56 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 
The regular routine of operations at a summer station includes all the 
various forms of activity known to naturalists—collecting along the 
shore, seining upon the beaches, setting traps for animals not otherwise 
to be obtained, and scraping with dredge and trawl the bottom of the 
sea, at depths as great as can be reached by a steamer in a trip of three 
days. In the laboratory are carried on the usual structural and systematic 
studies; the preparation of museum specimens and of reports. Since 
the organization of the Commission, the deep-sea work and the investi- 
gation of invertebrate animals has been under the charge of Professor 
Verrill, who had, for many years before the Commission was established, 
been studying independently the invertebrate fauna of New England. 
In addition to what has been done at the summer station, more or less 
exhaustive investigations have been carried on by smaller parties on 
many parts of the coast and-interior waters. The fauna of the Grand 
Banks, and other off-shore fishing grounds, has been partly explored. 
In 1872, 1873, and 1874 dredging was carried on from the Coast Survey 
steamer Bache, by Professor Packard and Mr. Cooke, Professor Smith, 
Mr. Harger, and Mr. Rathbun. In 1879 Mr. H. L. Osborn spent three 
months in a cod-schooner collecting material on the Grand Banks, and 
Mr. N. P. Scudder as long a time on the halibut grounds of Davis’ 
Straits. 
A most remarkable series of contributions have been received from 
the fishermen of Cape Ann. When the Fish Commission had its head- 
quarters at Gloucester, in 1878, a general interest in the zodlogical work 
sprang up among the crews of the fishing vessels, and since that time 
they have been vying with each other in efforts to find new animals. 
Their activity has been stimulated by the publication of lists of their 
donations in the local papers, and the number of separate lots of speci- 
mens received, to the present time, exceeds eight hundred. Many of 
these lots are lagge, consisting of collecting-tanks full of aleoholie speci- 
mens. At least thirty fishing vessels now carry collecting-tanks, on 
every trip, and many of the fishermen, with characteristic superstition, 
have the idea that it insures good luck to have a tank on board, and 
will not go to sea without one. The number of specimens acquired in 
this manner is at least fifty or sixty thousand, most of them belonging 
to species unattainable. Hach halibut vessel sets, twice daily, lines 
from 10 to 14 miles in length, with hooks upon them 6 feet apart, in 
water 1,200 to 1,800 feet in depth, and the quantity of living forms 
brought up in this manner, and which had never hitherto been saved, 
is very astonishing. Over thirty species of fishes have thus been added 
to the fauna of North America, and Professor A. E. Verrill informs me 
that the number of new and extra limital forms thus placed upon the list 
of invertebrates cannot be less than fifty. 
A permanent collector, Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, has been employed at 
Wood’s Holl and vicinity since 1871, and many remarkable forms have. 
also been discovered by him. 
