Laboratory of the Fish Commission 



The year before, Baird had provisionally es- 

 tablished a research station at Woods Hole on the 

 southern angle of Cape Cod. The location proved 

 to be an excellent one, much superior to Penikese 

 as a collecting ground, because of a variety of con- 

 ditions favorable to animal life shallow water, 

 deep water, and brackish estuaries being accessible. 

 Its nearness to Boston is also a desirable factor, as 

 seclusion, which was a great advantage for Agassiz's 

 purposes, necessarily handicaps a research station. 

 Thus admirably situated, the Woods Hole Labora- 

 tory has since developed into one of the two best- 

 known and best-equipped marine laboratories in the 

 world, the other being Anton Dohrn's establishment 

 at Naples. 



But during the summer of 1874, before making a 

 final decision as to site, Baird tried out Noank, 

 Connecticut, to which port he transferred his little 

 dredging steamer, the Blue Light, and a few volun- 

 teer assistants. The work at Penikese being over, 

 I went on to Noank for a short stay. Baird himself 

 was absent, but several of his associates were hard 

 at work. There I met for the first time George George 

 Brown Goode, professor in Wesleyan University 

 and a volunteer field assistant to Baird on the newly 

 established United States Fish Commission. A man 

 of my own age (born in New Albany, Indiana, in 

 1851), of medium height, rather slender figure, 

 scholarly appearance, and artistic temperament, he 

 had a winning manner enlivened by great, but never 

 uncritical, enthusiasm. Throughout his subsequent 

 career as assistant secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, Fish Commissioner, and organizer of 

 the National Museum, our relations remained inti- 



c 125 : 



