VOL. U1. ] : Proceedings of Societies. 89 
on the fishes of that district. Hesucceeded in carrying the confusion 
to an extreme, making as many as three genera from a single species 
of salmon, founded on differences of age and sex. 
Dr. Theo. N. Gill, who has been connected with the Smithsonian 
Institution for the past thirty years, has published descriptions of 
many fish that have been sent him, although he has never made any 
_ collections on the coast personally. Being the most learned student 
of fish in America, he has occupied a unique position as a critic, and 
is undoubtedly the best scientific critic the world has produced. 
In 1865 Alexander Agassiz wrote a work on the viviparous fish of 
the coast, settling most of the disputes in regard to priority of names. 
This closes the period of the discovery of California fish. The pres- 
ence of the viviparous surf-fish and the viviparous rock-cods, and 
the other general outlines of the coast fish, were by this time gen- 
erally known, although but little attention had been paid to the 
species inhabiting the deep seas. 
In the present period Prof. Cope has described a number of new 
species, mostly from Alaska. Dr. Steindachner, a brilliant German 
scientist, found a number of new species. He investigated the 
salmon question to some extent but gave it up asa hopeless task and 
published nothing on the subject. Most of the fish which he de- 
scribed were from Southern California and Mexico, his work being 
for the most part very accurate and his figures unparalleled for the 
fineness of their execution. In 1879, a versatile Englishman, an 
editor, engineer, poet and naturalist, was at work in the Academy. 
He described a number of new species and made a critical study of 
the flounders of the coast. : 
‘*In 1880,’ said the speaker, “it was my good fortune to be sent 
by the United States Fish Commission to make a survey of the fishes 
of the coast, abundant facilities of every sort being provided.” Sev- 
enty-five new species were discovered and the salmon question was 
settled, practically as it had been left by Steller. Prof. Gilbert, who 
was his clerk and assistant, has since become very prominent as an 
ichthyologist. He has spent two years at work on the Albatross, 
making many important contributions to our knowledge of the deep 
sea fishes of the Pacific. 
Dr. T. H. Bean visited Alaska in 1880, and reached the same 
conclusions regarding the trout of Alaska that the speaker had 
drawn from his studies of the California fish. Mr. E. W. Nelson 
