REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81 



and gave some reasons v^hy it would be to the interest of the United 

 States to participate in it. The Senate committee reporting favorably, 

 the bill became a law, and appropriations were made to carry out its 

 provisions. 



My duties in connection with the Smithsonian Institution, the Na- 

 tional Museum, and the Fish Commission made it impossible for ms to 

 attend the exhibition, and Mr. G. Brown Goode, the curator of the 

 Museum, was appointed as the commissioner in charge, and immediate 

 preparations were commenced for the occasion. 



Of course the time for preparation was very short, as the exhibition 

 was to be opened on the 20th of April, giving nearly eighteen months 

 less time than that enjoyed for the purpose by most of the other par- 

 ticipants. Fortunately, however, the components of the exhibition of 

 the fishery and fish-cultural interests of the United States made at the 

 International Exhibition of 187G at Philadelphia were available for the 

 purpose, and a selection from these was made by Mr. Goode, with the 

 assistance of Mr. True, and invitations for contributions of later mate- 

 rial were promptly responded to. The most important possible addi- 

 tions to the display of 1876 consisted in the improved apparatus for fish 

 culture, and in the samples of preparations of prepared fish, both hav- 

 ing made vast progress during the intervening four years. 



The United States Fish Commission proposed to display, either in 

 original apparatus or in models, the new methods of hatching fish with 

 the assistance of steam power, as devised by Mr. T. B, Ferguson, of the 

 Fish Commission, and especially to show the model of the new fish- 

 hatching steamer Fish Hawk, to be used as a floating hatching estab- 

 lishment in the proi:)agation of shad and other useful fishes. The model 

 of the new vessel was on a scale of about half an inch to the foot, and 

 that of the fish-hatching apparatus on a scale of one-sixth the actual 

 size. An enormous number and variety of samples of mackerel, cod, 

 smelts, crabs, oysters, lobsters, and other marine products were sup- 

 I)lied in the different forms of dried, powdered, salted, smoked, and 

 canned, either in oil or in spices. Certain firms were invited to furnish 

 their special apparatus for the capture of fish, and no time was lost in 

 making use of the short interval remaining. This work was carried on 

 so successfully under Mr. Goode's administration that it became jjossible 

 to ship a first load, of some thousands of cubic feet, on the 28th of Feb- 

 ruary, the last of the lot being transmitted on the 24th of March. The 

 total amount of freight thus sent forward consisted of about 12,000 

 cubic feet. 



With most commendable liberality, the North German Lloyd Co., at 

 the suggestion of its agents in New York, Messrs. Oelrichs & Co., agreed 

 to transmit and return all the packages of the Commission free; and 

 not to be behind a foreign corporation in this spirit, the great lines of 

 roads between Washington and Baltimore and New York, namely, the 

 Baltimore and Ohio, the Baltimore and Potomac, the Philadelphia, Wil- 

 S. Mis. 31 6 



