II— THE DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
By CHARGES HENRY GILBERT, Ph. D. 
Professor of Zoology , Leland Stanford Junior University. 
The second season of investigations by the U. S. Fish Commission in the 
Hawaiian Islands— the period from March to August, 1902 — was devoted primarily 
to the study of the fauna of the deeper waters. The work was conducted from the 
steamer Albatross , under the general supervision of Dr. David S. Jordan and Dr. 
Barton W. Evermann. The writer, as naturalist in charge, had immediate respon- 
sibility for the scientific conduct of the cruise, and was ably assisted by Prof. Charles 
C. Nutting, of the Univershy of Iowa, and by Mr. John O. Snyder and Mr. Walter 
K. Fisher, of Stanford University. 
An exhaustive survey was attempted of all offshore fishing banks, and a 
thorough exploration of the channels between the islands and the deeper slopes 
out to the 1,000-fathom line. The region to be covered included the Hawaiian 
Islands proper, and the series of shoals and reefs, with infrequent rock islets, which 
form a continuation of the Hawaiian group to the northwest. The westernmost 
point to be reached was the island of Laysan. As thus outlined, the area to be 
explored comprised a narrow strip reaching from 18° to 26° north latitude and from 
156° to 172° west longitude, and extending from southeast to northwest a distance 
of 1,300 miles. 
The investigation proved extremely difficult on account of the nature of the sea 
bottom, which, at all depths, was such as to render dredging very arduous and 
uncertain. The configuration of the ocean floor was for the most part irregular, with 
steep slopes. Even in those localities of limited extent where the slopes were gentle 
and uniform, and were covered with fine sediments, the trawl was likely at any time 
to encounter masses of coral, or outcroppings of lava, or even in the deeper waters 
consolidated oozes, all of which worked disaster to the gear and prevented successful 
results. Of the 344 trials with tangles, dredge, or trawl, about one-third were total 
failures, and many of the others were nearly barren of results. The use of the 
trawl for commercial fishing is out of the question in any part of this region, with 
the possible exception of a small district lying off the harbor of Kahului, on the 
island of Maui, where there is a smooth sand bottom on which a commercial trawl 
could be safely worked. So far as known, however, there are no market fishes to 
be had there in abundance, and the region is too far from any center of population. 
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