THE FIRST DECADE OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION: ITS PLAN OF WORK AND ACCOMPLISHED RESULTS, SCIENTIFIC AND ECONOMICAL. By G. BROWN GOODE, of Washington, D. C. THERE are nine departments of the government devoted, in part or wholly, to researches in pure and applied science the Geological Survey; the Coast and Geodetic Survey; the Naval Observatory; the National Museum; the Department of Agriculture; the Entomological commission; the Tenth Census, with its special agencies for the study of the natural resources of the country; the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology, and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The.Smithsonian Institution, established upon an independent foundation, should also be mentioned, as well as the Medical Museum of the army, and the various laboratories under the control of the Army and Navy Departments. The Geological Survey is not now carrying on any of the schemes of zoological and botanical investigation engaged in by its predecessors. The work of the Entomological Commission and that of the census, though of extreme importance, are limited in scope and duration, while that of the Agricultural Department is necessarily, for the most part, economical. The work of the National Museum is chiefly confined to the study of collections made by government surveys or individual collectors and sent in to be reported upon. The work of the Fish Commission, in one of its aspects, may perhaps be regarded as the most prominent of the present efforts of the government in aid of aggressive biological research. On the 9th of February, 1874, Congress passed a joint resolution which authorized the appointment of a Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. The duties of the Commissioner were thus defined: "To prosecute investigations on the subject (of the diminution of valuable fishes) with the view of ascertaining whether any and what diminution in the number of the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and also whether any and what protective, prohibitory or precautionary measures should be adopted in the premises, and to report upon the same to Congress." The resolution establishing the office of Commissioner of Fisher ies required that the person to be appointed should be a civil officer of the Government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with the fishes of the coast, to serve without additional salary. The choice was thus practically limited to a single man for whom, in fact, the office had been created. Prof. Baird, at that time Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was appointed and entered at once upon his duties. The summer of 1880 marks the tenth season of active work since its inception in 1871. The Fish Commission now fills a place tenfold more extensive and useful than at first. The present essay aims to show, in a general way, what it has done, is doing, and expects to do-its purposes, its methods, its results. The work is naturally divided into three sections: 1. The systematic investigation of the waters of the United States and the biological and physical problems which they present. The scientific studies of the Commission are based upon a liberal and philosophical interpretation of the law. In making his original plans the Commissioner insisted that to study only the food-fishes would be of little importance, and that useful conclusions must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations purely scientific in character. The life history of species of economic value should be understood from beginning to end, but no less requisite is it to know the histories of the animals and plants upon which they feed or upon which their food is nourished; the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends and foes of their enemies and friends as well as the currents, temperatures and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction and growth. A necessary accompaniment to this division is the amassing of material for research to be stored in the National and other museums for future use. 2. The investigation of the methods of fisheries, past and present, and the statistics of production and commerce of fishery products. Man being one of the chief destroyers of fish, his influence upon their abundance must be studied. Fishery methods and apparatus must be examined and compared with those of other lands, that the use of those which threaten the destruction of useful fishes may be, discouraged, and that those which are inefficient may be replaced by others more serviceable. Statistics of industry and trade must be secured for the use of Congress in making treaties or imposing tariffs, to show to producers the best markets, and to consumers where and with what their needs may be supplied. 3. The introduction and multiplication of useful food fishes throughout the country, especially in waters under the jurisdiction of the general government, or those common to several states, none of which might feel willing to make expenditures for the benefit of the others. This work, which was not contemplated when the Commission was established, was first undertaken at the instance of the American Fish Cultural Association, whose representatives induced Congress to make a special appropriation for the purpose. This appropriation has since been renewed every year on a more bountiful scale, and the propagation of fish is at present by far the most extensive branch of the work of the Commission, both in respect to number of men employed and quantity of money expended. Although activity in this direction may be regarded in the light of applied rather than pure scientific work, it is particularly important to the biologist, since it affords opportunities for investigating many new problems in physiology and embryology. The origin of the Commission, its