400 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



the Board authorized the use of it for the Inaugural Ball 

 of the Garfield administration. A seagoing steamer to 

 be named the " Albatross' 1 for the use of the Fish 

 Commission in deep sea researches was authorized by 

 Congress. 



Clarence King, who had served a year as Director, 

 organizing the United States Geological Survey, did not 

 wish to retain the position, and joined with Baird in 

 recommending as his successor Major J. W. Powell, who 

 was confirmed by the Senate March i8th. 



The house next door to Professor Baird's residence, 

 built by J. O. Wilson for the use of the Fish Commission, 

 was completed, to the great relief of the overcrowded 

 clerks as well as the Professor's family. Before leaving 

 Washington for the summer work the Professor and Mr. 

 Goode devised a reorganization of the Museum and Fish 

 Commission forces, the previous arrangements having 

 been a growth and more or less inconveniently intricate. 

 After this the usual party started for Wood's Hole, where 

 the summer station was selected, and where Baird was 

 already planning to locate a permanent seaside head- 

 quarters for the work of the Commission. By the I5th 

 of October they were again in Washington, where Baird 

 was soon busily engaged upon his plans for introducing 

 and breeding for distribution the best varieties of the 

 carp of Europe. Toward the end of January Mr. H. E. 

 Rockwell, long the confidential clerk and stenographer of 

 Professor Baird, was taken seriously ill and died on the 

 22nd. Other fatalities followed. Rev. Sewall Cutting 

 passed away February yth, and in March the widow of 

 Professor Henry was laid beside the body of her husband. 

 June brought the news of the death from consumption 

 of G. W. Hawes, the curator of Geology in the National 



