58 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 
It is but just to say that many of these species were obtained by Pro- 
fessor Verrill in the course of his independent lan in Maine 
and Connecticut previous to 1871.* 
A similiar estimate for the fishes indicates the discovery of at least 
one hundred species on the eastern Atlantic coast within ten years; half of 
these are new to science. Forty species have been added to the fauna 
north of Cape Cod; sixteen of these are new and have been found with- 
in three years; seventeen have been described as new from the Gulf of 
Mexico; sixty and more have been added upon the western coast. The 
results of the summers’ campaigns are worked in winter by the special- 
istsof the National Museum, and under the direction of Professor Verrill, 
in New Haven. 
One of the important features of the work is the preparation of life- 
histories of the useful marine animals of the country, and great quan- 
tities of material have been accumulated relating to almost every spe- 
cies. A portion of this has been published, more or less complete bio- 
graphical monographs having been printed on the bluefish, the scup, 
the menhaden, the salmon, and the whitefish, and others are nearly 
ready. 
Another monograph which may be seen to in this connection is 
that of Mr. Alexander Starbuck on the whale fishery, giving its history 
from the earliest settlement of North America. 
The temperature of the water, in its relation to the movements of fish, 
has from the first received special attention. Observations are made 
regularly during the summer work, and at the various hatching stations. 
At the instance of the Commissioner, an extensive series of observations 
have for several years been made under the direction of the Chief Sig- 
nal Officer of the Army, at light-houses, light-ships, life-saving and sig- 
nal stations, carefully chosen, along the whole coast. This year thirty 
or more fishing schooners and steamers are carrying thermometers to 
record temperatures upon the fishing grounds, a journal of the move- 
ments of the fish being kept at the same time. One practical result of 
the study of these observations has been the demonstration of the cause 
of the failure of the menhaden fisheries on the coast of Maine in 1879— | 
a failure on account of which nearly 2,000 persons were thrown out of 
employment. 
Another important series of investigations carried on by Commander 
Beardsley, of the Navy, shows the error of the ordinary manner of 
using the Casella-Miller deep-sea thermometer; still another series, made 
by Dr. Kidder, of the Navy, and to be carried out in future, had for its 
object the determination of the temperature of the blood of marine ani- 
mals. 
Observations have also been made by Mr. Milner upon the influence 
*A few days after the reading of this paper a new fauna was discovered about one 
hundred miles southeast of Newport, and several hundred numbers might now be ad- 
ded to this enumeration. 
