744 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1064i 



Gay Head light, and the thump, thump of 

 the engines began, to keep up all night. On 

 the following morning, soon after sunrise, 

 we would sight Nomansland or Gay Head, 

 and about 9 o'clock were tied up at the 

 wharf in Great Harbor, which, as I re- 

 member, was just west of the Luscomb 

 wharf. 



Sometimes the fair-weather forecast did 

 not hold good for the whole trip. That 

 meant an uneasy time for Captain Tanner, 

 who, it was said by other oiScers and by 

 the crew, never slept from the time the 

 Fish Hawk put out to sea until she was 

 safe in harbor. Of one of these return 

 trips I have a vivid recollection. With little 

 provocation the Fish Hawk, not then pro- 

 vided with a bilge keel, could get up a 45° 

 roll. On this occasion soon after we turned 

 in we had an exhibition of rolling and pitch- 

 ing and various combinations of these sev- 

 erally trying motions that far outdid any 

 former exhibitions of similar nature. Now 

 and then the twin screws, prophetic of the 

 air craft of the present day, were whirling 

 in air, while on board there was a constant 

 rattling and banging, creaking and slam- 

 ming, with an occasional crash of breaking 

 glass that kept us awake but, so far as I 

 remember, did not cause us any alarm. "We 

 did not know much about the sea-going 

 qualifications of the Fish Hawk, while we 

 had an extravagant confidence in the abil- 

 ity and caution of the captain. 



When we reached port on this trip 

 Captain Tanner put in circulation a new 

 story. In order to understand the point of 

 the story it is necessary first to explain 

 that, just as now the title of a scientific 

 worker in Woods Hole is doctor — so much 

 so indeed that one readily understands why 

 a little girl a few years ago brought word 

 upstairs to her mother that Dr. Boles, the 

 carpenter, was below — ^so, in the 80 's, the 

 title of professor was similarly employed. 



"The Professor" always, and to all per- 

 sons, meant Professor Baird. Otherwise 

 the title of professor was bestowed with 

 great liberality and impartiality. Indeed 

 we young assistants were called professors 

 by the crew of the Fish Hawk as cheerfully 

 and naturally as the same persons would 

 have given the title to an instructor in the 

 art of self-defense. It so happened on this 

 trip that there were some worthies on 

 board who occupied the spare staterooms, 

 and mattresses were spread in the ward 

 room for the assistants. Captain Tanner 

 said that when it came on to blow he sent 

 his servant, George, below to see if every- 

 thing had been made secure. When he re- 

 turned the captain asked: "Well, George, 

 is everything clewed up tight?" "Yas, 

 sah." "You're sure that all's been made 

 snug?" "Yas, sah." "Nothing loose?" 

 "No, sah, 'seusin of a few professors adrift 

 on de ward-room flo'." 



On a number of the trips made to the 

 Gulf Stream in 1882 trawl lines and bait 

 _were taken along for the purpose of fish- 

 ing for the tile-fish, whose destruction in 

 enormous numbers had been reported by 

 incoming vessels in the spring of that year. 

 These vessels reported that they had seen 

 countless millions of fish in a dead or dying 

 condition covering thousands of square 

 miles of the sea. The tile-fish {Lophilatilus 

 chammleonticeps) was first taken in 1879. 

 It is a bottom fish with habits much like the 

 cod, and it occurred in vast numbers in the 

 waters bordering the Gulf Stream between 

 Hatteras and Nantucket previous to the 

 season of 1882.^ 



Professor Baird had hoped that prof- 

 itable fisheries for this species might be 

 opened up, and was very anxious to have 

 specimens secured to prove that the species 

 was still extant. I remember a remark that 

 Captain Chester made as he came alongside 



2 U. S. Fish Com. Iteport for 1882, pp. 237-94. 



