REPORT OF DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1900 r229 



bers. The bays are shallow and the temperature of the water is 

 high in summer. There are no great streams emptying into the 

 bays and carrying with them food for fishes. Nor are there any 

 favorable inlets in which the fishes can spawn. There is no 

 rich representation of plant life on the shores. Most of the 

 shore line is of black silt washed down from the uplands. At a 

 distance from the shore are sandy bars and sand hills and the 

 marshes meet this sand on the bottom. This must affect the 

 animal life which is of food value to the fishes. What mature 

 fish there are, hover about the mouths of the inlets and in the 

 deeper waters outside them. There are no indications that food 

 fish spawn in the inlets on the south shore. On the oceanward 

 shores of the bars and sand hills the water breaks in great 

 rollers. Inside the bars in the bays there is no great depth 

 of water and the fauna and flora are poor.^ 



At Cold Spring Harbor the water is very brackish, and if a 

 large stream entered at the head of the harbor, conditions would 

 be ideal for fishes. But the streams are tiny. The inner basin 

 has a poor representation of plant forms. Eels, menhaden, 

 mummichogs and shiners occur in great numbers. The two lat- 

 ter form the principal food of young bluefish. Those fishes that 

 are not predaceous feed principally on crustaceans. The young 

 fish live at the head of the harbor where the water is quieter 

 and where the food conditions are better and where they find 

 greatest protection-. Predatory fishes seem to have the more 

 rapid growth. A number of food fishes common to the south 

 shore are occasionally found here. Physical and biologic con- 

 ditions, in short, account for the small occurrence of fish in 

 these waters. 



^In connection with these statements, it should he mentioned that sys- 

 tematic investigations on the breeding habits of the fishes of Long Island 

 have not been continued long enough to generalize thoroughly on this 



^subject. EDITOR 



