REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 161 



a high limestone island, laid a course for Yokohama, Japan. The 

 only other island of the long Ladrone chain sighted was the northern- 

 most, Farallon de Pajaros, an active volcano, with an elevation of 

 over 1,000 feet, which, from a distance of 25 miles to the westward, 

 appeared to have steam and smoke issuing from several vents. At its 

 southern end there is a smaller, less lofty portion, either detached or 

 with a low connection with the main island. 



On March 4 the Albatross came to anchor outside of the breakwater 

 at Yokohama, but she afterwards moved into the inner harbor. U ntil 

 May she was refitting, repairing engines, and in dry dock at Uraga, 

 but early in that month she proceeded on a dredging expedition in 

 the direction of the Inland Sea. About 7Q dredge, trawl, and tangle 

 hauls were made in Sagami and Suruga bays, and the Sea of Ise and 

 adjoining parts of the coast. The work was practically all inside of 

 the 100-fathom line and on the edge of the Kurosiwa or Black Current, 

 the great warm stream which flows from the south along the east coast 

 of Japan and sweeps northward along the Kurils and the Aleutian 

 Chain, where it becomes the great North Pacific Drift. This great 

 stream bears much the same relation to the shores of Asia that the 

 Gulf Stream bears to the east coast of North Alnerica, and in the same 

 manner its warm waters bear a rich pelagic fauna, furnishing food 

 and a congenial environment to the host of animals which live on the 

 bottom. The trawling was very good, and rich collections of fish, 

 crustaceans, worms, echinoderms, and mollusca were obtained. Two 

 large tanks were filled with specimens of Metacrinus, a "stone lily," 

 formerly rare, and stalkless crinoids of several species were obtained 

 in large numbers. The Alcyonarian fauna is rich and varied and a 

 considerable collection of these beautiful organisms was obtained, and 

 a number of siliceous sponges, including half a score of the beautiful 

 glass-like Venus' flower basket (Euplectella), were taken in the trawls. 

 For taking these delicate organisms in an uninjured condition the 

 apparatus used by the Albatross is not so good as the long lines used by 

 the Japanese fishermen, which have adventitiously yielded to science 

 the fine collection of sponges in the Imperial Universit}^ of Tokyo. 



The crustacean fauna of the edge of the Black Current and the 

 coastal slopes of Japan is especially rich in the suborders Macrura 

 and Brachyura, to which the shrimps and the hermit crabs, spider 

 crabs, etc., respectively, belong. 



After finishing the dredging operations the Albatross returned to 

 Yokohama, where she coaled and sailed for Hakodate on June 1. 

 Several trawl hauls were made en route to the latter port and a short 

 and unsuccessful search was made for a reported dangerous rock off 

 Kinkwazan. The ship was much delayed by fogs and reached Hako- 

 date on June 8. After coaling she sailed June 12 for Alaska, where 

 she was at the end of the fiscal year. 



F. C, I'JOO— 11 



