388 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



science. To that and to the enthusiasm of Powell and 

 his corps of workers the subsequent success of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology is almost entirely due. 



To go back a little, in 1871 the United States Fish 

 Commission was created by Congress and Baird appointed 

 Commissioner. The details of this matter are recorded 

 in a subsequent chapter. 



The work of the Commission was begun at Wood's 

 Hole, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1871, and the 

 station was visited by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, the distinguished 

 British naturalist, by Agassiz, Packard, J. D. Whitney 

 and other eminent men of science. Numberless fisher- 

 men were interviewed and the deadly "fish pounds" 

 carefully inspected. On the 5th of October Baird had a 

 conference in Boston with the State Fish Commissioners 

 to discuss the question of regulating the pounds which 

 at the time seemed chiefly responsible for the decrease 

 in the shore fisheries. The work excited general inter- 

 est, and J. Carson Brevoort, the eminent ichthyologist 

 of New York, offered the free use of all of his notes, 

 drawings and material. Baird returned to Washington 

 October i6th. 



In the autumn of that year occurred the great fire at 

 Chicago, destroying the new building of the Chicago 

 Academy of Sciences, with a large collection, including 

 much invertebrate material borrowed from the Washing- 

 ton collection^ together with the collections, notes and 

 MSS. of Dr. William Stimpson, friend of Baird and 

 Kennicott, and the Director of the Chicago institution. 

 As this comprised his lifework, type specimens and draw- 

 ings, he never recovered from the shock. 



In 1872 an important change took place in regard to 

 Baird's relations with the Smithsonian collections. All 



