REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49 



den, New Idria, Knoxville, and Sulphur Bank, California, and also iii 

 the northern part of that State. Similar work has been done in West' 

 ern New Mexico, in Southern Montana, in Central Colorado, in Western 

 and Northwestern Nevada, and in the Appalachian region. In the last 

 district, portions of Southwestern Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Western 

 North Carolina, and Eastern Tennessee have been covered by primary 

 triangulation and topographic contours. 



Some minor investigations have received attention, and an unusual 

 amount of ofiBce and laboratory work, upon previously gathered material 

 and in preporation for further studies, has been in progress. 



UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



General Object and Results. — Twelve years ago the United States 

 Fish Commission was established by law of Congress, and under a pro- 

 vision authorizing the President to select a Commissioner from among 

 the civilian emj^loy^s of the Government, to serve without additional 

 pay, I was chosen and have continued to hold the position ever since. 

 The work, commencing on a very small scale in the year mentioned, 

 has broadened until it has now become the most important and ex- 

 tensive of its kind in the world j and it is hoped that the practical 

 results gained have vindicated the propriety of the initial experiment 

 as well as of continuing the work to such a period of time as the case 

 may require. 



First as Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and then 

 as its Secretary, it has been my duty to show to the Board of Regents 

 the occasion and reason for the occupation of a considerable portion of 

 my time, and thus to add not an uninteresting chapter to the report of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. * 



A detailed report of the doings of the Commission is published an- 

 nually by order of Congress; that of each year constituting a vol- 

 ume of nearly one thousand pages, with a considerable number of illus- 

 trations. In addition to this a Bulletin of the Fish Commission has 

 been authorized by Congress, to contain short articles of information 

 and instruction in reference to matters of fish culture and the fisheries. 

 This is restricted to five hundred pages annually; and this, with the 

 annual report, forms an annual contribution to practical science on the 

 part of the United States Government of nearly fifteen hundred pages. 

 For the more speedy dissemination of the information furnished in the 

 Bulletin, it is distributed to specialists in fish culture and the fisheries, 

 and to the leading newspapers, so that the facts come fresh from the 

 press, and are largely reproduced in the serial literature of the day. 

 Two volumes of the Bulletin (for 1881 and 1882) have now been pub- 

 lished. 



The Smithsonian report for 1881 gave an account of what had been 

 done by the United States Fish Commission during that year, and the 

 H. Mis. 26 4 



