JANUARY 18, 1901.] 
this year. Most of the whitefish output was 
obtained from ‘penned’ fish, a method of hold- 
ing the fish until ripe, which has now an assured 
place in fish-cultural operations. Seasonal diffi- 
culties affected unfavorably the pike-perch in 
Lake Erie and Vermont, though a total of 90 
million eggs and fry was distributed. 
The New England stations propagating the 
great marine food species were unusually suc- 
cessful. Cod were hatched in excess by 50 mill- 
ion of any previous record. The interesting 
experiment of tagging adult codfish for the 
purpose of acquiring data on their migrations 
and growth was continued, 1,311 being returned 
to the ocean in November from the Wood’s Holl 
Station, of which 11 were captured, some as 
far south as New Jersey, before the close of the 
year. A new method was followed in flatfish 
culture, consisting in allowing natural spawning 
in tanks in place of fertilizing artificially, the 
results indicating the superiority of this means 
of obtaining fertilized eggs of this species. 
Three new stations were put in commission— 
at Bullochville, Ga., Edenton, N. C., and 
Nashua, N. H., devoted chiefly to the salmo- 
noids, shad and bass, making a total of 35 oper- 
ated during the year. 
The weather considerably shortened the shad 
season on the Potomac, but an unusual run oc- 
curred on the Delaware, the price falling to 
nearly nothing. The success here and on the 
Susquehanna made possible a large total output, 
a gain of several millions over the preceding 
year. The basses and crappie were in unusual 
demand, but the development of the collecting 
work on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers—by 
which fingerling bass that would otherwise be 
sacrificed are taken from the ‘ back’ waters of 
the river, throwing the fish-cultural work upon 
nature—met all demands at a nominal expense. 
Encouraging reports come from Montana and 
Colorado of the establishment of brook and 
steelhead trout in waters very recently without 
these valuable species. Captures of a few 
specimens in other cases indicate the process of 
establishing rainbow trout in Maine and Tenn- 
essee, Swiss trout in the Adirondacks, and 
quinnat salmon in Lake Ontario. The Chesa- 
peake and Ohio canal was seined prior to draw- 
ing off the water for the winter, for a distance . 
SCIENCE. 
107 
of 92 miles, and some 90,000 fish of many spe- 
cies transferred to the Potomac. 
Notable among the biological investigations 
of the Division of Scientific Inquiry are the 
oyster experiments at Lynnhaven Bay, Va. 
These are directed toward a practical method 
of fattening oysters by the use of a commercial 
fertilizer through the medium of their diatoma- 
ceous food, the diatoms appropriating the fer- 
tilizer. The experiments are made in an en- 
closed and tideless claire and have achieved a 
definite measure of success in demonstrating 
the possibility of fattening oysters to market- 
able condition by this means. The process is 
slower, however, than demanded for commer- 
cial purposes, and modifications of the conditions 
have been made which provide for artificial 
currents in the claire, thus approaching more 
nearly the conditions of nature. 
The failure of the North Carolina oyster-beds 
has been taken up by the Commission, and the 
steamer Fish-Hawk spent the fall and winter 
on important portions of the grounds. A re- 
port upon the subjectisin preparation. Hastern 
oysters have become well acclimatized in San 
Francisco Bay and support an industry yielding 
a half-million of dollars annually in mature 
oysters with the quantity and value on the 
increase. The conditions at Willapa Bay, 
Washington, were examined with reference to 
the fate of a plant of eastern oysters made there 
in 1894. It appears that the water is colder 
than is favorable for the setting of the spat. 
Nothing came of the plant, and while reports 
show that a large proportion of them were 
alive a year after planting, the original oysters 
have now almost entirely disappeared and there 
is a presumption of depredations upon these 
grounds. A method of obtaining spat from 
shallow ponds constructed for the purpose was 
recommended, the spat to be then planted in 
the bay. In connection with the failure of 
eastern oysters to multiply in the colder waters 
of our northwestern coast, oysters of northern 
Japan are to be transplanted to Washington 
waters. 
The Wood’s Holl laboratory has undergone 
expansion in equipment, the amount of work 
done, particularly in devoting, at the sugges- 
tion of the Commissioner, the museum room 
