Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
REPORT OF A DREDGING EXPEDITION OFF THE SOUTHERN COAST OF 
NEW ENGLAND, SEPTEMBER, 1899. 
By FREELAND HOWE, Jr. 
On July 29, 1880, the Fish Hawk left the builder’s yard at Wilmington, Del., and 
proceeded to Newport, It. I., and after some preliminary dredging in the shallow water 
off the southern coast of New England started for the locality where the tile-fish had 
been discovered in May, 1879. The remarkable results of the work of September 4, 
September 13, and October 2, 1880, were published in the American Journal of Science, 
November, 1880, ami created general comment among men of science, for it had been 
thought improbable that such a wealth of marine life existed on this portion of the sea 
bottom. During the following year the Fish Hawk made seven excursions to the edge 
of the continental elevation, and Professor Yerrill wrote: 
It is probable that the remarkable richness of the fauna in this region, both in the number of 
species and in the surprising abundance of the individuals of many of them, is due very largely to 
the unusual uniformity of the temperature enjoyed at all seasons of the year at all those depths that 
are below the immediate effects of the atmospheric changes. The region under discussion is subject 
to the combined effects of the Gulf Stream on one side and the cold northern current on the other, 
together with the gradual decrease in temperature in proportion to the depth. * * * The vast 
quantities of free-swimming animals continually brought northward by the Gulf Stream and tilling 
the water, both at the surface and bottom, furnish an inexhaustible supply of food for many of the 
animals inhabiting the bottom, and probably directly, or indirectly, to nearly all of them. (Report 
U. S. Fish Commission, 1882, p. 642.) 
In tbe spring of 1882 many forms of life on this portion of the sea bottom were 
almost exterminated, although the Fish Hawk found an abundance of animal life at 
certain localities. The following year the Fish Hawk made only one excursion to the 
Gulf stream, and the dredges were not lowered into water deeper than G2 fathoms. 
Although the Albatross dredged in the region in 1883, 1884, and 1885, no serious 
biological examination of this portion of the sea bottom was made until 1899. It was 
because the results attending a reexamination of this area would prove of considerable 
scientific interest that arrangements were made for the excursion herein described. 
On August 31, 1899, the Fish Hawk , under command of Capt. J. A. Smith, left 
Woods Hole with Prof. H. C. Bumpus and other members of the biological laboratory, 
and at 5 a. m. September 1st arrived at the spot where nineteen years before the 
wonderful marine fauna had been discovered. 
The principal piece of collecting apparatus was a 7-foot beam trawl. An attempt 
was made to use a large surface net, but the leverage interfered so materially with the 
steering of the vessel that its continued use was found to be impracticable. Small 
tow nets and long-handled dip nets were used in its place. Most of the material was 
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