l6 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



to Specific stations in the text of that report. From the earliest days of the United 

 States Fish Commission, when naval tugs and other small Government craft had to be 

 requisitioned to meet the needs of its scientific explorations, down to the days of the 

 Fish Hawk and Albatross, it has been the custom to record serially numbered dredging 

 stations, with the bearings, depth, and other data by which each spot could be identified. 

 From time to time lists of these stations have been published (Smith and Rathbun, 1882 ; 

 Sanderson Smith, 1889). Thus far, however, no lists have ever been offered showing 

 the total array of species found at the various stations, nor has the distribution of a 

 single species been described in detail or plotted out graphically for local waters. 

 Whether or not the data necessary for such an undertaking were ever gathered in the 

 past, they have never been published, and those earlier records are scarcely available at 

 present. 



For this reason it seemed desirable to repeat the earlier exploration of the shallower 

 waters in the vicinity of Woods Hole, in an endeavor to deal with certain problems more 

 intensively than has ever been done before. A systematic survey of the bottom of 

 Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay was accordingly planned, with a view to showing 

 (1) the aggregate fauna and flora associated together at each point dredged; (2) the 

 detailed distribution of each species which was found; and (3) the depth, character of 

 bottom, temperature, etc., which might explain the observed facts of distribution. 

 The incidental discovery of new species would, of course, be welcomed, though this was 

 not the primary object of the investigation. 



In the dredging work the steamers Fish Hawk and Phalarope were chiefly employed. 

 With the former vessel much larger dredges could be used, and the position of the stations 

 could be determined more accurately. The Phalarope, on the other hand, having a 

 smaller draft and being more wieldy, could be employed in shallower waters. This vessel 

 was consequently the one used for the inshore work, both in the Bay and the Sound, 

 though the still smaller Blue Wing was employed on a few occasions. 



Three types of dredging apparatus were employed by us. (i) The beam trawl, of 

 which descriptions and figures may be found in several previous reports of the United 

 States Fish Commission (Verrill, 1883; Tanner, 1884, 1897). The trawls employed in 

 the present work were quite diminutive in comparison with those used in commercial 

 trawling, having a beam length (width of aperture) of from 6 to 9 feet, and a depth of 

 net not much exceeding 10 feet. This appliance can be employed to best advantage on 

 a level bottom of hard sand or fine gravel, upon which the lead line fits closely. It is 

 well adapted to scraping up the larger mollusks, fishes, Crustacea, echinoderms, alga, 

 etc., which lie upon the surface, but not to penetrating the sand or gravel; and it conse- 

 quently fails to disturb those forms which burrow in even a slight degree. For this 

 reason, and because of the large size of its meshes, the beam trawl was commonly not 

 employed alone; but a dredge of the next type was ordinarily appended to the lower 

 end of the bag. 



(2) The ordinary naturalists' dredge, of the type originally devised by O. F. Miiller 

 (see Verrill, 1883; Tanner, 1884, 1897; Agassiz, 1888). This, as is well known, con- 

 sists of a heavj', rectangular, iron frame, to which is fitted the mouth of a bag of stout 

 netting. In the commoner pattern the two longer sides of the frame consist of sharp, 

 outwardly flaring edges, adapted to cutting into the sand, gravel, or mud; and the 



