XVI KEPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



William H. Brewer, and Mr. Thatcher, of Yale College ; Professor Hy- 

 att and Dr. Thomas M. Brewer, of Boston; Dr. W. G. Farlow, of Cam- 

 bridge; Professor Theodore Gill and Dr. Edward Palmer, of Washing- 

 ton ; Colonel Theodore Lyman, Massachusetts commissioner of fish- 

 eries; Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, of England; Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull, of 

 Hartford; Professor Todd, of Mount Tabor, Iowa; Professor O. C. 

 Thompson, of the Technical Institute, Worcester, and several others. 



As already mentioned, my own stay on the coast of Wood's Hole ex- 

 tended until the early part of October ; and, on my departure, I com- 

 missioned Mr. Yinal N. Edwards, of that place, to continue the investi- 

 gation as far as possible, by collecting facts in regard to the more im- 

 portant; species, and especially as to the time of their leaving the shores. 

 This he performed with great fidelity, besides securing valuable speci- 

 mens of rare fishes and transmitting them to Washington. 



An interesting result of the labors at Wood's Hole, during the sum- 

 mer of 1871, consisted in the great variety of fishes obtained through 

 the pounds and otherwise, many of them of kinds previously unknown 

 on the New England coast. The total number actually secured and 

 photographed amounted to one hundred and six species, of which 

 twenty or more are not included in the great work of Dr. Storer on 

 the fishes of Massachusetts. Nine species are mentioned by various 

 others as found in the waters of Vineyard Sound, but which were not 

 secured; making one hundred and fifteen in all now known to belong 

 to that fauna. 



Among the more interesting novelties observed in the way of fishes 

 was a species of tunny, a kind of small horse-mackerel, (the Orcymis 

 thunnina,) a species weighing about twenty pounds, and which, although 

 well known in the Mediterranean and in the warmer part of the At- 

 lantic, had never been recorded as taken on the American coast. This 

 fish proved to be quite common, not less than five hundred having been 

 taken in the fish-pounds at Menemsha Bight alone. Two species of the 

 sword-fish family, never noted before in the United States, were also 

 captured. A complete list of the fishes taken, appended to this report, 

 will elucidate more clearly the richness of the locality. 



The variety of other marine animals secured was also unexpectedly 

 large. Most of these will be referred to in the appendix, in the form of 

 a paper by Professor Verrill. A list of the algae, furnished by Dr. W. 

 G. Farlow, of Cambridge, will also be found therein. 



After completing my field labors for the season of 1871, I had a con- 

 ference in Boston with Mr. Theodore Lyman, fish commissioner of 

 Massachusetts, and Mr. Alfred Bead, commissioner of Rhode Island, to- 

 gether with Mr. Samuel Powel, of Newport, when the results of the 

 season were discussed, and the draught of a fishery bill presented, which 

 was proposed for adoption by the States of Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island. The deliberations and discussions of this meeting will be found 

 on page 125. 



