522 FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. [10] 



rill and Rice, on the action of poisons on certain marine invertebrates, with a view 

 to killing them in an expanded condition, suitable for study. 



Important series of temperature observations have been conducted for the benefit 

 of the Commission as follows: By the light-house keepers along the Atlantic coast j- 

 by the menhaden fishermen on their fishing trips; and by the Signal Service observers 

 stationed on the interior rivers and lakes. Valuable assistance has also been ren- 

 dered by the life-saving crews stationed along the coast, who are under instruc- 

 tions to report by telegraph to the Fish Commissioner the appearance or stranding of 

 any unusual large fish or cetacean in the neighborhood of their station. Several 

 interesting discoveries have already been made by this means, and also by informa- 

 tion from light-house keepers. 



Very many important improvements have been made by the members of the Com- 

 mission, from time to time, in dredging and other appliances of research, which are 

 fully described in the catalogue. The most noteworthy of these are the rake dredges, 

 tangles, table and cradle sieves ; the Tanner sounding machine, for use with wire ; and 

 the Bailie-Tanner deep-sea thermometer case. 



According to an official report of the Commission, published in 1880, 800 species of 

 marine invertebrates had been recorded from the New England coast, and adjoining 

 regions, prior to 1871. To this number the Fish Commission added up to, but not in- 

 cluding, the summer of 1880, about 1,000 described species, which were either new, 

 or previously regarded as extra limital, making a total of 1,800 species of marine in- 

 vertebrates known to inhabit this region at the close of the first decade of the Com- 

 mission. In this enumeration no account has been taken of several groups of inver- 

 tebrates on which no special studies have as yet been made. The same report records 

 the discovery, during the same period, of over 100 species of marine fishes from the 

 eastern coast of the United States, of which one-half were new to science, and several 

 of economic value. Forty species were from north of Cape Cod, and 17 from the 

 coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the remainder being from the intervening region. In 

 addition to the above, over 60 species of fishes were added to the fauna of the Pacific 

 coast, through the efforts of the Fish Commission. Since 1879, the scientific results 

 have been even greater in proportion than previously, and about 40 species of fishes 

 have been added to the New England region, increasing the number of species known 

 from that section of the coast to over 230. 



No enumeration has been lately made of the invertebrate additions, but they amount 

 to several hundreds, and are mainly from the region of the Gulf Stream slope off the 

 New England coast, in depths of 100 to 800 fathoms. This region is undoubtedly one 

 of the very richest in the world, both as regards the abundance and variety of animal 

 life. It will be again included in the scope of the explorations for 1883. 



While the systematic explorations of the Fish Commission have not yet been ex- 

 tended to the Pacific and Gulf coasts, nor to the southward of Cape Hatteras, on 

 the Atlantic coast, special collectors have aided greatly in developing the littoral and 

 shallow-water faunas of those regions. The census operations of 1880 gave a new 

 impetus to this work, and the special coast experts were instructed to make large 

 collections, wherever they went. These researches were also extended to the region 

 of the Great Lakes and to the interior rivers. A large amount of valuable material 

 bearing upon both the salt and fresh water fisheries of the United States and the 

 food of fishes was the result. 



In 1871, the late Mr. J. W. Milner, Assistant Fish Commissioner, began a series of 

 careful explorations of the Great Lakes and other fresh-water areas, which he carried 

 on more or less continuously up to the time of his death, in 1879. The first year was 

 devoted exclusively to Lake Michigan, where, in addition to other collecting, numer- 

 ous dredgings were made in depths of 30 to 144 fathoms. The invertebrates obtained 

 were referred to Dr. William Stimpson, at Chicago, for study, but they were soon after- 

 ward destroyed in the great fire of October, 1871, before they had been carefully ex- 

 amined. During 1872 and one or two years following it, Lake Superior and the other 



