428 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



planted in New England, but of them all, after they de- 

 parted for the ocean, not a single fish has returned to 

 the rivers from which they came. This has been a prob- 

 lem hard to solve. Some one has suggested that on the 

 Pacific coast, where all the rivers run westerly, the salmon 

 had acquired an instinct which led them when ready for 

 fresh water to swim to the East, and consequently when 

 at that stage off the New England coast, they instinctively 

 started for Europe and got lost on the way. But the 

 more probable cause is that some special food in the sea, 

 necessary for the subsistence of these young salmon, is 

 absent from the waters of the coast of New England. 



This is not the place, nor would the limits of this 

 work permit a detailed recital of the growth and public 

 services of the Fish Commission during Baird's life. They 

 are detailed in the Annual Reports of the Bureau. 



The scientific results of the dredgings in the depths of 

 the ocean are known to all naturalists. No greater addi- 

 tions to knowledge in this line have been made by any 

 other single intermediary. The cruises of the Fish Hawk 

 and the Albatross under the direction of Tanner, Verrill, 

 Agassiz and others have been especially fruitful. Foreign 

 countries eagerly adopted the methods of the Commis- 

 sion, which became the recipient of medals and first 

 prizes at all the foreign Fisheries exhibitions of the time. 



Notwithstanding these great and unremunerated 

 public services, the Commissioner was attacked and mis- 

 represented from time to time by petty politicians and 

 envious time-servers. This chapter may appropriately 

 end with a condensed version of a memorandum prepared 

 by himself in 1886, for the use of the Congressional Com- 

 mittee on Fisheries, in refutation of some of these un- 

 founded slanders. 



