VOL. III.] Proceedings of Societies. 89 



on the fishes of that district. He succeeded in carrying the confiision 

 to an extreme, making as many as three genera from a single species 

 of salmon, founded on differences of age and sex. 



Dr. Theo. N. Gill, who has been connected with the Smithsonian 

 Institution for the past thirty years, has published descriptions of 

 many fish that have been sent him, although he has never made any 

 collections on the coast personally. Being the most learned student 

 of fish in America, he has occupied a unique position as a critic, and 

 is undoubtedly the best scientific critic the world has produced. 



In 1865 Alexander Agassiz wrote a work on the viviparous fish of 

 the coast, settling most of the disputes in regard to priority of names. 

 This closes the period of the discovery of California fish. The pres- 

 ence of the viviparous surf-fish and the viviparous rock-cods, and 

 the other general outlines of the coast fish, were by this time gen- 

 erally known, although but little attention had been paid to the 

 species inhabiting the deep seas. 



In the present period Prof. Cope has described a number of new 

 species, mostly from Alaska. Dr. Steindachner, a brilliant German 

 scientist, found a number of new species. He investigated the 

 salmon question to some extent but gave it up as a hopeless task and 

 published nothing on the subject. Most of the fish which he de- 

 scribed were from Southern California and Mexico, his work being 

 for the most part very accurate and his figures unparalleled for the 

 fineness of their execution. In 1879, a versatile Englishman, an 

 editor, engineer, poet and naturalist, was at work in the Academy. 

 He described a number of new species and made a critical study of 

 the flounders of the coast. 



" In 1880," said the speaker, "it was my good fortune to be sent 

 by the United States Fish Commission to make a survey of the fishes 

 of the coast, abundant facilities of every sort being provided." Sev- 

 enty-five new species were discovered and the salmon question was 

 settled, practically as it had been left by Steller. Prof Gilbert, who 

 was his clerk and assistant, has since become very prominent as an 

 ichthyologist. He has spent two years at work on the Albatross, 

 making many important contributions to our knowledge of the deep 

 sea fishes of the Pacific. 



Dr. T. H. Bean visited Alaska in 1880, and reached the same 

 conclusions regarding the trout of Alaska that the speaker had 

 drawn from his studies of the California fish. Mr. E. W. Nelson 



