its tail, and glide along just at the surface, resuming its 

 first attitude as soon as its momentum was gone. Dr. 

 Storer speaks of one taken in the harbor of Portland, 

 Me., which "appeared, when about a fathom under wa- 

 ter,, like a bit of kelp, and was rising toward the sur- 

 face, when a fisherman, observing its motion, put his 

 hand into tne water, and the fish came directly info it 

 and was caught." 



Tnough the family tfr which the orange file-fish 

 belongs is a tropical one, this species appears to 

 be confined to the eastern coast of the United States, 

 ranging <roni Maine to Georgia. Professor Baird 

 took several at "Wood's Hole, in 1871, and a number 

 were taken, last year, in the pound at Fisher's Island. 

 The Noank fishermen call it the "cow-fish," but in New 

 London it was so great a novelty as to be without a 

 name, and the market men, fisherman fashion, coined 

 for it a new one, which was ingenious if not appropri- 

 ate—the "shiny night-cap fish." Captain Bolles pre- 

 sented one of the fishes to Professor Baird and its skele- 

 ton makes one more in the Bluebeard closet of the 

 Commission. 



Fkater Aquarius. 



UNITED STATES CaMftlTsSION OF FISH AND 

 FISHERIES. 



TIIE EXPERIMENTS WITH YOUNG SHAD. 



Headquarters U. S. Com. Fish ) 

 and Fisheries. \ 



Noank, Conn., Aug. 26. 

 Having in my two previous letters given some ac- 

 count of the operations of the dredging party, I now 

 propose to perform a like duty by the party engaged in 

 the fishery investigation. This week I send an account 

 of some interesting and important experiments on the ef- 

 fects of transferring newly-hatched shad from fresh to 

 sea water; no mention has hitherto been made of this 

 investigation as I preferred to wait until the work was 

 completed before attempting to sum up its results. Mr. 

 Milner in whose hands the management of the investi- 

 gation had been placed by Professor Baird, was unfor- 

 tunately called away soon after the experiments were 

 inaugurated; his plans have however, been very effi- 

 ciently carried out by his assistant Mr. C. D. Griswold, 

 of South Hadley Falls, Mass., with the aid of Mr. 

 John Vealey. From the time of their leaving the egg, 

 the young fish have not been left for an ii staot, some 

 one being always near to regulate the temperature and 

 light or to furnish the needed supply of fresh water. 



-rr.. its. 





