2 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



few cases the positions were not placed on the charts at the time, and 

 the bearings given do not suffice to fix them very accurately. It is be- 

 lieved, however, that but few positions laid down on the chart are ren- 

 dered uncertain to any great extent by either of these causes. A large 

 part o'' the positions determined by the Bache were originally given by 

 latitude and longitude. The other latitudes and longitudes given in the 

 tables are taken from the accompanying chart, and are intended to serve 

 as the readiest means of finding the localities, all of which are either thus 

 designated or are referred to as being near others, w^hich are so. Of the 

 dredging stations north of Cape Cod, Nos. 79 B to 97 B, 37 to 123 are 

 outside of the limits of the chart. These, and all others of the northern 

 stations, not placed upon the chart, are marked with + before the serial 

 number. The bearings given for the Speedwell's work in 1879 are true; 

 the others, with a few ( unrecognizable) exceptions, are magnetic. 



In the last column of the tables the letter indicates the apparatus eni- 

 ployed in dredging: D., Dredge; Ag. D., Agassiz Dredge; R. D., Eake 

 Dredge; T., Trawl; Ag. T., Agassiz Trawl; O. T., Otter Trawl; Tan., 

 Tangles. 



STATIONS FOR 1871, IN AND ABOUT VINEYARD SOUND, MASSACHUSETTS. 



During this, the first year of the Commission, the dredgings in shal- 

 low water were made partly from a sail boat, and partly from a steam- 

 launch, and those in the deeper waters, from the United States revenue- 

 cutter Moccasin, Capt. J. G. Baker. The dredging stations numbered 

 in all about 250, but to avoid confusion in laying them out on the chart, 

 they were combined into 87 groups or lines, each including from 2 to 9 

 stations, the lines being designated by numbers, the stations by letters. 

 In this manner they were represented on the large chart accompanying 

 the Eeport of the United States Fish Commissioner for 1871-'72. In 

 making up the present list the same arrangement has also been followed, 

 and where all the stations of a group were of the same nature, they 

 have been located collectively; otherwise the exact position of each sta- 

 tion has been given. 



Dates are not prefixed to all of the inner groups, as many of these 

 include stations made on different days. Temperature observations 

 (with Miller-Casella self -registering thermometers) were taken at most 

 of the outer stations, as recorded in the list, but were omitted at the 

 inner ones. The dredge was the implement most commonly used for 

 scraping the bottom, but the beam-trawl was also frequently em- 

 ployed on the smooth inner grounds. The rake-dredge was worked a 

 few times off Gay Head, and the tangles very rarely, in only a few 

 places. The characters of the many localities gone over in 1871, as weU 

 as the species of animals found inhabiting them, are fully discussed in 

 the "Report upon the Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound and 

 the adjacent waters, with an account of the physical characters of the 

 region," by Prof. A. E. Verrill; contained in the Report of the United 

 States Fish Commissioner, Part I, for 1871-'72. 



