CCELENTERATA AND 



toral and shallow water animals on our coast. The Crip- 

 plings" furnish one of the best places for surface genera. 

 At Eastport the channel between the Old Friar and Treat's 

 Island is the richest known to me. The surface fishing 

 there is good. Newport affords an abundant surface fauna 

 which is characteristically southern in its facies. 



Surface fishing, as distinguished from shore collecting 

 and dredging, pertains to those animals which habitually 

 swim at or very near the surface of the sea. 



The fauna of the ocean surface is known as the pelagic 

 fauna, from the Greek word, -niXa-foc;, meaning the sea. 

 Since, however, the word pelagic from its derivation means 

 the sea as a whole without special reference to the surface, 

 the adjective aequorial, from "sequor" the surface, would 

 more accurately designate the character of the fauna with 

 which a part of our subject deals. 



The methods of surface fishing are easily acquired and 

 require no complicated outfit. A simple hand or drag- 

 net made of muslin or bolting cloth for collecting ; a water 

 bucket or jar for the reception of specimens captured ; and 

 a boat to seek out the tide eddies where the animals which 

 we are to study are most common, are all that is necessary. 

 This method of fishing needs but a few general hints for 

 successful prosecution. 



The best collecting ground must be learned from expe- 

 rience. Tide eddies, edges of currents, sheltered nooks 

 and small bays into which the floating life is accidentally 

 lodged or driven by the wind and tides, are most prolific 

 in the abundance of surface life. Wherever the tidal cur- 

 rents collect flotsam of any kind, there, if not too far from 

 the open ocean, one can look with promise of success for 

 wealth of aequorial life. The same causes which bring in- 

 animate objects into these places will lead to accumula- 

 tion of floating forms of life in the same localities. 



The time for profitable collecting is influenced by the 



