No. 497] THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 319 



far from finished; the physical data (temperature, etc.) 

 are being tabulated; and preparatory steps are being 

 taken toward the statement of generalized results and 

 conclusions. During the summer it was found necessary 

 to repeat the temperature and salinity determinations of 

 preceding years. The steamer Fish Hawk was employed 

 for this purpose and recently standardized instruments 

 only were used. In this work the director was ably as- 

 sisted by Mr. D. W. Davis. Careful thermometry re- 

 vealed temperature conditions which do much toward 

 explaining the distribution of certain forms of life, 

 especially of those well-known boreal types which just 

 enter the region. This problem seemed of sufficient im- 

 portance to justify another extensive series of tempera- 

 ture and density determinations at the commencement of 

 the present winter, and these have therefore been made 

 by the director, with the assistance of the crew of the 

 Phalarope. A third series of observations is contem- 

 plated early in March ; and possibly another at the com- 

 mencement of the summer. 



The Fish Hawk was also employed in doing consider- 

 able supplementary dredging; and the in-shore stations 

 of Buzzards Bay, which, owing to an accident to the 

 Phalarope, had been left unfinished in 1905, were now 

 completed with the aid of the latter vessel. It is perhaps 

 worthy of mention that the parasitic gastropod mollusk, 

 Stilifer stimpsoni Verrill was taken for the first time 

 (so far as recorded) in this region; and that the rare 

 brittle star Amphioplus audita (Verrill), which was re- 

 cently made the subject of a special note in Science 1 by 

 Dr. H. L. Clark, was dredged at no less than three 

 stations. 



With one or two exceptions, all past collections derived 

 from the dredging operations have been reported on by 

 the specialists to whom they were referred. More than 

 half of the catalogue of fauna and flora has been sub- 

 mitted in manuscript form to these same taxonomic 



'January 24, 1908. 



