb. 



January 10. — Cape Cod light visible; took the two soles out in a 

 bucket to get the temperature down from 58^ at 6 a. m.; at 7 they are 

 at 44°. On consultation with the captain as to the best place for deposit, 

 there not- being enough to warrant employing a boat to go out from 

 Boston, he recommended " Stelwagen bank," some two or three miles 

 o.ff ]S"abant, a sandy bank separated from a rocky shore by blue mud. 

 At 8.30 we reached this place, and I lowered tbe bucket near the sur- 

 face and emptied it by a cord attached to the bottom. Tbis was in 18 

 fathoms of water, the surface temperature of which was 31°, while that 

 in tbe bucket was 36°; bad no means of getting tbe bottom temperature. 



The temperatures during the trip were as follows, that of the air 

 being m tbe room and bore very little relation to that outside : 



