Se ee Pe a 
REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 115 
In ridding their beds of starfishes the oystermen generally make 
use of the common oyster-dredge, which also brings up everything 
from the bottom, and the living oysters may then be transplanted to 
other grounds if desirable. This method is necessarily laborious and 
expensive, aS well as destructive, as many oysters are often damaged 
by the dredge, especially if they are young and thin-shelled. -A spe- 
cial dredge, invented by Mr. Landcraft, of New Haven, and designed 
to remove only the starfishes, has been employed with some success, 
but its use does not seem to have become very general. Other devices 
having the same object in view have recently been patented, but noth- 
ing has been learned regarding their effectiveness. The tangles, sug- 
gested some years ago for this purpose by the Fish Commission, have 
been tried occasionally, but they are said not to work the ground clean, 
and it is difficult to extricate the starfishes after the apparatus has 
been landed on the deck. The first of these troubles also manifested 
itself in the trials made by the Mish Hawk with the beam trawl, but it 
was partly overcome by attaching a drag chain between the runners 
slightly in advance of the net. This appliance would not, however, 
present any advantage over the oyster dredge, and, as a whole, might 
be regarded as very inferior to it, its expense and the difficulty of 
working it from a small steamer also operating to its disfavor. 
Baited traps were experimented with in 1889 under the direction of 
Dr. Hodge, but only with negative results. They were made of iron 
rings, 2 feet in diameter, filled in with a shallow bag of netting, and 
when in use were suitably weighted, and their positions marked witha 
small wooden buoy. Many different kinds of bait were employed, and 
they were as thoroughly tested as was possible at the time in the Nor- 
walk district, but no starfishes were secured on any trial. This experi- 
ment is not, however, to be regarded as conclusive, because traps have 
been and are still being used for this purpose with some success in 
Providence River. They are there made box-shaped, of laths, some- 
thing after the pattern of the rectangular lobster pots. It is not ex- 
pected that any devices of this sort will prove effectual where starfishes 
are very abundant, but under some circumstances they might serve a 
good purpose, and further tests should be made whenever the oppor- 
tunity occurs. 
Physical inqury.—The following preliminary report by Mr. EK. E. 
Hlaskell, upon the results of his current observations in Long Island 
Sound, has been transmitted by the Superintendent of the U.S. Coast 
and Geodetic Survey. 
