concerning the relations of currents, temperature and 

 depth to the distribution of marine life. Cape Cod has 

 long been known to be a boundary which rather sharply 

 separates two distinct faunas, and which very many 

 species never pass. Three of the faunas recognized by 

 naturalists on the east coast of North America, the Arc- 

 tic, the Syrtensian including Labrador and Newfound- 

 laud, and the Acadian, lie north of it too, the Virgin- 

 ian and Carolinian are south of it. Now while the line 

 of demarcation between the Acadian, which extends 

 nominally from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod, and the Vir- 

 ginian which extends from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras 

 is much sharper than between any others, yet it is mere- 

 ly an approximate or conventional one, unlike the well 

 known "Wallaces Line" in the Malay Archipelago. A 

 larger part of the species in each fauna crosses the bound- 

 ary, and many of the deep bays in the • vicinity of 

 Wood's Hole were found to contain a great predomi- 

 nance of life belonging to the Acadian fauna, while the 

 shallow bays showed an equal predominance of south- 

 ern fauna. In the same way the reconnoissances in 

 Maine show that the Virginian fauna has its colonies far 

 north of the boundary; a very long, shallow cove in 

 Casco Bay was found to abound in southern species to 

 the exclusion of others, so that Professor Verrill re- 

 marked that it could hardly be distinguished from New 

 Haven Harbor. In the same way small southern colo- 

 nieg were found on the Bay of Fundy and in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence. A thorough investigation of these 

 questions is important and it was supposed that a point j 

 more distant from Cape Cod would yield many new 

 facts. The rocky reef at Watch Hill 9eems to be a 

 boundary of minor importance, and our station was 

 chosen partly on account of its proximity thereto. At 

 first blush it may appear to some that such inquiries, 

 however important in themselves, are not properly 

 within the scope of a commissioner appointed "to prose- i 

 cute investigations with the view of ascertaining 

 whether any and what diminution in the number of 

 the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United 

 States has taken place, and if so, to what causes the 

 same is due, and also whether any and what protec- 

 tive, prohibitory or precautionary measures should be 

 adopted in the premises," but a moment's thought will 

 convince them that the requirements of the law cannot 

 be earned out by anything less than a complete zoo- 

 logical, botanical and physical survey of North Ameri- 

 can waters. So intricate and intimate are the relations 

 of the fishes to every form of life with which they are 

 associated, and to the depth, temperature and pressure 

 of the element in which they live, that every fact ascer- 



