6 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



has fully equipped shops equal to any emergency : machine, carpenter, 

 and electrical shops, sail maker, airplane mechanics, print shop, barber 

 shop, and, of course, superlative medical service and hospital, with 

 complete dental laboratory, clinic, and staff. Built to serve as fleet 

 flagship, this cruiser had ample accommodations for a number of 

 guests, as well as convenient laboratory and storage facilities for my 

 work. 



We left San Diego July 16, and the following afternoon found us 

 at anchor off Cedros Island, Lower California. In a comparatively 

 short time 37 fish were caught by the fishing parties, besides some 200 

 others which were taken over the side by members of the crew using 

 hand lines. Among these was numbered a 120-pound black sea bass 

 or jew fish caught on a light 20-pound test line. Although groupers 

 and sea bass of several species were plentiful, California yellowtails 

 formed an important part of the day's catch in the fish-boats. 



The next three days in succession were spent at Magdalena Bay, 

 July 18; off Punta Gorda, Cape San Lucas, July 19; and Socorro 

 [sland, July 20. 



At Magdalena Bay the only white sea bass, Cynoscion nobilis, of 

 the cruise was captured. Here the dredging was very rich. On the 

 sandy, weedy bottom of the bay, inside the entrance to the northward, 

 in 10 to 15 fathoms, an almost incredible number of amphipod crusta- 

 ceans were discovered. The water in the buckets used to transport the 

 dredged material to the laboratory aboard the Houston became cov- 

 ered with a thick film or "scum" of these small shrimplike organisms. 

 In the portion of the bay worked over they must have been literally 

 as numerous as the grains of sand on the bottom. I have never seen 

 so many amphipods in one place before. Our Museum amphipod 

 specialist, Clarence R. Shoemaker, was moved to make the same 

 remark when he was presented with more than a solidly packed quart 

 of them. It was an amazing sight. 



The capture of a large gulf grouper, Myctcropcrca jordani, at Cape 

 San Lucas extends the range of this species southward on the west 

 side of the Gulf of California below Cerralvo Island, south of which 

 it had not been taken before on this side of the Gulf. This particular 

 specimen, by the way, is the first of the species to find its way into the 

 collections of the National Museum. 



At about 11 o'clock at night one of the engineer officers called me 

 to the engine room to see a lot of bright red shrimp they had dis- 

 covered in the suction side of one of the condensers opened for minor 

 repairs. It was a galatheid shrimp very common in Lower California 



