126 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



fort" ill the American Naturalist for May, 1900, Professor Wilson, 

 director of the laboratory, makes the following statements concerning 

 the studies of the various animal forms of the region: 



It is i^lanned that the record of each species shall include mention of the locali- 

 ties in which it is fairly abundant, most convenient collecting methods, time of 

 year during which breeding goes on, brief natural-history notes on habits of adult 

 (food, enemies, parasites, rate of growth, time and extent of migration, etc.), and 

 on the life-history (character of eggs, where and how deposited, possibility of 

 artificial fertilization, period of embryonic development, character of larva and 

 period of larval development, habitat, food, and enemies of larva). The economic 

 value of such a knowledge of the natural history of the region will be readily 

 understood, and it is equally obvious to what an extent it will aid naturalists 

 engaged in the study of abstruse problems of morphological and physiological 

 embryology, of comparative anatomy and physiology. Its value in connection 

 with similar results of the work at other coast stations, to the study of the vari- 

 ability of organisms, may be here alluded to. 



To carry out such a scheme of work for a rich fauna like that of Beaufort will 

 require years. An excellent basis has, however, been built up, and profitable lines 

 of study marked out by the members of the Johns Hopkins marine laboratory 

 and by other naturalists. At the Fish Commission laboratory many of the pre- 

 viously known facts, some recorded, some unrecorded (in the possession of former 

 workers at Beaufort), have been brought together and confirmed, and important 

 additions have been made. The forms actually collected during the season of 

 1899 include 238 species of marine invertebrates, some 70 fishes, 50 birds, a number 

 of reptiles, aaiphibia, insects, and arachnoids, and a very considerable number of 

 land plants and algee. In the case of a good number of species, notes along the 

 lines indicated above were made. In another season's work doubtless all the 

 recorded forms will have been taken and identified. Further progress can only be 

 made by a formal division of labor among the members of the laboratory. With 

 the great awakening of interest, which is so apparent to-day in the phenomena 

 exhibited byanimals and plants regarded as living units, it should not be difficult 

 to find naturalists who will gladly work up the local natural history of the groups 

 embracing the particular forms on which they may be investigating problems of a 

 morphological or physiological character. 



The variety of fishes that may be taken in a short time in Beaufort Harbor and 

 adjoining waters is so great as to make it evident that the number recorded (Jen- 

 kins gives 134) for the region will be greatly increased when systematic collecting 

 has been carried on for a few years. Some 9 miles from Beaufort inlet the coast 

 line makes a sharp right-angled bend, with Cape Lookout at the angle. From the 

 end of the cape a narrow line of shoals extends much farther out. The cape and 

 its submerged continuation form a wall, as it were, reaching seaward for 15 miles. 

 Cape Lookout itself is so shaped as to embrace a bay, a quiet and beautiful sheet 

 of water, Lookout Bight. The coast configuration thus forms a remarkable natural 

 trap into which fish migrating northward fall. It is doubtful whether a better 

 place can be found anywhere on our coast for the carrying out of observations on 

 oceanic species and on bay and river species during the oceanic period of their life. 

 The seining at Cape Lookout has 1 een extremely interesting and successful, both 

 as regards the variety of forms and the number of individuals taken. 



It is a source of great satisfaction to the Commission and to biolo- 

 gists that at the last session of Congress an act was passed providing 

 for the establishment of a permanent station on the coast of North 

 Carolina, at which the biological problems connected with the marine 

 fishery interests of the South Atlantic region may be investigated. 



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