«TMK RKKKRKNDUM 



37' 



to make the next haul, and calls down to the 

 quartermaster, "Hard a-port. Keep her west by 

 north." And a deep-voiced growl comes back, 

 "Hard a-port, sir. Keep her west by north." 



Meanwhile on the main deck, where the con- 

 tents of the trawl and dredge were taken in, all 

 are busy. One of the scientists of the Fisheries 

 Bureau is there with three assistants, as well as 

 one of the ship's officer and half-a-dozen seamen. 

 Until this time, they have had merely to make 

 preparations. A large flat tank, with a false sieve 

 bottom, stands against a bulkhead; there are nests 

 of sieves at hand; bottles containing alcohol and 

 formalin stand near-by, and everything is ready 

 for the preservation of such specimens as prove 

 to be of value. Then the trawl and dredge swing 

 up into sight through the large square port, as big 

 as a good-sized door, and are drawn in by men 

 on the spar-deck above, until they can be reached 

 by the seamen below. The line is slackened down, 

 the dredge and the lower part of the trawl are car- 

 ried in on deck and the lashings cast off. The 

 dredge is then emptied into a nest of sieves, 

 dumping out a mass of fine sand and gravel, inter- 

 spersed with shells and small animals. The rope 

 that tied the lower part of the trawl together is re- 

 moved, and the contents of the great bag are 

 emptied bodily into the big sieve. Out comes a 

 queer-looking collection, strangely-shaped, evil- 

 smelling crabs, a couple of flounders, a young 

 lobster or two, sponges, starfish, and many shells. 

 The scientists tramp around in their rubber boots, 

 unmindful of the water which sloshes to and fro 

 and slowly finds its way to the scuppers. "A good 

 haul," comments the chief, and quickly, but with 

 great certainty and dexterity, proceeds to pick 

 over the collection, giving the names as he does 

 so. One of the asssitants takes them down, while 

 others bottle up such of the specimens as their 

 chief thinks worth the keeping. A strange shell 

 puzzles him for a moment, and it is put aside to 

 be identified later, perhaps as a new species. The 

 flounders, fine, big fellows, are seized upon by the 

 steward and taken aft to the ward-room mess. 

 A number of little transparent creatures, like tiny 

 jellyfish, are bottled up by themselves. And so 

 the picking and sorting goes on, the catch from the 

 dredge being carefully washed over, lest some tiny 

 rare shellfish, or some creature new to science, 

 escape. Finally, when all is done, a barrel full of 

 superfluous stuff is thrown overboard, the trawl 

 lashed up and the dredge made fast, and word is 

 passed up to the captain that "All is ready on the 

 main deck." 



So the work goes on, haul after haul being made, 

 some valuable, either in amount of material or in 

 the discovery of a new species, or of a new record 

 for the locality; some hauls over hard sand where 

 nothing lives bringing up the trawl as empty as 

 when it went down; occasionally the apparatus is 

 capsized and the whole wasted. Sometimes, per- 

 haps, half a dozen times in the course of a season's 

 work, the trawl gets hung in a big rock, and then 

 there is need for quick work. 



An automatic brake on the donkey-engine lets 

 the cable run. At a quick order from the captain, 

 the engines are given full speed astern, and the 



helm put so that the ship swings in a cir< le on the 

 upper side of the rock until the trawl is freed and 

 hoisted up, with perhaps the dredge gone or the 

 bag torn beyond repair. Then the whole; is taken 

 inboard and another set of apparatus bent on. 



From six to fifteen hauls are taken at a trip, 

 usually in half a day's work, for the material ob- 

 tainable in that length of time is sufficient to keep 

 "all hands" at the fisheries laboratories busy for 

 two or three days. There the specimens taken are 

 gone over again, some added to the Bureau's fine 

 collection; some which cannot be identified turn 

 out to be new discoveries and are sent for descrip- 

 tion to the scientists who specialize in that par- 

 ticular branch. It is fascinating work, for one 

 never knows what strange creatures may be 

 brought up from the depths of the sea, and one 

 comes to realize very strongly that as far as human 

 knowledge is concerned man is but as "a child 

 picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless 

 ocean." 



It may be asked, "What is the good of all this" ? 

 The answer is that the value of such work is both 

 scientific and economic. Whoever increases human 

 knowledge performs a service to mankind and the 

 discovery of new creatures and the gathering of 

 information concerning the life-histories of the 

 ocean's fauna is most important to the scientific 

 world. The economic side is of inestimable benefit 

 to the whole country. As stated above, the Fish 

 Commission, now the Bureau of Fisheries, was 

 organized primarily for the purpose of examining 

 into the decrease of the food-fishes of the eastern 

 coast. The sea gives up yearly food of great value, 

 which goes, much of it, to feed the masses in the 

 great cities. It has been said that Massachusetts 

 pays for her breadstuffs w r ith the fish which she 

 takes from the sea. Care must always be taken 

 that such fish as are destroyed are replaced by 

 natural means. If a species is too readily captured 

 there is a temptation to take it to such a degree 

 that it becomes rare or extinct. Witness the lob- 

 ster, which for years has been of great and grow- 

 ing scarcity. The work of the Bureau is to learn 

 what species are thus in danger of extermination 

 and to advise concerning the preventive laws that 

 should be passed; to discover new species which 

 may be valuable for food, like that interesting 

 creature, the tile-fish; to learn the ranges of the 

 valuable fishes, the parasites that may affect them, 

 and means for the destruction of such parasites. 



The Bureau also considers the welfare of the 

 fisherman, who plies one of the most dangerous 

 and uncertain of trades. The schooner "Gram- 

 pus" was built by the Bureau as a model for the 

 fishermen who go to the Grand Banks for cod or 

 hake. 



The life of the fisherman is a hard one at best, 

 fraught with danger and privation. The sea takes 

 its yearly toll of lives, and Uncle Sam does what 

 he can to make safer and easier the work of those 

 who go down to the sea in ships. 



The Pirates of Lake Erie 



Editor Recreation: 



In your August issue of 1905, under the head of 

 "Editorial," you make some statements about the 



