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Part III. — Ninth Annual Report 
soundings, dredginga, and trawlings were made at the various fishing- 
banks, and collections of the fauna preserved for subsequent examination. 
In the Report a description is given of the various banks, with notes upon 
the fisheries, &c. , and there are appended tables of soundings, tempera- 
tures, (fee, and three charts, showing the areas explored. 
During recent years vast progress has been made in the United States 
in oyster-cultivation, a fact abundantly shown by a perusal of the Annual 
Reports of the Commissioners of Fisheries for the State of New York.* 
A few years ago a survey was made of the foreshores and adjacent sea- 
bottom, which is the property of the State, and areas were mapped out 
suitable for oyster-culture. Long leases of these areas were offered on 
simple conditions and for a nominal rent (50 cents to a dollar per acre), 
and these allotments have been rapidly taken up. The natural beds were 
all surveyed, set apart, and preserved, and lots previously occupied as 
oyster-growing areas were also surveyed. 
For several years past there have been complaints of decrease in the 
oyster supply from Long Island Sound, and of impaired quality. The 
oyster-men ascribed this to the pollution of the waters from sewage and 
the dumping of refuse from New York city and the cities along the Sound. 
Consequently an investigation has been made by the Fish Commissioners' 
steamer, ' Fish Hawk,' into these allegations, and also into the question of 
the star-fish plague. The results are not complete, but it appears that 
the allegation of pollution is not well founded. 
Another great work done by the Commissioners is the hatching and 
distribution of fry of shad and fresh -water fishes, such as various kinds of 
trout, salmon, smelts, &c. Last year the Commissioners hatched at their 
five hatcheries and distributed nearly 40 millioiis of fry and eggs. The 
total expenses of the Commission for New York State last year was 
39,094 dols. In the Report for 1890 there is a paper by Dr Tarleton H. 
Bean on 'The Fishes of Great South Bay, Long Island,' and another by 
Dr Bashford Dean on 'The Pineal Fontanelle of Placoderm and Cat- 
fish.' 
A recent number of the Johns Hopkins University Circulars f contains 
two papers by Mr F. H. Her rick — ' On the Habits and Larval Stages of 
' the American Lobster ' {Homarus Amey^icanus) and on ' The Reproductive 
' Organs and Early Stages of Development of the American Lobster.' In 
the former paper Mr Herrick states that further investigations have 
shown that the spawning season (or that of extrusion of eggs) is con- 
fined to the summer months ; the eggs which are then laid are carried by 
the female through the autumn, winter, and spring, and are not hatched 
under natural conditions until the following summer. In 1890 the 
extrusion of ova began about July 1st, and continued until about August 
20th. Of 82 lobsters which were examined at this time, and which 
carried newly-laid eggs, 59, or nearly three-fourths of the whole number, 
had extruded their eggs during the latter part of July. Eleven had 
laid eggs from August 1st to the 10th. It is probable that copulation 
precedes oviposition by a considerable period, i» some cases by at least 
eight weeks. The number of eggs laid by the lobster varies from about 
3000 to upwards of 36,000, depending largely upon the size of the 
lobster. 
The hatching period at Wood's HoU in 1889 and 1890 extended 
over a period of six to eight weeks, from about May 15th to July 
15th. The last lobster with eggs of the previous summer was captured 
* Eighteenth and Nineteenth Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Fisheries for 
the State of New York, 1890, 1891. 
t Johns Hopkins University Circulars, vol. x. No. 88, May 1891. 
