2 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
stomachs of red snappers ( Lutjanus blackfordii). The limited supply of 
this flat-fish being so largely appropriated by appreciative snappers, 
there remain only the flounders, and what are they that they should 
serve as substitutes for soles or turbots ? 
The absence of the sole and the turbot has of late impressed itself on 
the American mind, and some ten years ago Prof. Spencer P. Baird, 
the head of the United States Commission of Fisheries, took the matter ! 
seriously to heart. The success which has attended the manual propa- j 
gation of the salmon and other important food-fishes in Europe and 
America led him to consider the possibility of this method to supply 
the deficiency. With this object in view he wrote to me, asking if facil- 
ities would be given for the purpose by the owners of Liverpool fishing- j 
smacks, if he sent a couple of agents from America to manipulate the 
spawn of soles and turbots as soon as taken from the trawl. The late 
Mr. Isaac, of St. John’s Market, at once promised every facility for the 
purpose, as far as boats and trawls were concerned, but pointed out 
difficulties as to times and seasons which then, at least, were unfavor- 
able. 
Subsequently Professor Baird changed his views as to this method 
of proceeding, and determined to experiment on the transportation of 
the fish alive. To this end, after inquiries made, he put himself in 
communication with Mr. W. C. L. Jackson, then chairman of the South- 
port Aquarium Company, who, with Mr. Long, the manager, entered 
heartily into the proposal, for the mutual benefit of both parties by 
exchanges. 
Accordingly soles and turbots of moderate size were obtained from the 
local fishermen and placed in the store-tanks of the Southport Com- 
pany, where they remained in readiness for shipment. One of Pro- 
fessor Baird’s practical fish-culturists, after delivering large numbers 
of impregnated ova of Salmonidce in London and on the Continent, ar- 
rived at Southport, and after most careful preparations for transport 
shipped a moderate supply of fish. Great attention was paid during the 
transit as to temperature and aeration, but only two soles out of thirty 
shipped survived to be put out in Massachusetts Bay,* or less than 7 
per cent. The losses were believed to be due to the fall of temperature 
when off the banks of Newfoundland. This was in January, 1878, and 
was very disheartening. A second attempt, in 1879, was a complete 
failure, as the fish were taken by rail from Southport to Southampton 
for shipment, and were bruised and fatally injured by the roughness 
of this overland journey.* Another attempt was made from Southport, 
in 1881, with poor results. Seventy soles were shipped on board the 
Parthia, and only three arrived out alive, or about 4 per cent. 
In April, 1880, Capt. John H. Mortimer, a native-born American, first 
associate member of this society, had come in with his simple ship- 
aquarium, which 1, at its first introduction some twenty odd years ago, 
* Forest and Stream, November 3, 1§81, p. 274, 
