December 27, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



1015 



ford have had a somewhat more natural environ- 

 ment, having spent the Avinter in a submerged 

 crate. They are hardy, voracious and seem to 

 thrive. 



The plans for the second year were based on. 

 the successes and faikires of the first, and it was 

 thought best to take advantage of the favorable 

 environmental conditions at Wickford, to dis- 

 continue the work elsewhere, and to put all the 

 energy into devising some economical contriv- 

 ance for keeping the water so agitated that the 

 fry would not and covild not settle to the bot- 

 tom. 



After many experiments, a relatively simple 

 and inexpensive device was adopted. Several 

 bags of scrim about three feet in diameter and 

 four in depth were so suspended in the pool of 

 the floating laboratory that the current could 

 not change their general shape or cause them to 

 collapse. In each bag was placed a dasher, the 

 blades of which in rotation would constantly 

 lift the water through the mesh at the bottom of 

 the bag and urge it with obviously less velocity 

 through the pores of the vertical walls. The 

 dashers were kept in motion by means of a 

 small gasolene engine, the motor apparatus as 

 a whole having a striking resemblance to the 

 aerating equipment of a second-class restaurant. 

 The scrim bags looked like so many vertical 

 cylinders. We found that when the mechanism 

 was in actual operation the current in rising 

 through the bottom of the bag brought with it 

 large numbers of pelagic animals, while the re- 

 duced current of the water passing through the 

 greater expanse of the vertical walls was not 

 sufiicient to carry this living material out of the 

 bags ; thus the apparatus sufi&ced not only for 

 keeping the fry and artificial food from the bot- 

 tom, but it also provided the fry with living 

 natural food. To Mr. George H. Sherwood is 

 due the credit of devising and installing this 

 aerating and feed apparatus. 



In practice it was found that the eggs stripped 

 from the abdomen of the female would hatch in 

 these scrim enclosures under much more favor- 

 able conditions than in McDonald jars. Indeed, 

 I am inclined to believe that a far higher per- 

 centage of eggs would hatch in these bags than 

 in the McDonald jars, and I am sure that the 

 young are in a much more healthy condition 



than when hatched by the older method. Even 

 a superficial examination of the young that 

 have spent some hours in the trituration of the 

 McDonald jars will show that a large propor- 

 tion of them have the appendages broken, bent 

 or indented. 



The number of fry that were available for the 

 purpose of experimentation during the first 

 season was considerably less than in 1900, and 

 the period of experimental work was also mate- 

 rially reduced. Nevertheless, Dr. Mead, who 

 had the work immediately in charge, reports 

 that by actual count in no case was the number 

 of lobsters that reached the fourth stage less 

 than 16 per cent, of the number of fry originally 

 placed in the enclosure. . In a few cases it was 

 above 40 per cent, and in at least one case it 

 was as high as 54 per cent. In previous years no 

 experiments had yielded more than a fraction 

 of one per cent. The total number of lobsters 

 raised to the fourth stage during the season of 

 1901 (in the twelve cylinders) was a little more 

 than nine thousand. 



Encouraged by these results, the United 

 States Commission of Fish and Fisheries is now 

 planning to equip one or more stations with the 

 aerating, hatching and brooding ajiparatus above 

 described, and to actually test the feasibility of 

 raising large numbers of fry to the fourth stage, 

 and I feel convinced that the liberation of large 

 numbers of these more hardy young will result 

 in the restocking of our depleted waters. 



H. C. BuMPUS. 



American Museum of Natural History. 



on the structure of the manus in 



BRONTOSAURUS. 



During the past season, while engaged in col- 

 lecting vertebrate fossils for the Carnegie Mu- 

 seum, Mr. Charles W. Gilmore had the good 

 fortune to discover in the Jurassic exposures on 

 Sheep Creek, in Albany Co., Wye, a very con- 

 siderable portion of the skeleton of Brontosaurus . 



This skeleton was very carefully taken up 

 by Mr. Gilmore and has been received at the 

 museum. Among the more importaiit parts se- 

 cured was a nearly complete fore limb and foot 

 with the different elements for the most part 

 still retained in their normal position, making 

 it possible for the first time to definitely deter- 



