6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



a common species of Greenland and Northern Europe. Odontlialia den- 

 tata, a common species of Northern Europe, has not yet been found 

 within our limits, although it is common at Halifax. 



Tf north of Boston the principal feature of the marine vegetation is 

 the enormous mass of large Fuci and Phceosporeee, the Floridece forming 

 an insignificant part of the flora, the chief feature of the flora south of 

 Cape Cod is the preponderance of Floridece and the comparative insig- 

 nificance of the Fuci and Phceosporeee. In the case of the sea-weeds of 

 Long Island Sound we cannot so directly refer them to species of any 

 part of Europe as was possible in the case of the northern flora. Sev- 

 eral of the more common and striking species, as I have already said, 

 are identical with or closely related to Adriatic forms. We are not, how- 

 ever to push the comparison too far. The development of Fuci and 

 Laminarice in Long Island Sound, although meager compared with what 

 we find north of Boston, is far beyond anything we find in the Adriatic, 

 and, on the other hand, we do not have in Long Island Sound the numer- 

 ous Corallinece and siphonaceous Ghlorosporece, which are common in the 

 Adriatic, and which unmistakably indicate a subtropical flora. Grinnellia 

 americana, JDasya elegans, Rhabdonia tenera, Lomentaria Baileyana, Sar^ 

 gassum vulgare, and most of the common species of Long Island Sound, 

 are found as far south as the West Indies. 



A consideration of the apparent exceptions to the law of the distribu- 

 tion of sea- weeds on our coast is not without interest. In the cold waters 

 off Gay Head and Block Island, Euthora cristata, in a depauperate form, 

 is sometimes found, and at exposed points we find a decided growth of 

 Laminarice, especially the digitate forms. Ptilota serrata, a typical 

 northern species, has also been found in a much reduced form at the 

 Thimble Islands, near New Haven. 



In the town of Gloucester, near the village of Squam, is a small sheet 

 of water called Goose Cove. The narrow entrance to the cove has been 

 dammed up, and the water from the ocean enters only for a short time 

 at the high tide. In this cove, to my surprise, I found Rhabdonia tenera, 

 Gracilaria multipartita, Ghondria Baileyana, and a large mass of Poly- 

 siphonia Harveyi and P. Olneyi. In short, the flora was entirely dif- 

 ferent from anything I had ever seen before north of Cape Cod, and 

 entirely different from that of the adjacent shore, where the flora is en- 

 tirely arctic. Furthermore, Squam is on the northern and inner side 

 of Cape Ann, and as there is no connection of Goose Cove with the 

 southern side of Cape Ann, and inasmuch as no vessels ever enter the 

 cove, it is very difficult to account for the presence of the sea- weeds 

 which grow there. The water which is confined by the dam is much 

 warmer than that of the surrounding ocean, which would enable the 

 species of warm waters to live if they were once introduced, but how 

 are we to suppose that the spores were brought into the cove? It is 

 hard to believe that they could have been brought by currents, for, as a 

 matter of fact, the currents move in the wrong direction to produce such 