purposes, and methods of organization, having been described, it now remains to review the accomplished results of its work. In many departments, especially that of direct research, most efficient services have been rendered by volunteers; in fact, a large share of what has been accomplished in biological and physical exploration is the result of unpaid labor on the part of some of the most skilful American specialists. Although it would be interesting to review the peculiar features of the work of each investigator, the limits of this paper will not allow me even to mention them all by name. Since the important fisheries centre in New England, the coast of this district has been the seat of the most active operations in marine research. For ten years, the Commissioner, with a party of specialists, has devoted the summer season to work at the shore, at various stations along the coast, from Connecticut to Nova Scotia. A suitable place having been selected, a temporary laboratory is fitted up with the necessary appliances for collection and study. In this are placed from ten to twenty tables, each occupied by an investigator, either an officer of the Commission, or a volunteer. From 1878 to 1879, important aid was rendered by the Secretary of the Navy, who detailed for this service a steamer to be used in dredging and trawling, and this year the steamer built expressly for the Commission is employed in the same manner.1 The regular routine of operations at a summer station includes all the various forms of activity known to naturalists-collecting along the shore, seining upon the beaches, setting traps for animals not otherwise to be obtained, and scraping with dredge and trawl the bottom of the sea, at depths as great as can be reached by a steamer in a trip of three days. In the laboratory are carried on the usual structural and systematic studies; the preparation of museum specimens and of reports. Since the organization of the Commission, the deep sea work and the investigation of invertebrate animals has been under the charge of Prof. Verrill who had, for many years before the Commission was established, been studying independently the invertebrate fauna of New England. In addition to what has been done at the summer station, more or less exhaustive investigations have been carried on by smaller parties on many parts of the coast and interior waters. The fauna of the Grand Banks, and other off-shore fishing grounds, has been partly explored. In 1872, 1873 and 1874 dredging was carried on from the coast survey steamer Bache, by Professor Packard and Mr. Cooke, Professor Smith, Mr. Harger and Mr. Rathbun. In 1879 Mr. H. L. Osborne spent three months in a cod-schooner collecting material on the Grand Banks, and Mr. N. P. Scudder as long a time on the halibut grounds of Davis' Straits. A most remarkable series of contributions have been received from the fishermen of Cape Ann. When the Fish Commission had its headquarters at Gloucester, in 1878, a general interest in the zoological work sprang up among the crews of the fishing vessels, 1 The number of dredging and trawling stations on record is as follows:- 1872. Eastport, 200 by hand, 35 by steamer 1873. Portland 1874. Noank 1875. Wood's Holl 1877. Salem Halifax 1878. Gloucester 1879. Provincetown 345 235 149 223 169 378 and since that time they have been vying with each other in efforts to find new animals. Their activity has been stimulated by the publication of lists of their donations in the local papers, and the number of separate lots of specimens received, to the present time, exceeds eight hundred. Many of these lots are large, consisting of collecting-tanks full of alcoholic specimens. At least thirty fishing vessels now carry collecting-tanks on every trip, and many of the fishermen, with characteristic superstition, have the idea that it insures good luck to have a tank on board, and will not go to sea without one. The number of specimens acquired in this manner is at least fifty or sixty thousand, most of them belonging to species unattainable. Each halibut vessel sets, twice daily, lines from ten to fourteen miles in length, with hooks upon them six feet apart, in water twelve hundred to eighteen hundred feet in depth, and the quantity of living forms brought up in this manner, and which had never hitherto been saved, is very astonishing. Over thirty species of fishes have thus been added to the fauna of North America, and Professor Verrill informs me that the number of new and extra limital forms thus placed upon the list of invertebrates cannot be less than fifty. A permanent collector, Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, has been employed at Wood's Holl and vicinity since 1871, and many remarkable forms have also been discovered by him. No dredging has yet been attempted by the Commission south of Long Island, though much has been done in shore work, especially among the fishes, by special agents and friends of the Commission, and by the parties stationed here and there in the work of fish-culture. Mr. E. G. Blackford, of Fulton Market, New York, by carefully watching the market slabs, has added at least ten species of fishes to the fauna of the United States. Mr. F. Mather is studying the fish of Long Island and the Sound. Dr. Yarrow, Mr. Earll, and others, have collected from Cape May to Key West. The Gulf States' coast was explored last winter by a party conducted by Mr. Silas Stearns, who spent nine months in studying the food and the census. The entire Pacific Coast has been scoured by Professor Jordan for the Commission and the census, and the ichthyology of that region has been enriched by the discovery of sixty species new to the fauna, forty of them being new to science. A similar investigation on the great lakes has been carried over a period of several years by Mr. Milner and Mr. |