[59] WOEK OF FISH COMMISSION STEAMEE ALBATEOSS. 175 



EEPORT OF THE NATURALIST, MR. JAMES E. BENEDICT. 



I have the honor to report that upon December 14, 1882, I was 

 appointed resident naturalist of the United States Fish Commission, 

 Steamer Albatross, and ordered to prepare a complete outfit of collect- 

 ing apparatus for that vessel. I found that Capt. J. W. Collins had 

 procured an admirable assortment of nets, comprising trammel and gill 

 nets, and seines fully rigged for use ; also a large number of fishing lines, 

 fish-hooks, squid-jigs, &c. ; in short, all the implements of use on a fish- 

 ing vessel. 



But much minor apparatus remained to be procured for the ship, such 

 as sieves, fish pans, dishes, and other things necessary in the laboratory, 

 besides alcohol jars and vials. 



The full complement of alcohol-tank boxes is forty, of which ten con- 

 tain four 4-gallon tanks each ; sixteen two 8-gallon tanks each, and the 

 remainder one 16-gallon tank each. All these tanks are of copper. 

 Their aggregate capacity is about fifteen barrels. The complement of 

 jars is about two gross of 4-pouud butter jars; two gross of 2-pound 

 butter jars; two gross of 2-quart fruit jars; two gross of 1-pint fruit; 

 and two gross of 1-pint fruit, and from two to five gross of each of the 

 cork-jars, from No. 1 to No. 8, inclusive. 



Two or three features of the Albatross's equipment should be specially 

 mentioned, viz : 



THE MUD-BAG. 



It often happens that the bottom is of such a nature that it washes 

 through the netting of the common dredge and trawl, leaving in our 

 hands only the larger specimens, subject to more or less injury by stones 

 and broken shells. To prevent this we have made a tight canvas bag 

 about 3 feet long, and have attached it to the iron frame of a boat- 

 dredge. Thus rigged it is attached to the end of the trawl-net. Besides 

 the larger forms of fish and invertebrates taken with the trawl alone, 

 this contrivance secures from deep water large amounts of foraminifera 

 otherwise lost, and many specimens of worms, Crustacea, and moUusca 

 This alone makes the mud-bag valuable, but it has the further merit of 

 delivering mud and ooze free from slime and fish scales, even under 

 circumstances where they are plentifully found in the trawl-net, as, for 

 instance, when large hauls of fish, star-fish, and holothuriaus are made. 



I estimate that, outside of the foraminifera, the number of species 

 captured by the use of this bag is, oftentimes, from one-third to two- 

 thirds greater than by the trawl alone. 



It was found that the lower tray of the sieve, with its one-twelfth inch 

 mesh, permitted most of the foraminifera, annelids, small Crustacea, and 

 many minijifce shells to escape, and, as a remedy, the canvas discharge- 

 pipe was turned from the scuppers into a tub placed under the sieve. 



