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coast of New England was first selected as possessing the most extensive of our sea fisheries. With increased facilities, the work has been gradually expanded from year to year, until it now comprehends even the outermost regions frequented by the mackerel and menhaden, and the famous cod and habitat grounds, extending eastward from George's Bank to the Flemish Cap off Newfoundland. Within the past six years, the middle Atlantic coast and the fishing grounds of the Gulf of Mexico have also received much attention. That the careful exploration of such vast areas of sea bottom and of the surface waters above them has incidentally yielded very large and important collections of marine animals, and many strange forms of life of great interest to the student of biology, is