REPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 185 



the nortliem boundary of Califoriiiii and the Columbia River. The 

 field work began on July 1 and continued until September 27. The 

 results of this season's investigations will be combined with those of 

 1897, when a similar party explored the coastal streams between San 

 Francisco and the Oregon line. A report on this work is shortly 

 expected from Dr. Crilbert. 



Dr. P. H. Kirsch continued his volunteer services in determininu* 

 the fish fauna of the San Pedro River, devoting a few weeks to the 

 work in the summer of 1899. Only a short stretch of the river now 

 remains to be canvassed, and on its completion a report on the fishes 

 of this interesting tributary of the Colorado will be issued. 



AQUATIC FAUNA OP PORTO RICO. 



The extensive collections made by the Fish Haivk in Porto Rico in 

 the winter of 1898-99 have been distributed among specialists for 

 study and report, with a view to the publication of a comprehensive 

 work on the animals found in the fresli and salt waters of the island. 

 The absence of information regarding the water fauna, the influx of 

 new people, and the inevitable development of the fishing industry, 

 appeared to the Commission to warrant the publication of a work con- 

 taining descriptions of the animals and illustrations of many of the 

 most important, so that it might be possible for those persons not 

 experts to identify them. The specimens representing the following 

 groups were assigned to the specialists named : 



Fishes and other vertebrates. Prof. B. W. Evermann and Mr. M. C. 

 Marsh, U. S. Fish Commission; tunicates. Dr. George Lefevre, Balti- 

 more; mollusks, Dr. W. H. Dall and Mr. Charles T. Simpson, U. S. 

 National Museum; stomatopods, Dr. Robert P. Bigelow, Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, Boston; macrurans and brachyu- 

 rans. Miss M. J. Rathbun, U. S. National Museum; anomurans, Mr. 

 James E. Benedict, XJ. S. National Museum; isopods. Dr. H. F. Moore, 

 U. S. Fish Commission; leeches. Dr. J. Percy Moore, University of 

 Pennsylvania; polychsetes. Dr. A. L. Tread well, Miami University, 

 Oxford, Ohio; oligochsetes. Dr. H. F. Moore; nemertean and planarian 

 worms. Dr. Wesley R. Coe, Yale University; sipunculids and echiurids. 

 Prof. Henry B. Ward, University of Nebraska; holothurians, ecliini, 

 star-fishes, and ophiurans. Prof. Hubert L. Clark, Olivet College, 

 Olivet, Mich.; crinoids. Prof. W. M. Wheeler, University of Texas; 

 alcyonarians and gorgonians, Prof. C. W. Hargitt, University of Syra- 

 cuse; corals. Dr. T. Way land Vaughan, U. S. Geological Survey; sea 

 anemones, Mr. J. E. Duerden, Kingston, Jamaica; sponges, Prof. H.V. 

 Wilson, University of North Carolina; foraminifera. Dr. James M. 

 Flint, U. S. N. ; marine algae. Prof. O. F. Cook, U. S. National Museum. 



The study of many of the groups has been completed, and the 

 publication of the reports thereon has begun. It is thought that 

 reports on all the groups will be published during the fiscal year 1901. 



