SKETCH OF GEORGE BROWN GO ODE. 401 



the position which he still held at the time of his death. On the 

 death of Prof. Baird, he became for a short time Commissioner of 

 Fish and Fisheries. This appointment. Science observed at the 

 time, " meets at once the requirements of an exacting office and 

 the exceptional provision of the law creating it. Prof. Goode is 

 intimately acquainted with the methods of Commissioner Baird, 

 whose scientific zeal and knowledge he shared, and his experience 

 and attainments in practical fish culture and in the science of 

 ichthyology made him first among those whose qualifications the 

 President has been called upon to consider." The law, however, 

 gave no salary for this office, and during the few months Dr. 

 Goode held it he performed the duties of two offices for the pay 

 of one. In time the law was amended, the office of Fish Com- 

 missioner was made independent of the National Museum, and 

 Dr. Goode was relieved by the appointment of Marshall Mc- 

 Donald to it. 



Most of Prof. Goode's contributions to science were made 

 during his connection with the National Museum, and for infor- 

 mation concerning them we are largely indebted to the admirable 

 summaries published by Dr. Marcus Benjamin and Mr. Theodore 

 Gill in Science. In 1876 he published in the Bulletin of the 

 United States Museum a Catalogue of the Fishes of the Bermu- 

 das, and the Classification of the Collection to illustrate the Ani- 

 mal Resources of the United States ; which latter work was ex- 

 panded three years afterward into the Catalogue of the Collection 

 to illustrate the Animal Resources and the Fisheries of the 

 United States, a volume nearly three times as large, prepared 

 with reference to the Smithsonian exhibit in the Centennial. He 

 published numerous monographs, many of them in collaboration 

 with Dr. Tarleton Bean, chiefly descriptive of new species of 

 fishes, and some dealing with special groups, of which perhaps 

 the most important was that on the menhaden, first published in 

 the Report of the Fish Commission, and afterward as a separate 

 work. In connection with the tenth census, of 1880, Dr. Goode 

 had charge of the work relating to fish and fisheries ; and of the 

 five sections of the seven large quarto volumes comprising the 

 report on that subject he himself mainly prepared Section I, on 

 the Natural History of Aquatic Animals. It covered more than 

 nine hundred pages of text, and was illus rated by two hundred 

 and seventy-seven plates. " This book was intended to reflect 

 as exhaustive an investigation of the subject as possible. The 

 scheme drawn up by Dr. Goode embraced the natural history of 

 marine products; accounts of the fishing grounds, the fisher- 

 men and fishing towns, apparatus and modes of capture ; prepara- 

 tion, care, and manufacture of fishing products ; and economy of 

 the fisheries. For the purposes of the studies necessary to its 



TOL. L. 31 



