9^ NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



harbor by sewage and factory waste. The resuks show that the 

 effects of the poHution of the harbor are hable to become very 

 serious, as the amount of sewage is increasing. There are bottom 

 deposits of sewage in many parts of the harbor that are several 

 feet in thickness. These have been probed and measured by the 

 Commission. Chemical and bacteriological studies were made 

 of the water and the deposits in many parts of Xew York Bay. 

 The investigations show that the action of the Hudson River 

 and the tides do not take refuse out to sea. Matter carried in 

 suspension by ebbing tides can not pass or even reach the Nar- 

 rows before meeting flood tides, w^hich bring it back. The 

 sewage of Greater New York, everywhere poured into the harbor, 

 is augmented by that from the adjacent cities of New Jersey. 



]\Iany forms of marine life which assist in the disposal of 

 organic matter in the harbor must decrease in numbers and 

 disappear as the volume of sewage increases, while the shad, 

 oyster and other fisheries are already suffering from its effect. 



The keeping of marine species in the Aquarium has always 

 been difffcult on account of the fact that the salt-water pumped 

 from the harbor into the tanks is charged with sewage. 



The water is, in fact, so impure that the death rate among the 

 sea fishes is very high. It has always been quite impossible to 

 exhibit the more delicate marine invertebrates for the same 

 reason. 



The new svstem of stored sea-water now in course of comple- 

 tion for the Aquarium will, however, aft'ord relief from this great 

 drawback. 



The laboratory was used for some time by Dr. G. G. Scott, of 

 the College of the City of New York, in his studies respecting 

 the regeneration of the fins of killifishes. Further studies made 

 in the laboratory by Dr. F. B. Sumner, of the same college, on 

 the relations between fishes and their surrounding medium were 

 published as "A contribution from the biological laboratory of 

 the New York Aquarium." 



Other biological papers based on the work in tlie A(|uarium 

 laboratory, or on specimens therefrom, were published by Dr. 

 IT. D. Senior, of the Wistar Institute of .\natom\'. l'hila(lcl])]iia, 

 and Mr. C. V. Morrill, Jr., of New York. 



Many sea fishes in the Aquarium killed by impure water were 

 skeletonized i^i the laboratory by Dr. R. W". Shufeldt, of New 

 York, who is engaged in a stud}- of the osteology of certain 

 tropical species. 



