LVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
in order that the experiment might have the benefit of as wide a range 
of temperature and conditions as possible. The specimens were brought 
from the southern New England coast, where the water temperature, 
although much less equable, coincides in part with that of northern 
California. This subject is fully discussed under the special heading 
of u Lobster.” 
THE GULF OF MEXICO. 
The red-snapper banks . — The red-snapper and grouper fisheries of the 
Gulf of Mexico were first investigated for the Fish Commission in 1880 
by the late Silas Stearns, of Pensacola, Florida, whose report upon 
that subject was printed in the u Fisheries and Fishery Industries of 
the United States.” Chart No. 16 of Section III of that publication 
represents the distribution of the fishing-grounds for those species 
between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the southern extremity 
of Florida. Most of the submerged continental platform along that 
portion of the coast, in depths less than 50 fathoms, was designated by 
Mr. Stearns as a more or less continuous fishing-bank, of which the 
principal commercial resources are the red snapper (Lutjanus black- 
fordi ), red grouper (Epinephelus morio ), and black grouper ( Epineplielus 
nigritus). Although dependent upon the fishing vessels for the means 
of making his observations, he was able to describe the grounds in 
considerable detail, and to designate the general distribution of their 
commoner inhabitants. On the more southern grounds, he states, the 
majority of the edible fishes taken are groupers, while on the northern 
ones red snappers are more numerous and the groupers less common. 
During the early part of 1885 the steamer Albatross made extensive 
explorations in the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, the fishing- 
grounds and fisheries examined being discussed by Capt. J. W. Collins 
in the annual report of the Fish Commission for the same year. With 
respect to the red-snapper banks, Capt. Collins explains that the 
grounds then generally visited in winter are embraced in a somewhat 
narrow belt along what is termed the outer edge of the shore sound- 
ings between the meridians of Cape San Bias and Mobile. So far as 
is known, the red snapper during the winter occurs in greater abun- 
dance along this stretch of bottom than elsewhere. The grounds lying 
between Cape San Bias and the Tortugas*have been thoroughly worked 
over by the Key West smackmen, chiefly in depths of 5 to 15 fathoms, 
but outside of the 15-fathom line little fishing has probably been done 
south of Tampa Bay. The red snapper may, however, occur *th ere 
in abundance, and should that fact be established this region would 
undoubtedly be resorted to whenever the supply diminished on the 
grounds nearest the fishing ports. 
With the object of determining the characteristics and resources of 
the southern deep-water extension of this large bank, and bringing the 
same to the attention of the fishermen, the schooner Grampus , Capt. A. 
