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



they ran iiboiit niiea.sily, suspicious of every movement. I made use of 

 a cliargeof dust shot in a 32-caliber shell, with good effect, not materially 

 injuring' the specimens. 



Insect life was not abundant, owing perhaps to the season of the year, 

 though I should think that the large numbers of lizards served some- 

 what to keep them down. Spiders and centipedes were preserved when- 

 ever secured. 



Fish are taken by the fishermen in wicker-baskets, made and used on 

 the same principle as our lobster-traps. I was informed that the greater 

 supply of the fish in the market was obtained by means of these traps, 

 though some fish are caught by still-baiting with hook and line and by 

 trolling in the lagoon. I saw a fish-basket taken up which contained a 

 number of highly-colored fish, and from which I obtained a fair selection 

 for the Commission. One of these baskets was obtained for the National 

 Museum. 



We collected some interesting crustaceans ; one, a small squill, which 

 lives in cavities under stones and corals, where it fastens its eggs and 

 stands guard over them. One species of crab is found everywhere along 

 the shore, running out of the water and resting on the rocks. Mr. I^ye 

 found that he could catch one only by running up as a wave dashed over 

 it, and landing it with a scoop-net in some open place before it could 

 climb out of the net, which it does with surprising agility. These crabs 

 run without apparent difficulty up the i)erpendicular sides of a rock. 



We made it a rule to save the smaller fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, 

 worms, &c., in large numbers whenever they could be obtained, in the 

 hope of finding something new or rare, especially as our very limited 

 time did not permit us to discriminate closely. Some dredgings were 

 made at the entrance of the harbor and a little way outside, with a small 

 boat dredge, which we put over from the dinghy in tow of the cap- 

 tain's gig. This was hard work ; but the additional specimens obtained 

 well repaid us for the trouble. We were very kindly treated by the peo- 

 ple of St. Thomas, and, through the courtesy of Baron Eggers, we were 

 allowed to shoot on his land, it being against the law to shoot indis- 

 criminately in the highways and woodlands. 



On January 24 we left St. Thomas and stood out to sea on a southerly 

 course. The first soundings in the Caribbean Sea were made in sight of 

 St. Thomas. Uere and elsewhere during the cruise, when the water was 

 deep enough to necessitate the use of a sounding-shot, the sounding-cup 

 would, as a rale, come up filled with ooze. This was carefully labeled 

 and put into bottles, sometimes as it came up and sometimes after hav- 

 ing been washed ; only the foraminifera, pteropod shells, and sponge 

 spicules being saved, as each seemed to require. 



The color of the ooze brought up from the deepwater of the Caribbean 

 Sea is very much lighter than that from a similar depth in the Atlantic 

 Ocean off our eastern coast. This is no doubt the natural result of the 

 shores being largely made up of coral formations. It is well known 



