86 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [84] 



C. — Record of spetifio gravities determined by the optical densimeter, <J-c. — Continued. 



EEPORT OF THE NATURALIST, MR. JAMES E. BENEDICT. 



The work of the Albatross for the year 1884 began with a long cruise 

 among the West India Islands and in the Caribbean Sea, under the 

 direction of the Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department. A series of 

 soundings and various observations was to be made for this Bureau, 

 which were necessarily to take precedence of zoological work. How- 

 ever, opportunities were to be given for collecting while the ship was 

 in port, and some dredgings were to be made at sea. 



The cruise began on the lOtli of January, when the Albatross sailed 

 from Norfolk, Va., for St. Thomas, where the anchor was dropped at 

 about noon on the 17th in the harbor of Charlotte Amalie. The island 

 seemed very beautiful to tho«e of us who saw a tropical country for the 



